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Gay News: Peter Tatchell receives award for 43 years of gay and human rights activism.
By: Nigel Robinson
Peter Tatchell: "be a rebel"
Peter Tatchell: "be a rebel"
Honorary Doctorate for Peter Tatchell
Sussex University will award Peter Tatchell an honorary doctorate for his services to human rights on 23 July 2010.
Commenting on the award, Tatchell said:
“I was hesitant about accepting this honour. After all, my contribution to human rights is very modest.
“I was hesitant about accepting this honour. After all, my contribution to human rights is very modest.
“I am a long way from being a brave and effective campaigner. Many others are much more deserving than me.”
Adding that he would never agree to a royal honour, he said that his decision to accept was in part because the initiative for the honorary doctorate was a grassroots one from the staff and students of the Brighton-based university.
He added that he would be accepting the award in solidarity with other activists in countries such as Uganda, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iraq, Iran and Palestine.
“The message I will deliver in my acceptance speech is this: Be sceptical, question authority, be a rebel. All human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and powerful, vested interests.
“The message I will deliver in my acceptance speech is this: Be sceptical, question authority, be a rebel. All human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and powerful, vested interests.
“Don’t accept the world as it is. Dream about what the world could be – then help make it happen. In whatever field of endeavour you work, be a change-maker for the upliftment of humanity.
“I do my bit for social justice, but so do many others. Together, through our collective efforts, we are helping make a better world – a world more just and free.”
“I do my bit for social justice, but so do many others. Together, through our collective efforts, we are helping make a better world – a world more just and free.”
Peter Tatchell began his campaigning career in his home town of Melbourne where he campaigned against the death penalty, and for Aboriginal rights.
Arriving in London in 1971, he became a leading member of the groundbreaking Gay Liberation Front. He was the Labour candidate in the Bermondsey by-election in 1983, which he lost following a notoriously homophobic campaign by his Liberal opponents.
He has consistently campaigned for human and gay rights worldwide, and is a founder member of gay rights pressure group Outrage!. In 2001 he attempted a citizen’s arrest on Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe, and was beaten up by the President’s henchmen.
Recently he has spoken out against the Pope’s planned State Visit to the UK in September.
