Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell has been campaigning for human rights and social justice for 47 years. Best known for his work promoting and defending LGBT rights, he was a pioneer of the Gay Liberation Front in the 1970s, co-founded the direct action group OutRage! in 1990, and helped spearhead the campaign for same-sex marriage.

Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.

Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government.

He is the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, which campaigns for human rights across the world and has been voted one of the top ten ‘heroes of our time’ by New Statesman readers.‌