loud & proud was a series on BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 aimed at young lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

s and gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 men and their friends. It was presented by DJ Paulette

DJ Paulette

DJ Paulette is a Manchester born, house music DJ. She is a resident for two radio programs on FG DJ Radio: Underground FG and Radio FG...

 and broadcast weekly in 1993.

It was made by OutSpoken Productions, an independent production company

Production company

A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...

 based in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and run by Christopher Kelly and Mark Ovenden

Mark Ovenden

Mark Ovenden F.R.G.S. is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit....

. Although only seven programmes were commissioned, it was the first series for gay people on a national UK radio network and was the first radio series in the world to target young gay people.

The success of the programme and generally favourable press coverage (The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

(18 September 1993) called the programme "an impressive example of public service broadcasting") encouraged Radio 1 to cover the Gay Pride

Gay pride

LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...

 event for the first time the following year. Those reports into the general days output, also produced by OutSpoken Productions and fronted by Kevin Greening

Kevin Greening

Kevin Greening was a British radio presenter, who co-hosted the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show with Zoe Ball from 1997 to 1998.-Early career:...

 led to Radio 1 becoming a regular fixture at Gay Pride events for several years.

Such was the prevailing level of homophobia

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

 at the time that Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Peter Butler

Peter Butler (politician)

Peter Butler is a British Conservative Party politician. At the 1992 general election, he became the first Member of Parliament for the new constituency of North East Milton Keynes, winning the seat with a majority of over 14,000. A former solicitor he served as a PPS to Kenneth Clarke.Butler...

 was reported in the press as saying that "The BBC have gone completely out of control. They are following their own agenda. We should cancel their licence fee".

The pilot of the series was first made in 1992 with celebrity gay footballer Justin Fashanu

Justin Fashanu

Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English footballer who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997. He was known by his early clubs to be homosexual, and came out to the press later in his career, to become the first professional footballer to be openly gay...

as the presenter. It was initially submitted to BBC Radio Five but turned down by that network in May 1992.