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Terry Sanderson (writer)
Encyclopedia
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
and gay rights activist, author and journalist. He became president of the National Secular Society
National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...
in 2006 and is a long-standing columnist for Gay Times
Gay Times
Gay Times is one of the United Kingdom's leading gay magazine for gay and bisexual men.-Publication and content:...
.
Early life and career
Born to a mining family in a South YorkshireSouth Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
village, Sanderson came out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
as gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
after starting work in Rotherham
Rotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
at the age of seventeen. His parents found out after reading an interview with Sanderson in a local newspaper, concerning his booking a venue for a meeting of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
Campaign for Homosexual Equality
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality is one of the oldest gay rights organisations in the United Kingdom. It is a membership organisation which aims to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales...
. Moving to London in the early 1970s, Sanderson worked as a counsellor and psychiatric nurse, and on the problem page of Woman's Own
Woman's Own
Woman's Own is a British lifestyle magazine aimed at women.Woman's Own was first published in 1932. It is one of the UK's most famous women's magazines and is published by IPC Media....
.
Career
Sanderson began campaigning for gay rights in 1969. His MediaWatch columns for Gay TimesGay Times
Gay Times is one of the United Kingdom's leading gay magazine for gay and bisexual men.-Publication and content:...
have been a feature since 1982, and were described as "probably the most informative record of the extent of press homophobia in the UK in the 1980s". In 1986, after experiencing problems with a Christian-owned publisher, Sanderson established The Other Way Press as a specifically gay-themed publishing house.
Sanderson has been accused of being an atheist, who hates religion and confuses atheism with secularism.
Sanderson was elected President of the National Secular Society
National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...
in 2006, having previously served as a vice-president for a number of years. He helped organize protests during Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
's visit to the United Kingdom.
Personal life
Sanderson is in a civil partnership with Keith Porteous WoodKeith Porteous Wood
Keith Porteous Wood is the Executive Director, formerly General Secretary, of the National Secular Society in the United Kingdom, a position he has held since 1996....
, the executive director of the National Secular Society. They had been together for over two decades before civil partnerships were introduced in 2005, and they entered into a civil partnership in 2006.
Works
- The Gay Man's Kama Sutra (2003) London: Carlton Books, ISBN 978-1842227947
- Assertively Gay: how to build gay self-esteem (1997) 2nd revised edition, London: The Other Way Press, ISBN 978-0948982101
- The Potts Papers (1996) London: The Other Way Press, ISBN 0948982098
- Mediawatch: treatment of male and female homosexuality in the British media (1995) London: Continuum International Publishing, ISBN 978-0304331864
- Stranger in the Family: how to cope if your child is gay (1991) London: The Other Way Press, ISBN 0948982039, (2nd ed, 1996)
- Making Gay Relationships Work (1990) London: The Other Way Press, ISBN 0948982020
- "Gays and the Press" (1989), in Shepherd, Simon and Wallis, Mick, Coming on strong: gay politics and culture London: Routledge; Chapter 13, pp. 231–241, ISBN 0044453523
- The Potts Correspondence and Other Gay Humour (1987) London: The Other Way Press, ISBN 0948982012
- How to be a Happy Homosexual (1986) London: The Other Way Press, ISBN 0948982004, (5th ed, 1999)
External links
- The Other Way Press
- Gay Times
- National Secular Society
- Interview with Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society Dogma Free America podcast
- Profile of Terry Sanderson The Guardian, 26 May 2010