If the religious arguments seem irrelevant or cruel, there is another approach which relies on the power of human good, rather than the supernatural. Humanism can give you a new way of looking at the world.
Terry Sanderson, How to be a Happy Homosexual: A Guide for Gay Men (1986; 5th edition 1999)
By Steve Ratcliff
As part of Humanist Heritage: Doers, Dreamers, Place Makers, Steve has been researching humanists from LGBT history, focusing on digitised materials from the archives of LGBT Humanists. As well as this profile of activist Terry Sanderson, he has contributed pieces on bisexuality and Alfred Kinsey.
Terry Sanderson was an activist in two fields – secularism and gay rights. He had a major, formative role in both. In a time when superlatives are often overused it’s fair to say that he was a beacon to many people. A leading activist, author, and journalist, as well as a trained counsellor, Sanderson was a founding member of LGBT Humanists in 1979, served as President of the National Secular Society (NSS) from 2006 to 2017, and was a long-standing columnist for Gay Times.
Terence Arthur Sanderson was born on 16 November 1946 in Maltby, at that time a coal mining town in South Yorkshire, England. His father Sandy was a miner, his mother Margaret a farmworker, and the family was very poor. He had two older brothers and despite their poverty he described his family as ‘loving’ and his childhood as ‘happy and sheltered’ in his autobiography.
Sanderson realised he was gay in his teens but it was only when he had started work in Rotherham, South Yorkshire that he was able to meet other gay men. His activism began when he tried to book a function room for a gay disco and the local council refused to let him. This was reported in a local newspaper and it was through reading this that his parents found out Terry was gay. Nonetheless they were wholly supportive of him and later of his lifetime partnership with Keith Porteous Wood. It was this incident that Wood says led Sanderson to set up a local branch of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).
Sanderson and Keith Porteous Wood met in 1981 on a CHE social weekend. Wood would later write that from the beginning:
Our binding passion was gay rights, and seeking to combat what we saw as the biggest obstacle to emancipation: religious privilege and harmful doctrine – hence our commitment to secularism.
This was echoed in Wood’s obituary of Sanderson for the NSS:
His rich and varied life was devoted to serving others and fighting injustice. Almost his entire working life was spent helping adults with learning difficulties, or campaigning for gay rights and secularism, our dual passions.
Sanderson started this in Rotherham and continued the work in Ealing, London, where he and Keith later settled. They were able to enter a civil partnership in 2006.
In 1974 Sanderson set up Essentially Gay, a mail-order company to help those who were closeted and isolated further afield. He set it up from his tiny bedroom in ‘macho’ Maltby and it ran until 1984. He imported some books from the US which homophobic customs officials on both sides of the Atlantic often impounded. In the early 80s, he spent three years on the team of the Woman’s Own problem page, edited by humanist writer and LGBT Humanists Vice President Angela Willans. Apart from that he worked from 1970 until his retirement in 2004 as a disability support worker or in similar roles.
Sanderson compiled a monthly Mediawatch column for Gay Times from 1983 to 2007, highlighting homophobia in the media. This involved reading every newspaper. He often made complaints to (and had fierce battles with) media regulators, which significantly contributed to the change of attitude in the media.
A prolific writer, Sanderson contributed regularly to the press and wrote many books, including Mediawatch: Treatment of Male and Female Homosexuality; Assertively Gay: How to Build gay Self-esteem; The Gay Man’s Kama Sutra and various iterations of his autobiography, originally as The Adventures of a Happy Homosexual and then expanded and revised as The Reluctant Gay Activist. Some of his books were published by The Other Way Press, a publishing house Sanderson set up in 1986 to be specifically gay-themed following problems he experienced with a Christian-owned publisher.
As well as his gay rights activism, Sanderson was a prominent voice for secularism. As Keith Porteous Wood wrote:
Terry played a leading role for nearly 25 years in developing the National Secular Society, and was its president for 11 years. His skills as a journalist and writer were put to good use compiling articles, news releases and the popular weekly NSS Newsline, which he founded.
However, the two causes frequently went hand in hand.
As gay activist, Terry was at the forefront of the social and legal battles that radically transformed the lives of gay people in Britain. This included the infamous Gay News trial, where the newspaper was convicted of blasphemous libel following the publication of an erotic poem about Jesus Christ. This was the last time the blasphemy laws would be applied in England and Wales. Terry’s experiences in gay activism had shown him that much opposition to homosexuality was based on religious doctrine. He realised the need to limit the ability of religious organisations to impose their beliefs on others.
‘NSS mourns the loss of Terry Sanderson‘, 13 June 2022
The Gay News prosecution initiated by Mary Whitehouse in 1976 galvanised the movement to abolish blasphemy laws, which were finally repealed in England and Wales in 2008. It also partly prompted the founding of LGBT Humanists, following Whitehouse’s suggestion that a (then non-existent) gay humanist lobby was to blame for the backlash.
Having been actively involved with the NSS for many years, Sanderson became President in 2006, remaining in that role until 2017. During this presidency, he oversaw a shift in focus from atheism to secularism, saying:
I would like us to position ourselves as a purely secularist organisation with a focused objective, that will not only champion human rights above religious demands but will also accept that religion has a place in society for those who want it, but on terms of equality, not privilege.
Sanderson was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2017. Treatments were successful for a time but it returned, and he died at home on 12 June 2022. Sanderson concluded his final Facebook post: ‘Goodbye – and try to be kind to each other.’
At the end of his NSS obituary, Keith Porteous Wood reproduced two tributes to Sanderson that they had both been able to read before his death, testifying to his wide-ranging influence.
Human rights activist Peter Tatchell wrote:
I want you to know how much I admire and appreciate the magnificent contribution you have made over so many decades, from Gay Times Media Watch monthly column for 25 years to How To be A Happy Homosexual, your superb work that transformed the National Secular Society into such an effective and influential organisation – and much more.
After you are gone, your legacy will remain.
Quoted from ‘Obituary: Former NSS president Terry Sanderson‘
From Sir Ian McKellen:
25 years ago when I was discovering the delights of coming out, Terry’s journalism and books were an eye-opener – always rational and indignant, effortlessly on the high moral ground. I hope he is proud of his influence on the legal and social changes which his reporting encouraged.
All the best and more, as the days go by.
Quoted from ‘Obituary: Former NSS president Terry Sanderson‘
Terry Sanderson obituary | The Guardian
NSS mourns the loss of Terry Sanderson | National Secular Society
Terry Sanderson, 1946-2022: a celebration of his life | The Freethinker
Works by Terry Sanderson
How to be a Happy Homosexual (1986)
The Potts Correspondence and Other Gay Humour (1987)
“Gays and the Press” (1989), in Shepherd, Simon and Wallis, Mick, Coming on strong: gay politics and culture
Making Gay Relationships Work (1990)
Stranger in the Family: how to cope if your child is gay (1991)
Mediawatch: treatment of male and female homosexuality in the British media (1995)
The Potts Papers (1996)
Assertively Gay: how to build gay self-esteem (1997)
The Gay Man’s Kama Sutra (2003)
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