18 April 1983: Labour’s members in Bermondsey were set off by a vicious press and homophobic campaigning during the byelection Since the by-election,the Bermondsey Labour Party has been considering my future as a parliamentary candidate. Members have been worried mainly approximately two things which they feel contributed to Labour’s defeat. The first was the ability of the popular press to fabricate (to make up, invent) and to suppress “news” with virtual impunity. The moment was the success of our opponents in manipulating anti-homosexual prejudice to their electoral advantage.
The popular press were hell-bent on elevating Peter Tatchell into a mythic demon-figure of the extreme Left, and making me confirm their own pre-conceived stereotypes of the Loony Left. My family, or neighbours and colleagues at work were subjected to over a year of sustained press harassment.
Fleet Street objected to my radical socialism not my homosexuality. It played on my gayness to discredit my politics.
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Source: theguardian.com