Paul O’Grady was planning to lead a campaign calling on the police to apologise for historic persecution of the LGBT+ community, one of his friends has said.
The TV presenter and comedian died “unexpectedly but peacefully” on Tuesday (28 March) night, his partner Andre Portasio announced.
The news prompted an outpouring of support as fans remembered O’Grady, also known as his drag queen persona Lily Savage, for his work as both an entertainer and an activist.
Appearing on Radio 4 on Wednesday (29 March) campaigner Peter Tatchell, of whose foundation O’Grady was a patron, said that O’Grady was going to lead a forthcoming campaign asking for an apology from the police.
“He was a fierce opponent of the Thatcher government over its attacks upon the LGBT+ community, particularly Section 28, and he was appalled by the levels of police harassment that were still going on right through the 1990s,” he said (via BBC News).
In January 1987, O’Grady was performing at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in south London when the dressing room was entered by a “rude and aggressive” police officer.
O’Grady had assumed the officer was a stripper, but when he went out on the stage, “the place was heaving” with police, who were wearing rubber gloves.
“And of course I said, ‘Oh good, have you come to do the washing up?’” O’Grady recalled in a 2021 interview at the venue. “It was pandemonium. People were scared. Tables and chairs were going over. The police were extremely aggressive.
“I went upstairs to Breda, the landlady, to tell her. The next thing, there’s a load of coppers in the front room dragging her out, leaving the children behind. God knows, to this day, why they raided it… There was no need for it.”
O’Grady blamed homophobia within the police force and the Aids pandemic for providing “the perfect excuse for them all to come in and cause trouble”.
He added: “But police have apologised all around the world for their behaviour years ago, and I think it’s about time the British police did the same thing; came down here and said, ‘We’re so sorry for what happened’. Because it was unneccessary and it was just a homophobic act.”
