‘It’s A Sin is a reminder of the LGBTQ+ community and its importance, especially in times of hardship’

“La!” I say to my best friend as we tune into yet another of our weekly WhatsApp video call.

“La!” they reply.

While lockdown means we can’t be together physically, the release of It’s A Sin on Channel 4 has felt like a way for the LGBTQ+ community to come together.

With many Pride events cancelled, our gay bars and clubs closed, and community groups forced online, it can be hard to really feel among the queer community right now.

But Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin is a poignant, timely and cathartic five-part series that is a reminder of the LGBTQ+ community and its importance, especially in times of hardship.

The show follows the lives of a group of friends during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s.

My friends and I are in our early 20s, born as effective treatment became available.

While we’ve grown up with an awareness of HIV and AIDS, this is one of the first times we’ve seen a portrayal of the crisis on our screens, and not just heard the tales of queer people who attended more funerals than they can count on all their fingers.

And while we’ve learnt much about the crisis post-education (personally, at Off The Record’s gender and sexuality project, Freedom Youth, through local charity Brigstowe and via stands at Pride events), it’s a rarity to see the queer community, especially the queer community at a time of crisis and deep loss, portrayed so beautifully and carefully.

While Russell T Davies previous obtusely-LGBTQ+ drama, Queer As Folk, was something of an escapist celebration following the advent of successful HIV treatment, It’s A Sin is an education of being LGBTQ+ in the 1980s and 90s: the joyous and the ugly.

Following the series, Brigstowe, Bristol’s HIV charity, said it “spoke to the collective grief and trauma the LGBTQ+ community feels. So many elders no longer with us, we need this show to ensure their story never gets lost. It also highlights the power of allies and how important all of our chosen families are”, adding that it’s full of “laughter, heart-warming and wrenching moments, all in equal measure”.

But the charity, with works to not only support those living with HIV, but also to decrease stigma against the disease add that “it makes us feel very privileged to be in 2021. Yes, in 2021 we may not be physically dying in the numbers we once were, but the stigma is still very much here”.

I’ve learnt so much of a part of LGBTQ+ history that I’ve only dipped my toes into learning about before, or not had the chance to learn about (thanks Section 28!). I’ve cried with my queer friends while watching the episodes, I’ve mourned the characters dying at the same age I am now and have seen a world before “U equals U” (undetectable means untransmittable: people on medication cannot pass HIV onto their sexual partners).

The late 90s saw treatment become available. Photo: Channel 4

It’s A Sin has brought me closer to my community during LGBTQ+ History Month, being a celebration of our elders’ strength and a chance to grieve a lost generation.

It’s a stark reminder of a painful part of queer history, and how far we have to go:

In 1987, the Sun published a story entitled ‘Perverts are to blame for killer plague’ following years of defaming LGBTQ+ people.

In January 2021, they wrote the headline “It’s A Sin viewers shocked by drama’s explicit sex” while, in the same week, the paper described the more explicit heterosexual rutting in Bridgerton as “the hottest sex scenes ever”.

I was born five years before Section 28 was repealed. It took until 2003 to be able to legally talk about homosexuality and LGBTQ+ people in schools, local authorities and care facilities.

By the time I left education in 2016, I still had received no information of being queer – my initial knowledge was all learned through the internet.

Karl, Richie, and Jill in episode four of the show. Photo: Channel 4

In It’s A Sin, faeces are sent to the mother of the character Colin, as he’s dying.

Throughout my school years, gay was a term of pure, nasty hatred.

Police wearing rubber gloves to violently disperse activists campaigning for help in episode four.

When I go back to my hometown, I’m the subject of slurs and abuse – and that’s before I dare to hold the hand of someone I’m dating.

In episode five, Richie wonders how many other men he killed.

It’s A Sin is a painful account of the queer community’s past, but also a blinding light, one that reflects the work that still needs to be done.

One of the ways in which everyone can combat the stigma against queer people following this series, is to keep talking about HIV and AIDS, remind non-queer people that we exist despite the deaths of our elders, and let the world know that the LGBTQ+ community will never stop fighting for equality.

Lowie Trevena is Bristol24/7’s Production, Lifestyle and LGBTQ+ Editor.

Main photo: Channel 4

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