Some say, midwife Marcus Dent returns to the show and rekindles his relationship with the popular factory worker and barman Sean,  played superbly by the lovely Antony Cotton.   According to various reports, the couple tie knot in a civil partnership.

The Sun newspaper, reported  that the soap opera’s openly gay producer Phil Collinson wants to give Antony Cotton’s character one of the biggest roles in 2011 story lines.    Therefore it seems perfect timing to bring back the gay love interest for Sean.   The show also has a lesbian couple,   Sophie Webster  played  by Brooke Vincent and Sian Powers whose played by Sacha Parkinson.

According to the paper,  an insider told them   “Bringing back Charlie is seen as a big platform for him and in particular Antony who is well liked and admired by the boss. When Marcus turns up in Weatherfield in the spring he is desperate to rekindle his romance.     But having hurt him once, Sean is apprehensive until Marcus offers him commitment, with the future storyline leading to Corrie’s first same sex marriage.”

The soap, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and a few of the stars led the gay Pride parade in Manchester in August.  However,   Antony Cotton pointed out that whilst Marcus does return to the show,  nothing at all has been fully and finally decided about the future of the two characters.

However,  it’s still a massive step forward for the show and the in screen visibility of gay people.

“This is great news”  said avid fan, Andrew from Horsham,  adding “It’s just what the street and British TV needs!”

“I fully support the inclusion of a gay ‘wedding’ and thing it will not only be good for the programme,  but also for the nation as a whole,  especially in this new year when the campaign for gay marriage is stepped up”  Gay supporter Graham told me yesterday.

Jason Shaw

UK Correspondent

Jason’s blog is www.seafrontdiary.com

This  month long festival is designed to  showcases the very  best in Lesbian, Gay Bi and Treans art and culture, which includes  dance, film, cabaret, writing,  poetry,  literature,   and a few exhibitions.

This year for the very first time there is a youth strand in the festival,   called Right To Love,  which promises to offer an interesting insight to the mind of the young.

Other highlights include a reading by leading lesbian author Stella Duffy, the comedy and music night Lavender Girls and the play Mother/Son by Jeffrey Solomon.

The pull of this event is widening,  with a an exhibition in Turku, Finland, while the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and British Embassy in Ankara are funding research into the possibility of holding a Homotopia festival in Turkey.

Festival director Gary Everett said: “Homotopia offers a veritable smorgasbord of entertainment for everyone of all ages. From the hilarious, outrageous and subversive to the thought-provoking and challenging.  International artists from Italy, Mexico and the US rub shoulders with writers and performers from Wales, Scotland and Liverpool. We are now the only LGBT cultural festival in the north of England – come and find out why.”

Jason Shaw

Headline news, the lead or a major story on news bullets is, I guess only to be expected, but in every single commercial break? No, I kid you not, it’s not like back home in England, nope over here on the local channels, every single ad break has some advertisement or other for one of the various elections going on at this moment in time. For an outsider it’s all a bit bewildering. No, really I mean it, it’s a bit of a muddle, there’s an election for state Governor, there’s an election for senate seat, there’s an election for something else too, which I haven’t quite got the hang of yet, which means every commercial break, of which there are plenty – think three breaks for every one on UK TV, features one, two and sometimes three ads from the various politico’s trying to win office, election, public attention and popularity!

One of the most striking things to note about 98% of all these commercials is they are negative! For example, if I took note and believed some of the ads currently running, I’ll know who can’t be trusted as governor, I’ll know who tried to ram a delivery truck off the road, who has a trouble personal financial history, whose mom worked in his little donut shop, whose company was guilty of fraud, who refused to answer questions in a court hearing over 70 times so he didn’t incriminate himself. I’ll know one of the candidates took home $8 million dollars whilst her bank was defrauding customers, and all manor of other unsavoury pieces of information. Some of which, if I read the small print that rapidly flashed over the bottom of the screen, dates back ten years! But, from these ads, I’ll know which contender has the support of the fire service, or the police forces of the state, who was in the army, who claims to have gone to Vietnam, I’d know who thinks Sarah Palin is the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel. But, you know, I’d know little other than that, I’d not get to hear about the policy of this candidate over that, just the knowledge that they approved that message! Actual politics seems to be left behind on the back seat of this particular car, these commercials tell me zilch, nothing, zero about the policies, the beliefs, the ideals, the dreams, the hopes, the allegiances of each candidate, nope all the commercials, or rather to be fair, most of them (about 96%) are just pure negative campaigning, smears, slurs and lies, all to make the opponents look bad. It’s less about policies and more about whose got the most dollars to run the most ad’s to most damage the reputation of the opposition! I am so glad I don’t have to cast my vote here, I’d be so mucking fuddled, policy talk seems so very thin on the ground I wouldn’t have a witches tit who to cast my vote for.

Yes I suppose I could watch one of the TV news channels, although I’m wise enough now, to know that anything I see on the FOX network is so supremely white republican bias it’s positively scary to watch. It’s a wonder how it can be allowed to broadcast as an independent news medium in the first place, but then again, it’s part of the the Rupert Murdoch empire, need I say more?

But, can the other channels be trusted either? OK, so they may be far less obvious, far less aggressive and far less likely to adopt illegal methods and practices than FOX but are they unbiased and neutral?

Another curious thing, as foreigner you’d kind of expect me to be barred from funding a political party or a certain US politician, or if I had a company, that it being a non USA based firm, that it wouldn’t be allowed to donate funds to a political organisation, party or candidate wouldn’t you? But you’d be wrong, it seems that anyone can donate funds, be they a US resident, or a jolly foreigner, they can be individuals or companies and what is more, it can all be anonymous! Oh yep, it can all be kept quiet, hush hush, under the table, top secret, under the counter, beyond all eyes. Yes, all donations can be kept secret, private and undisclosed, from individuals and companies alike, so much so that it entirely possible, a side line company front of some terrorist splinter group could very well and this very moment be funding one, two or more politicians seeking election to the US senate! Which, if you are American, isn’t that just a little tiny bit of a worry?

Jason Shaw,  is the Brit abroad!   Yes you’re odd little British correspondent  lends his  view of America from sunny South Florida,   he approved this message,  but the views expressed are all his own!   His daily blog  is The Seafront Diary

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw

But, right now, I’m pondering this – Do you think humans have a ‘Best Before’ date? You know like most food items have. Or perhaps it’s a more formal, more strict Use By date? After which it’s no longer safe to consume, it’s gone off, gone bad, become inedible and unusable.

I was pondering this yesterday during my day job, by which I really mean in the early hours of this morning and during my night job. For as regular readers will know, I am a creature of darkness, in that, I work nights, So really, the night job is the so called ‘proper’ job that pays the bills and the writing is the day and ‘fun’ job that pays peanuts, buts gives most enjoyment.

But, I’m beginning to stray from the point, what I mean, though seriously, do us human beings have such things, I mean certain dates where things are good, delightful and juicy and then a date of a period when they are no longer the sweet tasty product they once were, but still perfectly edible, before the inevitable toss out date when everything goes bad? Are we like a nice fresh banana, or a squeezed out old satsuma sitting at the bottom of the bowl?

It’s a wonder? Are we like food? I mean, I’m a great one of for checking the date on my food stuffs, I’ll even calculate my weekly menu based on what days my food goes passed it’s best before and before it’s use by’s. I stick to them, usually religiously, the obvious exceptions would be cheesecake and well cake in general, which can routinely be used well after it’s best before date, though usually how anyone can leave cake that long is beyond my reasonable understanding. Cake, like wine, has no left overs and is to be consumed within a day of purchase, that’s the law, Jason’s law! (Which may obviously directly contribute to why I’m the size I am!)

As I say, I was sitting at work, when I mentioned I felt a little bit of a tightness in the chest, a small ache or pain on the left side. I informed the gang and had a laugh and giggle about it, me joking that I was having a heart attack. I know I wasn’t, and yes, one shouldn’t joke about such things, and to be honest, it was probably a pulled muscle, or as D suggested wind or indigestion or other such silly frailty, which I am known to have. But, one of the girls, the lovely K, did look sternly at me and told me that, that I really should have gotten myself up to the hospital to be checked out, that a man, my age, is ripe for such things, it’s about this time that the onslaught of dilapidation should start!

You know what though, as harsh as her words may sound, although she said them with jest , care, and consideration, she is right, she’s bloody well right! I am now older, I am now heading to that age, that period of life, when things do go wrong, bits drop off, shrivel up, stop working and give out. I am, me thinks, perhaps reaching that Best Before date!

When you’re young, things like heart attacks, strokes, dementia, Alzheimer’s seem so far off, they happen to old people mostly, people in their middle age, which is years and years away. You always think you’re invincible, that such things are never going to happen. Then you get older, things start aching for no reason, things start going wrong, hair starts to turn grey, eyesight fades, memory develops holes, jean’s shrink without being washed, it takes longer to recover from a night out – longer than the night out itself!

So perhaps, we do, have a best before date, which, I think I’ve possibly hit, , but hey my old china, I’m a long way off my Use By date. So, whilst I may not be the youngest, juiciest fruit on the shelf, I’ve still got plenty of substance left to offer, I may be a little more bitter and sharper than I once was, but hey some people like that, right? but I’ve still got a great taste! Snap it up before the Use By date!

Jason blogs his heart out on The Seafront Diaries on an almost daily basis,  you can catch him there before his UBD  arrives and he’s thrown out with the rest of the dodgy old stock in the dumpster of life!

According to a post on Pink News:

A 23-year-old gay man has been elected Britain’s youngest mayor. Ian Campbell, a Labour councillor, was elected mayor of Retford, Nottinghamshire, last month. He was only recently elected a councillor for East Retford West, which he won by 15 votes.

More here!

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw

But,  then again,  on a more positive note,  I used to marvel at the fact that  during my one hour lunch time,  I could queue up for what seemed like the whole hour,  to get lunch in the dining hall, find at least, a semi empty table that didn’t have second year vomit or first year blood on it.   Sit and  eat lunch whilst all the time  trying to dodge someone else’s incoming sausage, or low flying potatoes, in an invariable food fight that always seemed to be going on somewhere in the hall!    Then after food was consumed, empty plates scraped or licked depending on the dish, and piled up high by the dinner ladies,  it was time to go outside for some fresh air.   I’d  suck on the straw of my little apple juice carton (back then there were a novelty!)  as I walked round the playground, not to join friends, or class or house mates,  but in order to get to the back, near the fence,  so I could sneak off behind the netball courts.  Once there,  out of sight of the main buildings,   I’d either cadge a smoke off one of the hard lads from the council estate that went to mu school.  Or  I’d spark up one of my own that I’d pilfered from my mother than morning, without her noticing of course.     I’d also have time to have a piss,  avoiding the blue/brown goldfish, the fights, the football games and the dirty first years. On the way, I’d  eat an apple,  bung the core at an unsuspecting first or second year back,  then suck a couple of extra strong’s,  so my breathe didn’t stink of ciggies and still arrive at the classroom early for the post lunch hell that was afternoon lessons!

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw

fans@seafrontdiary.com

Angel Connors

Ant Harris  twitter boy!

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw

Show some love –   with for Jason’s daily blog  The Seafront Diaries,  or here,  on Best Gay Blogs,  or both if you wish and you’ll be entered into the contest.