I recently conducted another tour of gay Nottingham. I like to have a theme for my tours as it gives me a chance to do extra research as I explore different themes. My latest tour was for a local Christian group and I used a theme that I thought was appropriate - the Seven Deadly Sins. I'm pleased to say the theme worked surprisingly well, considering the Sins are all negative (though predominantly enjoyable) traits. It was fun trying to find the right story for each sin.
LUST was no problem! Lots of sex to talk about.
I avoided the obvious choice for the sin of PRIDE - the word means different things these days, so I used the more accurate VANITY instead (I'm sure we all know someone who spends more time looking in the mirror than anything else!). Lord Byron was perfect for this.
GLUTTONY I interpreted as over-indulgence - sex, drugs and drink, etc. Again Byron was perfect.
The sin of GREED or Covetousness was illustrated with one of my favourite stories. Mapperley-born Douglas Byng, the greatest panto dame of the early 20th century, made a costume out of bathroom loofahs, imitating the fashion for fox-tail capes. Then World War 2 broke out and loofahs became impossible to buy. Byng had to lock his costume in the safe at every theatre he performed because people would do anything to get their hands on a loofah (ooh-er, Missus!) - they were like gold dust on the black market.
ANGER is the sin that develops out of hate, and homophobia was my choice of subject for this.
ENVY also leads to ore violent emotions, and the envy of the English barons against Piers Gaveston in the 1300s was used to show how it led to his murder.
That leaves SLOTH. It was too much like hard work to do this one, so I couldn't be bothered.
What really appealed to me in my research was that all the sins have their own colour, and those I used on my tour have colours in the rainbow flag. So I thought I'd end with my design for a Deadly Gay Sins flag. I will wave it with Pride!
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/
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