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You may know it's a few audio issues, but let me assure you, they disappear after the first five

minutes. Something's wrong with the mic. It was Matthew Todd's fault in the tempering movie.

Welcome to Under the Skin with Russell Brand. Matthew Todd is a writer, award-winning journalist,

and playwright. He worked for Gay Rights Group Stonewall in the early 90s before joining

Attitude magazine. He was there editor from 2008 to 2016. He's the author of the book,

Straight Jacket, How I Be Gay and Happy. Matthew Todd, welcome to Under the Skin, thanks for coming.

Thanks for having me. I'm at university as I tell many of my guests, because I suppose it's

one of the reasons I started doing this podcast. And I got a little bit of access to queer theory,

and like some of the students there are banging to it. And as a sort of a heterosexual white person

from Essex born in the 70s growing up in the 80s, these are not ideas that I've particularly sought out,

but I'm kind of intrigued by it. Can you give us a little bit of a praisey of some of the ideas

in gay politics in the last 10 years, just so we get a bit of a handle on it? I think my book is

saying something which hasn't been said for a long time. I think a lot of queer theories in the

gay movement over the last 50, 60 years has been about projecting a really positive image, and

constantly saying, you know, the word pride, you know, gay pride is... We're proud, we're so proud,

...