listen to angry young people and go, “it’s
alright you’re allowed to be like that, I totally
get that.” You’re more knowledgeable; things
don’t worry you as much. You still have
worries and insecurities, we always will do.
JH: You haven’t used your fame from
Big Brother, it seems to further your
business, there’s not much about you
online, you’re quite difficult to
research, was that on purpose? It
seems you’ve been quite private.
JR: I have been private, I did not have the
best experience with Big Brother I came out
and said that someone might commit suicide
from it eventually. I came out and made that
public statement, and it has pushed a lot of
people to the edge. It’s edited. So it’s not
reality television. I came out very angry
against Channel 4, fought them the whole
way. (They) had seven weeks of my life and
I’m not being a puppet on the string. I also
stopped doing their public interviews in the
diary room, which is supposed to be private,
because they told Brian (what I had said). He
came out screaming at me. (They) put me in
this vulnerable position on public television.
So I refused to do those talks. They’d keep
calling me to the chair and I’d say, “I have
nothing to say to you.” It was a battle
between me and them. I came out and
washed my hands of Big Brother.
JH: Did it help your business?
JR: That’s the interesting thing, A PR
associate of mine said, “your cover(age) PR
wise, if we were to measure it, was like
someone spending half a million pounds on
it”. It raised Outlet’s name, I’m not sure if it
helped the business.
It wasn’t just the straight press that
called me “gay Josh.” There were some really
nasty articles that came from the gay press. I
won’t mention any names, but some very
high up figures, went and wrote for the Daily
Mail from a gay opinion of what they
thought of me. One has apologised since.
I think it’s amazing, the gay
community is very good at attacking itself
and I think we are the worst people
48 THEGAYUK | ISSUE 16 | NOV 2015
(sometimes). We’re the ones that are fighting
for equal rights and acknowledgment, and
we attack each other. It’s horrendous. We
should be all clubbing together here and
coming together. I was on the Pride this year
with Peter Tatchell, supporting his stuff and
I just heard some of the stuff…
JH: He does get a bad criticism
sometimes from the community…
JR: Especially youngsters. It’s quite funny
because you see the groups of people that are
cheering him and it’s the older ones who
understand what he’s given up in life. I heard
queens just being nasty, saying, “who does
she think she is”, “oh look at that she’s gotta
be from up north wearing that.”
We’re here celebrating our
togetherness, our success our advancement
our equality and yet we’re being nasty to
each other, more than anyone else. More
damage, I think is done, internally with how
we speak about each other, I think that to me
is one of my sadnesses about the gay scene.
Why are we wasting energy bitching about
each other when we should be supporting
each other?
JH: Outlet was a very gay centric
business… Is it as relevant today as it
was 20 years ago?
JR: It was set up to find safe homes for gay
people. In any of those countries where it’s
illegal, where it’s a death sentence - it’s really
relevant. It’s finding people through
whatever means secretly a safe place to live.
That’s what it was set up for. These days it’s
50/50.
JH: You’re bang smack in the middle of
Soho, which has gone through some
massive changes. What do you think is
going on?
JR: Gentrification. It’s really horrendous. I’m
not going to bash the landlords who own the
places who want to put the rent up, it’s
happening all over London. I think what is
very sad is if people don’t stand up and fight
for Soho it will never exist again. A lot of
people think it’s had its day.