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Russell T Davies has claimed gay society is in the “greatest danger” he has “ever seen” following the election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States in November.
Since his inauguration, Trump has pushed through a series of major policy changes regarding how the government treats LGBTQ+ people and has restricted access to gender-affirming healthcare.
Doctor Who showrunner Davies, 61, who’s also known for his Aids drama It’s A Sin, has long been a vocal critic of Trump, with the businessman’s first election win inspiring the dystopian series Years and Years.
The TV writer said has noticed a rise in hostility towards the LGBTQ+ community not only in the US, but “here [in the UK]” too.
Speaking to The Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards in Manchester, the writer said: “As a gay man, I feel like a wave of anger, and violence, and resentment is heading towards us on a vast scale.”
“I’ve literally seen a difference in the way I’m spoken to as a gay man since that November election, and that’s a few months of weaponising hate speech, and the hate speech creeps into the real world,” he added.
“I’m not being alarmist,” Davies continued. “I’m 61. I know gay society very, very well, and I think we’re in the greatest danger I have ever seen… I think times are darkening beyond all measure and beyond anything I have seen in my lifetime.”
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Davies said the danger the gay community now faces is greater than that in the 1980s, when “rumours and whispers of a strange new virus” began.
“The threat from America, it’s like something [out of] The Lord of the Rings,” he said. “It’s like an evil rising in the west, and it is evil.
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“We’ve had bad prime ministers and we’ve had bad presidents before. What we’ve never had is a billionaire tech baron openly hating his trans daughter,” he continued, referencing Trump’s ally, Elon Musk.
Musk bought the social media site Twitter, now known as X, in 2022. Since the billionaire’s takeover, the platform has seen a 50 per cent rise in hate speech.
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“We have never had this in the history of the world,” Davies said, adding the gay community would nevertheless once again come together to oppose the new wave of hostility.
“What we will do in Elon Musk’s world, that we’re heading towards, is what artists have always done,” he said, “which is to meet in cellars, and plot, and sing, and compose, and paint, and make speeches, and march.”
“If we have to be those rebels in basements yet again, which is when art thrives, then that’s what we’ll become.”
