Peter Tatchell
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Peter Tatchell

Human Rights Activist

b. January 25, 1952

“Don’t accept the world as it is. Dream of what the world could be—and then help make it happen.”

Peter Tatchell is a lifelong human rights activist dedicated to the fight for equality, democracy, and the liberation of LGBTQ and other marginalized populations worldwide. 

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Tatchell became an activist in his mid-teens. Among other causes, he campaigned against the death penalty and for aboriginal rights.

Tatchell came out around 1969 and immediately committed himself to gay rights. Aged 19, he moved to London and joined the Gay Liberation Front, where he became a leader and organizer. He protested the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness, staged sit-ins against pubs refusing to serve gay people, and crusaded against other forms of discrimination. In 1972 he helped organize the United Kingdom’s first pride parade and has participated annually ever since. 

During the 1980s, Tatchell was instrumental in the London chapter of the AIDS awareness organization ACT UP. He authored the seminal self-help book “AIDS: A Guide to Survival” (1986) and founded the UK AIDS Vigil Organization—the first association devoted to protecting the rights of people with HIV. In 1988 he persuaded the 148-nation World Summit of Ministers of Health for Programs on AIDS Prevention to include an anti-discrimination statement in its declaration.

In 1990 Tatchell cofounded the radical queer rights movement OutRage! and spearheaded its campaign against homophobic policing. In three years, the number of men convicted of consensually engaging in gay sex dropped by more than 60%. Among its more infamous direct actions, OutRage! outed 10 Church of England bishops, accusing them of hypocrisy for opposing homosexuality. Members of the British Parliament labeled Tatchell a “homosexual terrorist.” 

For more than 50 years, Tatchell has also been a zealous advocate for a wide range of other social justice issues. He has campaigned against racism, sexism, imperialism, nuclear weapons, wars, and dictatorships around the globe and championed causes ranging from workplace equality to environmental sustainability. He twice attempted a citizen’s arrest of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and staged a one-man protest in Qatar against its human rights record, just before the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He has engaged in more than 3,000 acts of civil disobedience and been brutally beaten and arrested for doing so.

Tatchell is the author of 3,000 articles and six books. He counts the Gandhi International Peace Award and the UK’s Secularist of the Year prize among his honors. He launched a nonprofit foundation in his own name in 2011, where he continues his work. 

The bio documentary “Hating Peter Tatchell,” executive produced by Elton John and David Furnish, premiered in 2021.