On the 10-year anniversary of equal marriage in Britain, I’m thinking of my dad, and the long road to acceptance | Gary Nunn

He was a tough bouncer from Kent who, like the country around him, grew to accept social progress

My late dad was the hardest nightclub bouncer in a tough working-class area in Medway, Kent. He was a bodybuilder and terrifyingly quiet; you never quite knew what was going through his head.

My underage sixth-form mates knew he would refuse them entry if they tried to get into the sprawling, sticky floored and aggressively heterosexual nightclub where he worked the door with a formidable scowl. Luckily, I would sooner pour petrol in my eyes than set foot inside. He told me he broke the arms of any drunken louts giving him trouble. I believed him.

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