Gay former uni student delivers memorial lecture

Matthew Toresen was appointed MBE in 2016 for services to LGBT equality

An LGBT equality campaigner has delivered a memorial lecture at a university more than 40 years after he came out there.

Matthew Toresen told his girlfriend he was gay while studying at Reading University in 1983 and said it set him on the path of a life of activism.

He was appointed MBE for services to LGBT equality in 2016 and delivered the Wolfenden Lecture on Monday.

It is held annually in memory of John Wolfenden, the university's vice-chancellor between 1950 and 1963 and author of the Wolfenden report.

Published in September 1957, it recommended the decriminalisation of "homosexual behaviour" between consenting adults.

Gay sex between men aged over 21 was legalised in England and Wales in July 1967.

Mr Toresen was volunteering for a counselling service when it was visited by members of the university's Gay Society.

Through that conversation, he realised he might be gay, and later attended his first Pride event with GaySoc members.

Mr Toresen came out as gay while a student at Reading University in 1983

He said his memories from university include a time when he was impressed with the confidence shown by a student who bought a gay magazine.

"I remember there was a bloke – I never got to speak to him ever again, a punky-looking man," Mr Toresen said.

"He came in, presumably a student, picked up a copy of Gay News, flicked through it, put it on the counter, bought it and walked out.

"I was slack-jawed that someone could do that - that they could be that brazen and bold."

He said later, when he was buying gay magazines, he would buy them "more overtly" to potentially help other gay men who might be emboldened by his self-confidence.

Sir John Wolfenden was Reading University's vice-chancellor between 1950 and 1963

Mr Toresen now works as a positive action officer for Northamptonshire Police, where he is responsible for diversity, equality and inclusion within it.

"I had never considered working for the police – they used to be seen as the enemy – and today, there's still a perception that if you're from a minority ethnic group you're more likely to be targeted by the police," he told the university's alumni magazine, Connected.

"I decided to join the force to try and turn those perceptions around and build trust within the community."

He added: "We're currently looking at why joining the police force isn't seen as positively as going into law or becoming a doctor, and we're also exploring our internal processes asking questions like: are there barriers to progression?"