Sarah Brown talks to Lord Cashman CBE, a social campaigner dedicated to tackling poverty and social injustice. Throughout his life, Michael Cashman has championed LGBT issues and been at the centre of unfolding changes in legislation and social acceptance for LGBT people in Britain, as well as actively campaigning internationally. This episode explores the history of the LGBT movement over the last 50 years and Michael’s involvement in the many parts of this complex movement, and how its elements came together to achieve the change and equal rights it sought for LGBT people. As co-founder and the first chairman of Stonewall, a campaigning charity for LGBT rights, his approach has been to engage in the political process, by discussing and negotiating. Michael is also an actor and will forever be remembered for the first UK gay screen kiss back in 1989, on British TV series EastEnders. He’s also had a distinguished political career as an elected member of the European parliament, and continues his political activities today as a member of the House of Lords. Despite changes in laws, a shift in people’s attitudes towards the LGBT community did not change. Listen to Michael explain how a real movement came following the cruelty and ignorance of the reaction to HIV and AIDS pandemic, and Section 28 which sought to prevent the promotion of homosexuality or even the acceptance of LGBT relations.