Rabbi Lionel Blue, the first British rabbi publicly to come out, is 83 today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Blue
His appearance on BBC Radio 4's Desert Islands Discs from 29 May 1988 is available online:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/02877d01
Some quotes:
My mother enjoyed old age, and because of her I've begun to enjoy parts of it too. So far I've had it good and am crumbling nicely.
I am pleased now that I have lived in a gay as well as a religious ghetto, though it hasn't been very comfortable. Taken together, their limitations cancel each other out and I have seen the world more kindly and more honestly.
I learnt pity, sympathy, and what it was like to be at the other end of the stick. Such lessons can't be learnt in lecture halls.
On the way to work good-hearted young girls sometimes offer me their seats, which I accept and bless them in return, a transaction satisfying to all concerned.
To my surprise, my 70s are nicer than my 60s and my 60s than my 50s, and I wouldn't wish my teens and 20s on my enemies.
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