Paul O'Grady was a national treasure, and he remains one now after his death, even if he himself wouldn't have agreed. "Oh, what a terrible phrase," O'Grady once said when described as such during a chat with The Observer.
Perhaps it was the conservative underpinnings of this notion that repulsed him, this idea that he might have become part of the establishment he had rallied so fiercely against. But that wasn't the case at all. If anything, Paul's mainstream appeal was the most defiant thing about him.
Whether he was in drag or not, O'Grady was like no one else, a larger-than-life creature "more cartoon than human" (as he once put it in his memoirs). Paul and his drag alter-ego Lily Savage alike were unapologetically true to themselves at all times. They couldn't care less what people thought of them, and that's precisely why we all fell in love with them both.
O'Grady won over an entire nation with two fingers raised firmly towards the establishment, breaking down barriers while simultaneously bringing comfort to Nans country-wide every teatime on telly.
Whether he was marching against Section 28 in the '80s or slagging off Tories on his talk show in the noughties, Paul O'Grady never compromised his beliefs for anyone. No one else has successfully navigated the mainstream and counter-culture so deftly and with such impact, which is why his passing is such a great loss for so many.
With his primetime TV slots and relentless charity work for animal rights, O'Grady humanised queerness and gay men, especially at a time when we weren't given a seat at the table. And if we were, that seat would have been wiped down first because the '80s and '90s in particular were rife with fear and hate for anything even remotely gay following the AIDS epidemic.
British people of a certain age might recall how the word 'gay' evolved into a slur used to describe anything deemed bad or even boring. It was a catch-all term warped into something derogatory beyond just a simple descriptor. And yet, none of that stopped Lily Savage from becoming a household name, one who openly flaunted her queerness in living rooms around the country.
For many, the gay community was something alien and separate from their everyday way of life, but Paul helped change that by showing viewers that we're people too. And crucially, it wasn't just straight viewers he affected.
Seeing Lily Savage celebrated the way she was gave so many queer people the comfort they were often lacking in their own lives. If your Nan could love him, maybe they could also love their gay grandkid sitting next to them on the sofa.
It might not sound like much today, but at a time when Drag Race was but a twinkle in RuPaul's eye, when newspapers portrayed gayness as a death sentence, there was so much comfort to be had in seeing someone like O'Grady live proudly and without compromise.
For young people too afraid to even admit we were gay ourselves, watching a drag queen get drunk on morning telly was truly revolutionary and queer in the most anarchic sense of the word.
Beyond his visibility on shows like The Big Breakfast and Blankety Blank, O'Grady also helped change attitudes towards gay people in more direct ways by fighting for LGBTQ+ rights.
The list of inspiring stories and anecdotes that could be shared on this are larger than any wig Savage wore. But the one you'll hear most in the coming days took place on January 24, 1987, when 35 policemen raided the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in the midst of Paul's eight-year residency. They wore gloves in fear of contracting AIDS from anyone they might touch during their arrests.
O'Grady recalled the raid a couple of years back in a comment on the iconic venue's Instagram:
"I was doing the late show and within seconds the place was heaving with coppers, all wearing rubber gloves. I remember saying something like, 'Well well, it looks like we’ve got help with the washing up.' They made many arrests but we were a stoic lot and it was business as usual the next night."
While stories like this have become the stuff of legend, galvanising a community tired of police threats and intimidation, it's important to remember that O'Grady also performed numerous benefit gigs that didn't make headlines, campaigning against inadequate AIDS healthcare at a time when 'normal' society seemingly wanted us dead.
As a community, we have lost countless elders to that disease and also the epidemic of fear that surrounded it. But to now lose one of the few queer elders we had left, one of our best, brings that all back again. And it's a loss that stings especially hard in this current climate.
Like before, '80s-style bigotry has come back around as the LGBTQ+ community is now under siege from a new culture war that fights to stamp out our existence with hate and vitriol.
Those who fight to ban drag easily forget just how widely loved the likes of Lily Savage were 30 years ago, and transphobic fans of hers would do well to remember that O'Grady himself wouldn't stand for their hatred either.
You can't be sad about Paul's death and still campaign against the lives of those he fought for, so don't let the bigots in your life mourn O'Grady without reminding them of what he represented.
Paul was a national treasure, one who broke barriers for gay rights and mainstream acceptance. But he was also a fiercely defiant gay man whose righteous fury against the establishment should remain a battle cry for us all in the face of hate moving forward.
Organisations including amFAR, Terrence Higgins Trust and the National Aids Trust (NAT) can provide further information on research, testing and treatment for both HIV and AIDS.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
