Peter Tatchell

In his keynote Peter will explore the various movements of different political colours and types that threaten the advances made and effective ways to counter them.

Peter has campaigned for human rights and LGBT+ freedom in the UK, and worldwide, for over 58 years, since 1967. His inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King. He was the defeated Labour candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election – the dirtiest, most violent and homophobic election in Britain for a century. 

He twice attempted a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe on charges of torture and was beaten by neo-Nazis in Moscow when he marched with Russian LGBTs in their banned Pride parade. He ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in protest at the Iraq war and was arrested when he advocated LGBT+ rights at the football World Cup in Moscow in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. He was also held under house arrest in Mumbai for three days in 2023 when he attempted to lobby Olympic bosses against giving the 2036 Olympics to a homophobic regime. Peter is Director of the human rights campaign organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation.