Queer Nation, London, UK (with Marc Thompson)

Inspired by the American direct action group of the same name, Queer Nation was a club night that started in London in 1990 and quickly built a reputation as an attitude free, affordable and welcoming night that played the best in soulful house. And my guest this week is the activist, health promoter, and mentor Marc Thompson, who tells me why the night is so dear to his heart. As well as being an absolute sweetheart Marc has an incredibly impressive CV and I'm just going to break down a few of his accomplishments. He is: Co-director of The Love Tank (http://thelovetank.info/), a community interest company that promotes health and wellbeing of under-served communities through education, capacity building and research, Co-founder of Prepster.info (https://prepster.info/), a community based intervention that aims to educate and agitate for PreP access in England and beyond. Co-founder of Blackout UK (https://blkoutuk.com/about/) a movement dedicated to working with and building safe spaces for Black gay men. Key to all of this work is a focus on Black and queer communities, sexual health and HIV, and he is particularly interested in the intersection of race, sexuality and HIV. Ah, and a quick note - the club got around, having been hosted in venues including Fire, Crash, and Barcode, but the era that we focus on in our conversation is in its early days at Gardening Club, where it first started, and Substation South. Follow Marc on Twitter - https://twitter.com/marct_01