Gscene editor and Pink Triangle Trust patron James Ledward dies aged 65

By Barry Duke • 4 years ago

Oct
2019

Leading Brighton & Hove LGBT activist and dedicated humanist will be sorely missed

TRIBUTES are pouring in for James Ledward, owner, editor and publisher of Gscene magazine who died yesterday, October 3. Among the many messages of condolences on his Facebook page is one from George Broadhead, Secretary of the Pink Triangle Trust who wrote:

James was a staunch supporter as a patron of the LGBT Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust and he will be sorely missed.

Image courtesy GScene

I first got to meet the ever-jovial James when I was working at Prowler in St James’s Street in Brighton, the epicentre of LGBT life in the city, and we got to know each other well through our mutual interest in journalism, gay rights and humanism.

James was kind enough to publish a profile of me that highlighted my main career as editor of the atheist magazine, the Freethinker.

Later, when I took on the role of the online magazine The Pink Humanist, which was replaced earlier this year with a dedicated Pink Triangle Trust website, James would always announce each new issue in Gscene, a gesture greatly appreciated by the charity’s trustees and I.

His death was reported by Gscene and Brighton & Hove News, which reported that James, who recently turned 65, set up this publication 27 years ago and played a key role in the gay community in Brighton and Hove.

Brighton and Hove City Council leader Nancy Platts said:

I am very sad to hear that James Ledward has died. He was such a kind and thoughtful man who was always ready to stop for a chat – often an impromptu discussion about Brighton politics in the middle of the road!

He approached life with a sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye and will be sorely missed. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

The Author

Barry Duke

Veteran journalist Barry Duke, born in South Africa in 1947, settled in the UK in 1973, where he became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement and gay rights organisations. A militant atheist, he joined the National Secular Society (NSS) and was a co-founder in 1979 of the Gay Humanist Group which changed its name to the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association in 1987. In 2017 he was handed a Lifetime Achievement award by the NSS for his "spirited opposition to religious intolerance and irrationality" in his roles as a free speech advocate and his work as editor of the Freethinker and the Pink Triangle Trust website. In 2022, when the Freethinker suddenly went "woke", he was summarily sacked for being too aggressively atheistic. In 2017 he was married to his partner of 25 years, Marcus Robinson, in Gibraltar. The couple live in Benidorm, Spain.

Comments

October 5, 2019

Reply

Diesel Balaam

I never met James but he was a staunch supporter and active patron of the gay Humanist charity The Pink Triangle Trust, always willing to publicise its endeavours. He sounds like a great guy and a lovely man, so I can see why his many friends are so upset and saddened by his passing.