Andy Mills-Brown made history twenty years ago when he opened the first gay village pub in the UK. He did so in the wake of the 2003 repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act of 1998, a highly contested legislation that banned the “promotion of homosexuality” by local governments and schools.

Mills-Brown, who moved on to become a corporate VP and an entrepreneur in the hospitality business, owning gay nightclubs and bars, took the step as a practical way of dissolving barriers and promoting acceptance of LGBTQ+ people among the local villagers.

“By the end of it, the village community loved us because they realized we were just — gay,” he recalls. “It was absolutely fine.”

After leaving corporate world and starting TAG Live®, a live entertainment company, Andy Mills-Brown never stopped working to spread awareness and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. But, two decades after the significant strides in gay rights, he sees the need for another barrier-shattering push.

While the 21^st century brought some advancements in the acceptance of homosexuality in many countries, the globe is still divided.

A 2020 Pew Research poll confirmed what most would expect. It showed an overall increase in a positive attitude toward accepting the LGBTQ+ community by societies. However, countries with more traditional cultures, and those with lower economic performance, tended to be less accepting.

Even as the world has been marking these advances, plenty of causes for concern exist. In the United States, ACLED found an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ mobilization, with close to 200 anti-LGBT+ incidents being reported before the year’s end. In March of 2023, ACLU was tracking 429 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the United States.

At the same time, one of the most important venues for LGBTQ+ acceptance and representation has been faltering. The entertainment industry is crucial in advancing acceptance and awareness of LGBTQ+ people, their lifestyles, and their unique issues.

In its 27^th annual Where We Are on TV report, GLAAD noted that while LGBTQ+ characters are getting more racially diverse, the overall representation of people GLAAD advocates for was down in the entertainment industry.

Live entertainment might be called upon to pick up the slack with scripted entertainment not meeting the mark. London’s queer theatre scene is lively as it ever was. Hits like the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop or Everybody’s Talking About Jamie always hit the spot.

With a new project in the works, Andy Mills-Brown aims to bring LGBTQ+ representation closer to community members at their most vulnerable ages.

“I was very young when I came out; I was 16, and that was tough back in the early 90’s” he says. “There wasn’t a single person I could look up to, not a single icon on TV or in theatre. I wish I’d had someone or something at my school that told me that it was okay to feel different.”

While Andy Mills-Brown is working on bringing his vision to life, young people can turn to organizations such as the BeYou Project, the Allsorts Youth Project, or the Proud Trust for support.

“Children are not born prejudiced it’s a learned behavior. It’s about educating children that you have a choice about who you want to be. It’s about tackling equality and diversity and ultimately working towards helping to combat LGBTQ+ prejudice before it can begin to form” he says. “It’s an important message to get into schools, and live entertainment is one of the best mediums for communicating.”