From Poland to Egypt to Trump’s USA, independent judges are the last bulwark against governments who threaten gay rights. When I was starting out as a barrister in the 1980s, Lord Denningwas the most famous judge in the land, and the supposed role model for every lawyer. But not for me. Not when I was busy defending men already living in fear of HIV and gay-bashing, forced to conduct their sex lives in secret and then victimised for so-called “gross indecency” when caught doing so, in a culture of intimidation created by the likes of Denning. It took LGBT activists 15 years to defeat section 28, but this is not a movement that’s afraid of the long struggle. They know all progress is hard-fought, that discrimination against any individual anywhere is discrimination against all, and that the campaign for true, global equality must therefore be won one issue, case and country at a time.