Tom Robinson Band - Glad to Be Gay Lyrics

This song is dedicated to the World's Health Organization
It's a medical song
And it concerns a disease whose classification
According to the International Classification of Diseases is 302.0

The British Police are the best in the world
I don't believe one of these stories I've heard
'Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they're kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don't believe that sort of thing happens here

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way (hey)
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There's no nudes in Gay News, our one magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene
Read how disgusting we are in the press
The Telegraph, People and Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It's there in the paper, it must be the truth

(Try and) sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way (hey)
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Don't try to kid us that if you're discreet
You're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
He was lonely one evening, he went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him, kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalized for a week
(And he still bears the scars)

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way (hey)
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

And sit back and watch as they close down our clubs
Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs
Make sure your boyfriend's at least twenty-one
So only your friends and your brothers get done
Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks
Put down the queens, tell anti-queer jokes
Gay Lib's ridiculous, join their laughter
"The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?"
(Tell them)

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way (hey)
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way (hey)
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy this way