Evan Davis: 'Mental health and coming out are absolutely, inextricably linked'

As host of BBC One’s Newsnight he’s one of the most prominent and powerful gay men in the UK, and now Evan Davis is opening up about his own mental health and coming out story ahead of National Student Pride this weekend (Feb 5-7)

This year’s event at the University of Westminster’s Marylebone campus will focus on what’s going on upstairs for LGBT youth, and it seems apparent that – as Evan succinctly puts it himself – coming out and mental health are “absolutely, inextricably linked”.

“Coming out to myself was a long drawn out teenage thing,” the 53-year-old, who was named ‘Man of the Year’ at last year’s Attitude Awards, says. “It was pretty tortuous really and I was resisting it for quite a while then suddenly I just let go, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

He continues: “I said to myself I was going to tell them by Christmas this year, and at three o’clock on Christmas afternoon, and I still hadn’t done it so ok it’s got to be now, and the whole family was there, so I did a kind of ‘hey guys, I’ve got something to tell you.”

Evan goes on to implore people to talk openly and honestly about the struggles they may be facing, and with recent NUS studies showing that 4 in 5 students faced mentla health problems last year, and 1 in 5 LGBT students experiencing homophobia, that seems like advice we could all do with taking.

The ‘R U Coming Out’ panel that Evan was speaking ahead of is now confirmed to have:

Adele Roberts – Radio 1 DJ
Jaymi Hensley – Union J
Charlie Craggs – Nail Transphobia Campaign
Sherelle Garwood – Stonewall Youth Leader
Chaired by Wayne Dhesi – RUComingOut.co.uk charity founder.

National Student Pride takes place this weekend Feb 5-7 at the Univeristy of Westminster at G-A-Y. It’s open to all and Student ID is not required. Check out the full line-up of events at studentpride.co.uk/2016.

Evan Davis: ‘Mental health and coming out are absolutely, inextricably linked’

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