When news presenter Jane Hill used the BBC’s newsletter to acknowledge her relationship with camerawoman Sara Shepherd in 2009, she didn’t expect to become a poster girl for gay rights.
But at last night’s Stonewall Equality Dinner she said the move had a positive impact for her viewers. “I don’t want to sound self-aggrandising but people still write to me and say things like ‘I was able to come out to my mum because she loves BBC News’,” she said at the event, which saw Clare Balding, Diane Abbott MP and Dr Christian Jessen, from Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, among those supporting the charity at The Dorchester hotel.
“When I was growing up I struggled with not having a role model,” said Hill. “Seeing gay people on TV, in industry or the armed forces can only be good for young people.
"A footballer would be nice, though.”
