Media Info

Media and Press Enquiries

Top 50 Influential LGBT Twitter User of 2011 (26th) – Pink News

My work on law and sexuality and legal education is often controversial, and typically at the cutting edge of their respective fields.  I’m keen to work with journalists to comment on developments and advance knowledge in these areas.  I can be contacted directly at: chris.ashford@northumbria.ac.uk

I’ve been interviewed live on the BBC News channel, Pride World TV (Made TV Network) been a regular news reviewer for Made with Pride (Made TV Network).

BBC News Channel, July 2017, 50 year anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act 1967/partial decriminalisation of homosexuality

Pride World TV, ‘The Big Interview’, Made TV Network (2017)

Pride World TV, 2016 Orlando Massacre: One Year On, Made TV Network (2017)

Areas I can help with:

Law, Sex, and Sexuality

• Public Sex/Dogging/Cruising/Cottaging/Tearooms/Sex in Toilets/Parks etc, legal provisions in England and Wales, the policing of public sex sites and wider social aspects (e.g motivational factors, how the behaviour unfolds, who takes part) in England and Internationally.

• Bareback Sex – condomless sex as a phenomenon, the regulation of HIV transmission (English law and in a generals ensue, internationally), bareback pornography, general associated social issues – growth of bareback behaviour and porn, how ‘communities’ have emerged, motivational factors, policy concerns.

• Queer Theory – alternative approaches to a range of legal issues, for example challenging the legal equality agenda around issues such as same-sex marriage.

• General Law and Sexuality Issues –  same-sex marriage/civil partnerships/civil unions, sex work/prostitution, paedophilia, pornography, the development of queer spaces and ‘villages’, policing gay spaces.

Legal Education/Teaching and HE Strategy

• I am also available to comment on developments in HE policy directly applicable to Law Schools and specifically my work around apprenticeships.

Made with Pride, Made TV Network (2017), Regular LGBT news reviewer through 2016 and 2017

Examples of Media Comment:

Law and Sexuality:

‘The beginning of the rainbow’, The i, 27 July 2017.

‘Buggery, bribery and a committee: the story of how gay sex was decriminalised in Britain’, The Conversation, Jul 24 2017,

https://theconversation.com/buggery-bribery-and-a-committee-the-story-of-how-gay-sex-was-decriminalised-in-britain-79597

Re-published in: The Independent, 26 July; Pink News, 24 July; The Wire (India), 29 July; The New European; 29 July; Gayety, 25 July; Scroll (India), 26 July.

‘Is it illegal to have sex in public in the UK? Nudity and decency laws explained – and what to do if you get caught’, The Sun, 18 July 2017, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4041705/illegal-sex-public-uk-nudity-decency-laws-explained/ 

‘The Tricky Business of Policing Sex in Public’, BBC News, 16 September 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29205198

‘Peliknya menghukum seks di tempat umum’, BBC Indonesia, 16 September 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesia/majalah/2014/09/140916_sex_in_public_law.shtml

‘Snap Unhappy’, Gay Times, March 2014.

‘The Genius and the Pardon’, Gay Times, October 2013.

‘The Legal Guide to Being Gay in 2013’, Gay Times, August 2013.

‘Matrimonial Bliss’, The Lawyer, 21 March 2012, http://www.thelawyer.com/matrimonial-bliss/1011887.article

Are British law officials biased against gay sex?GayStarNews (2012)

ESTRELLAS PORNO Y LA “LEY CONDÓN”: MÁS ALLÁ DE LA PANTALLA, La Nacion (Chile) (2012)

Obscene publication acquittal prompts guidance review, Solicitors Journal  (2012)

Sex in the Noughties: How was it for you?The Register (2010)

Legal Education:

‘If I Knew Then’, Legal Cheek, January 24 2014, http://www.legalcheek.com/2014/01/academia-is-a-long-way-from-my-hopes-of-being-a-barrister-but-its-an-amazing-life/

‘Lawyers and Accountants Need Not Have Degrees’, The Guardian (online) 28 December 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/dec/28/law-higher-apprenticeships-academics-react?CMP=twt_gu

Legal apprenticeships take on new relevanceThe Lawyer (2011)

Live and learnLawyer 2B (2011)

Law schools should be more realistic about graduate job prospectsSolicitors Journal (2011)

Has the workload become too heavy for the 21st-century law student?The Times (London)(2010)

I am also available for commissioned comment/op-ed pieces.  Some examples of recent work includes:

After EqualityHuffington Post (2011)

Bareback PornBent Magazine (2011)

The Bareback Porn RenegadesFreedom in a Puritan Age Webzine (2011)

Public Toilets and the Limits of Freedom Freedom in a Puritan Age Webzine (2011)