Tag Archives: James

Need any further proof that love always outlasts hate? Check out this story from Birmingham (United Kingdom)( http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/08/02/birmingham-gay-couple… ), where a gay couple tormented by a neighbor's homophobic remarks — to the point where the neighbor was fined and served with a police order — end up saving his life from a deadly house fire. The story comes from the Sunday Mercury, which had a chance to speak to the gay couple, Bryn and James Tudor. Turns out they're a pretty famous gay couple. In 2005, they were the first gay couple in all of Birmingham to commit to each other in a civil partnership( http://www.queerty.com/birminghams-first-married-gays-james-and-brynn-tudor-save… ) — a pretty cool thing to put on your resume. But their marriage didn't please their neighbor, Baljit Koonar, none too much. For years, Koonar would taunt the gay couple with homophobic remarks, verbally harassing and bullying the Tudors to the point where they almost thought about packing up and moving to a different neighborhood. “We had put up with his verbal abuse for years – it affects you every day,” said Bryn Tudor. “[But we] did not want to give in to the bully.” For Koonar's sake, it's a good thing this couple didn't move. Because had James and Bryn not been there on the night that Koonar's house caught on fire, who knows how this story would have turned out. “I was sleeping when something woke me up at around 5am. I could taste smoke in the back of my mouth,” James Tudor told the Sunday Mercury. “I couldn’t see anything out of the front window, but when I went to the back there was smoke billowing out of next door and the family were on the roof.” And that's when this gay couple sprang into action. The couple, along with some help from other neighbors, grabbed a ladder and used it to get Koonar's family — his wife, their two kids, and a grandmother — off the roof of the burning house. According to James Tudor( http://www.queeried.co.uk/gay-couple-homophobic-abuse-rescue/ ), in the literal heat of the moment, everything became about how to save lives rather than the history of tension between these two houses. “Our thoughts weren’t about him. We wanted to get the kids down as soon as we could. You don’t think about anything that person has done, it’s just about the value of human life,” Tudor said. Kind of makes you think, right? The person you treat with homophobic, transphobic, racist, or sexist remarks today may just end up being the same person who one day saves your life. added by: toyotabedzrock