Australian-born, British gay rights campaigner, social worker, journalist and author PETER TATCHELL was born.  Born in Footscray, Melbourne, Australia. In March 2001 Tatchell tried to make a citizen’s arrest of the Zimbabwaen President Robert Mugabe in the Hilton Hotel in Brussels, Belgium on charge of torturing Ray Chote and Mark Chavundula. Tatchell was beaten up and knocked unconscious by Mugabe’s bodyguards. He led protests in Moscow against anti-gay policies of the Russian government and suffered beatings at the hands of security police.

In April 2007 he became the Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East. In February of 2010, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported that Tatchell had to withdraw as a Green Party candidate for Parliament, due to the cumulative effects of the repeated beatings he has suffered. He told the Guardian: “I have problems with my memory, concentration, balance and co-ordination…I’m slower, I make mistakes more easily and I don’t quite have the drive that I once had. I’m now prone to a bit of depression, but it’s manageable. Tatchell’s website is at www.petertatchell.net