The QI host spoke at the Cambridge Union about the harrowing hate she received following her coming out in 1994
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY DREAMSTIME
Lesbian icon Sandi Toksvig opened up about the impact of receiving death threats after she came out. The QI presenter spoke at the Cambridge Union to discuss her work fighting for gender equality and LGBTQIA rights across her career.
During her talk, Sandi revealed that she first began getting death threats in 1994 after she had told the press that she was dating a woman. At this point, Sandi and her partner already had three children together and they “did not want [their] children growing up in the shadows of a secret.”
Sandi revealed the harrowing reality that followed. “The death threats started coming and the entire family had to go into hiding,” she told the students.
She recalled a headline that was printed after her coming out by the Daily Mail which read “If God had meant lesbians to have children, he would have made it possible”. In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, Sandi revealed the reality of facing the press. “I came out, and the tabloid press thought that I was Cruella de Vil,” she explained. “I never got that from the public.”
The British national treasure also revealed to the Cambridge Union that these death threats were so extreme that when she got married she had a close protection police officer with them. Sandi married her partner psychotherapist Debbie Toksvig in 2014.
“It is still ongoing, but you can’t let that rule your life. This is who I am. I am not going to live in the shadows of anything.”
Despite the sheer amount of negative press that Sandi received after she came out, she has never shied away from fighting for what she believes is right. In 2023, the former Bake Off presenter spoke out about how she was “distressed” by the rise in transphobic rhetoric.
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