Gay Leeds recently had the pleasure of interviewing the wonderful Mr. Tom Doyle who has spent nearly all of his working life supporting issues that confront LGBT people.
Tom began working at Mesmac 20 years ago and was one of the very first workers of the project, now a Director of the company, Tom has retained his initial passion that drove him to apply for the job all of those years ago.
Initially from Mansfield in the East Midlands, Tom, who trained as an actor in Nottingham, worked for a company called ‘School Ties’ that provided theatrical education in schools something which, Tom stated, it was something that he was not very good at! So he then changed direction and worked as a volunteer for the Nottingham Aids Information Project and was also a ‘Social Action Broadcaster’ for Radio Trent.
It was actually the Conservative Party that got Tom more interested in the political side of LGBT rights after the introduction of the highly controversial ‘section 28’ which prevented the teaching of homosexuality in schools. With this in mind and with his experience of working with people who had HIV and Aids, Tom moved to Leeds to work for Mesmac.
Tom, who describes himself as a happily single, gay man said, “I love my job and am incredibly proud of Mesmac and all that it has achieved.” On Leeds Gay Pride, of which Mesmac is one of the main organisers Tom added, “Pride gives the LGBT people of Leeds a lot of confidence, I have been to many, many Pride events all around the country and Leeds is definitely the friendliest of all.”
Tom spoke with great passion about the LGBT scene in Leeds and thinks it has the potential to have the same ambition that the Manchester scene had ten years ago and said, “We can be a fantastic place, not just to play in, but also be a real community.”
In Tom’s opinion, the empty space in the middle of Leeds Gay Quarter, formerly the club Floridita, would be an excellent venue as a ‘gay centre’ that would accommodate not only the Mesmac team but even a gay diner for people to eat and hang out in after work. As currently, there is nothing on the gay scene that is not, predominately, a place to go and drink.
In the little free time that Tom does have, he practices - in fact he is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and also Hypnosis. Tom said that when he works with people who have phobias he is able to help the person get rid of that phobia, sometimes in as little as 20 minutes.
Tom is an amazing, compassionate and dedicated man. He really believes in and cares about what he does and the integrity in which he does it is apparent to anyone who speaks to him.
Mesmac and indeed Leeds are very lucky to have such an amazing advocate.

Sarah Carmody