‘The point at which I felt free’: David Lyon on the impact of Oriel College and supporting LGBTQ+ research

“The idea, that my state could criminalise me for nothing that I have got an option to make a decision myself about, outraged me,” David N Lyon (1980) says.

Lyon, a gay man, grew up in Argyll, Scotland, at a time when homosexuality among men was still a criminal offence.

Homosexuality among men was not decriminalised in Scotland until 1981. By then, Lyon had moved to England, where it had been partially decriminalised more than a decade earlier.

Lyon enrolled to study Modern History at Oriel College in 1980 and was open about his sexuality for the first time during his studies.

“It was the point at which I felt free,” Lyon says, reflecting on his time at Oriel.

Lyon describes his tutors, Dr Jeremy Catto and Dr Robert Beddard, as taking a “callow kid from socially conservative Argyll” and introducing him to “a completely new world”.

“My eyes were very much closed from a socially conservative Argyll where I grew up as a criminal,” he adds.

After graduating, Lyon trained in New York at JP Morgan, found his footing in the financial sector in London, and developed his City career with a focus on international capital flows.

He now lives in London with his partner, Michael. Through his trust, the David N Lyon Foundation, he supports a range of charities and projects supporting LGBTQ+ equality.

Since leaving Argyll, Lyon has witnessed improvements in the legal status and social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people around the world. He believes Scotland, in particular, has “jumped over England in its acceptance of a diverse society”.

But he worries that progress is at risk.

“With what,” Lyon says, “we’ve seen in the last few years with what I certainly see as a more conservative, traditional and, let’s say, right-wing set of influences that have been growing in strength, I’m sensing as a gay man … that the arc of progress is in retrograde, and that the enlightenment is under attack.”

Lyon is especially concerned about the treatment of the transgender community, describing this as similar to the homophobia he experienced during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

“All the same kind of issues are coming up and are being focused on an even more vulnerable and isolated community,” he says, “… and I do not want people to grow up feeling like I did.”

For Lyon, the questions surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and equality merit academic study.

With his financial support, Oriel holds the annual David N Lyon Lecture, which facilitates discussion of issues relating to the global LGBTQ+ community.

In 2019, Lyon also endowed his first graduate scholarship, the David N Lyon Scholarship in The Politics of Sex and Gender Identities in Diverse Societies.

In 2026, he endowed the David N Lyon Lecture and made a significant donation to fund a second graduate scholarship, for a student researching LGBTQ+ rights.

“In the 700th anniversary of the college,” Lyon explains, “I concluded I wanted to continue what I’m looking at … in the terms of investment.

“This is an investment in the future and an investment in equality and investment in inclusion.”

Lyon signed a gift agreement at Oriel on 21 January 2026, 700 years to the day after King Edward II confirmed Adam de Brome’s college by royal charter.

At the 2026 David N Lyon Lecture, Stonewall CEO Simon Blake chaired a panel including Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO of London Stock Exchange plc, and Pedro Pina, Head of YouTube EMEA, discussing the future of diversity, equality and inclusion.

Previous speakers and panellists have included Baroness Ruth Hunt, the former chief executive of Stonewall, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and Dr Stephen Croft, then Bishop of Oxford.