A brief history of the Gay Liberatn Front, 1970-73 |

Contents:

• GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO
• SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK

WHEN: Wednday, 5th October, 6pm – 8pm WHERE: Queer Circle, BUILDING 4, 3 BARTON YARD, SOAMES WALK, DESIGN DISTRICT, SE10 0BN WHAT: Gay Liberatn Front and Queer Night Pri ve you to our next strategic actn planng meetg. Young and old, the Gay Liberatn Front has a 51 year rerd sce 1970 of non-vlent and often hilar street actns agast the vlence of ernments.

21 – Lnch of ‘Revolutnary People’s Constutnal Conventn’ LIVE-STREAMED FROM SPITALFIELDS ON Saturday/Sunday 15/16 May 2021 at The Bishopsgate Instute, a ticketed ee event arranged by the GAY LIBERATION FRONT““We are the Gay Liberatn Front, …. The Gay Liberatn Front and iends v you to ‘Fuck Off This is My Culture 6 – 50 Years of Pri Special’ on Saturday June 25th 2022 celebratn of Gee Michael and everyone standg up for sexual eedom everywhere.

July 1st 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the first Pri anised and led by the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) and July 2nd is the 50th anniversary ‘Pri’ march anised by ‘Pri London’ are we gonna do about ? Amazg archivg work by the one and only Stef Dickers, Rachel Smh and all at the Bishopsgate Instute see all on the Bishopsgate Instute webse here Come Together: Gay Liberatn Front About this Archive The newspaper of the Gay Liberatn Front, Come Together, was formed by the GLF’s Media Workshop 1970.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO

The 50th anniversary July of the Sexual Offenc Act 1967 will be marked by celebratory events, om Queer Brish Art at the Tate to the BBC’s Gay Brannia season. I feel ambivalent about the celebratns: 1967 was progrs, but the crimalisatn of homosexualy the UK did not fact end until 2013.

It was the first gay law reform sce 1533, when anal sex was ma a crime durg Henry VIII’s reign; all other sexual acts between men were outlawed the Victorian era, new rearch reveals that an timated 15, 000-pl gay men were nvicted the s that followed the 1967 liberalisatn.

Not only was homosexualy only partly crimalised by the 1967 act, but the remag anti-gay laws were policed more aggrsively than before by a state that opposed gay acceptance and equaly. The age of nsent was set at 21 for sex between men, pared wh 16 for sex between men and women; a cisn that panred to the homophobic notn that young men are sced and rpted by olr men. Gay ary personnel and merchant seamen uld still be jailed until 1994, for behavur that was no longer a crime between gay civilians.

SUNAK APOLOGIZ FOR HISTORIC TREATMENT OF UK GAY VETERANS

The two ma gay crim ntued to be anal sex, known law as buggery; and gross cency, which was any sexual ntact between men cludg mere touchg and was also the offence of procurg – the vg or facilatg of gay sex. The law agast solicg and importung crimalised men chattg up men or loerg public plac wh homosexual tent, even if no sexual act took were nvicted unr this law, before and after 1967, for merely sg and wkg at other men the street.

There were also arrts unr ancient legislatn agast cency, such as the Town Police Cls Act 1847 and the Eccliastil Courts Jurisdictn Act 1967 crimalisatn meant that homophobic laws were not enforced some circumstanc. In fact, the reprsn grew much were police stake-outs parks and toilets, sometim g “pretty police” as ba to lure gay men to m sex offenc. Gay and bisexual men, and some lbians, ntued to be arrted until the 1990s for public displays of affectn, such as kissg and cuddlg, unr public orr and breach of the peace 1966, the year before partial crimalisatn, some 420 men were nvicted of gross cency.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Homophobic discrimatn hog, employment and the provisn of goods and servic remaed lawful by flt, ` wh no legal protectn agast until between 2003 and 2007. They had no redrs the 1980s, the Conservative ernment’s “fay valu” mpaign whipped up hysteril levels of homophobia, aid by the moral panic over HIV/Aids. At the 1987 Conservative party nference Margaret Thatcher ed her keynote speech to attack the notn that people had a right to be gay.

The 2, 022 rerd offenc of gross cency that year was almost as many as the 2, 034 rerd 1954, when male homosexualy was totally reform did not happen until 36 years after 1967.

An earlier versn said that legislatn thorisg the sackg of seafarers for homosexual acts on UK merchant ships was still awag repeal. The Revolutnary People's Constutnal Conventn 1970 was a key moment which activists om Black Power, femist and gay liberatn movements me together, saw mon e and learned om each other. Some UK activists were volved some of the key moments the US movement, and they me back to Bra to form a Brish chapter of the Gay Liberatn Front, meetg for the first time at the LSE library October 1970, wh the first UK Gay Pri Rally takg place a few years later on 1 July 1972, London.

In the UK, sexual acts between men had been partially crimalised 1967, but there was a huge amount of persecutn of gay and bi men afterwards. There were many splter groups om the Gay Liberatn Front: the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly was a key drivg force, and the foc of activism was often explicly foced on directly challengg heteronormative, nservative norms of fay and genr rol; other muny-led iativ g out of the 1970s clud Gay News(set up 1972), Swchboard (1974), and Gay’s the Word bookshop (1979). Lbians and bi women provid cril support to gay and bi men durg this time, and Act Up was the key mpaigng group foced on challengg the lack of polil and health support for people livg wh HIV / AIDS.

Prime Mister Rishi Sunak apologized Wednday for the treatment of gay veterans, sayg that a prev ban on LGBTQ+ people servg the U.