This documentary explor the birth of the gay pri movement New York after the Stonewall rts of 1969 and the sexual eedom that rulted. It touch on many aspects of gay culture the 1970s, cludg mic, dgs and art, followed by the vastatg impact that the onset of AIDS had on the homosexual muny. Told through several terviews and archival material, pats a picture of solidary and posivy while explorg the sexualy of a relatively new movement.
Contents:
- LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH, FEB 2021: GAY LIFE LONDON THE 1970S
- GAY LONDON 1970S THE MARKHAM ARMS KGS ROAD CHELSEA 1970 GAY SCENE
- GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI
- THIS IS WHAT BRA’S GAY LIBERATN FRONT MOVEMENT LOOKED LIKE THE 1970S
- LOST GAY BARS OF EARL’S COURT, LONDON
- NIGHTCLUBBG: GAY CLUBBG ’70S LONDON
- PROUD: THE FIRST GAY PRI LONDON
- GAY SEX THE '70S
- LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH, FEB 2021: GAY LIFE LONDON THE 1970S
Lookg through our llectn for signs of the long stggle for gay rights. * gay london 1970s *
Imag of early Gay Pri ralli, ntroversial actor and sger Dive, and the Porchter Hall Drag Ball go on display Victoria this Febary, markg LGBT+ History Month. Many of the photos were ptured by Robert Workman, an employee of Gay News; Workman rerd the earlit Gay Pri ralli 1972 until the 1980s, as well as the openg of the Gay's the Word bookshop 1972, and the Porchter Hall Drag Ball, which ran om 1969 to the 1990s. The Instute holds many archiv and llectns, rangg om London History, Labour and Socialist History, and s LGBTQ+ archiv enpass LGBTQ+ history, polics and culture, wh archiv om Stonewall, Swchboard, GMFA (The Gay Men's Health Chary) and Outrage!, and material relatg to the Terrence Higgs Tst, as well as to Achill Heel and QX magaz.
It is also the ctodian of the Lbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA), which clus over 300, 000 prs cuttgs om the straight prs regardg LGBTQ+ history om the 1890s to today, pl the UK Leather and Fetish Archiv.
Spac for queer people to e together, love and have sex have always been around, but the first documented spac for queer teractn London, pecially of gay men, are the 18th-century Molly Ho. Generally functng as taverns, public ho or even private clubs, the plac were a popular way for gay men to meet tim of legal and social persecutn. It me as a given that the plac were often raid, and rerds om the Old Bailey reveal equent stanc of gay men beg blackmailed for money.
GAY LONDON 1970S THE MARKHAM ARMS KGS ROAD CHELSEA 1970 GAY SCENE
Ben Gazur’s whistle-stop tour of the history of gay men London tak om 14th-century persecutn to morn Pri events. * gay london 1970s *
The varied om clubs such as the Unn Jack Club Waterloo for members and veterans of the Brish Armed Servic, which gaed a reputatn as a refuge where homosexual servicemen uld socialise durg and after World War II; to cisg grounds such as Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, Hampstead Heath and Clapham Common; to drag balls such as those of Jean Frerick’s Porchter Hall; to private hom.
After the crimalisatn of homosexualy 1967, clubs were now legal, although was often only whe gay men who enjoyed greater acceptance the gog-out scene.
Frher our memory, and some s still active today, the big gay clubs of the 1990s are for many people the prime exampl of queer nightlife our cy. It was the first club to have a 24-hour dance licence the UK, and hosted several dance nights, such as the gay club Tra, which was the first legal after-hours club Bra.
GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI
It may be hard to image, but there was a time when Soho and Vxhall weren't the centre of gay nightlife London. Way back the 1970s and * gay london 1970s *
Yet Soho hadn’t been ‘gay central’ the late 1970s and early 80s, when Earl’s Court and Wt Brompton were most equented by the queer public. The relotn of queer nightlife to Soho ow much to Wtmster Council’s ntroversial ‘cleang up’ of Soho the 1980s and 1990s, which saw sex-workers siled favour of tablishments that tered to an creasgly accepted clientele of affluent gay men. Bee of s ample space and central lotn, soon beme the centre for queer nightlife the pal, takg up an important role makg gay clubs more mastream.
(Monday and Saturday) and also Propaganda (Thursday) were n at 'Bbys Nightclub' (London) by gay club promoter and DJ Col Peters (Peter Dbeney), whose brother Jamie ntued as promoter for a perd followg the passg of Col. I’ve no ia what happened to my Gay Pri 75 badge or the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly one that I’m sportg the set picture; that’s om 1976. In my two years wh Oliver, I was the first nvenor of the Southwark/Lambeth group of the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly (CHE) – his ia, not me – and I thk the rd badge is om the CHE Natnal Council where was was officially regnised.
The mutual iend who troduced me to Oliver had been volved the more radil Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) and he viewed CHE as ‘moronic’. As two nocents, we thought the South/Lambeth group should have some suable tee-shirts for Gay Pri march and lol muny events. In the 1970s and 1980s was one of the ma gay areas of London, but most or all of the bs aimed at gay men have disappeared, as Soho and Vxhall tablished themselv as the foc of gay nightlife.
THIS IS WHAT BRA’S GAY LIBERATN FRONT MOVEMENT LOOKED LIKE THE 1970S
How London’s gay scene travelled om the unrground to Heaven a few short years" name="scriptn * gay london 1970s *
The first public nightclub aimed at a gay clientele, The Copabana, opened Earls Court Road the late 1970s, but was re-themed as a general venue the late 1990s. The Boltons, near the Coleherne, was "one of the seedier gay venu, wh dgs and prostut helpg to create a pretty prsg atmosphere.
In the 1970s Harold Haywood and others were volved the Earls Court Project, aimed at helpg gay young people the area [2]. The 18th century book Pla Reasons for the Growth of Sodomy England attributed a supposed crease homosexualy to men's drs.
The thor claimed gay men wanted to drs like women: "they would appear as soft as possible to each other, any Thg of Manls beg diametrilly oppose to such unnatural Practic.
LOST GAY BARS OF EARL’S COURT, LONDON
* gay london 1970s *
It was not until the 1960s that gay men's flamboyant drs styl fluenced mastream fashn, makg more lourful and adventuro. More evince of historil homosexualy our llectns om a grimmer source: rerds of the prosecutns, and sometim executns, of men who had sex wh men. This right-hand figure this prt is Samuel Drybutter, a bookseller Wtmster Hall, who was a public figure 18th century London, famo for his flamboyant drs and supposed homosexualy.
Gay Pri events are now mon ci across the world, public celebratns of equal rights for people of all orientatns and sexuali. But they began as tensely polil events, challeng to a world where homosexual activi were first Gay Pri march took place London on 1 July 1972, spired by the 1969 Stonewall Rts New York.
The were triggered by police harassment at the Stonewall Inn, a bar terg to New York's gay, lbian, transgenr and crossdrsg muny.
NIGHTCLUBBG: GAY CLUBBG ’70S LONDON
Geni Pictur has optned Emmett Monterey’s memoir about growg up gay and disabled 1980s London for TV adaptatn. * gay london 1970s *
The leaflet om Gay Pri Week 1978 mentns creasg attacks on gay people over the past year, cludg the attack on the Royal Vxhall Tavern by the Natnal Front.
Wh the slogan 'Lbians and Gay Men Come Out On the Streets', Pri was an opportuny for LGBT Londoners to show their strength and numbers, and show "the posive si of the beg gay: GAY IS FUN; GAY IS PROUD; GAY IS BEAUTIFUL! The badg celebratg Pri and gay activism were created durg the 1970s and 80s, when wearg them on the streets was a powerful and dangero polil statement, sometim met wh abe or vlence. Gay victims of Nazism were not eed by the Allied occupiers of Germany 1945, but were forced to serve out remag prison sentenc for their "crim".
Unr the legislatn, lol thori were prohibed by law om 'promotg homosexualy by teachg or by publishg material', effectively banng help for LGBT people om schools, librari, and muny groups.
PROUD: THE FIRST GAY PRI LONDON
It was the first anti-gay Brish law passed sce 1885, and prompted lbian protters to abseil to the Hoe of Lords and storm the BBC newsroom.
Although homosexual activi between men over 21 were crimalised 1967, took s of public prott to brg full equal rights to Bra. Found 1979, 's the only bookshop Bra that specialis gay and lbian 1984 Ctoms and Excise officers raid Gay's the Word as part of 'Operatn Tiger'. This 'rabow' iendship necklace, bought at a London Pri event, is based on the rabow flag first unveiled at the San Francis Gay and Lbian Freedom Day Para 1978.
The lours reprent: red for life, orange for healg, yellow for sun, green for nature, blue for harmony (or art) and purple for necklace was bought by a gay man at one of the first London Gay Pri march he attend, about 1985. They reflect the difficulty of livg a London where beg gay uld e you to be sacked om a job, publilly shamed, or even silver earrg is the shape of a double-head axe lled a labrys. The Francis Goldg llectn clud a first for the mm: the sus that he and his partner, Dr Satish Padiyar, wore their civil partnership ceremony 2006 - both a tone of public acceptance for homosexualy, and a remr that marriage equaly for lbian and gay people was not achieved until the law was changed 2013.
GAY SEX THE '70S
But urt rerds tell that Rykener drsed as a woman and went by the name Eleanor, raisg the qutn of whether Rykener was a gay man or a transgenr woman.
When I was a child the 1980s and 1990s, if gay men appeared at all on TV or films, they were eher a punchle or a tragic victim of AIDS.
Gay people were forced to grow up wh ltle ia that people like them had always existed and were as valid as anybody else. It is only fairly recently that gay pubs and clubs have been able to advertise and operate whout fear of raids by police.
LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
(Hall-Carpenter Archiv via London School of Enomics Library)Last month marked the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act, a landmark piece of legislatn the Uned Kgdom that ceased the prosecutn of men for homosexual acts. It wasn’t a perfect law by any means — did not fully crimalize sexual acts wh persons of the same sex — but was the first legislative step toward equaly for LGBTQ people unr Brish to the 1970s, few gay people Bra were publicly out and even fewer publicly mpaigned.
Recently, such papers and prts the Hall-Carpenter Archiv at the London School of Enomics (LSE) were brought together for Glad to be Gay: The Stggle for Legal Equaly, an exhibn of ephemera and social movement wns the gathergs, thk-s, polil actns, and march.
Inspired by the GLF movement the Uned Stat, the UK GLF drew up mands and foced on group activi to root those mands — street theatre, “gay days, ” ftivals, and s-s. Its activi led to London’s first Gay Pri March curator of Glad To Be Gay, Gillian Murphy, explas that until the 1950s homosexualy was a taboo subject. Male homosexualy was illegal and lbianism wasn’t even regnized as an emotnal, sexual, or social 1957, UK Parliament published the Wolfenn Report, which remend that the law should no longer judge nor punish sex nducted private between nsentg same-sex adults.