Out and proud - the legacy of the Gay Liberatn Front - Department of History - Universy of Liverpool

Contents:

• GAY LIBERATN FRONT UK
• THE ARE THE RADIL ROOTS OF BRISH GAY PRI
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT ACTIVISTS ON THE FIRST UK PRI
• THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO
• OUT AND PROUD - THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• HOW THE ANTI-TRANS MOVEMENT IS WEAPONISG GAY LIBERATN

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.

THE ARE THE RADIL ROOTS OF BRISH GAY PRI

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, …. #lgbtqhistory#lgbtlondon#queerlondon and another vio wh Members of the Gay Liberatn Front took to the streets today ….

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.

In the early 1970s, Andrew was part of the short-lived, but massively fluential, Gay Liberatn Front. The GLF were the te begng of the morn anised LGBTQ+ rights movement – and, among other thgs, they threw the world's first gay Pri march.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT ACTIVISTS ON THE FIRST UK PRI

Over four days late June, 1969, patrons of the Stonewall gay bar downtown New York fought back agast csant police harassment – largely led by black and Latx drag queens. Two Brish activists, Aubrey Walter and Bob Mellor, hopped on a plane and arrived jt time to attend the Black Panther's Revolutnary Peopl' Conventn – where, for the first time, an vatn was extend to legatns om the movements for women's and gay rights.

A month later they were back home foundg the London branch of the GLF a basement of the London School of Lumsn is passnate that this history not be fotten: "Our Gay Liberatn starts the Black Panther movement. " This is echoed by Stuart Feather, another of the early Brish GLF activists: "We lled ourselv the Gay Liberatn Front, like you'd read about a Front for the liberatn of Palte, or Wtern Sahara.

Stuart Feather rells: "When my fay found out I was gay, my father beat me up and I had to leave home.

THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN

"Another origal GLF activist, Ted Brown, remembers: "In 1969 I was a 19-year-old gay black man, livg wh my foster parents.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT MANIFTO

So, walkg to that first GLF meetg – jt seeg hundreds of gay people together, whout shame, jt beg openly gay – that was as astonishg as walkg on the surface of the moon. We vad psychiatric nferenc to prott that many psychiatrists were still argug that homosexualy was an illns and that gay people required 'curg'. Homosexualy had only been partially crimalised the UK 1967, but the age of nsent was set at 21, signifintly olr than for straight people.

But every issue that me out, there would be the story of a beatg, a murr or a police raid on gay spac. Compani and advertisers disvered there was somethg lled the gay enomy and the "pk pound" – and angled for a piece of the actn. Photo: Ray Malone It is pursu of exactly that goal that the GLF – s after origally disband – has the 17th of June, 2019, almost exactly 50 years after Stonewall, a crowd of gay, lbian, trans, non-bary and queer activists gathered at Trafalgar Square, the se of the first London Pri march 1972.

OUT AND PROUD - THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

The origal GLF mands, drafted by John Chterman, were read out – and several morn on add, focg on Pri once aga fg self as a prott, ee and accsible to all, wh environmental Pollard spoke furly about how Pri London had llaborated wh the arms manufacturer BAE Systems, allowg the pany to "pkwash" s diversy brandg while makg billns sellg weapons to profoundly homophobic, misogynist and thorarian regim such as Sdi Lumsn stck a more nciliatory tone after the event, sistg that the volunteers at Pri London are all "betiful and sensive people who unrstand the need for change and are tryg – fs and starts – to work wh .

Queer culture and imagatn are yet aga beg exploed, -opted and gentrified – and our ternalised homophobia and low self-teem are beg manipulated so that we ourselv are actually ma part of that procs. The origal Gay Liberatn Front laid out the toolk that the 1980s activists ed to bat the AIDS crisis. Amid the outfs and the parti and the joy, 's worth rememberg Andrew Lumsn, Stuart Feather, Nettie Pollard, Ted Brown, Peter Tatchell and all the origal Gay Liberatn Front – as well as all the others who gave so much.

HOW THE ANTI-TRANS MOVEMENT IS WEAPONISG GAY LIBERATN

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. The Gay Liberatn Front was the ma anisatn that formed out of the uprisg and the wir movements.

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. The documentary chronicl the years-long mpaign which led the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) to remove homosexualy om s manual of mental disorrs.