This report is by Joseph Price, one of our first year unrgraduate stunts. 35 years ago, on the 29th June 1985, London’s gay pri para received some very unlikely supporters who saw their duty to show their support for a muny who had helped them survive durg tumultuo tim. The supporters were b loads…
Contents:
- WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
- LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
- A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
- LGBT HISTORY MONTH: 'FROM THE 1969 STONEWALL RTS TO LBIAN & GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS GROUP'
- LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
Lbians and Gay Men Support the Mers * gay support for miners *
" He acknowledg now that this is a le you n only e once a pch and explas that he went on to tell the story of mers the Dulais valley South Wal durg the 1984-5 strike – the longt Brish history – and a gay and lbian group om London that donated more money (£11, 000 by December 1984) to their e than any other fundraiser the UK, along wh a mib emblazoned wh the logo LGSM: Lbians and Gays Support the a when a gree of homophobia was the norm, LGSM drove a uple of mib om Hackney Communy Transport and a clapped-out VW mper van to a bleak mg town South Wal to prent their donatns, uncerta what sort of wele to expect. Three years later and the film, shot Banwen, Wal, and London, and directed by Tony-wng Matthew Warch (rponsible for Matilda the Mil, and soon to be artistic director of the Old Vic), is might assume a rom about strikg mers and 80s gays was unlikely to be big box-office, but the same was probably said of Billy Ellt.
LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
“Pri” brgs to film the te 1980s story of when gay activists chose to support unn mers Thatcher’s Bra. * gay support for miners *
It is really illogil to say, 'I'm gay and I'm to fendg the gay muny but I don't re about anythg else…'. "In the homema LGSM documentary, we also glimpse a tall, handsome fellow wearg groovy leather troers, shakg a donatns bucket outsi Gay's the Word bookshop London's Marchmont Street – this is Jonathan Blake. She explas how the gay muny ted the mg muny: "Their stggle is siar to our own.
Cliff, an olr mer ( the film, a killgly funny and affectg Bill Nighy) appears the documentary sayg: "The lbians and gays have been super duper. "We need a character who, like the dience, arriv bewilred at a Gay Pri march. Now his ey she as he remembers the Welsh mers who me to London to march wh Gay Pri June 1985.
One hope is that the film might revive polil tert bee the activism of the left has been siled, the tra unns are weak, gay rights issu aren't there. Our first sightg of him is wh fox fur and whistle outsi Gay's the Word book shop.
A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
Pri: Directed by Matthew Warch. Wh Ben Schzer, Abram Rooney, Jim McMan, Gee MacKay. U.K. gay activists work to help mers durg their lengthy strike of the Natnal Unn of Meworkers the summer of 1984." data-id="ma * gay support for miners *
"Wh the South Wal mers at the 1985 Labour party nference, we put gay rights on the agenda.
LGBT HISTORY MONTH: 'FROM THE 1969 STONEWALL RTS TO LBIAN & GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS GROUP'
* gay support for miners *
But the nsens was: we have been monised by the prs, maybe we should meet the gay people bee they've also been monised. " It was not long before Welsh mers warmed to their e: "They started wearg gay badg on their lapels.
"Mike marvels at how tim have changed for homosexuals the metropolan first world: "It is unbelievable, we have ma such progrs. Until I was 13, homosexualy was a crime – like makg beg black a crime.
LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
To mark LGBT History Month the School will host speakers Profsor Marc Ste and Nila Field on 'From the 1969 Stonewall Rts to Lbian & Gays Support the Mers Group: A history of revolt, fiance and solidary'. * gay support for miners *
Nowadays, is unol for straight men to be disparagg about gay men. And when he has to make a speech a gay bar wh a clientele whose look is more S&M than M&S, you fear for him – how is all gog to pan out?
He says: "Gog to a gay club London was fely somethg I'd never envisaged dog.
We know about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same.
Explorg "Lbians and Gays Support the Mers" g Gale primary sourc archive, by Gale Ambassadors * gay support for miners *
Twenty-seven gay people ( the film is a dozen) slept on his floor – the morng, his six-year-old dghter "uldn't put her foot down". We knew gay people existed – my dad worked wh a mer who was gay – but nobody openly talked about ; was nsired very personal. It won’t change overnight, but now a hundred and forty thoand mers know … about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same.
The re-formed Lbians and Gay Men Support the Mers (LGSM) cid on 9 October 2015 that we would wd down as a current mpaigng force and foc on the task of keepg alive the legacy of our work 1984-85 and puttg together a digal historil archive of documents, photos, personal stori, vios, d rerdgs and all other wrten material nnected to the strike. In 1984, a group of gay and lbian activists Bra formed a group to llect money for strikg mers. Their support for the strike prompted the Natnal Unn of Mers to mpaign for the rights of gay people and mand that sexual equaly be clud the program of the Labour Party.
The real protagonists were surprised by the film’s mercial succs: 30 years later, a tearjerker about the class stggle beme an ternatnal blockbter, while tellg the te story of Lbians and Gays Support the Mers. My support for the mers actually had very ltle to do wh me beg gay, but wh my social background. “Milant”, the group to which I belonged at the time, nsired gay rights a bourgeois ncern and imaged that the workers would not be able to handle .