Gay Birmgham Remembered - The Gay Birmgham History Project

Contents:

• GAY BIRMGHAM REMEMBERED
• GAY BIRMGHAM REMEMBERED (2007-2009)
• LGBTQIA+ HISTORY MONTH – GAY BIRMGHAM REMEMBERED

GAY BIRMGHAM REMEMBERED

ContentsTermology 10 30Prsure to get married 20Forc 30 40Celibacy 50Communist Party 60 70 150 160 170Meetg partners 50 60 Men and polics 60 70Tra Unns / Kill the Bill 60 70 170 180 190Womens movement / femism 70 80 100 250 340Comg out at work or not 90 180Gay Teacher school 90 180 210Rev Rads / polil lbians 100 120 140 340Bisexualy 140Lbians the women�s movement 110 340Commun / munal livg 130Transvt 150 Star Club diss 150Women only events 150NUT 170Workg wh men 170 190Comg out 180 Clse 28 180 190 200Birmgham Loli 220Kgs Heath / Moseley 220 Silver Web 230Polics of bars 240Women�s accs to bars 240Butch and femme 250 260Grosvenor 260Women�s venu 270Greyhound 270Old Mo 270Ageism on the gay scene 280Nightgale (4) 280 290Meetg lbians old days 300Polics behd gay liberatn � awarens/mise 310 350Invtment gay village 320Internatnal womens day / 330Council BCC womens un 330Womens Liberatn Conference 1978 340. "I was a teenager the fifti; all the words that we e now all the time - lbian, homosexual, homophobe - I wouldn�t have known them, they were not my vobulary. 30 In the Navy "I went the Navy and I was the Wrens when I was eighteen and I have to say, hand on heart, there were no gay relatnships that I was aware of.

There was a perd when I went on a jot servic exercise Gibraltar and met some Army girls and, of urse, they�re notor for gays and I was jt gob smacked. At school I was jt this woman that wasn�t married, there were almost two sis to me, which mak gay people unhappy.

110 Dyk leadg activists Women�s MovementI thk what ed most of the problems really the Women�s Movement was that a lot of the activism, prted newsletters and all the rt was done by dyk, gay women, and although there were married women wh children, and sgle women who were gog to get married, the Women�s Movement, really the dyk were the on I thk who phed and pulled, changed all to f the bill. 120 Polil lbians (late 70s)Some of the dyke�s sexualy was qutned sometim and there was a big thg gog on the movement then about Women�s Movement activists who beme gay as a polil end bee was a polil statement to be gay.

GAY BIRMGHAM REMEMBERED (2007-2009)

150 Transvt tryg to get to women�s diss (about 1975)The first time anythg other than man on man, woman on woman that I beme nsc of was at a fund raisg gay thg the cy centre and there was some transvt there. The Communist Party�s headquarters Birmgham was lled the Star Club which we wanted to be a b different so any (women) uld e but no men which was totally different to the other gay clubs which were the other way round.

160 Not volved the GLF�(The guys the munist party) would be aware of the impact of the Gay Liberatn Front, bee the guys weren�t middle class ted guys, they were proletariats like we were, workg class guys which took guts. So I went to an NUT meetg not wh the tentn of g out but people were very sympathetic bee �s a good Unn, the NUT was red hot then and I jt thought I�m gog to do so I stood up and said �I want to speak as a gay woman�. �As I lbian�, I thk I said and told them what I felt that Clse 28 meant to gay teachers not to mentn gay pupils.

LGBTQIA+ HISTORY MONTH – GAY BIRMGHAM REMEMBERED

I was a primary school teacher so really, although we did have children who we thought were possibly gog to be gay, what the ernment was tryg to do was stop a gay teacher teractg wh a gay pupil and sayg �If you ever need to talk to me jt e and see me�. I got a very good rponse, people me up afterwards and said need a gay person to do really. I bet they still don�t to this day, wouldn�t occur to them that a bloke a factory that�s gay isn�t gog to jo the T&G bee he�s jt gog to feel threatened�.

When I me back I got a new job and there another gay woman on the staff which was good. The pubs were terrific, there was poetry and jazz and theatre, the Gay Sweatshop Theatre me which was jt terrific. 230 The Silver WebApart om the Star Club which was really the one the munist women had started, the first gay club I ever went to was lled the Silver Web Wolverhampton, loads of gay women om Birmgham would have gone there.

Me and my partner at the time were taken there by another gay woman who was a very outgog sort of person. You�d got imag of all the lerature and all this stuff the 70s about gay clubs beg difficult to get to, plac London. 240 The polics of gay clubsI�ve no ia about the polics of the (Silver Web) bee we didn�t go there often enough to get to know the hierarchy but there was a lot of polics wh a small �p� at gay clubs about who they would let bee they were all privately owned like they are now.