Gay men London, om persecutn to Pri | Welle Collectn

Contents:

• ‘BOG JOBS’: PUBLIC TOILETS AND GAY ENUNTERS
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI

‘BOG JOBS’: PUBLIC TOILETS AND GAY ENUNTERS

The newly surfaced, unseen imag are rerds of a polil climate which homosexualy was prosecuted and illic sex between men a risky thrill. as parks, partment stor, tube and railway statns, where gay men were.

Homosexualy. had been partly crimalised by the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967, but anti-gay. gay men remaed closeted.

In the s after 1967, as many as 15, 000 gay men are timated to have been nvicted of such term ‘ttagg’ refers to cisg or engagg.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

wh gay men. He realised how easy police were fdg to ‘nick’ and prosecute men for homosexual activy, often by employg ‘pretty police’ pla cloth to set up gay men, or by g dub pnage tactics. to hi out the ceilg (right) to ‘nick’ men for homosexual activy.

In the early 1980s, Polglaze was dog four or five ‘bog jobs’ a week, an ditn of que how much police activy was directed towards tchg gay men and a reflectn of the polil climate. In a September 2005 terview wh the Gay Tim — the only place which some of the photographs were ever published — he said: “My job as a photographer was to asss the stcture of the place and tablish sightl.

GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI

stggle for gay rights gaed ground the 1990s, changg the culture and.

toilets as popular spots for secret enunters among gay men; a social history. Rints who live the area - once notor as a home of prostut and sex clubs - say Soho's WCs are still firmly on the map as gay cisg hot-spots and that puts people right off g them At Berwick Street Market, trars say the public toilets there still garner a “reputatn” for those seekg to share some public cency. Another term often associated wh the practice is "ttagg, a gay slang term referrg to anonymo sex public toilets.