UK Gay Liberation Front: Che guvera interesting facts from History

Aug 21, 2021 - 15:29
 0
UK Gay Liberation Front: Che guvera interesting facts from History
Che guvera uk gay 1971 GLF cover version of Ink magazine, UK

Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of a number of gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots.

But : The UK Gay Liberation Front existed between 1970–1973. Its first meeting was held in the basement of the London School of Economics on 13 October 1970. Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter had seen the effect of the GLF in the United States and created a parallel movement based on revolutionary politics.

By 1971, the UK GLF was recognized as a political movement in the national press, holding weekly meetings of 200 to 300 people. The GLF Manifesto was published, and a series of high-profile direct actions were carried out, such as the disruption of the launch of the Church-based morality campaign, Festival of Light.

The disruption of the opening of the 1971 Festival of Light was the best organised GLF action. The first meeting of the Festival of Light was organised by Mary Whitehouse at Methodist Central Hall.

Amongst GLF members taking part in this protest were the "Radical Feminists", a group of gender non-conforming males in drag, who invaded and spontaneously kissed each other; others released mice, sounded horns, and unveiled banners, and a contingent dressed as workmen obtained access to the basement and shut off the lights.

Easter 1972 saw the Gay Lib annual conference held in the Guild of Students building at the University of Birmingham. By 1974, internal disagreements had led to the movement's splintering.

Organizations that spun off from the movement included the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, Gay News, and Icebreakers. The GLF Information Service continued for a few further years providing gay related resources.

GLF branches had been set up in some provincial British towns (e.g., Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, and Leicester) and some survived for a few years longer. The Leicester Gay Liberation Front founded by Jeff Martin was noted for its involvement in the setting up of the local "Gayline", which is still active today and has received funding from the National Lottery.

They also carried out a high-profile campaign against the local paper, the Leicester Mercury, which refused to advertise Gayline's services at the time.

The papers of the GLF are among the Hall-Carpenter Archives at the London School of Economics. Several members of the GLF, including Peter Tatchell, continued campaigning beyond the 1970s under the organisation of OutRage!, which was founded in 1990 and dissolved in 2011, using similar tactics to the GLF (such as "zaps" and performance protest[36]) to attract a significant level of media interest and controversy.

It was at this point that a divide emerged within the gay activist movement, mainly due to a difference in ideologies, after which a number of groups including Organization for Lesbian and Gay Alliance (OLGA), the Lesbian Avengers, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Dykes And Faggots Together (DAFT),

Queer Nation, Stonewall (which focused on lobbying tactics) and OutRage! co-existed. These groups were very influential following the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s and the violence against lesbians and gay men that followed.

Note: please Comment Here for UPDATES and CORRECTIONS 

Donate. Buy Us Coffee  

Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it.

India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises. But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to the crude prime-time spectacle. My digital news .in  has very few young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here

Donate. https://mydigitalnews.in/donate  

NOTE: Please email us for updates and corrections, if you wish to publish articles like this you can send them to info@mydigitalnews.in  or mydigitalnews.in@gmail.com  or you can Directicle write Articles on our Site by registering https://mydigitalnews.in/register  

Disclaimer: Mydigitalnews.in provides the content from various information sources ‘as is and the content to be used only for informational purposes and not responsible for the inaccuracy or deficiency of the provided information. Mydigitalnews. in have the right, at its sole discretion, to make modifications in any aspect of the provided information.

Mydigitalnews. in Internet site may contain links to other Internet sites. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites.

What's Your Reaction?

like

dislike

love

funny

angry

sad

wow