By Elliott West
“We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are”.
Marsha P.Johnson
Introduction
As millions of people in the LGBT community gather to celebrate Pride this weekend, it is important to reflect on how much times have changed and acceptance has replaced the vile hatred and persecution of bygone years. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist anymore. Sadly there will always be people who feel threatened by someone’s sexuality and retaliate with words and actions, ignorance of the highest order and never acceptable. We now live in a more inclusive society. It still has its faults and cracks, a work in progress but certainly better than when men and women feared revealing their sexual preference in fear of imprisonment, physical attack or retribution. Love is a beautiful thing, it comes in many shapes and forms and should never be vilified.
Looking Back – Stonewall
“Then there was the raid, the whimper heard round the world, the fall of our gay Bastille”.
Stonewall witness
The Pride movement was a direct result of a flashpoint moment not in the UK but in the USA. The year was 1970 and Richard Nixon was President at the time. A police raid occurred in the early hours of June 28, 1969, at Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. This was like a spark igniting a flame in the gay community in the local area uniting together to stand up and fight back against this brutal police oppression. This community wouldn’t tolerate violence and these frequent raids on gay bars and clubs had been prevalent since the 1960s. Yet the one at Greenwich Village turned ugly with officers losing control of the situation. A raid that would intensify tension and lead to several protests over the coming days. These protests led to the formation of activist groups that demanded the right to live openly, regardless of sexual orientation and without fear of being arrested. Basing their plan on confrontational tactics, the activist movement grew, to the point where several months after its formation, three newspapers had been established to promote gay men and lesbians.
A year after this uprising, the first gay pride marches took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco to mark the anniversary of Stonewall and within several years this would become a worldwide event in June to honour the Stonewall riots. Today it is estimated that two million LGBT celebrate the day in the USA and 30,000 come to the London event with an estimated 1.5 million visitors with celebrations also taking place in countries as far and wide as Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Greenland, Hungary and Romania.
Britain
Homosexuality only became legalised in the UK in 1967 when the Labour government at the time passed the Sexual Offences Act. This piece of legislation was groundbreaking but still fell short of the mark. It did prevent two men from being arrested and possibly imprisoned for being caught in a sexual act. Providing it was consensual, in private and between two men who had attained the age of 21. However, many gay men and women still chose to remain ‘in the closet’ but the fear remained of being outed especially amongst those in influential positions in society. This was a long time coming and had first been recommended by the Wolfenden Committee in 1957.
The first small-scale Pride march took place in North London in 1970 when 150 men walked through Highbury Fields. This then led to a GLF youth group rally the following year in London with the theme of the age of consent. These marches spread to places such as Brighton with a gay demonstration in October 1972 by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) and a full pride march in July 1973. Avon Pride also began in Bristol in 1977 as a fundraiser for the Gay News blasphemy trial, a Whitehouse v Lemon court case surrounding a controversial poem entitled ‘The Love that Dares to Speak it’s Name’ by James Kirkup published in the June 1976 edition of Gay News. A poem that led to Mary Whitehouse taking a private prosecution out against Denis Lemon, the owner of the gay publication. As a result, the paper was fined £1,000, Denis Lemon £500 and he was given a nine months suspended prison sentence. This was later quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1977 and the European Commission of Human Rights declared the case inadmissible in 1982.
Today
The LGBT community has opened its arms to other groups including transgendered men and women. This family grows year after year and champions causes and injustices. The once fear that surrounded this community still exists, it hasn’t gone away but it is certainly not as prevalent as it was. People in the LGBT family no longer have to walk in the shadows and can be proud of who they are in public. Hatred and discrimination will unfortunately always exist. It is a cancer in society that remains dormant but alive, rearing its ugly head every so often. Yet it is a coward and will never win because the resilient gay community will always prevail.
