“We insist on gathering in plain sight every year because for 2,000 years we were told to be invisible. This is the 50th calendar year in which we’ve walked the walk in London. We who were there in 1971 and 1972 walk now on behalf of our contemporaries who are too unwell, locked-down or far away, to join us. Many have already gone to LGBT+ heaven. And we walk in honour of the young who are fighting in every country around the world. We think of LGBTs in Hong Kong, Poland, Chechnya, Brazil and Indonesia, who seek the dignities that ought not be denied to anyone.” - Andrew Lumsden, GLF founder member.Veterans of the original Gay Liberation Front, led by our hero Peter Tatchell, marched the Gay Pride route to mark 50 years of gay rights marches in the UK yesterday. I only wish I had known about it in advance; I would have gone along to support them.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Good 'ol Peter Tatchell! My friend had a crush on him.
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He was a striking looking young man. Regardless, he is a hero. Jx
DeleteThis is so important, so many young people seem to think the struggle for gay rights began, whole cloth, with the Stonewall riot.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many myths surrounding the events at Stonewall, it's all become rather blurred. As I said in my article for the 40th anniversary: "If everyone who claims to have been there actually was there, the tiny bar and its surrounding streets would have had a crowd the size of an audience at one of Tina Turner's concerts." And no, it was not the first nor the only gay rights protest in history. Even at the time it was scarcely reported, being a very "localised" New York skirmish. It was only the activists who came afterwards who referred to it in reverent tones, and even then, none of them could agree on whose "rights" or "history" they were fighting for... Jx
DeleteI'm glad there was still a march despite everything going on. As Ms Scarlet so eloquently said: "Good ol' Peter Tatchell!" (I don't think any of my friends had a crush on him...)
ReplyDeleteAs I say, if I had known it was happening I would have been there to show solidarity with the Great Man and his fellow pioneers. Jx
DeletePeter Tatchell is a Hero
ReplyDeleteSorry - and ;
DeleteAs are all the people in those photos.
Agreed, on both points. Jx
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