People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook
Gay Pride, Lesbian and Gay Pride, LGBT Pride in London 1970-2000
Editor: Paul Halsall
Contents
Introduction
This is a special section of People with a History devoted to the history of Gay Pride, later Lesbian and Gay Pride and LGBT Pride, in London between 1970 and 2000. It is intended to provide students, researchers and other interested readers with a means of exploring that history in greater depth. The section will include selected primary-source documents and photographs and, where permission has been given, edited transcripts or extracts from interviews conducted as part of the Pride in London history project undertaken by Paul Halsall from May 2026. It will also provide links to a small number of particularly useful websites and other online resources, normally accompanied where possible by archived versions.
Gay and lesbian political organisation in Britain long pre-dated Gay Pride. The Homosexual Law Reform Society campaigned for legal reform from 1958, while the North Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee, founded in 1964, became the Committee for Homosexual Equality in 1969 and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in 1971. CHE is sometimes underemphasised in general accounts of the period, although at its height it was a large, democratically organised membership movement with local groups across England and Wales. A different form of politics emerged with the London Gay Liberation Front, founded in October 1970 under the influence of the new gay liberation movement in the United States. GLF held its first public demonstration at Highbury Fields in November 1970, organised Gay Days in London parks, and its Youth Group marched to Trafalgar Square in August 1971. On 1 July 1972, GLF and other activists organised London's first event explicitly billed as Gay Pride.
This section of People with a History is devoted to the history that followed: to the people who made Pride happen, to the changing marches, rallies, festivals and other events through which it was expressed, and to the surviving evidence from which that history can be reconstructed. It is intended not as a substitute for the larger historical account arising from the project, but as a documentary resource and an accompaniment to its other publications and outputs.
Context
1970s
- Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto (London, 1971, as revised 1979) [At this Site]
Classic example of Gay Liberationist analysis. Parts of it still
read as provocative, other parts seem dated - for instance its
attack on "butch/femme" culture!
- Rictor Norton: The Gay News Blasphemy Trial 1976 PDF [At Rictor Norton's website] [Internet Archive version here]
1980s
1990s
Selected Online Resources
WEB Timeline of UK LGBT History [At LGBT Archive] [Internet Archive version here]
WEB The LGBT History Project
Thanks: Research for the Pride in London part of this project has been given by Charles Joseph (of website); NB, England; DC, England; BBH, USA; JS, Germany.
NOTES
People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Date of inception was 1997. People with a History is a www site presenting
history relevant to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people, through primary
sources, secondary discussions, and images. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At some indication of the site name or location]. WEB indicates a link to one of small number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable overview.
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at
the Fordham University Center
for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the
Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in
providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University. Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not
the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.
© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 21 September 2026 [CV]
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