Join us for a night of celebration with the Gay Liberation Front for the 50th anniversary of Pride, which they began!
The event will feature a spectacular panel led by:
- Dan Glass, author of United Queerdom: From the Legends of the Gay Liberation Front to the Queers of Tomorrow;
- Olimpia Burchiellaro from ‘Friends of the Joiners Arms’, the dynamo campaign that opened London's 1st community-run LGBTIQ+ pub in East London;
- Stuart Feather and Andrew Lumsden, Gay Liberation Front (GLF) activists who took part in the first Pride in London in 1972.
- Nettie Pollard, who joined YCND at 16 and has been active in GLF and Women’s Liberation since 1971.
- Ted Brown, Black LGBTQ activist and Member of the Gay Liberation Front since 1970.
Throughout the night, we will be collecting donations for Streetskitchen - a UK & Ireland grassroots group working to help the homeless community, providing daily outreaches with food, clothing and information that benefits our streets.
There will be an opportunity to receive signed copies of United Queerdom after the talk, which will be followed by music and drinks in our wonderful bar, The Common Counter.
Attendees may arrive at the venue at 6.00PM and the event will start at 6.30PM in our events space downstairs, The Commons. Please have your ticket with you.
About United Queerdom:
Throughout the 1970s the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) initiated an anarchic campaign that permanently changed the face of Britain. Inspired by the Stonewall uprisings in the US, the GLF demanded a 'Absolute Freedom For All' worldwide. Yet half a century on, injustice is rife and LGBT+ inequality remains. Complete LGBT+ liberation means housing rights, universal healthcare, economic freedom and so much more. Although many people believe queers are now free and should behave, assimilate and become palatable – Dan Glass shows that the fight is far from over. United Queerdom evocatively captures over five decades of LGBT+ culture and protest from the GLF to 2020s. Showinghow central protest is to queer history and identity this book uncovers the back-breaking hard work as well as the glamorous and raucous stories of those who rebelled against injustice and became founders in the story of queer liberation.
'An optimistic iconoclast, Dan Glass, has brought enthusiasm and joy to this memoir of British Gay/HIV activism, rooted in a profound faith in relationships across difference. His insights are sometimes outrageous, often provocative, controversial, heartfelt, funny and motivated by a queer spirit and vision for a better world.' Sarah Schulman
‘A road map for the ongoing evolution of queer activism and organizing.' Ricky Varghese, author of Raw
‘United Queerdom is a thing of beauty. Dan Glass has penned a memoir that pulsates with existential rage, solidarity, and tactical hope.’ Amin Ghaziani, University of British Columbia
About the Panelists:
Dan Glass is an ‘Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) healthcare and human rights activist, performer, presenter and writer, latest book is United Queerdom: From the Legends of the Gay Liberation Front to the Queers of Tomorrow. Dan has been recognised as 'Activist of the Year' with the 'Sexual Freedom Awards' and was announced a 'BBC Greater Londoner' for founding 'Queer Tours of London - A Mince Through Time - alright@theglassishalffull.co.uk - @danglassmincer/
Olimpia Burchiellaro is long-time Friends of the Joiners Arms activist and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, at the University of Westminster. Her primary research interests are in gender/sexuality, anthropology, politics, ethnography and queer theory. She is currently working on a project exploring the complicities and resistances between global corporations and local activists in Kenya, Argentina and Brazil. A member of the Gender and Sexuality Study Group at the Centre for the Study of Democracy and the Decolonizing Steering Group, her work is published in journals including Gender, Work & Organization.
Stuart Feather is a Gay Liberation Front (GLF) activist and took part in the first public demonstration of homosexuals in the UK in 1970, seen here on the right as part of the GLF Street Theatre group. His political autobiography Blowing the Lid: Gay Liberation, Sexual Revolution and Radical Queens was published in 2016. Feather was also a member 1977 – 1993 of the gay theatre group Bloolips, winners of a New York OBIE award in 1981.
Andrew Lumsden joined Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in London in 1970 which led to the creation of ‘Pride’ seen here with lifelong GLF partner in crime Stuart Feather. He invented Gay News in 1971 (first published 1972) and is an artist. Andrew specialises in Soho and Bloomsbury history tours and is currently leading the ‘GLF Think In – Reclaim Pride’ programme.
Nettie Pollard joined YCND at 16 and has been active in GLF and Women’s Liberation since 1971. Both her parents, separately, were at the Battle of Cable Street. “Rights – marriage, jobs, family life-can easily be taken back by oppressive governments. Think Trump. Think Bolsonaro. I believe the only way forward is to join with others not for a seat at the top table, but to abolish the top table. A change in the whole structure of society. At the moment it means working with other marginalised groups such as trans, refugees, homeless, sex workers. We won’t make it unless we make it together.” Contact Nettie on nettiepollard@gmail.com
Ted Brown is a Black LGBTQ activist and Member of the Gay Liberation Front since 1970. Born Theodore York Walker Brown, 1950, in New York from Jamaican parents involved in the NAACP, this erstwhile legal caseworker, journalist and yoga teacher found this background to be life affirming and inspirational. Arriving in England Ted ‘came out’ to his supportive family in 1965, and found further inspiration when hearing of the Stonewall uprising in New York, June 1969. In 1970, Ted first met and joined the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) after viewing Hollywood’s first ever ‘gay’ movie ‘The Boys In The Band’. GLF were demonstrating against the film. Motivated by heroes like Huey Newton and Bayard Rustin to expand queer rights demands to calls for justice for all, Ted became active in GLF. He took the only photographs of the very first march through London by queer people (GLF’s Youth Group age of consent equality demands, August 1971). He lived in a GLF commune for three years, worked for GALOP, and wrote for Gay Times magazine. He co-founded Black Lesbians & Gays Against Media Homophobia, (BLAGAMH) which successfully fought media attacks on Black gay footballer Justin Fashanu and against Buju Banton’s viciously homophobic song ‘Boom Bye Bye’. Ted also wrote for 'Gay News' and 'Scene Update' and was active in the Greenwich 'Kiss Me Hardy' queer social group back in the late 1980s - early 90s.