Talk:Homosexual Equality Rally in London 1974

Merge?
Should this be merged to Campaign for Homosexual Equality? -- Banj e b oi   01:23, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't think so, if this can become more meaty and filling. We don't have Stonewall riots merged to Human Rights Campaign. - ALLST✰R &#09660; echo wuz here @ 01:34, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Your right, of course. this should expand and be linked to that article. -- Banj e  b oi   09:57, 7 May 2009 (UTC)


 * My thoughts are the same as your initial ones, Benji, it was a CHE rally. There were other actions that predated this which involved women as well as radical drag queens that make better models for UK's Stonewall - the Festival of Light action.  This was not even the first gay demonstration in the UK, which took place in 1970 in Highbury Fields, Islington, according to several sources [www.britishcouncil.org/timeline].  Jeffrey Weeks discusses this somewhere or other, I'm sure (as he was part of GLF then).  CHE was quite a conservative organisation, unlike GLF, and was more concerned with campaigning for legislative changes once homosexuality had been decriminalised.

The only other significant ref I could turn up on the 1974 protest was here - A Companion to Contemporary Britain, 1939-2000 by Paul Addison, Harriet Jones, Historical Association (Great Britain) Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2007 p.394 - only mentions, does not give detail as per article

Tatchell gives more detail about the GLF actions, such as the Festival of Light, here - 

more on GLF 1971 action here

Bette Bourne is a good source for the 1971 action, and there's a fair bit on him around

This article is interesting because I had understood that the lesbians had walked out of GLF in 1973, leaving the gay men and drag queens (who didn't on too well either) and then it collapsed - and lesbians only started to work with gay men again after the scale of AIDS started to become apparent in the 80's. Is there any way this sole source can be checked and confirm it says what is said in the text? Mish (talk) 10:43, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * To be honest, the more I look at it the more problematic it becomes. It was a CHE rally and nothing like what happened at Stonewall happened there. It is a weird piece, and there is better sourcing for the 1978 ANL rally in Victoria Park Hackney (only four years later) than this, which drew people from different interst groups together, ditto for the Festival of Light action, which suggests to me it just wasn't that notable.  It came at the tail end of the main gay liberation activity between 1970 & 1973.  There is little from what I can see that comes near Stonewall - unlike the 1971 Festival of Light action where there were drag queens getting stuck in at the heart of it, and causing disruption that got news coverage (as I recall).  Why not build that up instead, as there is much more material on it and it is much more interesting? Mish (talk) 11:19, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

If you step back a few pages to p.88 in the book Benji linked to, you will see this:

Plus, here is the good news. The Nationwide Festival of Light does not have a single citation on it, and has no mention of the disruption. There is nothing to stop us collating the relevant material about the GLF action, inserting it right in the middle of the article, possibly sticking an LGBT project template in there. If we want to, that is :-) Mish (talk) 11:44, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Other issue is this - who would ever type this in as a search for an article? The only way you would get here is via a link from another article, such as CHE or eraly gay lib. So, why not just have it in to CHE and people can link from there? Mish (talk) 21:56, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Note for creator
Hi, McKenzie, do you have any objections to us tidying this up and moving it over into Campaign for Homosexual Equality? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MishMich (talk • contribs) 12:36, 7 May 2009 (UTC)