Prejudice and Pride

LGBT North West

Description

‘It's fascinating and moving to discover and identify those LGBT people in less happy times, who fought for the freedoms LGBT people now enjoy in the UK. This book will make you look back with gratitude and astonishment for what has been achieved.' Sir Ian McKellen

LGBT activist and civil rights history from the 1960s to the 2000s has had a huge impact on our social and political landscape in the UK, yet much of this history remains hidden.

Prejudice and Pride: LGBT Activist Stories from Manchester and Beyond explores aspects of LGBT activist history. It covers educational activism, youth work activism and the history of the LGBT Centre in Manchester.

Through personal stories of activists, heard and recorded by young people from LGBT Youth North West, the book explores the ‘wibbly wobbly’ nature of people's histories. It reveals how they interlink in surprising and creative ways to form the current landscape of both prejudice and pride. Also contains exercises for interpreting and ideas for collecting activist histories within youth work. 

 

Sujets

• LGBTQ+ Studies
• Social History
• Media Studies
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Social mobility
• Heritage
• Social movement
• Activism

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 17 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781910849286
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

PREJUDICE AND PRIDE
LGBT ACTIVIST STORIES FROM MANCHESTER AND BEYOND

COPYRIGHT
PREJUDICE AND PRIDE: LGBT ACTIVIST STORIES FROM MANCHESTER AND BEYOND
© LGBT Youth North West for selection and Clíodhna Devlin editorial matter © Individual authors, 2015
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0
This work is Open Access, which means that you are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to the authors, that you do not use this work for commercial gain in any form whatsoever, and that you in no way alter, transform, or build upon the work outside of its normal use in academic scholarship without express permission of the authors and the publisher of this volume. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Prejudice and Pride: LGBT Activist Stories from Manchester and Beyond /selected by LGBT Youth North West and edited by Clíodhna Devlin 1. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* History 2. Public History. 3. Social and Community History.
epub ISBN-13: 978-1-9108492-8-6
ISBN-10: 9780956450784
Cover design and layout by Tamzin Forster
http://www.tamzinforster.co.uk/
Typeset by Tamzin Forster in Misproject by Misprinted Type Eduardo Recife
Handwriting Dakota by Altsys Metamorphosis
Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. If, for whatever reason, something has not been credited correctly, we apologise, hope that you will accept this apology, and are happy for us to use your empowering work for the greater good! Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.
First published in 2015 by HammerOn Press
http://www.hammeronpress.net
HammerOn Press is an imprint of Intellect
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
www.intellectbooks.com
IN MEMORY OF. . .
In memory of two activists who dedicated their lives to campaigning, educating and empowering themselves and others to support the LGBT Community, in Manchester and beyond.

Jaye Bloomfield
GEMMA GODDEN REMEMBERS HER WIFE, JAYE BLOOMFIELD (1969-2013)
Jaye was born in Ipswich and her activism started young - in the 80s she was kettled by the police at Anti-Nazi demonstrations in London.
Jaye always stood up for what she believed in. Her first visit to Manchester was as an LGBT union representative for the PCS union. She was proud of her union involvement. She moved to Manchester in 2002 for the LGBT scene (as well as the music).
I met Jaye in 2004 at the re-launch of Manchester City Council’s LG employee group. We got involved in the Core Group of the group and successfully campaigned for the group to become an LGBT employee group. We also pushed for all the equalities documents across the different departments of the council to recognise and meet the needs of LGBT people.
Jaye brought her design skills and sense of humour to the role - she designed the posters, updated the intranet site and worked hard to push things forward. I researched and had facts and figures to back up proposals - Jaye had the passion and confidence to put points across verbally. We made a good team.
Jaye was outspoken - she said what was on her mind and was honest to the point of bluntness. She used humour often and brought a lot of laughter.
I remember once when a man shouted ‘lesbians!’ as we walked down the street holding hands - Jaye pointed at him and shouted “heterosexual!” She then had to explain what heterosexual was to him. He shuffled off looking a bit embarrassed.
From 2004 to 2008 we organised launch events for LGBT History Month, arranged for Trans and Bi speakers to attend our meetings and attempted to make the meetings more accessible to women, BME and LGBT people with disabilities.
Jaye always believed in standing up for your rights – at our wedding she thanked all the activists whose work had allowed us to get civilly partnered as she knew that without them we wouldn’t have had that beautiful and important day.
A song that she loved and which sums up Jaye’s attitude is Raise by Bocca Juniors
‘Raise your voice, you’ll be spoiled for choice, just stay quiet and you won’t.’
The day before Jaye died she told a friend to get her union involved as she was having problems at work ‘If you don’t do something, nuffing will change.’ The friend did get the union involved and it resulted in improvements for her.
I would love Jaye’s legacy to be that she encouraged people to stand up for their rights and to work together to make things better.
IN MEMORY OF. . .
In memory of two activists who dedicated their lives to campaigning, educating and empowering themselves and others to support the LGBT Community, in Manchester and beyond.

Paul Patrick
CAROLE WODDIS FONDLY REMEMBERS PAUL PATRICK (1950-2008)
Paul Patrick was passionate, voluble, bighearted, an inspired and inspiring teacher and one of the country’s leading activists on LGBT issues. Above all, he was a human rights campaigner, prepared to challenge all forms of oppression wherever he found them, especially in schools where his impatience with the status quo was vented particularly towards bullying and homophobia.
As a staunch and lifelong trade unionist his influence on his own union, the NUT, helped bring about a sea change in their attitudes and put them at the forefront of equality for LGBT teachers
Patrick came out in 1969, a courageous act bearing in mind it was only two years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967. In 1974, shortly after starting his teaching career, he helped found the London Gay Teachers Group. Over the years this turned into the campaigning organisation, Schools OUT of which he was the co-chair. In 2004, with long-time friend and work colleague, Sue Sanders, he also co-founded LGBT History Month, travelling extensively to promote events.
In 1972, he became a teacher at the Roger Manwood School in Lewisham, quickly becoming Head of Drama, One of the first openly gay teachers in the UK, his work soon brought him to the attention of the ILEA (Inner London Education Authority), who co-opted him to serve as an equal opportunities advisor.
His work at the Roger Manwood School set the pattern for what was to become his trademark: after-school drama projects, pastoral care, training and advice.
Under his direction, Roger Manwood school plays became legendary. When the school was amalgamated and became Crofton School, Patrick, involved at every level in its reconstitution, became its Equal Opportunities Officer, responsible, as later with the ILEA, for advice covering issues ranging from the personal, social and sexual to artistic. It’s true to say that Patrick spread `good practice’ through London schools before the term acquired the fashionable cache it now carries.
In 1997, he moved back North and continued teaching and directing school plays, In the last 2 years he directed adapted and staged Much Ado about Nothing with the Rossendale Players and the British amateur premiere of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues to great acclaim.
A prolific writer and compelling speaker, he was responsible for many influential training videos: amongst them `A Different Story – the lives and experiences of a group of young lesbians and gay men’ (ILEA 1986), the first video to go into schools highlighting homophobic and sexist issues.
In the 1980s he became a foster parent to one of his pupils, an event rare enough to find himself recounting the experience on John Peel’s Home Truths.
It was typical of a person tireless in the cause of human and social equality. If the roll call of positions he held in the voluntary sector are testament to his irrepressible energy, the heartfelt tributes on the LGBT website since his death bear witness to the love, respect and admiration in which he was held by people across the spectrum - from teaching colleagues and LGBT community workers to parents, students, artists and, of course, his family.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
CHAPTER 2 This is How We Got Here: Project Summary
CHAPTER 3 Under the microscope: Government Politics and the Medicalisation of LGBT Lives
CHAPTER 4 Section 28: Section Twentyhate
CHAPTER 5 Promoting EdYOUcation
CHAPTER 6 Trials and Tribulations of the LGBT Community: Difficulties and Collaborations Within the LGBT Community
CHAPTER 7 Journey to the Gay Centre of the Earth
CHAPTER 8 Acting Up and Acting Out
CHAPTER 9 A Woman’s Place
CHAPTER 10 Outness: To Be or Not To Be
CHAPTER 11 A Friend of a Friend of Dorothy
CHAPTER 12 In Every Ending There is a Beginning
ACTIVISTS
CONTRIBUTIONS
NOTES

CHAPTER 1
WIBBLY WOBBLY TIMEY WIMEY LGBT HISTORIES
NIAMH MOORE
This is a book about the lives of LGBT activists – who may or may not call themselves activists – in the North West of the UK.
This book is one of the outputs of a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) project in the UK. The project was initiated by LGBT Youth North West, based in Manchester, and partnered with a number of organisations including Schools OUT UK .
This book traces three threads of LGBT activism, loosely based around Manchester and the North West of England, though inevitably with attention to how Manchester and the North West are inevitably enmeshed in national and global politics.
The three strands of the project include:
1 . the establishment of a purpose-built Gay Centre in Manchester in 19xx, This Centre is now managed by LGBT Youth North West;
2 . work in schools, supporting teachers and pupils, including the setting up and campaigning of Schools OUT UK (formerly called the Gay Teachers Group);
3 . histories of LGBT youth work in Manchester
Importantly this project focuses on histories of LGBT activism that rarely receive attention elsewhere – the campaigning of teachers, and youth workers. These are particula