Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
I agree with everything apart from the homsexuality bit. Its only in recent years its become associated almost exclusively with "gay".
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Homophobia and football
- Thread starter Wilko
- Start date
I agree with everything apart from the homsexuality bit. Its only in recent years its become associated almost exclusively with "gay".
seagullsovergrimsby
#cpfctinpotclub
Football until about 25 years ago was been seen as a working class sport so its not surprising that stereotyping still exists amongst supporters from different clubs. What I find funny about the homophobic chants directed at Brighton fans at away games is that vast majority of the gay community in Brighton & Hove were born elsewhere and came to live in a place where they no longer got picked on for their lifestyle.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,641
Safeway
M0DERAT0R
Really, how recent? It's been linked with gayness all the time I can remember.
Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
You might want to take that argument up with the Prince Regent....
Clearly inspired by India?
seagullsovergrimsby
#cpfctinpotclub
I always thought it was a French influence , onions instantly spring to mind.
looney
Banned
- Jul 7, 2003
- 15,652
BBC News - Same-sex marriage law backed in Portugal's parliament
Portugal backs same sex marrage but not same sex adoption. Wereas this Government has forced through same sex adoption but not marrage.
Discuss?
Portugal backs same sex marrage but not same sex adoption. Wereas this Government has forced through same sex adoption but not marrage.
Discuss?
SussexHoop
New member
- Dec 7, 2003
- 887
I think the issue is what some deem offensive, others deem banter and where do we draw the line? Some on here are being a bit precious about taking some stick whilst your fans are no different to any others and are happy to dish it out. To be fair, similar situation to us in that ours are more than happy to dish out the 'Town full of rent boys' whilst hitting the roof about the 'town full of bombers'.
I always thought it was a French influence , onions instantly spring to mind.
iced gems?
In the current climate the latter is, in my opinion, more inflammatory so yes I agree folk should maybe 'hit the roof'.
withdeanwombat
Well-known member
Well,George Best was a fairy.
So was Alan Ball.
But as for Ted McDougall he's the queerest of them all.
You've never seen anything like it in the recent or the past.
There's nothing he like's better than......................
So was Alan Ball.
But as for Ted McDougall he's the queerest of them all.
You've never seen anything like it in the recent or the past.
There's nothing he like's better than......................
Lord Bracknell
On fire
Brighton's history - Brighton Ourstory - Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual History Group
Brighton's History
Below is a brief outline of some of what we know about Brighton's queer past.
For a more detailed journey back through time, see A History of Lesbian & Gay Brighton.
When Brighton began to flourish as a pleasure resort at the end of the eighteenth century under the patronage of the Prince of Wales, he cannot have imagined that the small fishing town would one day become the Gay Capital of the South. Despite harsh legal penalties (the last man to be executed for buggery was hanged in 1835), evidence suggests that a floating population of holiday makers and good transport links with London (followed by the coming of the railway in 1841) together provided the ideal conditions for the 'unmentionable crimes' practised by the 'improper characters in the habit of coming to Brighton'.
Many men were initially drawn to Brighton by the enormous numbers of soldiers garrisoned here during the Napoleonic Wars. In August 1822, George Wilson, a servant from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was accused by a guardsman he had met in the Duke of Wellington public house in Pool Valley of having offered him a sovereign and two shillings to go with him onto the beach to commit an unnatural crime.
Also in August of that year, a tradesman in Shoreham was compelled to abscond following the discovery of a 'most unaccountable propensity'. His outraged neighbours assembled, burnt the fugitive in effigy and were with difficulty prevented by his wife from pulling his house down.
In May 1836, Stanley Stokes, a London solicitor who had been making sexual approaches to a groom at the New Ship Hotel, was mobbed and tarred and cut his own throat in East Street, dying two days later.
Happily, history also records that in January 1837, a man who had 'made a proposition of a disgusting nature' to a Grenadier Guard on sentry duty at the Royal Pavilion was allowed to escape by the arresting officers (who were perhaps mindful of the Stokes case the year before).
In the absence of the legal records which are such a fruitful source for accounts of men caught with their trousers down, the early history of lesbianism must be cobbled together from conjecture and scraps of rumour. Many letters and diaries were discreetly destroyed; others such as the secret diaries of Yorkshire heiress Anne Lister have only recently been decoded and published.
In the nineteenth century, two spinsters might set up house and spend much of their lives together without exciting any comment. Philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), spent part of each year on holiday at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton with her companion Hannah. The couple were devoted to each other, were socially recognised as a pair, even sent joint Christmas cards, and when Hannah died in 1878, Miss Burdett-Coutts told a friend that she was utterly crushed by the loss of 'my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years'. Though such romantic partnerships were accepted by the world at large, they may in fact - behind closed doors - have been little different from the long-term lesbian relationships of today.
Other early records have an unmistakable flavour of an almost modern-day dykiness. In the 1870s Miss Harriet Rowell, who taught swimming at Brill's Baths under the name of Miss Elphinstone Dick, won local fame for herself with a series of public swimming feats including a 2 hour 43 minute swim in a rough September sea from Shoreham to Brighton. Harriet fell in love with a Brighton woman, Alice Moon, and the couple emigrated to Australia where they started a women's gymnasium and taught gymnastics.
By the 1920s and 30s Brighton was well-established on the queer social map as 'the place to go and let your hair down'. Pubs with a lesbian or gay clientele were flourishing - among these the Star of Brunswick in Brunswick Street West and Pigott's bar at the St James Tavern in Madeira Place were especially popular with the boys and girls respectively. Radclyffe Hall came to party - 'we all talked and howled till 1.30 am'; there were women-only tea dances at the Royal Albion Hotel and in 1929 the Brighton Man-Woman hit the headlines. Lillias Arkell-Smith, a lesbian masquerading as Colonel Sir Victor Ivor Gauntlett Blyth Barker (man-about-town, huntsman and cricketer), had wooed a Brighton woman, married her at St Peter's church and honeymooned at the Grand Hotel. Lillias, regarded by Radclyffe Hall as a 'mad pervert of the most undesirable kind', was found guilty of describing herself as a bachelor in a register of marriage and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. The Evening Argus muttered to its readers that 'there are obvious difficulties in discussing the case'.
During the Second World War Brighton was again full of available soldiers - Australians and Canadians -
'You used to meet them round the Clock Tower and off you'd go, there was plenty of places because of the blackout'.
Women and men in the forces who were away from home meeting other lesbians and gay people for the first time in their lives also heard about Brighton and its special pleasures - later they came from all over the country to visit and many stayed to make their homes here and helped turn Brighton into a Shangri-La in the post-war years. One gay man moved down from London just after the war and made his first gay friends on the newly-reopened men's beach in Hove:
'As far as I know, it was the only place in England with a notice up - MEN'S BEACH ONLY - and there was even somebody there that chased women off if they meandered onto it. There was so much beauty down there, it was too fantastic. All these people that came down on holidays, there was nothing in the rest of the country to compare. They would take bottles down and have parties. Of course they never went in the sea, they never got their beautiful bikinis wet. "Oh my God no, I'm afraid of the water!" They just went to be seen. It was fun, flagrant fun.'
A History of Lesbian & Gay Brighton
Chapter 1: Improper Characters, the 1800s
Our knowledge of Brighton's early lesbian and gay history is fragmentary but it seems likely that today's community can claim a tradition which goes all the way back to the beginning of Brighton as a pleasure resort, in the first years of the 1800s. Despite harsh legal penalties (the last man to be executed for buggery was hanged in 1835), evidence suggests that a floating population of holiday-makers and good transport links with London (followed by the coming of the railway in 1841), together provided the ideal conditions for the 'unmentionable crimes' practised by the 'improper characters in the habit of coming to Brighton'.
One of the town's first attractions might well have been the enormous numbers of soldiers garrisoned here during the Napoleonic Wars. Soldier prostitution was widespread and a matter of tradition in some regiments. In August 1822, George Wilson, a servant from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was accused by a guardsman he had met in the Duke of Wellington public house in Pool Valley of having offered him a sovereign and two shillings to go with him onto the beach to commit an unnatural crime.
Also in August of that year, a tradesman in Shoreham was compelled to abscond following the discovery of a 'most unaccountable propensity'. His outraged neighbours assembled, burnt the fugitive in effigy and were with difficulty prevented by his wife from pulling his house down. In May 1836, Stanley Stokes, a London solicitor who had been making sexual approaches to a groom at the New Ship Hotel, was mobbed and tarred and cut his own throat in East Street, dying two days later. Brighton Vestry records show that in January 1837, a man who had 'made a proposition of a disgusting nature' to a Grenadier Guard on sentry duty at the Royal Pavilion was allowed to escape by the arresting officers (who were perhaps mindful of the Stokes case the year before).
In happier circumstances, the 6th Duke of Devonshire, a bachelor, apparently enjoyed an unusually close friendship with his butler, who for twenty-five years occupied a small house connected to the rear of the Duke's Kemp Town home.
In the absence of the legal records which are such a fruitful source for accounts of men caught with their trousers down, the early history of lesbianism must be cobbled together from conjecture and scraps of rumour. During the 1800s, two spinsters might set up house and spend much of their lives together without exciting any comment. Philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), spent part of each year on holiday at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton with her companion Hannah. The couple were devoted to each other, were socially recognised as a pair and even sent joint Christmas cards. When Hannah died in 1878, Miss Burdett-Coutts told a friend that she was utterly crushed by the loss of 'my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years'. Though such romantic partnerships were accepted by the world at large, they may in fact - behind closed doors - have been little different from the long-term lesbian relationships of today. The secret diaries of Yorkshire heiress Anne Lister, only recently decoded, give quite explicit accounts of her sexual activity with other women in the early to mid 1800s.
Other early records strongly suggest a lesbian element to the modern eye. In the 1870s Miss Harriet Rowell, taught swimming at Brill's Baths in Pool Valley under the name of Miss Elphinstone Dick. She won local fame for herself with a series of public swimming feats including a 2 hour 43 minute swim in a rough September sea from Shoreham to Brighton. Harriet fell in love with a Brighton woman, Alice Moon, and the couple emigrated to Australia where they started a women's gymnasium and taught gymnastics.
A History of Lesbian & Gay Brighton
Chapter 2: An Underground World, 1900-67
By the 1920s and 30s Brighton was well established on the queer social map as 'the place to go and let your hair down'. Radclyffe Hall (author of The Well of Loneliness) came to party - 'we all talked and howled till 1.30 am'; there were women-only tea dances at the Royal Albion Hotel and in 1929 the Brighton Man-Woman hit the headlines. Lillias Arkell-Smith, passing as Colonel Sir Victor Ivor Gauntlett Blyth Barker (man-about-town, huntsman and cricketer) had, six years earlier, wooed a local woman, married her at St Peter's church and honeymooned at the Grand Hotel. Lillias, regarded by Radclyffe Hall as a 'mad pervert of the most undesirable kind', was found guilty of describing herself as a bachelor in a register of marriage and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. The Evening Argus muttered to its readers that 'there are obvious difficulties in discussing the case'.
A case the Argus had less trouble discussing concerned the death of a young man in his employer's flat in Hove in 1936. He was chauffeur to an antique dealer and their friendship was remarked to be 'much closer than usually existed between employer and employed'. The dealer, found guilty of murdering his servant, claimed that his 'absolute companion and friend' had committed suicide because the true nature of their relationship had been discovered. He was sentenced to death.
By the 1930s pubs with a lesbian or gay clientele were flourishing - among these, the Star of Brunswick in Brunswick Street West and Pigott's bar at the St James's Tavern in Madeira Place were especially popular with the boys and girls respectively. Playwright and local historian John Montgomery later wrote, 'From London in the thirties we used to roar down to Brighton in fast sports cars...The main rendezvous was the Star of Brunswick pub in Hove, outside which Rolls Royces, Daimlers and MGs were parked far up the street. There was also the New Pier Tavern, long since gone, with its noisy honky-tonk piano, thick atmosphere of tobacco and sprinkling of red-coated, pink-faced guardsmen, and sailors from Portsmouth.' 1
For much of the Second World War, Brighton was closed to casual visitors for reasons of national security. The beach was swathed in barbed wire and all but the stretch of King's Road from West Street to the Palace Pier was inaccessible. But for homosexual residents, there were other attractions - Brighton was again full of available soldiers: Australians and Canadians. 'You used to meet them round the Clock Tower and off you'd go, there was plenty of places because of the blackout.' (Bob) Having more important things to worry about, the police posed no threat to these night-time engagements. Jack recalls, 'Brighton was so gay during the war, it really was. There were so many sailors. They were stationed at Roedean girls' school and a lot of the gays used to almost camp outside the gates.' The Star of Brunswick was still going strong as a meeting place for homosexuals and apparently attracted enough interest from officer-cadets at training base HMS King Alfred to warrant naval authorities putting it out of bounds.
Women and men in the forces who were away from home meeting other gay people for the first time in their lives also heard about Brighton and its special pleasures - later they came from all over the country to visit and many stayed to make their homes here and helped turn Brighton into a Shangri-La in the post-war years, with an extensive gay culture, unusual for a provincial town of its size. Until the cheap package holiday changed the face of tourism in the late sixties Brighton was the premier destination for British gay holidaymakers. Word filtered along the grapevine about guesthouses where the proprietors were willing to turn a blind eye to illegal 'goings-on'. Some establishments were owned by gay men who welcomed gay holidaymakers. 'Couples could stay without fear of being suspected or molested' at the St Albans Hotel in Regency Square, the Cecil Court Hotel on Kings Road or Le Chateau Gaye in Castle Street, the forerunners of today's gay hotels which contribute so much to the City's economy.
The highlight of the social calendar for some lesbians and gay men in the grim days of post-war austerity was the Sussex Arts Ball, held annually in the ballroom of the Aquarium (now Brighton Sea Life Centre). It was started in 1947 with the idea in mind that local businesses and art students would create a carnival spirit, but it became a magnet for cross-dressing gays of both sexes including flamboyant drag artist, Betty Lou, who regularly stole the show. Michael recalls:
'I came on the scene when Betty Lou had the idea for the peacock. It went up eleven foot or twelve foot high with these peacock's eyes all round and it was absolutely beautiful. The bodywork of the peacock itself was all done in glistening sequins and pearls.'
Many gay people never found their way to a gay venue - with no gay press and no Switchboards, you had to have already met somebody who could tell you where to go. It was not uncommon for lesbians and gay men to find out about bars and fellow outcasts by being warned off them. Of those who did find their way through the looking glass into wonderland, not everyone enjoyed the experience. This Mass Observation account of a day trip to Brighton on Easter Sunday 1949 illustrates the point:
'Arthur, Michael, Peter and I went into a small bar which was completely full of about 35 males - the vast majority of whom appeared to be homosexuals. Frank refused to go into the bar, saying that he just didn't want to and would sit in the car and wait for the others. Frank is the clandestine type of homosexual. He heartily disapproves of all varieties of 'camp' and unless he was known as such, would never be identified as a homosexual.' 2
There were other reasons for not going to gay bars and clubs in the 1950s and '60s - the police liked to make their presence felt and were known to raid gay haunts, taking names and addresses of those present. People usually kept a 'club name' for these occasions. Evidence of a hostile world sometimes burst through the doors of bars in the shape of thugs out to smash and wound - or sidled in with a smirk, 'sightseeing'. If the press got hold of a story a person could lose their job, their home, their family and friends. Many chose not to take the risk. Barbara, who lived on the outskirts of Brighton in the 1950s with her lover, a professional woman remembers:
'We were discreet. We lived a serene life in the suburbs. We never went to the cinema, we never went dancing, we never went to a pub or a club. I'm sure the neighbours didn't suspect we were lesbians. Even Emily's friends didn't know about us. We kept separate bedrooms and were careful not to show affection when they were around. Lesbians were never mentioned. Emily and I didn't even mention it to each other.'
This kind of lifestyle was probably prevalent among the majority of lesbians and a large number of gay men. Later on, in 1963, the Minorities Research Group (MRG) started in London as a social and discussion network for lesbians. Its monthly magazine, Arena Three, was the first openly available gay publication in Britain, predating Gay News by nine years. Brighton became the base for the south coast region's branch of MRG. A counselling and befriending service was offered for isolated lesbians and those whose relationships had broken up. Members organised a lively round of outings and gatherings in one another's homes.
'It was wonderful to go to these things because you could just be yourself - you hadn't to pretend or be afraid to make a glance or a gesture or say what you thought. It was wonderful to be free.' Barbara
For the many who did venture onto the scene in the fifties and sixties, Brighton offered a seemingly vast array of clubs and pubs, catering to every class and lifestyle. Venues ranged from the lavish Regina Club in North Street and the very select Argyle Hotel in Middle Street to the Belvedere and Fortune of War pubs on the seafront 'mostly used by the very big, butch lesbians that really looked like navvies. There were queers among the upper, the middle and the lower classes. A lot of queers would say, 'Oh, I wouldn't go into that place, they're awfully common in there.'' (Grant)
A History of Lesbian & Gay Brighton
Chapter 3: Out of the Closet, 1967-87
The late sixties and early seventies were a pivotal time for gay culture. In 1967 the Sexual Offences Act decriminalised male homosexual activity for consenting adults in private. Flower Power and revolution were in the air and a general loosening of moral restrictions enabled young people in particular to challenge homophobic attitudes, both among straight people and gay people alike. Although gay pubs and clubs continued to exist in Brighton, they became less intimate as juke box and disco replaced piano; flashing lights put paid to chandeliers for ever. Politics became more important to more people and those who described themselves as homosexual or queer came under pressure to embrace Gay Pride as a concept and as a lifestyle.
The Forty-Two Club at 42, King's Road engaged both with the old and the new orders. It was Brighton's longest running gay venue, opened in the fifties by the licensee of the Greyhound pub in East Street, which had a gay bar upstairs. At home, it retained its intimacy but it also 'came out'. Brighton Gay, Brighton Gayer and Brighton Gayest were the first three of many reviews to be staged by club members in the late sixties and seventies and were held at town venues like the Co-op Hall in London Road and the Wagner Hall in Regency Road:
'When they came round every year, we always went. You used to see the queue of all the gays, standing outside waiting to get in. And I said, 'If anyone came along in the bus, they'd say, 'Oh, look at all the gays there, look at them all. And I'd say, 'Well, there you are. Point the finger now.''' Aileen
The Gay Liberation Front came to Britain from America in 1970. Triggered by the New York Stonewall riots and informed by campaigns against the Vietnam War, GLF was revolutionary in its aims. It advocated 'coming out', working together for social change, sexual freedom and challenging gender stereotypes. It gave birth to London Gay Switchboard and Gay News, Britain's first national gay newspaper. Now, pubs, clubs and newly forming social and campaigning groups could advertise their existence - and be found even by isolated individuals.
The Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) was established in February 1971 by a group of Sussex University students and lesbians and gay men from the town, including some of those who queued outside the Co-op Hall to see the Forty-Two Club shows. They organised the first gay demonstration in Brighton in October 1972 and the first Brighton Gay Pride march in July 1973. Only a tiny minority of the town's gay population was ready to take to the streets however, and there was not another Brighton Pride until 1991. SGLF organised the first openly gay dances and hundreds came to prestigious venues like the Royal Albion Hotel and the Royal Pavilion:
'We had the banqueting hall with all the furniture pushed to one side for dancing; the bar was in the kitchen. I remember that very tall, stately woman who was the curator standing in the hallway, welcoming everybody. It felt wonderful because there we were in the stately home of England having our dance.' David
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) was a descendant of the Homosexual Law Reform Society which had been instrumental in getting the 1967 Sexual Offences Act passed. That legislation had only partly decriminalised male homosexual activity and CHE sought to achieve full legal equality. It was a respectable, highly structured organisation with a national executive and branches throughout the country. Regular regional and national conferences were held. When the 1979 national conference took place at the Dome and Corn Exchange in Brighton, debate raged in the Council Chamber and the pages of the Argus, with some Tory councillors and some church groups calling for it to be banned. The local CHE group met every Monday from the early seventies to the early eighties in the upstairs rooms of the Marlborough, the Stanford Arms and the Cricketers. It ran in parallel with GLF until late 1975. Brighton CHE produced a monthly newsletter, had regular speakers and topics for discussion at its meetings and held social events for its members, about 30 or 40 in number, mostly men.
What was to become Brighton Gay Switchboard started in 1975 at the Open Cafe, a centre for alternative politics in Victoria Road:
'The Brighton Lavender Line started on April 26th 1975 just by having a telephone available in a downstairs room at the Open Cafe, right next to where people ate and smoked - and what they smoked! Advertising was really difficult because the Argus was not gay-friendly so we advertised in alternative news-sheets, also pubs, newsagents and telephone boxes late at night.' Terry
In 1977 the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) in Britain added to its list of demands, 'An end to all discrimination against lesbians'. The International Women's Day March through Brighton town centre in that year featured a large banner proclaiming 'Women's Liberation Demands Lesbian Liberation'. The Women's Liberation Movement wanted to change the world by freeing it of patriarchal structures, thereby enabling women to discover and fulfil their own potential. Within the WLM radical feminists argued that this could only be achieved by separating from men. To this end many lived in women-only households, worked in women-only collectives and socialised at women-only events. Heterosexuality was rejected. It was thought that any and every woman could be a lesbian if she so chose. Many women had previously found that they were attracted to other women and this hothouse atmosphere nurtured the seeds of their lesbianism.
Brighton had a strong radical lesbian presence and a feminist awareness of the power relationship between men and women permeated lesbian politics in the town during the seventies and eighties. This led to a separation from GLF and CHE, which were regarded as having no interest in lesbian issues, and a focus on issues affecting women generally - campaigns against male violence, e.g. the peace movement, Women's Aid, and Rape Crisis. Politics and pleasure often fused:
'The peace camp [on The Level] was the first time that I'd really met lesbians and I liked them - in fact I quite fancied some of them. There was this huge tide of women coming out from all sorts of places - leaving their men and going and joining all these women who were going to change the world - mostly by sleeping with each other in sleeping bags, from what I could see, which seemed a very good way of going about it!' Janet
A lot of lesbian energy went into the National Abortion Campaign and the running of Brighton Women's Centre. Brighton Lesbian Line was set up as an alternative to Switchboard and ran for 13 years.
Entertainment for lesbians took a turn for the better thanks to radical feminists. Devil's Dykes was started in 1977 as an all-women, and nearly all-lesbian, band. They shared a vault under the old Resource Centre in North Road (where the Brighthelm now stands) with a punk band called The Parrots. In 1980 the band metamorphosed into the Bright Girls with an all-lesbian line-up, four of whom were also shortly to become members of the lesbian theatre company, Siren. Siren's plays were hard-hitting critiques of women's position in the world with strong lesbian themes. They frequently premiered at the Marlborough or the Nightingale pub theatres to rapturous audiences of local lesbians. The company toured extensively until 1990.
Brighton Lesbian Group (BLG) steered a middle path between the Women's Liberation Movement which was regarded by many lesbians as too wild and way out and the still relatively secretive gay pub and club scene (which at this point offered very little for women). Started in 1976 under the umbrella of CHE, the group quickly became independent and attracted a wide cross section both of occupations and political complexions. Lively debates resulted! At its peak in 1980-81, upwards of 30 lesbians used to meet on Wednesday and Sunday evenings in the bar of the Dorset Arms on the corner of North Road and Gardner Street. The landlady used to tell her other customers they were 'the Ladies Sports Club'.
'A lot of the women who came along were horrendously isolated. One of the things we did was start a newsletter and there would be women on the subscription list who we'd never see but we'd get these letters saying, 'Thank-you, thank-you - you're my only contact with other lesbians.'' Ruth
BLG came to an end when the Dorset Arms changed hands in 1982.
The mid-seventies was a time of new initiatives by the lesbian and gay communities, followed by backlash, followed by protest. In 1976 Southern Television, the local ITV channel, broadcast a documentary about Brighton CHE. Tony Whitehead, later to become head of the Terrence Higgins Trust, was filmed kissing his boyfriend goodbye on Brighton Station. His employer, British Home Stores, promptly sacked him. Members of the local gay and women's liberation groups joined together to demonstrate with banners, placards and leaflets outside BHS in Churchill Square:
'I was spat and kicked and shoved and sworn at - as well as having positive remarks made by people passing by. I think that being spat at was the thing that shocked me most because of the depth of hate that it seemed to show. They were very ordinary people who did it.' David
A screening of Word Is Out, a documentary about lesbians and gay men coming out in America was organised jointly by Sussex University Gay Soc and CHE in 1979. It was publicised in the Argus and was showing to a packed hall when several skinheads invaded. Widely thought to be National Front sympathisers, the thugs overturned tables, injuring two of the organisers. The next day, The Evening Argus ran an editorial which enraged local lesbian and gay groups who regarded it as condoning the attack. After a demonstration outside the newspaper's offices a right of reply was won and also a compensatory feature, later that year, about Brighton Gay Switchboard. This was probably the first positive report about lesbian and gay issues the paper had ever made.
At about the same time Brighton Police were having a clamp-down on gay clubs in the town, several of which were failing to get their licences renewed. This precipitated an unusual collision of interests between the scene and the liberation groups who all felt (and were) beleaguered and in need of safe space. A campaign was begun to set up a Gay Community Centre which was initially widely supported. As the clubs got their licences back, however, support fell away and after a few years the idea was abandoned. Dymples Disco, the main long-term fundraiser for the Gay Centre Appeal continued to run independently as a lesbian disco until the mid-eighties, with women disc jockeys - practically unheard of at the time.
Whilst pubs and clubs for men have flourished throughout Brighton's gay history, venues for women have struggled to keep going. From 1984-1991, many lesbians found a convivial and discreet social life centred on the home of a lesbian couple who lived near Preston Park. Initially operating under the umbrella of Kenric, the national lesbian social organisation, they also advertised their monthly socials through Brighton Gay Switchboard.
In 1984, amid the fear, denial and bewilderment among gay men about the start of the AIDS epidemic, a few activists were galvanised into action, aware that the existing services would not be able to cope with the demands of the major crisis being predicted. Already the first gay man with AIDS in Brighton had died. Brighton Gay Switchboard had made a swift response to the widespread ignorance about the disease late in 1983, with one of the first leaflets in the country to explain the facts as then known. In 1985 the Sussex AIDS Helpline was set up and soon their activities had expanded to include training for volunteers who would deliver a home care service for people living with AIDS. There was an uphill battle to be fought both to combat the 'Gay Plague' mentality of the tabloid press and to persuade men who had sex with men that they should practise safer sex. The AIDS Positive Underground Theatre Company was set up in 1989 as a cultural response to the crisis:
'There was a trilogy under the heading, Crying Celibate Tears. They set out to explore the issues which were arising from the large number of gay men in Brighton who were either HIV positive or who had developed AIDS - the issues for their partners, the issues for their family and friends, the issues which affected people's future sexuality. I can remember going to see these plays with a group of friends and our discussing them for hours afterwards.' Ted
i not offended by the gay chants aimed towards us brighton fans it shows how childish some fans really are but againest swindon earlier this month i heard one or two swindon fans take it a bit to far and suggested we all had aids this is where a little bit of terrace banter goes to far
Hi all,
I am currently writing an article on homphobia in football and in particular on the terraces. I am obviously putting a fair amount of emphasis on Brighton as it gains more homophobic chanting than other clubs. I am in discussions with the Stonewall group on this who are working hard to raise awareness of the issue.
Anyway, I would like some thoughts and quotes from Brighton fans on the issue. Do you find the chanting offensive or not? Should fans be ejected from the ground or not? Is it as bad as racism on the terraces or not?
I would also be keen to chat to any gay fans on this site (PM me if you wish).
Also, are there any confirmed gay footballers? I know the rumours about Le Saux (false), Campbell, Ljundberg etc but are there any openly gay players?
Honest and serious responses please, if you are used in the article then of course I will quote you and you will have your name in black and white
When I started watching Brighton, the place was more known for nightclubs Mods, Rockers, Skinheads, Punks, the music scene, dirty weekends and Andy wahole describing the people of brighton as all looking like they were helping police with enquiries. London has Soho, Manchester has Canal Street, Brighton has Kemp town. Most major places has a gay scene. One of my best mates is a gay bloke from Coventry living in London and yes there is a line between banter and offensive. However I'm straight and so its probably not for me to say where that line is, but football banter is at times meant to be offensive and that is why its funny. In fact the stuff these days is mild compared to the old chants about trouble that were sung in the 70's and 80's. Personally I like the "we can see you holding hands", with the Brighton reply of "your too ugly to be gay". All great stuff, heard it a million times but still makes me chuckle, and that is what being a Brighton fan is about - no point taking life too seriously when you support our lot. Brighton is a funny club, with all sorts of support from working class dockers from the ports, to commuters, to east brighton / coastal housing estates, to agricultural workers. Its a big county and a big club you see, and if the gay community want to join the party, well come on down, mre than welcome.
Black Dalek
Active member
- Jan 19, 2004
- 283
I would like to see the whole away end ejected when they start those songs, It's racist like it or not! and it would be more exciting than the football (sometimes). EXTERMINATE.
T'was Keith Waterhouse, surely, who said that "Brighton looks like a town that is helping the police with their enquiries." ?
Gully
Monkey in a seagull suit.
I prefer the quote, made by someone whose name I forget, referring to Brighton as being like a tired old tart living by the sea.
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- #220
Have to admit that I also find the 'You're too ugly to be gay chant' amusing along with others. I am now in contact with the Stonewall group and the Justin campaign, I am going to discuss with them some of the chants and see which ones they would say is 'banter' and which ones overstep the mark.
I do remember at QPR a few years ago that their fans sang 'Stand up, cause you can't sit down' which I actually thought was rather clever at the time.
I do remember at QPR a few years ago that their fans sang 'Stand up, cause you can't sit down' which I actually thought was rather clever at the time.