17.06.19. For Immediate Release – Gay Liberation Front (GLF) recreate first Pride in London

17.06.19. For Immediate Release – Gay Liberation Front (GLF) recreate first Pride in London

On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprisings that led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front that gave birth to the modern Pride movement – veterans of the first Pride in London aswell as a new generation of Gay Liberation Front activists re-recreate the first Pride in London demonstration to announce their new demands.

Ted Brown – original and still present GLF activist says

‘We are taking to Trafalgar Square to remember and reinvigorate the fires that fought back against centuries of oppression and seemingly overwhelming odds. We gather to remember and acknowledge those who had their rights stripped from them in the past and to ensure that doesn’t happen to generations now and in the future.’ Ted Brown

Andrew Lumsden – original and still present GLF activist says

‘Hello all today’s protestors and revellers. It’s fifty years since the Stonewall Uprising and next year it will be fifty years since the Gay Liberation Front reached London. How time flies! – forty-seven years since the under-21s of the Gay Liberation Front organised London’s first Pride March. We are a few activists from the Gay Liberation Front, the first wave of out activism. We who were there have written ‘Rainbow Planet’ – A Souvenir Brochure for Pride 2019 – and on June 17th we invite you to come join us to launch it on the very place we had our first demonstration. In our culture we invert the pink triangle to honour the memory of all those who died in the gas chambers of the Nazis and concentration camps of the Stalinists.’

Stuart Feather – original and still present GLF activist says

‘We were part of the first openly public demonstration by homosexuals in this country and present on the first Gay Pride March. Others are millennials, activists from Act Up who celebrated the achievements of GLF in 2015 and we all came together in 2016 to prepare and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 2017. We are now preparing to celebrate this year’s 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and the foundation of the Gay Liberation Front in New York, the origin of the fight back that inspired and brought hope to LGBTQI+ of every country in the world. Gay Liberation will always be a socialist movement by virtue of its demand for social change.’

Nettie Pollard – original and still present GLF activist says

‘2020 brings the 50th anniversary of the start of Gay Liberation in London, the moment everything changed in Britain by giving us Coming Out, Gay Pride and the first Gay Pride March in 1972, making 2022 the 50th anniversary of that political demonstration and celebration. GLF stands for liberation: the choice is always there – liberation or slavery. Join us to recreate the spirit of the Gay Liberation Front 1970 and Pride March of 1972 and build strength in community to re-politicise what we started and fight for our demands. Feel the zeitgeist of the years that changed the world for LGBT people … and for everyone else! We did what we did to rescue ourselves, but we always thought of you as well – you who would come out after us, and will come out until the world ends.’

We are nearing the 50th anniversary of the founding of Gay Liberation Front and urge

A NEW AGREEMENT ABOUT PRIDE EVENTS FOR A NEW WORLD AGE

1. Pride is free – Pride organisers who want ticketed events must arrange free Pride marches as well. No one should be denied entry to Pride because they don’t have enough money.
2. Pride is always a protest as well as a celebration. We’ve a whole world yet to change and we’ve hardly begun.
3. LGBT+ community groups actively engaged in grassroots LGBTQIA+ empowerment programmes, or key allies such as the miners in the 1980s, always to head Pride Marches.
4. Arms dealers and other corporations who trade with nations in violation of the U.N. International Charter on Human Rights are never again to be allowed to sponsor or have floats at Pride Marches. Individual LGBT employees of such corporations are welcome as always, but not marching in groups in corporate logos.
5. The target is to be vehicle-free: no diesel-powered vehicles unless for mobility or safety reasons
6. Full accessibility and reminders to LGBT-friendly venues near the March that full accessibility is the target.
7. Gay Liberation Front (GLF) to lead Pride in London in 2020.

Further Testimonials

‘Homophobic and transphobic hate crimes doubling in the past five years; parents protesting against children being taught simply that LGBTQ+ people exist; a children’s charity sacking a trans activist as an LGBTQ campaigner: 50 years after Stonewall, these are simply some of the compelling reasons that prove why queer people re-discover the revolutionary vision of the GLF and take creative political action for a radically new society.’ Martin Moriarty

‘Today we acknowledge and appreciate those who fought for our freedoms. Those who risked abuse and humiliation, risked losing their jobs, their relationships with friends and family, their homes and their physical safety so that all varieties of people can now stand as proud as they were, thanks to them, legally protected in our jobs and our homes, largely respected and understood by our friends and family and helped rather than harassed by the police as we stand past and present, hand in hand, proudly continuing the fight for liberation for all.’ Russell Christie
“I stand in power with the original loving force of the GLF and their collective fire that ignited the protest that was the first Gay Pride march. In these dark days, where once again intolerance, hate, homophobia, racism, transphobia and violence darken our collective rainbow worldwide, we stand in solidarity to show we are here and will stand up for our rights and the rights of our LGBTQIA+ siblings across the globe.” Rebeckah Turbett

Contacts

gayliberationfrontuk@gmail.com /
Dan glass – 07717811747

Notes to Editors

Where – Trafalgar Square Lions, Charing Cross, London WC2N 5DN, UK
When – Monday, June 17, 2019 at 5 PM – 7 PM / All details at www.queertoursoflondon.com
Dresscode – whatever makes you feel liberated
Everyone who lives and acts in the spirit of the demands below are welcome – the more the merrier!