The UK’s first gay rights protest — which took place 50 years ago on Highbury Fields — will be commemorated on Friday 27 November. A re-enactment of the original march is planned, while an online podcast series will become available to learn the stories of those who took part in the original demonstration.
The Gay Liberation Front (GLF), who organised the original torchlit demonstration in 1970 to protest the arrest of a young man for ‘cruising’, are planning to re-enact the original march at 6pm tomorrow on Highbury Fields.
While still intended as a celebration of “a revolutionary movement”, the GLF has stated publicly that its participants “will be paying strict attention to all [Covid-19] regulations”.
For those who wish to commemorate the anniversary from a safer distance, a pair of playwrights have released a new podcast chronicling their journey. The playwrights have already located a number of participants from the original march to share their stories.
‘The One Fifty Marchers’ series has been created by Frazer Flintham and JD Stewart, who met at an LGBTQ+ writing workshop in January. After realising they shared an “interest in queer history”, they planned to adapt the story of the 1970 march into a play for the stage — until the pandemic forced them to change their plans.
Stewart said: “There are definitely elements of the story of what happened at that march that are incredibly theatrical.” Still, they believe that the podcast format will allow them to treat the subject in an equally powerful way.
Flintham explained that using the quest to track down the protesters to structure the narrative of the series has “given [them] room…to discuss wider issues within the gay community” through a number of interviews with modern-day activists.
Above all, Stewart wants to shine a stronger light on a pivotal moment in the community’s past: “It’s all part of our history, and we don’t get our history.”
