Timeline 1967-1979

1967

The Sexual Offences Act passed through parliament. There was a Labour Government in office and the Home Secretary was Roy Jenkins, but one of the MPs particularly involved with introducing the new law was the Conservative, Humphrey Berkeley.  In the 1970 election there was a big swing away from Labour and the Conservatives were returned to office, but in Humphry Berkeley's constituency the swing went into reverse and he was not re-elected.

• "Some homosexuals didn't like it. They said we would be better off leaving things as they were. I was so relieved. it came as a glorious relief."

1968

Magazines with a vaguely gay theme started to appear - these included "T.I.M.M." and  "Jeremy".

1969

Gay social group started in Mapperley Park

1970

Gay social group (Night Off) started on Mount Hooton Road

1971

The Pavilion Club opened in Shardlow. The first meeting of Nottingham CHE Group took place. Ike Cowen was instrumental in starting both of these.

 IKE COWEN.

1972

Gay News begins publication. It was a real newspaper and although W. H. Smith's would not stock it, many newsagents did, as did many bars and clubs. It had a gay guide where groups, bars, clubs and helplines got free listings. Anyone picking up a copy of GN could find out what there was in any part of the UK. In some places the gay guide confirmed that there was little or nothing, but if you lived in one of those places, you could always use the pages of contact ads to meet other people or even start your own group and publicise it through the gay guide.

Gay News reported on what had happened and also on what was going to happen. By keeping people informed about future events it helped people to organise action over instances of discrimination or attempts to stifle the new found freedoms which could not be taken for granted.

Various others (Quorum, Jeffrey, Follow Up, The Gay Examiner, Him, Q International) appeared and disappeared - though the lesbian mag Sappho had a relatively long life.

Mario's club opens in Nottingham

1973

The entire UK Gayscene covered less than one page of Gay News

La Chic club opened in Nottingham.  La Chic was ground breaking in being the first club in the UK to have a licence which stated that it was specifically for use by gay men and lesbians - a situation which made headlines in the Nottingham Evening Post.

Ike Cowen talked to a large assembly of Sheffield Police officers ....

"I have been a practicing homosexual for over 30 years and after all that practice I'm now rather good at it."

May 1973 - first edition of Chimaera, the Nottingham CHE newsletter. It eventually established a reputation as one of the best of its genre. It printed several articles which were later transferred to Gay News - including "The Adventures of Super Puff" by Bruce Wainwright.

• Miss Clutch's suspicions about Nick were growing by the second. "Was it YOU that left the vibrator plugged in all day during the power strike? Downright unpatriotic, that's what I call it. I bet Mr Heath didn't leave his plugged in!"

In a survey by the Times Literary Supplement of voluntary groups' magazines and newsletters, Chimaera was the only gay-linked newsletter which was mentioned.

Meetings and discussions took place between Nottingham CHE and Derby and Nottingham Samaritans, groups of probation officers and social workers, students at Derby Technical College, Matlock College.

At Bishop Lonsdale College CHE took part in a large scale "teach in". Here we were informed that if a student was known to be gay at school, then they would not be accepted for the college.

Someone put Nottingham CHE on the National Housewives Register list of speakers. After one group invited us, word got round that we gave good value and further invitations rolled in from about 25 other National Housewives Register groups over a period of 8 years.

1974

London Gay Switchboard (as it was then called) began operations on March 4th 1974.

Nottingham CHE starts drop-in advice sessions at the People's Centre 33 Mansfield Road. Soon after, they began a telephone helpline which later turned into Nottingham Gay Switchboard.

Nottingham University Gaysoc began with help from Nottingham CHE.

1975

Nottingham Gay Alliance (CHE and GLF) started gay street theatre. The first of these was called "Robina Hood and her Gay Folk".

• We did the Alternative Robin Hood and got chased out of Slab Square. A Russian delegation was there and they thought it was the real Robin Hood Society. Richard was the gay King Richard, Howard was Will Scarlet, Kris Kirk was Maid Marian. I was the Major Oak and a dog peed up my leg. The second play was "Green Noses" and was based on the premise that if you were gay or lesbian, your nose would turn green and therefore you could not stay "in the closet".

The play was performed several times, most notably at the 1975 CHE Annual Conference in Sheffield.                                                                                                 

 GREEN NOSES ON THE STEPS OF SHEFFIELD CITY HALL

The 1975 Conference in Sheffield even received a write-up in the Johannesburg Star (September 6th, 1975) .......

Nottingham CHE took part in a rally in Hyde Park

1976

The CHE helpline started calling itself Nottingham Gay Switchboard

The Forum "Homosexuals as People" was held at La Chic on Saturday November 6th, 1976. It was directed towards people in "the caring professions". 125 people took part and the audience was made up of people from Social Services, Probation, Marriage Guidance, Samaritans, Student Organisations, NCVS and the Clergy.

At the 1976 NALGO AGM, Richard Webster (CHE Convenor) proposed that in in their dealings with Notts County Council, the Council should state that it would not discriminate against employees on the grounds of sexual orientation. Richard "came out" while proposing the motion, which was passed by an overwhelming majority.

After several years of refusing any ad with the words gay, lesbian, homosexual etc, the Nottingham Evening Post suddenly accepts CHE's ads.

Radio Nottingham gave Nottingham CHE group the chance to record its own 15 minute radio programme. CHE members had already featured in several discussion and phone-in programmes locally, but this programme was more planned and structured.

• A section called "The Heterosexual News" attempted to attack the association between paedophilia and gay men by reading bits from the Evening Post which reported sexual assaults by heterosexuals on under-age girls.
• There was also "Frank Pough, with the Queerspotting Results"
• The only gay in the village. Another bit had a country yokel being visited by his Fairy Godmother - arriving to the sound of thunder and clucking chickens. When the yokel bemoaned that fact that he was gay, Fairy Godmother encouraged him by stating that "One in ten are gay" only to receive the news that in his village there were only ten people.

CHE published the 1st edition of OUT magazine.

1977

Switchboard operates 2 nights a week.

Switchboard received its first grant. £100 was awarded by Nottingham Students' Karnival. Karnival has provided the one continuous thread of external financial support from that time to the present.

Nationally the big news centred on Mary Whitehouse's revival of the crime of "Blasphemous Libel" which she unearthed in order to prosecute Gay News for printing a poem about Jesus by Professor James Kirkup.

La Chic club staged a benefit in order to raise money for the Gay News Support Fund. What nobody realised at the time was that the Grand Benefit Night was also the last night for La Chic. None of us found out what happened to the money which was raised; it certainly did not reach Gay News.

The closure of La Chic left a partial vacuum which others attempted to fill. On Alfreton Road a place called the Stork Club had one night as a gay club and then gave up. The Sandpiper on Broadway in the Lace Market lasted several months. It had considerable potential, but indifferent staff drove customers back to Shades.

ASSORTED GAY BADGES COLLECTED BY ROGER HOLLIER

In August 1977 the CHE Conference came to Nottingham and took over the Commodore for its meetings and what was then the Albany Hotel on Maid Marian Way for visiting delegates. The conference made headline news mainly because of the invitation of a Dutch professor who had made a study of paedophiles. Gay men may have been branded as paedophiles, but the newspapers did not appreciate them discussing the truth about that stereotyping.

The conference was entertained by a visit from Gay Sweatshop, which had recently been set up as a professional lesbian and gay travelling theatre group which performed plays written specially for it.

By now Nottingham CHE had had useful meetings with all the local MPs. To continue this approach, Howard Hyman invited the Conservative leader of the County Council to speak to the group. He received the following reply ...

• Sir, I must say that I consider it an impertinence for you to send me a letter. I have always regarded homosexuality as one form of perversion and I very much regret the progress on permissive lines that have taken place during the last few years. I also take exception to the use of the word "gay". From time to time I am gay, but at no time queer. I have reason to believe that public opinion is on my side. Yours faithfully, Peter Wright.

Shortly afterwards, Councillor Wright wrote a letter "inviting" Nottingham CVS to remove CHE and Switchboard from their premises. The letter was also signed by Councillor Michael Gallagher, the leader of the Labour group. It was suggested that not taking up the "invitation" would have potential implications for NCVS's grant. Ron Collier, the then Director of Nottingham CVS, refused to cooperate and backed CHE and Switchboard. The threats evaporated and it eventually became public that the two councillors did not have the backing of their parties, but were acting as individuals.

1978

Early in 1978 the Evening Post decided that it would once again refuse to take ads for CHE or Switchboard. No explanation was given. On January 20th, Kenneth Clarke MP spoke to the CHE group. He felt that the Switchboard service was worthy and essential. He could not understand the attitude of the Nottingham Evening Post.

On February 23rd, a full page article by Lucy Orgill in the Derby Evening Telegraph featured local CHE member Martin Fox and his partner.

Radio Trent gave a regular God slot to the Rev. Michael Hall, who clearly loved the publicity, but whose muddled thinking often provided an easy target and allowed us to get opportunities to reply "on air".

Quest, an organisation for lesbian and gay Catholics, had been set up in the early 1970s. At the end of 1978 a local group was started by Tony Barker, who was a CHE and Switchboard member.

CHE starts gay discos at the Hearty Goodfellow - the basement bar in the Hearty was now a popular gay bar.

1979

The influence of National Friend had eventually led to the formation of a local Friend group in addition to Gay Switchboard. The Friend group operated on Tuesday nights.

Nottingham Lesbian Line began.

For those who are interested in the long term historical perspective, the May 1979 edition of Chimaera outlined a scheme for a Gay Centre to be established in Nottingham.

The lack of local facilities for transvestites was addressed by Friend and Switchboard member Mick Banbury. For sometime he had been telling callers that when sufficient people had shown interest, he would organise evening meetings for transvestites at Nottingham CVS. At the end of 1979 Mick managed to get these meetings underway. (These were to take on a separate existence as the Chameleon Group in 1984.)

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