Huddersfield march frustrates bigots
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-07-30Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 7 →
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"Hey, look at THIS!" And out the pub they came, two dozen straight men to stare silently at 2,500 gay people who were singing, clapping and marching their way up Market Street to the National Gay Pride March and Rally in Huddersfield on 4 July. The dozens of brightly. coloured banners made a big impact.
Gay Pride Week is an annual event: a mixture of defiance and celebration, paraliel to black commun¡ties' festivals, and cele. brated all round the world where homosexuals are organised.
Huddersfield was chosen because the local police force had singled out the gay community for rough treatment earlier this year.
They had closed "The Gemini" (local gay club) and had made midnight raids into gay homes.
The gay community fought back, and Huddersfield became the national focus for gay pride this year.
Elsewhere, there are many problems: Labour Salford Council upheld homosexual Gordon Wiseman's sacking, Labour Barking Council upheld lesbian Susan Shell's dismissal, and the Labour Group on Tory-controlled Trafford Council asked for and got the Deputy Mayorship after the Tory Mayor advocated the killing of homosexual women and men.
Socialists in the Labour Party have obviously got a long task ahead of them.
At the Rally, the atmosphere was sunny and relaxed. A contingent left to go on to Leeds to support the anti-fascist march the same afternoon. As the rally was dispersing, group of about 150 skinheads gathered near the park gates.
80 gay people then bunched together and walked through the skins, who backed off, jeering and spitting insults. Incidents like this marked a weekend of frustrated Nazi activity in the Midlands.
DUNN