LGBT culture in London

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Timeline 342 MSM activity made illegal 1533 Death penalty introduced for MSM activity 1543 Buggery Act extended to Wales 1828 Offences Against the Person Act 1828 1835 James Pratt and John Smith executed 1861 Death penalty for buggery abolished 1885 Labouchere Amendment introduced 1889 Cleveland Street scandal 1895 Oscar Wilde found guilty of gross indecency 1912 The Cave of the Golden Calf opens 1921 Plans to make lesbian activity illegal defeated 1936 Mark Weston transitions 1952 John Nott-Bower begins crackdown 1954 Pitt-Rivers, Montagu, Wildeblood imprisoned 1954 Alan Turing commits suicide 1957 Wolfenden report released 1967 MSM activity made legal (England & Wales) 1972 First British Gay Pride Rally 1976 Jeremy Thorpe resigns as Liberal leader 1981 MSM activity made legal (Scotland) 1981 First case of AIDS reported in the UK 1982 MSM activity made legal (NI) 1983 Gay men barred from donating blood 1984 Chris Smith elected as first openly gay MP 1987 Operation Spanner begins 1988 Section 28 comes into force 1989 Stonewall UK forms 1994 Age of consent for MSM becomes 18 1997 Angela Eagle becomes first openly lesbian MP 1998 Bolton 7 found guilty 1998 Lord Alli becomes first openly gay Lord 1999 Admiral Duncan bombing 2000 Gay men allowed in HM Armed Forces 2001 Age of consent equalised to 16 2001 MSM activity involving multiple men legal 2002 Same sex couples granted equal rights to adopt 2003 Section 28 repealed 2004 Civil partnerships introduced 2004 Gender Recognition Act 2004 2006 Discrimination made illegal 2008 Equalised access to IVF for lesbian couples 2008 Incitement to homophobic hatred made a crime 2009 Public apology to Alan Turing 2010 Equality Act 2010 2011 Gay men allowed to donate blood (1 yr deferral) 2013 Nikki Sinclaire becomes first openly trans MEP 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 2014 First same-sex marriages take place 2016 MSM activity not grounds for military discharge 2017 Turing law implemented 2017 Blood donation deferral 3 months (excl. NI) 2019 MPs legislate for gay marriage in NI 2020 Gay marriage legal across UK, incl. NI 2020 Blood donation deferral 3 months (incl. NI) 2021 Blood donation deferral equalised
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The LGBT community in London is one of the largest within Europe. LGBT culture of London, England, is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho. There are also LGBT pubs and restaurants across London in Haggerston, Dalston and Vauxhall.^[1][2]

London in LGBT history

See also: Timeline of LGBT history in the United Kingdom and Category:LGBT history in the United Kingdom

18th and 19th century

In the 18th century, some businesspersons and aristocrats had, for the time, relatively open LGBT lifestyles. Rictor Norton, author of Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England, 1700–1830 stated that in the 1720s London had more gay pubs and clubs than it did in 1950. LGBT studies pre-1920s were entirely of males caught in scandals.^[3]

20th century

Homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, but London was an LGBT tourism destination even before then.^[1]

The world's longest running lesbian nightclub, Gateways Club opened in 1936 (it closed in 1985).^[4]

The UK branch of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) held its first meeting in a basement room in the London School of Economics in 1970.^[5] The group later organised the first official UK pride protest in 1972,^[6] which has since become an annual event and one of the world's largest of its kind. Although the GLF disbanded a mere 4 years later, it nevertheless spawned off several notable LGBTQ organisations such as Gay News (founded 1972), Gay's the Word (1979, via the Icebreakers group) and London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard (1974, now Switchboard).

Switchboard, one of the oldest UK-wide LGBTQ+ telephone helplines in the UK, was founded in 1974 in Housmans bookshop's basement near King's Cross.^[7]

Mark W. Turner, the author of "Gay London," stated that when Derek Jarman moved to Charing Cross in 1979, it began the process of Soho becoming the centre of the London LGBT community and that by the early 1990s this was "firmly established".^[8]

On May 24, 1989, exactly one year after the Thatcherite anti-homosexuality Section 28 legislation became law, the London-founded Stonewall (charity) formally announced its formation.^[9] The charity had started its life in Ian McKellen's home in Limehouse.^[9] Today, it is Europe's largest LGBTQ rights organisation.

The Admiral Duncan pub in Soho was bombed on 30 April 1999.^[10] Newspaper articles stated the belief that the bombing was intended to attack the LGBT community; no persons who died in the incident were members of the local LGBT community.^[11]

21st century

In 2015, London's LGBT Pride Parade attracted over one million people for the first time.^[12]

Since 2019, London also hosts an annual trans+ pride march. Having attracted 1,500 protesters in the first year,^[13] its attendance grew to more than 20,000 protesters by 2023.^[14] The city is also the home of the annual UK Black Pride celebrations.

Institutions

The UK's first gay and lesbian bookshop, Gay's the Word, is located in Bloomsbury. Due to its lasting legacy of activism and community-building, Historic England has deemed it a site of LGBTQ pilgrimage.^[15] Another LGBTQ bookshop, The Common Press, opened its doors in 2021 in Shoreditch.^[16] London is therefore home to a third of England's LGBTQ bookshops.

The Bishopsgate Institute boasts one of the largest^[17] LGBTQ archives in the UK, including archives from Stonewall (charity), Switchboard, as well as the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA), which includes over 300,000 press cuttings from the straight press from the 1980s onwards.^[17][18] In addition to this, the Bishopsgate Institute also hosts the Museum of Transology, a community archive focusing on transgender, nonbinary and intersex people. It is the world's largest collection of material culture of its kind.^[19]

The WayOut Club is London's longest running club night for transgender women.^[20]

Since the closure of Above the Stag Theatre,^[21] the King's Head Theatre is the UK's only^{[citation needed]} LGBTQ-centric theatre.

Events

The mainstream Pride in London event occurs every summer. The annual UK Black Pride – the largest of its kind in Europe – also takes place in London. The London Trans Pride protest march takes place annually in June or July.

Europe's biggest LGBTQ+film festival, the BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival happens every spring in London.

Night life

See also: Category:LGBT nightclubs in London and Category:LGBT pubs in London

Heaven is the largest gay disco club in Europe. It opened in 1979.^[8]

Notable residents

Those identifying as LGBT:^{[citation needed]}

• Alan Carr^[22]
• Alan Turing (1912-1954)^[23]
• Boy George^[24]
• Derek Jarman^[25]
• Dustin Lance Black^[26]
• Freddie Mercury (1946-1991)^[27]
• George Michael (1963-2016)^[28]
• Graham Norton^[29]
• Ian McKellen^[30]
• Kae Tempest
• Marc Almond
• Margaret Clap (operated a Molly house)
• Munroe Bergdorf
• Ncuti Gatwa^[31]
• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)^[32]
• Paul O'Grady^[33]
• Pete Burns^[34]
• Peter Tatchell^[35]
• Phyll Opoku-Gyimah^[36]
• Sakima^[37]
• Samantha Fox^[38]
• Stephen Fry^[39]
• Tom Daley^[40]
• Travis Alabanza
• Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
• Will Young^[41]

Other information

The Greater London Authority government promotes LGBT tourism.^[1]

See also

• LGBT culture

Notes

References

• Thomas, Ardel. "London." Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies. Routledge, 18 October 2013. ISBN 1135942412, 9781135942410, or 113594234X, 9781135942342. p. 363-364. – A listing of academic works discussing the London LGBT community
• Turner, Mark W. "Gay London." In: Kerr, Joe and Andrew Gibson (editors). London From Punk to Blair: Revised Second Edition. Reaktion Books, 1 June 2013. ISBN 1780230753, 9781780230757. Start p. 50.

Further reading

• Cooper, Davina. Sexing the City: Lesbian and Gay Politics within the Activist State. Rivers Oram (London) and Paul (Concord, Massachusetts), 1994. – Most of the book discusses the LGBT community of London
• Graham, Hugh, John Shandy Watson, and Paul Burston (editors). Time Out Gay and Lesbian London. Time Out Guides, 2010. ISBN 1905042566, 9781905042562.
• Green, Sarah F. Urban Amazons: Lesbian Feminism and beyond in the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Battles of London. St. Martins (New York), and Macmillan (Basingstroke, Hants), 1997.
• Lucas, Ian. Impertinent Decorum: Gay Theatrical Manoeuvers. Cassel (London and New York), 1994. – Discusses the LGBT culture in London theatre
• Norton, Rictor. Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England, 1700–1830. Gay Men's Press (London) and Inbook (East Haven, Connecticut), 1992: Discusses "Molly houses" in and near London.
• Weeks, Jeffrey. Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. Quartet (London and New York): 1977. Revised edition: Quartet (London), 1990. – This book is not focused on London in particular; Arden Thomas stated that even so, the book makes it clear that LGBT-related laws were created in London
• Wilson, Olivette Cole and Clarence Allen, "The Black Perspective." In: Healey, Emma and Angela Mason (editors). Stonewall 25: The Making of the Lesbian and Gay Community of Britain. Virago (London), 1994 – Discusses the London black LGBT community

External links

• London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard (LLGS)