0:00:02 > 0:00:05The laws of the land are wrong. It shouldn't be allowed on the streets.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07I think it's disgusting, to be quite frank with you.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11I think man ought to go with a woman and woman ought to go with a man.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Every so often the world changes beyond our wildest dreams.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19The past 50 years has been an incredible journey for lesbian, gay,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22bisexual, transgender and queer people in Britain.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24We've gone from being thrown in jail
0:00:24 > 0:00:26for loving someone for a single night...
0:00:26 > 0:00:31..to walking down the aisle with that very same person.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34They told us that it would take 200 years
0:00:34 > 0:00:37before we could get to that point
0:00:37 > 0:00:43and we thought, "No! We want it now and we're going to have it now."
0:00:43 > 0:00:46In this series, ordinary people from across the country
0:00:46 > 0:00:49have been digging out and sharing with us
0:00:49 > 0:00:52the mementos that marked this transformation
0:00:52 > 0:00:54and have changed their lives.
0:00:54 > 0:00:55From the street to the park,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58the camera went everywhere with me.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Yes. Me with a pussy bow.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03"We're lesbians, we're oppressed, we're angry."
0:01:03 > 0:01:05I'm going to get a tattoo of that.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07My passport to gay life.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Not many people had one.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12To my knowledge, Freddie Mercury.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16The result is a crowd-sourced collection of some of the rarest,
0:01:16 > 0:01:21most personal, most heartbreaking and inspiring artefacts
0:01:21 > 0:01:22in our history.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27I was formally recognised as me, as being female.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29I don't know why it was called Jeremy.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32It's a bit camp, isn't it? It's like a camp boy's name.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36Together, they tell the story of an extraordinary 50 years.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38We were like volcanoes.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41No-one in history had ever done what we were doing.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45What you did meant that I could have a better time being a gay woman.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47It's a story of all of us,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50the people we loved and the people we sometimes hated.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53There were three policemen outside
0:01:53 > 0:01:57and I saw a pair of eyes peering down at me.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59- It's the story of my life. - And mine.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03In this episode, we see how we went from being isolated and alone
0:02:03 > 0:02:06to coming together as a community.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And then being tested to the limit.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13So unfurl a Pride banner...
0:02:13 > 0:02:14..wedge open that closet door...
0:02:14 > 0:02:18..and settle in for The People's History Of LGBTQ Britain.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Welcome to the '60s.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32Out on the streets things are changing,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35and they aren't slowing down for anyone.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38SIREN WAILS
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Evening. Do you realise you went through a red light back there?
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Officer. I'm rushing to get to work.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46I'm so late.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51In July 1967, there was a quiet revolution.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54Homosexuality was partially decriminalised,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and for many gay men, it meant the chance to begin to live openly.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00Hi! Come on in.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02You're right on time.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Hidden away in this house in Wiltshire
0:03:04 > 0:03:07are some of the rarest artefacts in British gay history.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10A time capsule from that historic moment
0:03:10 > 0:03:13when the '60s finally swung in our direction.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15It might be a bit dusty.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18You know, it's nearly 47 years ago since these came out.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21In the heady days of 1969,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Tim found himself writing for a young upstart magazine.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26It would become a landmark,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29proudly announcing its gayness on the front cover for the first time.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31Its name was Jeremy.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35The term "gay power" was not in general use at that time.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38I think this is probably the first time it appeared in England
0:03:38 > 0:03:40on the front of any magazine or newspaper.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42For some, they were a key part of the Swinging '60s,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45written in an office on Carnaby Street
0:03:45 > 0:03:47and offering gay men a breath of the heady optimism
0:03:47 > 0:03:49blowing through Britain at the time.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54It was an attempt to provide the gay world with a magazine of their own.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56There was nothing quite like it.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Before that, there were physique magazines,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03which were pictures of people in gymnasiums doing muscle exercises,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05but they weren't gay magazines.
0:04:05 > 0:04:06There's all kinds of stuff here.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08There's a thing called The Hollow Crown,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10a round-up of all the queer kings of England.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13This is a gay horoscope.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14Stargaze.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16It had the gay skinheads in it.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19People used to brush a little bit of bleach over certain areas
0:04:19 > 0:04:23to emphasise certain contours in their body.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24I never did that.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Newsagents wouldn't stock Jeremy.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32It was subscription only and money was always tight.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34See, we invented this, it's called Jeremy Fundies.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Jeremy Fundies were just briefs.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Now, men didn't wear briefs, it was very much a Y-front world.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44People had never thought about being able to wear things like that.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48We bought them in bulk from Vince, this underwear shop,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and then we'd sell them under our own name.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53It was one way of making money for the magazine.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58The sudden death of a Hollywood icon in the summer of 1969
0:04:58 > 0:05:01secured a place in music history for Jeremy magazine.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05One day, we got this phone call from the manager of a young singer
0:05:05 > 0:05:09who'd been very affected by the way the gay community had turned out
0:05:09 > 0:05:13a few months before this at Judy Garland's death.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19The manager wanted to promote this person to the gay community,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23so we spent two weeks with him, covering everything he did.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25The photographs are awful,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28and although he gave us some interesting stuff to talk about...
0:05:28 > 0:05:31"Bowie For A Song" - what an awful title that is.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33I didn't do that one.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35"It's a bitterly cold December afternoon.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38"David is rehearsing a Save the Children charity show
0:05:38 > 0:05:39"at the Palladium.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41"Isolated in a single spot
0:05:41 > 0:05:44"against mammoth projections of the Apollo space shot,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47"David performs Space Oddity."
0:05:47 > 0:05:51# Ground Control to Major Tom... #
0:05:53 > 0:05:57"I'm a loner, I don't feel the need for conventional relationships.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00"From the Purcell Rooms to Palladium,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02"from Zen Buddhism to Art Nouveau,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06"Tim Hughes, a breakdown of the prismatic personality
0:06:06 > 0:06:09"of Britain's pop phenomena, David Bowie."
0:06:09 > 0:06:12# ..This is Ground Control to Major Tom
0:06:12 > 0:06:15# You've really made the grade... #
0:06:15 > 0:06:17This was the first article, I think,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20where he intimated that he might be bisexual.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25He still owes me for an Indian meal.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28I remember we took him for an Indian meal and he said,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30"I don't have any money."
0:06:32 > 0:06:34I don't know why it was called Jeremy.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37It's a bit camp, isn't it? It's like a camp boy's name.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40For the generation reading Jeremy magazine,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42a new life was just beginning.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Two years before, things felt very different.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Being gay before 1967 meant living in fear -
0:06:52 > 0:06:54fear of yourself and who you were,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56fear of being found out and sent to jail
0:06:56 > 0:07:00and fear of having your name printed in the papers for everyone to see.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09At 5.50am on 3rd July 1967, for gay men, life changed for ever.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12The Sexual Offences Act limped through Parliament
0:07:12 > 0:07:16after an all-night sitting and many, many years of arguments.
0:07:16 > 0:07:22It contained many restrictions that almost look funny to us now.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25You could only have sex in a private house and behind a locked door.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28So if your flatmates were in, that was illegal.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31If you swapped phone numbers with a man and there was a potential
0:07:31 > 0:07:33you might have sex, then that was illegal, too.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37And you both had to be over 21 or face a long jail sentence.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40The heterosexual age of consent was 16.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Many battles lay ahead, but in a very important way,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46for huge numbers of people forced to live secret lives,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49their world changed overnight.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57But for all the promise of the 1967 Act, there was one big omission -
0:07:57 > 0:07:58women.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03We lesbians were never included in the anti-homosexuality laws.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06We fell outside the definition of what sex could be.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Instead, lesbians were virtually invisible.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13On top of that, the new law only applied in England and Wales.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Homosexuality was only decriminalised here in Scotland
0:08:17 > 0:08:20in 1980, and in Northern Ireland two years later.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22There was a very long way to go.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24This is Delmonicas.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27I was 14 when I first came into this pub,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and it was the only gay pub in Glasgow that I knew of
0:08:30 > 0:08:33that women could come into, and so this is where you came.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37So when I had my first ever date, by way of seduction,
0:08:37 > 0:08:38she read me passages from...
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44It has a special place in my history.
0:08:44 > 0:08:45Now, if you know about this book,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47you'll know it's not a romantic book.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Part of it is about kind of casting out the devil from a gay child.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53So it's things like... I mean, it's torturous.
0:08:53 > 0:08:54"I think we cried each other to sleep,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56"but somewhere in the night I stretched out to her
0:08:56 > 0:09:00"and kissed her and kissed her until we were both sweating and crying
0:09:00 > 0:09:02"with mixed-up bodies and swollen faces."
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Now, of course it works.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Books can make incredible things happen,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10even more important than my first kiss.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15For lesbians in the 1960s there were whispers of one novel in particular.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18If you could get your hands on it, it might just change your world.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28In 1928, a novel by Radclyffe Hall caused an almighty scandal.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31It simply depicted a lesbian relationship,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35an unhappy one at that, but just by saying that we exist,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38it was dragged through the courts and banned as obscene.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40The editor of the Sunday Express wrote,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43"I would rather give a child a phial of prussic acid than this novel.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47"Poison kills the body, but moral poison kills the soul."
0:09:47 > 0:09:50It virtually disappeared from Britain for nearly 40 years
0:09:50 > 0:09:53and was only becoming widely available again in the late '60s,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56which is when Gill found it.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58So tell me about this book. The Well Of Loneliness.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00Why is it so important to you?
0:10:00 > 0:10:03It was one of the first novels I read that contained...
0:10:05 > 0:10:06..a story about lesbians.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09And she comes across as being a bit of a tomboy.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Well, that was similar to myself
0:10:11 > 0:10:16because I was very sporty when I was a child, so that resonated with me.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Here was somebody else that had, like, these same...
0:10:19 > 0:10:20kind of similar characteristics.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Of course, the French have always been more laissez faire
0:10:24 > 0:10:28when it comes to love, and the book was never banned there.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31In fact, Paris book-sellers did a roaring trade selling it to Brits
0:10:31 > 0:10:34trying to sneak a copy home from their holidays.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37There's a section where they're all gathering in Paris.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39That just totally fascinated me.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Like, here's a whole bunch of women having a gay old time in Paris.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45I really, really enjoyed that section of the book.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48The hysteria around The Well Of Loneliness eventually subsided,
0:10:48 > 0:10:50to the point that, in 1974,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54it was even selected as The Book At Bedtime on Radio 4.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56It's a hugely powerful book.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58And I mean the last sentence, "Acknowledge us, oh, God,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02"before the whole world. Give us also the right to our existence."
0:11:02 > 0:11:06So we've got one book that was written in 1928, and that was it?
0:11:06 > 0:11:07Yeah, that was it.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Being a lesbian was never illegal,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12but it didn't mean that life was easy.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14You were often just completely invisible
0:11:14 > 0:11:17until suddenly you weren't.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19My mum came on the phone.
0:11:19 > 0:11:20She worked in a hairdresser's.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23She said, "I was washing your friend's hair today in the shop."
0:11:23 > 0:11:24And I went, "Right, uh-huh."
0:11:24 > 0:11:27And she said, "She told me that you were gay. Is this true?"
0:11:27 > 0:11:29And I went, "No, it's not true."
0:11:29 > 0:11:30- So you denied it?- I denied it,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and she kept going on and on and on about it on the phone.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Eventually I went, "Right, OK, Mum, it's true.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38"And by the way, while we're on the subject,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41"I've met somebody and I'm moving up to Aberdeen."
0:11:41 > 0:11:43"Dear Gillian, nice to get your letter
0:11:43 > 0:11:44"and know that you're all right.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48"I respect your feelings in regards to myself not understanding,
0:11:48 > 0:11:51"but I thought you would have known me by this time.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54"I have a very open mind regarding these situations.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57"I wonder if it was something in your childhood that I did wrong
0:11:57 > 0:11:59"to make you feel that way.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02"I feel a bit sorry for you both, as people still do not
0:12:02 > 0:12:04"understand these situations.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06"If things don't work out,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09"don't do anything silly without coming to your mother.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12"It is best you never let Dad know
0:12:12 > 0:12:14"as it goes against all his principles.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16"I think he would disown you.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18"Love to you both, Mum."
0:12:18 > 0:12:20That's what a lot of us grew up with, isn't it?
0:12:20 > 0:12:22The bit that really got me...
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Oh!
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Did she do something wrong to make you like that?
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Uh-huh. I know.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37From Aberdeen to Brighton, by the late '60s,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39lesbians and gays were desperate to do the things
0:12:39 > 0:12:42their straight mates had taken for granted.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47Going out, getting drunk, clubbing, and the other, if you were lucky.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55Images of that special moment in LGBTQ history are hard to find.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Nigel has dug his out for us.
0:12:59 > 0:13:00Yes.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Oh, my goodness me.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Me with a pussy bow.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11There's me dressed in junk shop clothes.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14And there I am again with a pussy bow.
0:13:14 > 0:13:181967, the year that the law was changed.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22But pubs frequented by gay men were often raided by the police
0:13:22 > 0:13:24and if you did find somewhere to dance,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27you certainly weren't allowed to touch each other.
0:13:27 > 0:13:28As the pubs kicked out,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30the race was on to find an underground party
0:13:30 > 0:13:32on the wrong side of the tracks,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36where you could dance with someone properly and not get arrested.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38Nigel Quiney was leading the pack.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Drink-up time at the Coleherne.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42"Where are the parties? Where are the parties?"
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Gay men sometimes found themselves coming together with other outsiders
0:13:45 > 0:13:47in '60s Britain.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49For a very small sum, half a crown,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53you could go to a flat of a black family,
0:13:53 > 0:13:57usually sort of hosted by an elderly woman,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01and we always called them "the aunties", because somehow
0:14:01 > 0:14:05it was George's auntie, or... whoever's party.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09And the auntie was around as a host.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12A lovely, big, smiley, welcoming black lady,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16who would hug you and give you a kiss if you were a bit upset.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18"Oh, come on, darling. You'll be all right."
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Picture the scene. You've got a sitting room,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27furniture would've been pushed all the way round the walls.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Some of us would have brought our own gramophone records.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Men danced together.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37They weren't having sex, but they were dancing together
0:14:37 > 0:14:39as a normal couple would.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42But unlike any normal couple, after the party,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46the question "Your place or mine?" was fraught with difficulty.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Even after decriminalisation, the search for human contact
0:14:49 > 0:14:51often drove men down underground.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53John Lindsay, why?
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Well, very frequently, because there's nowhere else.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00The vast majority of gay people live in either houses or council flats,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03frequently with their parents, frequently with their wives,
0:15:03 > 0:15:05frequently with their children.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08It's simply very frequently a matter, there is nowhere else to go.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Meeting up in public toilets, or cottaging,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15had for decades been the only way many gay men could find sex.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17After decriminalisation,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20it was assumed the practice would quickly die out.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Instead, it continued,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25providing quick release for men in a still hostile world,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28and easy arrests for the police.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33There was something about it that got the adrenaline rushing.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38The very act of going downstairs into a gloomy subterranean place,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41even with a rather frightful aroma,
0:15:41 > 0:15:46there was a sexual frisson.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50It started off just like many other nights.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55I dressed in my usual outfit of blue jeans and sneakers,
0:15:55 > 0:15:57got into my Ford Cortina,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00and I started a circuit of toilets in north London
0:16:00 > 0:16:02that I had discovered over the years.
0:16:04 > 0:16:05There we go.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Now, where was this damned cottage?
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Oh, here you are - Ducketts. It was here.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Some of them complain that the police are overzealous
0:16:23 > 0:16:25and go to absurd lengths to apprehend them.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29Constable, how many men have you arrested for gross indecency?
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Er, this would run into hundreds.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37I wouldn't like to say how many over that period.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39And were they obviously homosexual?
0:16:39 > 0:16:42- Um... Yes.- All of them?
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Um, to me, yes.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52The place was deserted, and lo and behold, a young man comes in.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Now, does he go to take a pee?
0:16:54 > 0:16:57No, he comes and stands next door to me.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The pleasure of seeing each other became, shall we say, evident.
0:17:03 > 0:17:04The two of us separate...
0:17:06 > 0:17:10..so that things can be seen, obviously, from separate angles.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17And above the stalls were those glass-brick vents
0:17:17 > 0:17:18to let a certain amount of light in,
0:17:18 > 0:17:23but several of them had been broken and removed, and what did I see?
0:17:23 > 0:17:26I saw a pair of eyes peering down at me.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33And the poor guy, I heard him talking to the police.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35"I live at home with my parents.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37"My father has a heart condition.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42"I'm terribly concerned that this doesn't get into the local rag,
0:17:42 > 0:17:43"into the local press."
0:17:43 > 0:17:46And the police said, "Well, we can't guarantee anything,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49"but we'll do the best we can."
0:17:49 > 0:17:52And you can imagine my considerable discomfort a week later
0:17:52 > 0:17:54when the phone went at home.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57"Oh, Nigel. I read you've been a very naughty boy."
0:17:57 > 0:17:59The press had written about it,
0:17:59 > 0:18:04they had put in my name and they had put in this young man's name.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06It could have ruined his life.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09While many gay men found a new confidence,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11the police also became more assertive.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14In the first seven years after the law changed,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17arrests for related offences were up by 66%.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23For all the promise that surrounded the 1967 Act,
0:18:23 > 0:18:28by the early '70s, gay people were still being treated as easy targets
0:18:28 > 0:18:32for arrests, cheap jokes, violence and discrimination.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Increasingly, there was a sense of betrayal.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Anger was brewing.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42It was still a Victorian morality,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47and people believed a lot more in what the authorities said we were -
0:18:47 > 0:18:50degenerate, criminal, not to be trusted,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53everything you can think of.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Stephen, Julian and Stuart all lived together with 12 other men
0:18:56 > 0:19:00in the Gay Liberation Front commune in Notting Hill in 1971.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03They wanted to build a new and fairer society,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06and to do that, they needed to unite.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10This is the first time they've all met up in 40 years.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The first requirement of GLF was coming out.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16So you put this badge on and you'd be on the Tube and people would say,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18"Oh, what's the Gay Liberation Front?"
0:19:18 > 0:19:21And you would say, "Well, it's a group of homosexuals
0:19:21 > 0:19:24"who are coming together to fight for our rights."
0:19:24 > 0:19:28It was something which you believed in the principles of
0:19:28 > 0:19:31and tried to live out. So that's a social movement.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Ideas of gay liberation began to spread around the country,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39carried by the GLF's very own home-made newspaper.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44It's a vital piece of LGBTQ history and very few copies remain.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50On the back is a photograph of all of us,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54all in our finest drag, all with our knees up,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57so it's like a knees-up in the commune.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00This is me. This is Stuart.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02And Julian doesn't appear
0:20:02 > 0:20:05because he wasn't available that day for photography.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09I think the frock that I wanted to wear was not available,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13so I decided I was not going to be in it!
0:20:13 > 0:20:16The commune was a refuge from the straight world outside,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19a place where gay people could be together,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22live freely and make plans for a better future.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26You'd step through the gate and you would kind of leave that behind
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and you stepped... And then you'd...
0:20:28 > 0:20:29There'd be like a short path
0:20:29 > 0:20:32and then there was the kitchen window there.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37The commune was my first real sense of home.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40It was a sort of refuge, like a safe house.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48This little diddy house behind all these mansion blocks.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52We didn't have a bathroom as such, but we had a toilet
0:20:52 > 0:20:54and we had a room next to it that had a sink in it.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59The room with all the make-up and the wash basin - that was up there.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02And, in fact, the window that I'm looking through faced this way.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08On Saturday night, we'd go to my old boyfriend Rose's.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13We'd spend Saturday afternoons having a bath there
0:21:13 > 0:21:18and then coming home to our private night for tripping with acid,
0:21:18 > 0:21:20- which was on a Saturday night. - Yeah.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26The GLF manifesto outlined the ways in which gay people were oppressed
0:21:26 > 0:21:28and how this should be brought to an end.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31They didn't just want to make life better for gay people, though.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34They aimed to create a better world for everyone.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41GLF did see that there was a link with capitalism
0:21:41 > 0:21:46that was causing all these divisions within society,
0:21:46 > 0:21:51and that our liberation was really tied up
0:21:51 > 0:21:54with the liberation of everybody in the world.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Often, the only weapon available to the GLF was their wit,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04which they deployed mercilessly whenever they saw oppression.
0:22:04 > 0:22:05In 1971,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08a national rally was organised by Christian groups
0:22:08 > 0:22:11opposed to what they saw as the moral degeneration of Britain.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17This is the light of our Festival of Light.
0:22:17 > 0:22:18Praise the Lord.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23Some wanted the repeal of homosexual rights, abortion and prostitution.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25The GLF saw their chance.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30It started with slow hand-clapping when the applause died down.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34And we released a battalion of mice.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39We had nuns who solemnly processed to the dais,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42where the notables were sitting
0:22:42 > 0:22:46and then they turned round and can-canned all the way back.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49- Give me a J...- ALL: J!
0:22:49 > 0:22:53And there were all these people shouting, "Jesus saves, Jesus saves,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57"Jesus saves," and it was like they all had this tunnel vision.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59At the end of the evening,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02the action group managed to get into the basement
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and switch half the lights out.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08As the message of gay liberation
0:23:08 > 0:23:10seeped into the national conversation,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12women and men up and down the land
0:23:12 > 0:23:14were inspired to change their worlds.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Angela was a student in Manchester.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19That's all very well, it's all happening down there,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21but I need something happening here.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23I was full of energy, full of the coming-out energy.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27It spread by word of mouth and by friendship networks.
0:23:27 > 0:23:28Gay liberation was accessible.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Anyone could put on a badge and be part of the gay liberation movement.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35One night, as she discussed gay liberation in a pub,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Angela was approached by a stranger.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40It was like music to my ears.
0:23:40 > 0:23:41It was like a real wake-up call.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43I said, "Do you mind if I join you?"
0:23:43 > 0:23:45And they said, "No, scoot up, scoot up".
0:23:45 > 0:23:47I didn't know who the bloody hell they were.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50The GLF newspaper also travelled north.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53But something important got lost in translation.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56We'd get copies and we'd be, like, trying to find, where are we,
0:23:56 > 0:23:58sort of thing, and then eventually they did this issue.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Those women there who were very active
0:24:00 > 0:24:03in the women's and lesbian movement at the time.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05This says, "We share the experiences of our gay brothers
0:24:05 > 0:24:08"but, as women, we've endured them differently.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11"We're women, we're lesbians, we're oppressed, we're angry."
0:24:11 > 0:24:13I'm going to get a tattoo of that!
0:24:13 > 0:24:161970s feminism was inspiring women.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19Angela and friends decided to get creative.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23We had to shock people, because how else were they going to see us?
0:24:23 > 0:24:27And we decided, maybe what we should do is get a big pot of yellow paint
0:24:27 > 0:24:30and put "lesbians are everywhere" all around the town
0:24:30 > 0:24:33and all around the bridges on the outskirts of the city,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36so as that everyone coming in on Monday morning would see it,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38and that's what we did.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41To me, it's one of the best things I've ever heard,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44is to just spray paint in bright yellow "lesbians are everywhere".
0:24:44 > 0:24:47It wasn't even spraying. It was a big can of paint and a brush.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50It got tipped up in my mother's car, so that was another story.
0:24:50 > 0:24:51What did you say to your mother?
0:24:51 > 0:24:54- Well, we had to clean it up. - We had to clean it up.
0:24:54 > 0:24:55For all the audacious stunts,
0:24:55 > 0:24:59the work of the GLF was sometimes a matter of life and death.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02When you stepped outside this pub in the night,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04there was a good chance that the police was either there
0:25:04 > 0:25:06to beat you up or the public.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10One night, this police officer ran at this young transgender person
0:25:10 > 0:25:13and was really pounding on him, and I jumped on the policeman's back.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17I was only a kid, but I just wanted to stop him beating up Benny.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20And I got arrested and I was thrown in the cells.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24At the time, Luchia was homeless and living on the streets.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28There, she saw many other young LGBTQ people,
0:25:28 > 0:25:29disowned by their families,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33facing violence, mental health issues and suicide.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36The thing that pissed me off about the whole thing was the young people
0:25:36 > 0:25:40that died, and I always felt very strongly about that and I thought,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43"If I ever get a voice, I'm going to speak for them."
0:25:43 > 0:25:47I'm going to cry now, cos I can see all their little faces,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50you know what I mean? Beautiful people,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54just died because no-one would fucking speak up for us, you know?
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And that drove me on. It just drove me on.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02- That's why I didn't give a shit. - What you did meant that I...
0:26:03 > 0:26:04..could have a better time...
0:26:06 > 0:26:08..of being a gay woman.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12And that was the thing about liberation.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14When it comes along, you've got to grab it
0:26:14 > 0:26:16and you've got to make it your own.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19If you don't, then the chance will never come again.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22The wave will have gone on without you.
0:26:24 > 0:26:25By the middle of the 1970s,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28people across Britain were beginning to understand
0:26:28 > 0:26:31that love didn't just happen between a man and a woman.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34But the thought that you might not feel happy in your gender at all
0:26:34 > 0:26:37still needed a lot more explanation.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41- TV REPORT:- Mary from Mansfield is a man in all respects save one -
0:26:41 > 0:26:43he feels he is a woman trapped in a man's body.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48In Britain, there are estimated to be 750 men like Mary,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50and 250 women who feel they should be men.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52They're known as transsexuals.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55As a young child in the 1950s,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Carol had always felt more like a girl than a boy.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00One day, she heard her dad read out a story
0:27:00 > 0:27:03about a transgender person in the newspaper.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08I was lying on the floor reading a comic and my ears pricked up.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11There's somebody else like me out there.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13And then, at the end of this story,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16my father turned to my mum and said,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19"Perverts like that should be locked away in a loony bin
0:27:19 > 0:27:21"and the key thrown away."
0:27:21 > 0:27:24- TV REPORT:- Transsexuals live in a twilight world
0:27:24 > 0:27:27of fear, loneliness and ignorance.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31In the already fractious British workplace of the 1970s,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33many transgender people were finding that
0:27:33 > 0:27:38their employers valued their skills far less than their appearance.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41I'd already started on the pathway.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44I was being prescribed hormones and my body was changing.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47After years of hard work,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Carol had landed her dream job as a research scientist.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53But the dreaded company medical soon came up,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56which was quickly followed by a summons to see the boss.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58He had a face like thunder.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03He said, "We've heard back from the medical report and we will not allow
0:28:03 > 0:28:06"anything like that to happen in this company."
0:28:06 > 0:28:10After the meeting, Carol returned to the empty lab
0:28:10 > 0:28:11with her dreams in tatters.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15I thought everyone had gone home, and I was looking round the lab
0:28:15 > 0:28:17and I just burst out into tears.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22The cleaner walked in and she said to me, "What's the matter?"
0:28:22 > 0:28:26I said, "You wouldn't understand, because it's so different."
0:28:26 > 0:28:29And she said, "You'd be surprised what we know."
0:28:29 > 0:28:33And I thought, "Oh, my God! She knows!"
0:28:33 > 0:28:36What Carol also didn't know was that
0:28:36 > 0:28:38the cleaner was a steward in the union
0:28:38 > 0:28:41and wanted to take the matter further.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43They thought it was so unjust.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46She said to me, "They are quite prepared to go out on strike."
0:28:46 > 0:28:50The sympathy shown by the cleaners wasn't reflected in the wider world.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53The few transgender people in the public eye
0:28:53 > 0:28:56were seen as fair game for anybody.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58I mean, I had people coming up and poking me in the breasts
0:28:58 > 0:29:00and saying, "Are they real?"
0:29:00 > 0:29:03And pulling my hair and saying, "Is that real?" You know?
0:29:03 > 0:29:08In the end, you wondered who was the freak - was it you or was it them?
0:29:09 > 0:29:12Years after overhearing her father,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Carol faced the prospect of becoming one of those transgender people
0:29:15 > 0:29:17in the newspapers herself.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20The strike would have caused a national sensation.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Carol decided to pack her things, leave and begin a new life.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27I didn't want to be a celebrity
0:29:27 > 0:29:30and I didn't want to be sort of
0:29:30 > 0:29:32recognised and sort of...
0:29:33 > 0:29:35..ill-treated on the streets,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37and so, in the end, I had to say,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39"Thank you so much but, no,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43"I'm going to actually disappear and start my new life."
0:29:45 > 0:29:47The ability to change a birth certificate after transitioning
0:29:47 > 0:29:53didn't come until 2004, but Carol was allowed to change her passport.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58This is taken on the beach at Biarritz in France.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01As you can see, I was a lot slimmer then.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Having this in my new name was so important.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09I was formally recognised as me, as being female.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14And I took it out of the envelope and I burst into tears.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19By the mid-'70s, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22transgender and queer people were increasingly out and proud,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24on television and on the streets
0:30:24 > 0:30:29but, for many, the sense of shame and confusion was crippling.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32For an innocent young lad growing up in a quiet seaside town,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35the only way out was to be anything but gay.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37It just felt so wrong.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40I was just playing this game of being a heterosexual.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43You've read in the paper that maybe it could be fixed.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46That's the sort of route I gravitated towards,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50so I thought, "Well, maybe I could hypnotise myself."
0:30:50 > 0:30:54I got a book out on self-hypnosis, read it, tried it.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56Of course that didn't work.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00As the decade progressed, public attitudes towards gays,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03lesbians and bisexual people were shifting.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06It's a personal matter, doesn't concern anybody else.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08There's no harm in them. It's not their fault.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11They want medicine, definitely. They wouldn't go on like that.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Many no longer saw them as evil or wrong.
0:31:15 > 0:31:16Instead, they were objects of pity
0:31:16 > 0:31:18who could be helped by science and cured.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20But in order to see a psychiatrist,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24doctors sometimes required your parents' permission,
0:31:24 > 0:31:25which was awkward at best,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29especially if they didn't even know you were gay.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32He took me into the surgery, grabbed me by the arm,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36sat me down between them and said, "Your son has come to see me.
0:31:36 > 0:31:37"He's confessed to masturbation."
0:31:37 > 0:31:40I thought, "What?!"
0:31:40 > 0:31:42He said, "He has homosexual inclinations
0:31:42 > 0:31:45"and I've told him that this is a sinful practice
0:31:45 > 0:31:48"and that he must cut his hair and behave more manly."
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Mum, she thought it was all her fault, the way she brought me up,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55and I said, "Don't be silly. I just am this way."
0:31:55 > 0:32:00Dad said he'd known some blokes in the RAF who were that way.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02This wasn't the way I wanted it to happen,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06but it was the only way, if I was going to get to see a psychiatrist
0:32:06 > 0:32:09who I thought would make me into a heterosexual.
0:32:09 > 0:32:10Brian wrote down his thoughts
0:32:10 > 0:32:13after his consultation with the psychiatrist.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18"He told me, as I was 21 and it was all legal now,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20"and you can go and bugger whoever you like.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23"I told him I was profoundly unhappy and extremely lonely.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25"I tried telling him about
0:32:25 > 0:32:28"my completely impotent experiences with girlfriends
0:32:28 > 0:32:32"but he dismissed these as nerves and told me all I had to do
0:32:32 > 0:32:34"was to find a decent girl.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38"He then said that if that didn't work and I was still worried about
0:32:38 > 0:32:42"indulging in homosexual acts, then he could arrange for an operation,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46"thereby incapacitating any sexual acts."
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Until 1973, homosexuality was officially categorised
0:32:50 > 0:32:52as a mental illness.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Thousands of men and women undertook treatment to be cured
0:32:55 > 0:32:57and live what they saw as a normal life.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Their bodies were subjected to electric shocks,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03brain surgery and chemical injections, all on the NHS.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07Facing the possibility of chemical castration,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Brian nervously awaited the expert diagnosis.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14"He assured me I wasn't a homosexual.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17" 'I can always tell a homosexual when I see one.' "
0:33:17 > 0:33:19And I left the psychiatrist's that day feeling,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21well, I can't be a homosexual, can I, after all,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24because he's told me, he's an expert.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26By the mid-1970s,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29the role of psychiatry and imposing cures on LGBT people
0:33:29 > 0:33:31was increasingly coming in for criticism.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34Do you want aversion therapy?
0:33:34 > 0:33:38- ALL: No! - Do you want psychiatric aid?
0:33:38 > 0:33:39I didn't want to live a secret life.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43I didn't want to hide who I was away any more.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46So I stuck a gay lib badge on and walked round the town,
0:33:46 > 0:33:49and if people were shocked, well, that's their problem.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51They can deal with it.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57With so many in the LGBTQ community,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01being honest about who you are has meant having to pack your bags,
0:34:01 > 0:34:03leave your home and your family
0:34:03 > 0:34:06and move to somewhere else to start a new life again.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10I'm off to see an extraordinary person,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13someone who knows the pain of separation only too well.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18Sandi is in her 70s and grew up in a children's home just after the war.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20You left school,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23you worked for a couple of years and then you got married,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25cos that's the way it was back then.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31I used to read a little magazine that was called True Romance,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34and it was about a man and a woman falling in love,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39living happily ever after, so I was looking for that kind of lifestyle.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42I met a guy from Liverpool
0:34:42 > 0:34:45and he was the first person who said he loved me.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47- So I married him, yeah.- Wow!
0:34:50 > 0:34:53I had four children in five years.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56I had them all at home for a year.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Their father was away at sea, so I was like a single parent.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03But I loved it. I had a family of my own for the first time.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09After six years, he came out the Navy and came and lived with me.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Even though I had four children to him, I loved my kids,
0:35:13 > 0:35:18I was really aware of not being happy after a year.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20Something had to be done.
0:35:20 > 0:35:21Something needed to change.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Like so many women in the 1970s and '80s,
0:35:25 > 0:35:27Sandi was faced with an agonising choice -
0:35:27 > 0:35:30spend the rest of her life with a man she didn't love
0:35:30 > 0:35:34or somehow try to live true to herself as a lesbian.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Divorce proceedings began.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38This is the court case for custody
0:35:38 > 0:35:42- and it was all built around me being gay.- So, in essence,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45you had the full power of the authorities directed against you?
0:35:45 > 0:35:47The judge was female.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50She said, "You won't have custody of your daughters,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54"cos you're a lesbian and you're unfit to mother them,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56"but you can have custody of your son."
0:35:56 > 0:36:01I felt a big hot sweat come over me then, because it made me think,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05"Wow, I must be really bad if I can't have my daughters."
0:36:05 > 0:36:10And I remember thinking right there and then, "How can I separate them?
0:36:10 > 0:36:14"How can I take the boy out of a family that he's grown up with?"
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Even though I'd never had a family before, I said,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20"I want them to stay together like a family."
0:36:20 > 0:36:26I knelt down and I was their height and gave them all a hug and that,
0:36:26 > 0:36:31and I had this really heavy pain in my heart, in my chest,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33which must have been my heart.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35I went back to my bedsit
0:36:35 > 0:36:39and I realised that I had to start my life again.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45Now alone, Sandi began the painful process of getting back on her feet.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49One day, she found an object that gave her a reason to live again.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54I had a friend who was selling a camera.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58I started taking photos then, taking photos of my friend.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Wherever we were, on the street, we'd go to the park,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03and I'd take photos of us.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06In fact, the camera went everywhere with me.
0:37:07 > 0:37:08As time passed,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Sandi was able to form relationships with her children again
0:37:12 > 0:37:15and they became part of her photographs, too.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18These are my four children, very young.
0:37:18 > 0:37:19That's the oldest one, Dawn.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22- It's a weird shape, though, the picture. Why is that?- Well...
0:37:22 > 0:37:23SHE LAUGHS
0:37:23 > 0:37:27I done the standard thing that when a woman leaves her boyfriend
0:37:27 > 0:37:31or husband, you chop them off in the photos.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34- Oh, right, so he's gone? - He's gone, yeah.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38This is quite early on after I've been divorced
0:37:38 > 0:37:41and had my kids taken off me.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45I've reinvented myself and the... Holly was out being gay.
0:37:45 > 0:37:46These two aren't.
0:37:46 > 0:37:48I was out being gay.
0:37:48 > 0:37:49Is that who I think it is?
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Yeah, it's Holly. Bezzie mate.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53I knew him when he was a young teenager.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55# Relax, don't do it
0:37:55 > 0:37:57# When you want to go to it... #
0:37:57 > 0:38:00But this is where he used to sign on.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03There's Chris Bernard, who directed Letter To Brezhnev.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05He used to sign on then.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07We all used to sign on there.
0:38:07 > 0:38:08If you think about it,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11this picture actually represents a vision of hope.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12Look at these two guys, who've gone on
0:38:12 > 0:38:15- to do amazing things. - Look where they are, yeah.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17# The power of love... #
0:38:17 > 0:38:18Back in them days, you know,
0:38:18 > 0:38:22it wasn't about falling in love and settling down,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25happy ever after, or anything like that.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27It was about telling each other our stories.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31How we came out, who we were, what we expected.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35And it was like we were all new and fresh at being gay.
0:38:37 > 0:38:43As the 1980s dawned, it felt like a whole new era for many LGBTQ people.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Life certainly wasn't easy but now, if you grew up feeling isolated,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50the big cities at least shone with possibility.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58Across the land, small-town boys and girls and everyone in between
0:38:58 > 0:39:01packed their bags and headed towards the lights.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07In Northern Ireland, six-year-old Frankie O'Reilly
0:39:07 > 0:39:09turned up for the first day of a new school term
0:39:09 > 0:39:12and met his new classmates.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15I'd seen all the new class lined up
0:39:15 > 0:39:19and in the middle was this boy and I had said, "What's your name?"
0:39:19 > 0:39:20He said, "Georgie."
0:39:20 > 0:39:22I said, "My name's Frankie.
0:39:22 > 0:39:23"Would you like to sit with me?"
0:39:23 > 0:39:26He came back to my home for his tea afterwards.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30From that day onwards, we've been inseparable.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Look at that. Got some of the albums here
0:39:34 > 0:39:37of photographs of Georgie and I.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43We grew up during the Troubles, with bombs going off and crossfire.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46You would have to just lie on the ground
0:39:46 > 0:39:48and let the bullets go over your head.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53If you turned the wrong corner and walked into a street gang,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56automatically, they would go, "Queer boys!"
0:39:56 > 0:39:59We would never run without saying,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03"You didn't say that last night when I was fucking the ass off you."
0:40:03 > 0:40:06And then we would run for our lives.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11By the time we were 16, we knew that Derry was far too small for us,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14and it was, "London, here we come."
0:40:15 > 0:40:17Around the same time, in Middlesbrough,
0:40:17 > 0:40:19Sue Wade was also packing her bags,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22with a dream in her head and a song in her heart.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24With her partner at the time,
0:40:24 > 0:40:26she found a basement just off Oxford Street
0:40:26 > 0:40:30and set out to make a new nightclub for a new era.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34She hasn't been back in 30 years.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38I have to get the number right. Is it the... This one, was it?
0:40:38 > 0:40:40That's the one. Yeah, it looks different.
0:40:40 > 0:40:41It's exciting!
0:40:43 > 0:40:44Wow!
0:40:45 > 0:40:46If you'd have come in the '80s,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49this is what I would have looked like on the door, sitting,
0:40:49 > 0:40:52waiting and beckoning you in for a good time.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55One night, a mysterious American arrived at the club.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57Years later, Sue found out that
0:40:57 > 0:40:59it was the renowned author Armistead Maupin
0:40:59 > 0:41:02and he had immortalised the place in one of the best-loved novels
0:41:02 > 0:41:05in modern American literature.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08"London's most fashionable dyke nightclub
0:41:08 > 0:41:11"was a place in Mayfair called Heds.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13"Four or five lesbian couples
0:41:13 > 0:41:17"were slow-dancing to Anne Murray beneath a jerky mirror ball."
0:41:17 > 0:41:19I'm sorry about that!
0:41:19 > 0:41:21"Michael sat down at one of the couches
0:41:21 > 0:41:24"and motioned Wilfred to join him."
0:41:24 > 0:41:27I'm sort of getting a bit excited.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30- She wants to come back! - My heart's going a little bit.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Sue's club is now, sadly, an unrented, empty office.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Sue's was part of a new generation of clubs
0:41:48 > 0:41:51which wanted to do away with the narrow stereotypes
0:41:51 > 0:41:55of what a lesbian could be, which had defined them for decades.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59- TV REPORT:- The swashbuckling approach, the heartiness,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02the thumping stride, the tough man's clothes -
0:42:02 > 0:42:04these things are natural to some lesbians
0:42:04 > 0:42:08but mostly unacceptable to people outside that world.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10This means that for lesbians who want to relax in the kind of clothes
0:42:10 > 0:42:14in the kind of way that makes them happy, there are few places to go.
0:42:14 > 0:42:15One of them is a club in Chelsea,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18a place where there's no longer any need to pretend.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20I think we should be allowed to go where we like,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23dressed in what we like, and be accepted generally by society.
0:42:26 > 0:42:27By the 1980s,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30old divisions of butch women and their femme counterparts
0:42:30 > 0:42:32were being broadened out.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34This was a club for everyone.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38I've got some pictures.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40It was very mixed.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43It wasn't fixed on one particular type of lesbian
0:42:43 > 0:42:47or gay or transgender person. That's me.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52Everyone sort of banded together, where they didn't fit in.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Sometimes the music would stop for a show.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57The most fondly remembered was the androgynous
0:42:57 > 0:42:59French underground sensation Ronny.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01# To have and have not
0:43:07 > 0:43:09# To have and have not... #
0:43:09 > 0:43:12We got a big image of her on canvas,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16where one side she was, like, very masculine and on the other side,
0:43:16 > 0:43:19she was quite... with a feminine dress on.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22And what she did, from behind it, when the music come up...
0:43:24 > 0:43:29..she took a knife and split it and come through it and start singing,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31you know, so it was absolutely... It was fantastic.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36It was one of the most nerve-racking moments of my life.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39I had finally plucked up the courage to come to the West End
0:43:39 > 0:43:41and go to my first ever gay bar.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Trafalgar Square just over there, the heart of Theatreland,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47and yes, folks, it was here.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49It was called Brief Encounter.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51The door was right here on the corner.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53I walked up to the door.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55It was there, my heart was pumping.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58But did I go in? No, I kept walking.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03Walked all the way round this block at least ten, 15, 20 times, scared,
0:44:03 > 0:44:05full of fear. What was I afraid of?
0:44:05 > 0:44:07People seeing me?
0:44:07 > 0:44:08My aunt?
0:44:08 > 0:44:10My aunt never came to the West End.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17While I was walking around in circles, full of fear and shame,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21just over there, a minute away, the most famous gay club in the world.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25They were out, they were proud, they were loud, they were brash.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29Their doors opened and they would say, "Guys, we're gay.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31"Come on in!"
0:44:33 > 0:44:38- TV REPORT:- This is Heaven, one of London's newest and smartest discos.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41It's situated in the West End and on some nights,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44more than 2,000 people come here.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48But there's one rather surprising aspect about these people -
0:44:48 > 0:44:50almost all of them are men,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53and that's because Heaven is a gay disco,
0:44:53 > 0:44:55a nightspot for homosexual men.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02And someone who attended Heaven religiously was Martyn Butler.
0:45:03 > 0:45:04Welcome to Heaven.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07Martyn was one of the lucky few.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10He was the proud owner of the most coveted item in gay clubland -
0:45:10 > 0:45:13the Heaven gold card.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15Not many people had one of those.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18To my knowledge, Freddie Mercury, Kenny Everett.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Almost every star that was anything in the pop music era played here.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28A cavernous super club was built in a former munitions store,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31deep under London's Charing Cross.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35I was a young gay boy, 16, in South Wales.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37I was only really happy
0:45:37 > 0:45:41when I suddenly found myself in amongst 2,000 people.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43I think it's possibly due to the fact that I'm deaf.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Coming into a nightclub, everybody is equal.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49The sound is so loud that you have to shout.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53But Martyn was no ordinary punter.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57Martyn was Heaven's head of lasers, and his light shows were legendary.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02Pull one out. There we are.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05And this is my crew T-shirt from all those years ago.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10There we go. And you can see the original Heaven logo on that.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13Very proud to be a member of the crew for Heaven.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17My God, I've put weight on since then, but there we go.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Terry Higgins would be sat there,
0:46:22 > 0:46:24there would be members of Hot Gossip,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Floyd and Mark Tyme.
0:46:27 > 0:46:28Kenny Everett would be there.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31And Grace Jones would be in the coffee bar.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36Mr Hardware from Heaven, London.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41As Heaven's fame spread across the globe,
0:46:41 > 0:46:44the club even hosted the first gay beauty contest
0:46:44 > 0:46:46in typically larger-than-life style.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51It was a theatre, it was a social centre.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55It is your church, the place you go to have a funeral, maybe.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57The place to go to be sad.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01The place to escape the tyranny of work,
0:47:01 > 0:47:04or places to stop that terrible loneliness of living in
0:47:04 > 0:47:07one of the greatest cities on Earth and being totally alone.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Come in here and you realise that there is a community.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16There's more than one. It's not just a little group
0:47:16 > 0:47:19here, there and everywhere, and pretending you don't exist.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24People were out and proud. I always felt that I'd come home.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29The boys from Northern Ireland were having the time of their lives
0:47:29 > 0:47:31in early '80s London and eventually,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34after a lifetime of being the very best of friends,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38Georgie plucked up the courage to say what was blindingly obvious.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41Well, obvious to everyone except Frankie.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43The Black Cap used to have cabaret.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46We would have our one night as friends out a week.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51Georgie declared to me on this night that he loved me.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54And he says, "Well, I think we should be together."
0:47:56 > 0:48:00The stars collided and the very next week they went out,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03found a flat and settled down to life as a couple.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06We'd come from a very, very dark period.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10Don't tell anybody, and be afraid of the police.
0:48:10 > 0:48:16And by 1982, we had Heaven, we had our own music.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18There was already a sense that we were taking back
0:48:18 > 0:48:20and we were taking control.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Just as we were becoming free and being able to say, yes,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27I can do this and I can talk about it openly and whatever, suddenly...
0:48:30 > 0:48:33The past weekend should have been a time of outright celebration
0:48:33 > 0:48:36for Britain's homosexual community,
0:48:36 > 0:48:38as a march through London ended Gay Pride Week,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40seven days in which they commemorated
0:48:40 > 0:48:43the start of the gay liberation movement.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46However, the festivities were overshadowed by fear,
0:48:46 > 0:48:47fear of a mysterious new disease
0:48:47 > 0:48:50that has hit the homosexual community in America
0:48:50 > 0:48:52and has now come here.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54The funeral of Terry Higgins took place here
0:48:54 > 0:48:57at Golders Green crematorium in north London.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Higgins, a 37-year-old computer programmer,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03died after collapsing on the floor of a gay disco called Heaven.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Across the country, worried men approached their doctors
0:49:07 > 0:49:09for an AIDS test.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14We had our tests done together.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16The doctor sat us down.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21He said, "The two of you should go home, put your affairs in order,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24"and enjoy whatever time you have left.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27"You've both got the AIDS virus."
0:49:27 > 0:49:29We were 25 years old.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33As the full extent of the AIDS crisis became apparent,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37the Government launched a public information campaign.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40A leaflet dropped through every door in the land, and on television,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43a hard-hitting advertising campaign.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47As a young gay man growing up then, it was more than frightening.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53- VOICEOVER:- There is now a danger that has become a threat to us all.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56It is a deadly disease and there is no known cure.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01The first time I'd seen it on TV, it scared the bejesus out of me.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04- VOICEOVER:- Anyone can get it. Man or woman.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06As far as we knew at that point,
0:50:06 > 0:50:08there was never going to be a cure.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10- VOICEOVER:- ..spreading...
0:50:10 > 0:50:12Then people started dying...
0:50:12 > 0:50:16ahead of us that were diagnosed after us.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18The fear set in.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28I came home one day and Georgie was in a very aggressive mood,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32which was very unusual for Georgie, cos he was such a placid person.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37He basically smashed the place up, and I let him do it.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44I said to him, "Georgie, if you think by acting like that
0:50:44 > 0:50:47"I'm going to pack my bags and leave you,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50"you've another think coming."
0:50:50 > 0:50:53I says, "Because no matter how angry you get, or no matter
0:50:53 > 0:50:56"how much you destroy our home, I hope you do realise,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59"I'm not going anywhere."
0:50:59 > 0:51:02With the epidemic breathing down their necks, and fear everywhere,
0:51:02 > 0:51:05people tried to get on with normal life.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11One day, Georgie and I left here to go up to IKEA.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14And Georgie had walked off to look at blinds,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17and out of the side of my eye, all I could see from where I was standing
0:51:17 > 0:51:20was that Georgie was having some kind of seizure.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22I'd never seen it before in my life.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25I'd known Georgie since he was a kid.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27He's never had a seizure.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29And for the next six months,
0:51:29 > 0:51:34he was probably having 40 to 50 seizures a day.
0:51:34 > 0:51:35Just before he died,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39Georgie was filmed for a television documentary about living with AIDS.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41But the interview was never used.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44And this is the first time it has been seen.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47You can make yourself a prisoner within yourself.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50That's what I think I've done sometimes, you know?
0:51:50 > 0:51:52All my fears, I was keeping them to myself,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55and I should have been talking to other people.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58And people... Everybody's in the same boat, you know?
0:51:58 > 0:52:01There's nothing to be frightened of.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04I think the only way to deal with fear is to face it.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11When I go to bed at night with Georgie,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14the last thing he does is give me a kiss.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16And he says to me...
0:52:17 > 0:52:20"..Maybe tomorrow, Frankie, I'll be a bit better."
0:52:22 > 0:52:26And I swore that nobody, nobody...
0:52:27 > 0:52:31..would ever take that hope away from him.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35So I say to everybody,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39we all know Georgie's dying when he tells us...
0:52:42 > 0:52:43..he's dying.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47And he told me the night before he died.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56AIDS left a huge chasm in the lives of thousands of people.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58There was little sympathy on offer,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01and those that were left were often isolated,
0:53:01 > 0:53:03grieving their loved ones alone.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07Over in America,
0:53:07 > 0:53:11a simple but brilliant idea caught hold as a way to remember the dead.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14People would take a piece of fabric and sew a memorial
0:53:14 > 0:53:16for those they had lost.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Some were happy, some were sad, some subtle,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21some joyous and flamboyant.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24This panel would then be added to other panels
0:53:24 > 0:53:28to form a huge patchwork quilt of memories, loss and love.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31It is treated as a national memorial,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34travelling the country and displayed in Washington, DC.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37The surprise is that in the UK
0:53:37 > 0:53:41we have our own AIDS memorial quilt, too.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44However, its fate has been very different.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46The quilt was packed up
0:53:46 > 0:53:49and a brilliant volunteer offered to house the quilt
0:53:49 > 0:53:52in her garage in the north-east,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56and this brilliant volunteer kept the quilt safe for ten years.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58And thank God she did.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03She had some kind of house fire, everyone was OK.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Gosh, you know, what would have happened
0:54:06 > 0:54:09if the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt had gone up in flames?
0:54:09 > 0:54:10In 1994,
0:54:10 > 0:54:16the 384 panels of the UK quilt were laid out in Hyde Park in London.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18They covered nearly 7,000 square feet.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22It was a moment for people across the country to come together
0:54:22 > 0:54:26and take in the magnitude of what AIDS had done.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30The quilt has a really powerful message about resilience
0:54:30 > 0:54:32and about hope,
0:54:32 > 0:54:34and about the fact that we will overcome
0:54:34 > 0:54:37some of the worst times of our lives.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40And some of us will survive.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43We'll lose people along the way, but actually...
0:54:45 > 0:54:46..humans survive.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Michelle was working for an HIV charity which took in the quilt
0:54:52 > 0:54:54when it was homeless ten years ago.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56They wanted it to live again
0:54:56 > 0:55:00and arranged an exhibition in Manchester in 2007.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02One day during the show, a woman approached Michelle
0:55:02 > 0:55:07searching for a panel she had made for a beloved friend.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10She took my hand and she put these little bells in my hand
0:55:10 > 0:55:14and I kind of closed my hand over it and she said, "I haven't...
0:55:14 > 0:55:17"I meant to sew these on to the panel.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21"I never got time to do it before it got sent off.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25"So I just want to reunite them with Paul's panel."
0:55:27 > 0:55:30The show in Manchester ten years ago was the last time
0:55:30 > 0:55:34the entire UK AIDS Memorial Quilt was out on display.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38After that, the quilt was boxed up and, for the last few years,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41has been locked in a storage unit in the south-east of England.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44Familiar bags.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46To mark World AIDS Day,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49a few of the panels are going on display at St Paul's Cathedral
0:55:49 > 0:55:51and have been brought up to London.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Michelle is hoping to see the stranger's court jester panel
0:55:54 > 0:55:57for the first time in ten years.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01I used to haul these around with lots of volunteers and staff.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06I wonder where it is.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09Let's see.
0:56:09 > 0:56:10Is it you?
0:56:15 > 0:56:17So, let's see.
0:56:17 > 0:56:23They're very heavy, you know, they're kind of weighty objects.
0:56:23 > 0:56:24I... I've just heard a bell.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28Have to be very careful.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32There's our court jester.
0:56:33 > 0:56:34How are you doing?
0:56:36 > 0:56:37- Paul. - BELLS JINGLE
0:56:43 > 0:56:46And there's the bells on his shoes.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49Wow.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05People from across the country are coming together
0:57:05 > 0:57:06to remember those they have lost,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10or to see this precious piece of our history at first hand
0:57:10 > 0:57:13before it goes back into storage and an uncertain future.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23When I think of a quilt, I think of something that is warming,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26that you go under for protection, for cover,
0:57:26 > 0:57:28Mum tucks you in bed at night.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34First time seeing these panels up close and personal,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37it's weird. Quite goosebump-y at the moment, to be honest.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43From bells and photographs to fabric and words,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46it's a fragile artefact from an extraordinary time.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51It's hard to believe that AIDS came
0:57:51 > 0:57:54barely 20 years after the optimism of 1967,
0:57:54 > 0:57:56when in that time LGBT people
0:57:56 > 0:58:00had gone from living isolated and fearful lives
0:58:00 > 0:58:05and building a community that came together when it mattered most.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09To me, the quilt says it all.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13People's memories stitched together to tell one story.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15Fragile, diverse, extraordinary.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18A bit like LGBT history itself.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29You can make yourself a prisoner within yourself.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32All my fears, I was keeping them to myself
0:58:32 > 0:58:34and I should have been talking to other people.
0:58:34 > 0:58:38And people... Everybody's in the same boat, you know.
0:58:38 > 0:58:39There's nothing to be frightened of.
0:58:39 > 0:58:42There are people out there that care, you know?
0:58:42 > 0:58:45You've got to look for them.
0:58:48 > 0:58:52Next week, how two kisses on our screens rocked the world.
0:58:52 > 0:58:56Explore more about Britain's LGBT history and how things have changed.
0:58:56 > 0:58:58Go to the website on screen
0:58:58 > 0:59:01and follow the links to the Open University.
0:59:01 > 0:59:04# No need to run and hide
0:59:04 > 0:59:08# It's a wonderful, wonderful life
0:59:08 > 0:59:13# No need to laugh and cry
0:59:13 > 0:59:18# It's a wonderful, wonderful life
0:59:20 > 0:59:22# The sun's in your eyes... #