:00:00. > 3:59:59But if there is no resolution, the Straits will go on. Sima Kotecha,
:00:00. > :00:00.BBC News, Birmingham. Now on BBC News it's
:00:00. > :00:32.time for Witness. Hello. I'm Lucy Hockings. Welcome to
:00:33. > :00:38.Witness here at the British Library in London. This month, we have
:00:39. > :00:42.another five people have witnessed extraordinary moment so sad. We will
:00:43. > :00:46.be talking about the legalisation of homosexuality in Britain, 50 years
:00:47. > :00:54.ago. They breakthrough for when in the men's world of racing, and in a
:00:55. > :00:58.moment, the Russian Ballet star, Rudolf Nureyev, who defected to the
:00:59. > :01:03.West. But first we go back to a turning point for China. China was
:01:04. > :01:07.wrapped in a civil war between communists and their opposers. I
:01:08. > :01:13.never even thought about joining the commenters.
:01:14. > :01:16.TRANSLATION: I am 99 years old, and they still have not changed my mind
:01:17. > :01:21.about that. -- joining the communists will stop the country was
:01:22. > :01:27.weak and divided. For most people, life was wretched. Someone had to
:01:28. > :01:33.rescue China from these miserable conditions. There were two men
:01:34. > :01:38.willing to try. One was the leader of the nationalist troops. The other
:01:39. > :01:43.was Mao Zedong, who wanted to turn China into a communist state. The
:01:44. > :01:52.two men were to become bitter rivals.
:01:53. > :01:58.TRANSLATION: We worshipped him back then. We were probably influenced by
:01:59. > :02:08.Germany's worshipping of Hitler. We worshipped him to. I was ahead of a
:02:09. > :02:12.battalion in nationalist army, and fought against the comments in the
:02:13. > :02:19.civil war. Chinese people fight each other, it was a complex situation.
:02:20. > :02:24.It was all about which path China should take to the future. We
:02:25. > :02:37.thought they were Chinese traders. During the civil war, both sides
:02:38. > :02:44.made mistakes. I was involved in one of the last big battles. When we
:02:45. > :02:51.suffered 200,000 artillery shells. But I survived all of that. The
:02:52. > :03:03.Nationalists had the military advantage, but our soldiers were to
:03:04. > :03:06.spread out. -- too. Mao Zedong one and Chiang Kai-shek loss. But Mao
:03:07. > :03:11.Zedong did not win completely, and Chiang Kai-shek did not lose
:03:12. > :03:15.completely. By the autumn of 1949, the communists had driven the
:03:16. > :03:20.Nationalists out of all the major cities. They fled to the island of
:03:21. > :03:25.Taiwan. TRANSLATION: You could say leading
:03:26. > :03:31.mainland China was the lowest moment in his life. But he never accepted
:03:32. > :03:35.defeat. I worked with Chiang Kai-shek very closely for five
:03:36. > :03:47.years. I really respected him. He was very strict. But he was always
:03:48. > :03:54.very good to me. Chiang Kai-shek's life was very ordinary. He would get
:03:55. > :03:58.up every day at 6am. He didn't smoke or drink. He was very disciplined.
:03:59. > :04:06.He issued a lot of orders. To be honest, so many that it was hard to
:04:07. > :04:11.keep track of them. Some people say Chiang Kai-shek was a dictator. But
:04:12. > :04:17.this is unfair, and it is slender. But because we were still against
:04:18. > :04:23.the communists in mainland China, he did impose martial law. This, that
:04:24. > :04:28.is antidemocratic, but it was to protect Taiwan. -- slander. His goal
:04:29. > :04:32.was not just to make Taiwan independent. He wanted to achieve
:04:33. > :04:41.freedom and democracy for the whole of China. He never gave up. He told
:04:42. > :04:50.us, don't ever think we have lost the mainland. Marxism will
:04:51. > :05:00.eventually fail. History proved him right. Chiang Kai-shek died in
:05:01. > :05:03.Taiwan in 1975. The Djere went on to become the head of the army and
:05:04. > :05:11.eventually became the country's Premier. In 1961, Rudolf Nureyev
:05:12. > :05:23.defected to the West. -- the general went on.
:05:24. > :05:39.I remember him as a great dancer, a great personality in many ways. He
:05:40. > :05:51.had enormous technical prowess, enormous charisma. This kind of
:05:52. > :05:55.style of dosing is unique movements and stage presence, sending we have
:05:56. > :06:07.not seen before and very rarely since. -- silent dancing. -- style
:06:08. > :06:13.of dancing. Issues you the geography two -- in cheesy the choreography
:06:14. > :06:19.and genius. -- it shows you. I went to Leningrad to see performances at
:06:20. > :06:26.the Kiev Theatre where he was performance in. He was recognised in
:06:27. > :06:30.Russia, the USSR, and by all the great dancers. Then we went to
:06:31. > :06:35.London and I started to negotiate with the Russians, and they agreed
:06:36. > :06:47.to send this company to England for a season. This is an original poster
:06:48. > :06:51.for the first appearance of the Kirov Ballet. Amongst the you
:06:52. > :06:57.concede Rudolf Nureyev. But he never turned up this on. He went to Paris,
:06:58. > :07:01.and Ron Paris, they were coming through to London, and we didn't
:07:02. > :07:06.expect anything else at the airport. On the 16th of June, 1961, Rudolf
:07:07. > :07:11.Nureyev seller for the airport to fly to London with the rest of the
:07:12. > :07:14.Kirov Ballet company on their tour. He did not know that Soviet
:07:15. > :07:19.authorities had decided he was a security risk, and were planning to
:07:20. > :07:23.send him back to Russia, instead. At the last minute, rather than bought
:07:24. > :07:29.the plane to Russia, Rudolf Nureyev broke away from his mind and asked
:07:30. > :07:34.authorities for asylum in France. He jumped over the barrier and decided
:07:35. > :07:38.to defect. The Rudolf Nureyev defection caused a worldwide
:07:39. > :07:42.sensation. He became known as the man who had pierced the Iron
:07:43. > :07:49.Curtain. I think the simple question of being by nature, by temperament,
:07:50. > :07:55.not wanting to go back to Moscow in Russia. He was totally disinterested
:07:56. > :08:01.in politics. He was interested in art. The idea of communism is... He
:08:02. > :08:05.was not a defector for these reasons. At the tender age of 23,
:08:06. > :08:11.Rudolf Nureyev phantoms of the centre of the media spotlight, which
:08:12. > :08:22.would not them for years to come. What sort of parts do you want to
:08:23. > :08:26.Dantz first of all? -- Ganz. -- dance. I'm a romantic Ganz, and I
:08:27. > :08:39.would like to try every different way. It was a great dancer, of
:08:40. > :08:45.course. But he was able to Madam Mariah is the world of Baz I -- he
:08:46. > :08:55.was able to mesmerise the world of ballet. He transformed the whole
:08:56. > :09:00.aspect, the whole scene of ballet. It is impossible to overestimate the
:09:01. > :09:20.influence. It was unique, certainly, to this very day. Rudolf Nureyev
:09:21. > :09:24.died of convocations from AIDS. On July 1990, Indigenous Canadian spent
:09:25. > :09:30.months in a stand-off with the country's security forces over plans
:09:31. > :09:38.to build a golf course over a burial ground. To see the text coming and,
:09:39. > :09:45.we even had the fighter jets flying over us. The mood was very tense. --
:09:46. > :09:50.tanks coming in. This is all for a golf course. This was all for some
:09:51. > :09:56.group of rich people, the elite and their playground. Like many other
:09:57. > :10:01.indigent people is, we call the earth our mother. It is a place
:10:02. > :10:04.where our ancestors rest. It is extremely important. They wanted to
:10:05. > :10:09.extend their nine hole golf course into an 18 hole of course. But at
:10:10. > :10:15.the same time, they also wanted to dig up our burial ground to extend
:10:16. > :10:24.their parking lot. We set up a blockade on a secondary to grow them
:10:25. > :10:31.act -- blockade on a secondary dirt road. Our lineage goes round
:10:32. > :10:34.mothers, and it is our duty to protect the land. It is the men's
:10:35. > :10:39.responds purely to protect the people. We said we would go to the
:10:40. > :10:42.front and the men said they would watch us and protectors of anything
:10:43. > :10:48.happen. On the morning of July 11, we were interrupted at 5:15am by a
:10:49. > :10:53.SWAT team and so we went to wards the front of the barricade and
:10:54. > :10:58.towards the highway with our hands on the edge make sure that they saw
:10:59. > :11:02.we had no weapons. But they still matters with a lot of aggression,
:11:03. > :11:07.and a lot of force. What is said to them was that this is our land, and
:11:08. > :11:11.we have every right to be here. They were not too happy with that. That
:11:12. > :11:16.is why they wanted to talk to a man. It is against the women were being
:11:17. > :11:19.very unreasonable, to them. Originally, people said they would
:11:20. > :11:22.be no weapons, but there were individuals who carried their
:11:23. > :11:28.weapons and we could not do anything about it. We said it was a peaceful
:11:29. > :11:32.barricade. Around 830, deeply started firing tear gas and
:11:33. > :11:35.concussion grenades at us. Concussion grenades, for those who
:11:36. > :11:40.do not know, sound like gunshots. They are quite a loud noise. I had
:11:41. > :11:45.to tell some of the people I was weird to run, you know, let's run
:11:46. > :11:52.for cover. It was scary because we did not know if anyone was killed,
:11:53. > :11:59.on both sides. The police force continued to block the roads of
:12:00. > :12:03.people coming in or out. They prevented food, medicine, and they
:12:04. > :12:07.were quite aggressive and always provoking. It was a siege after 78
:12:08. > :12:22.days. A siege. When we did decide to ended we said
:12:23. > :12:26.we had enough and went back to our homes. December 30 sixth was
:12:27. > :12:29.supposedly when it finished. A big melee happened. Some of the soldiers
:12:30. > :12:34.had their bayonets on because they were totally afraid of the people
:12:35. > :12:39.who were coming out. There were a lot of arrests on that day. They
:12:40. > :12:47.were still not surrendering because the land is viewed as still not
:12:48. > :12:52.settled. I mean, the golf course sparked a discussion about the real
:12:53. > :12:56.issues that indigenous people have been fighting for four centuries,
:12:57. > :13:02.which is possession, protection of our languages and culture, of our
:13:03. > :13:10.life. So it work up people. I would say it was up people. They are still
:13:11. > :13:16.campaigning for indigenous rights. You can watch Witness every month on
:13:17. > :13:27.the BBC channel, or catch up on 1000 radio programmes online. Next, back
:13:28. > :13:30.to July 1957, when the British Parliament passed a bill to
:13:31. > :13:34.decriminalise to the sexuality. For that being gay in this country was
:13:35. > :13:40.not just illegal but widely seen as a disease. Witness went back to meet
:13:41. > :13:44.the radio presenter Pete Price who was sent for a version therapy to
:13:45. > :13:49.try to cure him of his homosexuality. It was very difficult
:13:50. > :13:56.growing up in the 60s as a gay man because to touch another man, to
:13:57. > :14:00.hold, to feel, to have emotions, you could go to prison. For many of us
:14:01. > :14:08.this is revolting, then dancing with ham. Homosexuals in this country
:14:09. > :14:13.today rake the law. -- men dancing with men. The queer bashers were out
:14:14. > :14:19.and people committed suicide, it was a very sad time. I was 18, going on
:14:20. > :14:23.19, when my mother found out that I was homosexual and she took it
:14:24. > :14:30.badly, then went to the doctors. The doctors told us, there is a queue. I
:14:31. > :14:35.have now since found out it was called a version therapy. Didn't
:14:36. > :14:41.know anything about it, so Mum said, will you do with? I said, yeah, for
:14:42. > :14:47.you I'll do it. They put me in a mental institute. In those days they
:14:48. > :14:52.were called a loony bin, or psychiatric ward. There were bars on
:14:53. > :14:56.the window and I was very, very frightened. I went into see the
:14:57. > :15:01.psychiatrist and he had an old-fashioned tape recorder, the
:15:02. > :15:07.real to Reel, and he described all of the sexual acts that gay people
:15:08. > :15:12.did, using very graphic language, to make you feel disgusting. Then they
:15:13. > :15:16.put me in a room. I still didn't know what would happen to me, I
:15:17. > :15:20.really didn't know, except they asked me what I drank and in those
:15:21. > :15:27.days I drank Stout, Guinness. There was a male nurse, no windows, and
:15:28. > :15:33.they have a stack of what they called "dirty books". There were
:15:34. > :15:37.many in swimming costumes. There was nothing erotic about it. I was
:15:38. > :15:43.supposed to look up the books, listen to the tape, which the notice
:15:44. > :15:46.was operating, with his vile conversation and he was giving the
:15:47. > :15:52.Guinness. Halfway through the hour he injected me, which made me
:15:53. > :15:57.violently ill. So I asked, could I use the bathroom? He said, no, just
:15:58. > :16:05.use the bed. I was violently sick and defecated on the bed and I am
:16:06. > :16:11.lying in my urine faeces and vomit and feeling incredibly ill. I was
:16:12. > :16:16.frightened young man, 18, going on 19. I was very, very scared. I
:16:17. > :16:20.wasn't thinking of a cure, I just thought I was going to die because
:16:21. > :16:24.this was torture. At the end of 72 hours I had nothing left. I just
:16:25. > :16:32.wanted out and I decided I'd had enough. I am volunteering to leave.
:16:33. > :16:39.I rang a Powell of mind to get me out and I thank. -- pal of mine. I
:16:40. > :16:43.stamp of filth. I had a bath and I must have been in there for eight
:16:44. > :16:46.hours, trying to scrub the filth off me. After the treatment I decided
:16:47. > :16:51.enough was enough and Daewoo Corp one day and said, I am what I am,
:16:52. > :16:58.have got to be who I am and accept who I am.
:16:59. > :17:07.I channelled the way I was through my entertainment. All the big stars
:17:08. > :17:14.I've worked with. They learn to be who I was and I became outrageous
:17:15. > :17:24.and that was the way I got accept the. -- acceptance. You're lovely.
:17:25. > :17:27.Got a brother? I think I've been happy with myself as a homosexual,
:17:28. > :17:33.but I actually don't leave I belong anywhere. I can never forget what
:17:34. > :17:39.they did to me, ever. Pete Price still presents a popular evening
:17:40. > :17:43.show in Liverpool. Finally, in 1977 racing car driver Janet became the
:17:44. > :17:48.first woman to compete in the prestigious Indianapolis 500 motor
:17:49. > :17:53.race. She speak to Witness about competing in a male dominated sport.
:17:54. > :18:01.Race drivers are special breed of American folk hero. They have always
:18:02. > :18:05.been men, until Janet Guthrie. I had no house, no husband, no jewellery,
:18:06. > :18:10.no insurance. I had one used up race car. I was playing in a
:18:11. > :18:16.millionaire's sport from the very beginning and not having been born
:18:17. > :18:23.with a trust fund I learned how to build my own engines and be my own
:18:24. > :18:27.-- do my own bodywork. I thought there was a reasonably good chance
:18:28. > :18:31.that I would be successful at it, because I wanted it a lot. I loved
:18:32. > :18:37.the sport. It was the passion of my life, really. Part of the fun is to
:18:38. > :18:44.accept the risk and deal with it gracefully and well. You have to
:18:45. > :18:49.have an interest in what it's like out there at the limits of human
:18:50. > :18:53.capability. I was saying to myself, you know, you really must come to
:18:54. > :18:59.your senses and make some provision for your old age. That was the point
:19:00. > :19:04.at which the phone rang and a voice completely unknown to me said, how
:19:05. > :19:15.would you like to take a shot at the Indianapolis 500? It was sometimes
:19:16. > :19:20.said that the Indianapolis 500 wasn't the most important race, it
:19:21. > :19:26.was the only race. That's how most of the United States feels about it.
:19:27. > :19:33.Over 400,000 people showed up. You can't imagine how many people that
:19:34. > :19:40.is until you see them in person. When I got my big chance at the top
:19:41. > :19:43.levels of the sport, it made a huge commotion. They simply haven't had
:19:44. > :19:48.the experience of running against a woman and they were sure I was going
:19:49. > :19:53.to kill them all. All I had to do at the beginning was open up a
:19:54. > :19:58.newspaper and there was some other driver saying that his blood was
:19:59. > :20:04.going to be on the official's cans. Seriously, when I say commotion, it
:20:05. > :20:09.was big. -- hands. I was so happy. I was happy that I had put a car in
:20:10. > :20:15.the field for the Indianapolis 500. I think a lot of drivers would tell
:20:16. > :20:20.you the first time you make the field at Indianapolis is the moment
:20:21. > :20:30.you will never forget. Of course any figure out what you really want to
:20:31. > :20:33.do is win the thing. You're thinking, who's behind you, what are
:20:34. > :20:37.their driving habits, who is ahead of you, what mistakes are they
:20:38. > :20:42.likely to make on the first -- and on the first lap you really want to
:20:43. > :20:47.keep yourself out of any trouble. In that race I had a mechanical
:20:48. > :20:53.failure. When we finally decided the car was not going to be fixable, I
:20:54. > :20:58.left the pits and headed back to the garage. There was a lot of
:20:59. > :21:03.enthusiasm in the stands at that point. Janet is not a new, the car
:21:04. > :21:09.racing. My best shot at Indianapolis was ninth, with a team I formed and
:21:10. > :21:16.managed myself. I best finish in IndyCar racing was fifth at
:21:17. > :21:21.Milwaukee. I wasn't racing to prove anything about women. Because the
:21:22. > :21:25.fact that I was a woman in my opinion had nothing to do with it. A
:21:26. > :21:33.racing driver was what I was, right through to my bone marrow. In 2006
:21:34. > :21:37.Janet Guthrie was in the ready to the international motor sports wall
:21:38. > :21:43.of fame. That's all from us this Month. When the next week at the
:21:44. > :21:50.British library. We will have five extraordinary counts of history
:21:51. > :21:54.through the eyes of the people who were there. For now, goodbye.