Campaign for Homosexual Equality
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The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) was a membership organisation in the United Kingdom with a stated aim from 1969 to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales.<ref name="dango1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Active throughout the 1970s Template:Endash and becoming a mass-membership organisation during this time Template:Endash CHE's membership declined in the 1980s.<ref name="CHE-history"/>
CHE set up a research trust in 2021 to 'advance education for the public benefit about the history of the struggle for LGBT+ rights, including but not limited to the origins and history of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and by contributing to the safe preservation of LGBT+ archives'. The CHE Research Trust (CHERT) was registered as a charity on 11 March 2022.<ref> https://lgbthistoryuk.org/wiki/CHERT (accessed 13 July 2023) </ref>
HistoryEdit
CHE began in Manchester as the North-Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee in 1964 as a local branch of the Homosexual Law Reform Society. An initial meeting was held on 4 June 1964, but only about eight people attended. A decision was made to re-establish the group on a wider basis, and an "advisory group" formed. This group chose the name "North-Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee". The new group was launched at Church House, Deansgate, Manchester, on 7 October 1964.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Allan Horsfall was its secretary and most visible member.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1969, the NWHLRC was renamed the Committee for Homosexual Equality with aims to becoming a national body for England and Wales. The group met at the Swarthmoor Centre in Leeds in 1971<ref name=leeds/> and, later in the same year, changed its name to the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
London Friend was set up in London in 1972 intended to provide counselling.<ref name="FriendAwards">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1972, CHE members took part in the first London Pride at Hyde Park, followed by a march to Trafalgar Square, nominally to protest at the age of consent, then age 21.<ref name=1RAL2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That year, CHE had become the largest lesbian and gay rights organisation in the country, representing a more reformist goal than the liberationist Gay Liberation Front.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By 1973, it held the first national gay rights conference in Morecambe.<ref> The archives of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality LSE blog by Dr Clifford Williams on 50th Anniversary of 1st National Conference https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2023/06/23/the-archives-of-the-campaign-for-homosexual-equality/ (accessed 13 July 2023) </ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In this period, CHE claimed 5,000 members and some 100 local groups.<ref name=isbn0704331756>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1974, CHE appeared alongside London Friend in a documentary titled Speak for Yourself produced by London Weekend Television. At this time, the organisation's offices were at 22 Great Windmill Street, London. The offices of London Friend were at 47 Church St, London NW8. The organisations worked closely together through social events. CHE at the time had 4000 members and was involved in campaigns and politics, whereas Friend was a counselling service.<ref name="bfi74">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It organised a national Homosexual Equality Rally in London.<ref name=2RAL1>Addison, Paul, & Jones, Harriet. (2008). A Companion to Contemporary Britain, 1939-2000. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. p.394. Template:ISBN</ref> The rally was supported by the women's movement and people from ethnic minorities.<ref name="hunt et al">Hunt, Lynn; Thomas R. Martin; et al. (2008). The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Vol. C Since 1740. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.</ref> Where earlier actions had concentrated on legal protection from criminal persecution, this rally was part of gay and lesbian people starting to establish a distinct sexual identity.<ref name="hunt et al"/> Those who turned out for the rally did so to support the extension of constitutional rights and universal values to lesbian and gay people.<ref name="hunt et al"/> CHE and London Friend shared offices and had close links until 1974.<ref name=bfi74/> Friend was separated from CHE in 1975.<ref name="CHE-history">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In May 1974, CHE’s Working Party on Law Reform proposed lowering the age of consent to sixteen, or twelve in some legal cases.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book pp. 132 and 243, Note 6.6.</ref><ref>Gay News, no. 46, 9 May 1974, p.3 – 'CHE Report angers reformers'.</ref> At the time 200-300 youth, mostly young men between 16-20 years old, were being prosecuted for consensual homosexual acts every year.<ref name=":0" /> After internal review, in 1973, the idea of twelve for age of consent was dropped.<ref name=":0" /> In 1972, there was movement by heterosexual activists to make their age of consent fourteen.<ref name=":0" /> In 1977, CHE passed a resolution at its conference, “supported by the vast majority of delegates”, which condemned press harassment of the Paedophile Information Exchange.<ref name="BBC_PIE">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
At a fringe meeting of the organisation held in Coventry in 1978, a new separate international organisation was formed, named ILGA, which later became International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.<ref name="ILGA1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1979, its offices were moved from Manchester to London. In the 1980s, the group campaigned for further law reform and on issues such as Section 28. That decade, the CHE decided to focus on campaigning and diverted its attention away from local groups; this led to a loss in membership during the decade.<ref name="CHE-history"/>
In 2005, the organisation received a substantial bequest from a former member, Derek Oyston of Gateshead.<ref>Ross Burgess. "CHE > Derek Oyston". c-h-e.org.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2015.</ref> In early 2009, the organisation was campaigning to prevent cases of historic child sex abuse being prosecuted if raised more than five years after the young person gained age of majority; this, alongside issues relating to CHE's membership, "governance, constitution, electoral process policy-making process [and] financial transparency" led to its being disaffiliated from Liberty.<ref name="5yr_limit">Template:Cite news</ref>
Lord Smith of Finsbury became a vice-president of CHE in February 2009.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2010, the organisation commissioned a book titled Amiable Warriors: A Space to Breathe, 1954 - 1973, by Peter Scott-Presland to write their own account of the organisation's history.<ref>Amiable Warriors Volume One, Chapter 2; "Celebration of the life of Allan Horsfall", Campaign for Homosexual Equality.</ref>
The organisation received the 2014 Alan Turing Memorial Award as part of the Homo Heroes Awards ceremony organised by the Lesbian and Gay Foundation.<ref>"I need a (Homo) Hero! Manchester's LGBT stars honoured in awards". mancunianmatters.co.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2015.</ref> From 2015, the organisation has stated on its page that it "no longer has the resources to offer assistance to individuals experiencing discrimination, whether in the UK or elsewhere."<ref name=CHEhome>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality (TORCHE)
- LGBT rights in the United Kingdom
- List of LGBT rights organizations
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- CHE official web site
- History of Gay Rights campaigning in Manchester
- Unofficial history of CHE by Ray Gosling
- Catalogue of the papers of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics
- Archive catalogue of the Lancaster and Morecambe CHE Branch
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