Editing Gay Liberation Front (section)

==United Kingdom==
[[Image:Ink glf cover.jpg|thumb|150px|1971 GLF cover version of ''Ink'' magazine, UK]]
{{quote box|... if we are to succeed in transforming our society we must persuade others of the merits of our ideas, and there is no way we can achieve this if we cannot even persuade those most affected by our oppression to join us in fighting for justice.

We do not intend to ask for anything. ''We intend to stand firm and assert our basic rights.'' If this involves violence, it will not be we who initiate this, but those who attempt to stand in our way to freedom.|source= —''GLF Manifesto'', 1971<ref name="GLF Manifesto">{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/glf-london.html|title=Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto. London|orig-year=1971|year=1978}}</ref>|align=left |width=20em}}

The [[United Kingdom|UK]] Gay Liberation Front existed between 1970 and 1973.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://libcom.org/library/brief-history-gay-liberation-front-1970-73|title=A brief history of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-73|author=Stuart Weather|website=libcom.org|language=en|access-date=2018-12-02}}</ref>

Its first meeting was held in the basement of the [[London School of Economics]] on 13 October 1970. [[Bob Mellors]] and Aubrey Walter had seen the effect of the GLF in the United States and created a parallel movement based on revolutionary politics.<ref name=outrage-p2>{{harvnb|Lucas|1998|pp=2–3}}</ref> ''Come Together'', the organisation's newspaper,  came out of its Media Workshop the same year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/collections/come-together-gay-liberation-front|title=Come Together: Gay Liberation Front|website=Bishopsgate Institute|language=en|access-date=2022-06-19}}</ref>

By 1971, the UK GLF was recognized as a political movement in the national press, holding weekly meetings of 200 to 300 people.<ref>{{cite news|title=An Alternative to Sexual Shame: Impact of the new militancy among homosexual groups|newspaper=The Times|author-link=Victoria Brittain|first=Victoria|last=Brittain|date=28 August 1971|page=12}}</ref> The GLF Manifesto was published, and a series of high-profile direct actions, were carried out, such as the disruption of the launch of the Church-based morality campaign, Festival of Light.<ref name=DANGO>{{cite web |url=http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/record_details.asp?id=2896&recordType=ngo |title=Gay Liberation Front (GLF) |publisher=Database of Archives of Non-Government Organisations |date=January 4, 2009 |access-date=2009-11-20 |archive-date=March 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316060527/http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/record_details.asp?id=2896&recordType=ngo |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The disruption of the opening of the 1971 [[Nationwide Festival of Light|Festival of Light]] was one of the most well-organised [[UK Gay Liberation Front 1971 Festival of Light action|GLF actions]]. The first meeting of the Festival of Light was organised by [[Mary Whitehouse]] at [[Westminster Central Hall|Methodist Central Hall]]. Amongst GLF members taking part in this protest were the "Radical Feminists", a group of [[Gender variance|gender non-conforming]] males in [[Drag (clothing)|drag]], who invaded and spontaneously kissed each other;<ref>{{cite book|author=Power, Lisa |title=No Bath But Plenty Of Bubbles: An Oral History Of The Gay Liberation Front 1970-7|date=1995|publisher=Cassell}}</ref> others released mice, sounded horns, and unveiled banners, and a contingent dressed as workmen obtained access to the basement and shut off the lights.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|title=Uproar at Central Hall as demonstrators threaten to halt Festival of Light|date=10 September 1971|page=14|first=Basil|last=Gingell}}</ref>

Easter 1972 saw the Gay Lib annual conference held in the [[University of Birmingham Guild of Students|Guild of Students]] building at the [[University of Birmingham]].<ref name="gaybrum">{{cite web|url=http://gaybirminghamremembered.co.uk/topics/GLF%20National%20Conference|title=Gay Birmingham Remembered - The Gay Birmingham History Project|publisher=[[Birmingham LGBT Community Trust]]|access-date=3 October 2012|quote=Birmingham hosted the Gay Liberation Front annual conference in 1972, at the chaplaincy at Birmingham University Guild of Students.}}</ref>

[[File:Birmingham GLF banner.jpg|right|thumb|Birmingham GLF marching in Kings Heath / Moseley, Birmingham 1975]]
By 1974, internal disagreements had led to the movement's splintering. Organizations that spun off from the movement included the [[London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard]], ''[[Gay News]]'', and [[Gay's the Word (bookshop)|Icebreakers]]. The GLF Information Service continued for a few further years providing gay related resources.<ref name=outrage-p2/> GLF branches had been set up in some provincial British towns (e.g., Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, and Leicester) and some survived for a few years longer. The [[Leicester Gay Liberation Front]] founded by Jeff Martin was noted for its involvement in the setting up of the local "Gayline", which is still active today and has received funding from the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]]. They also carried out a high-profile campaign against the local paper, the ''[[Leicester Mercury]]'', which refused to advertise Gayline's services at the time.<ref>Peace News John Birdsall page 2 (13 January 1978)</ref><ref>Gay News (1978) ''Demonstrators protest at ad ban on help-line'' edition number 135</ref>

The papers of the GLF are among the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the [[London School of Economics]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Calmview: Collection Browser|url=http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=HCA|website=archives.lse.ac.uk|publisher=LSE Library Services|access-date=19 February 2015}}</ref>

Several members of the GLF, including [[Peter Tatchell]], continued campaigning beyond the 1970s under the organisation of [[OutRage!]], which was founded in 1990 and dissolved in 2011, using similar tactics to the GLF (such as "[[Zap (action)|zaps]]"<ref>Willett, p. 86</ref> and performance protest<ref>{{cite web|last1=Tatchell|first1=Peter|title=Peter Tatchell: The Art of Activism|url=http://www.petertatchell.net/direct_action/art_of_activism.htm|website=petertatchell.net|access-date=19 February 2015|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019193643/http://www.petertatchell.net/direct_action/art_of_activism.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>) to attract a significant level of media interest and controversy.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} It was at this point that a divide emerged within the gay activist movement, mainly due to a difference in ideologies,<ref name="Lucy Robinson">{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=Lucy|author-link=Lucy Robinson (historian)|title=Gay men and the left in post-war Britain: How the personal got political|date=2007|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=9781847792334|pages=174–176|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_RmSjy3K0EC&pg=PA176|access-date=19 February 2015}}</ref> after which a number of groups including Organization for Lesbian and Gay Alliance (OLGA), the [[Lesbian Avengers]], [[Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence]], Dykes And Faggots Together (DAFT),  [[Queer Nation]], [[Stonewall (charity)|Stonewall]] (which focused on [[lobbying]] tactics) and [[OutRage!]] co-existed.<ref name="Lucy Robinson"/>

These groups were very influential following the [[HIV/AIDS]] pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s and the violence against lesbians and gay men that followed.<ref name="Lucy Robinson"/>