Bishopsgate Institute

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The Switchboard has his First Call -up in a space below a bookstore in King's Cross at 4. March 1974

Switchboard , the LGBT helpline has made his First Call from a tiny office in The Basement of a bookshop in King's Cross at 4. March 1974. On the occasion of the 45th anniversary, people shared memories of a charity which helped millions around The World .

Lisa Makes earlier think of themselves as supporters or allies of the gay community, But rather as a member.

revealed But in 1976, during a March in Lancashire to Protest against Lisa "accidentally" yourself as a loud and proud lesbian.

"Somebody gave me your poster while you went to The Bathroom ... I didn't even see that The Photographer from The Local newspaper," she says.

"The next thing I know, there is a large photo in The Local newspaper with me, a shield with the inscription 'BHS unfair gay'... oops!"

After that, Lisa thought she "might as well go" together with your new identity.

she is a sharp-tongued gay rights activist since.

Lisa Power (left) says informed Switchboard that it "has a much better activist" Since leaving attendant in 1994 Lisa spoke to an approved pipe for sexual health and LGBT rights, Lisa Switchboard in 1979, occurred when the gay-Liberation Movement , which made waves around The World .

Although homosexuality was partial decriminalisation in England and Wales in 1967, British culture was not adapted completely to The Change .

people continue to be discriminated against at home, in the workplace and in public.

After meeting in a pub between a number of gay groups in London, telephone centre was established to cater for the needs of the people, the need for information and understanding ear.

Lisa , who now lives in Cardiff, describes the helpline as a "gay Finishing School , where they learned about Everything ".

Switchboard gained traction soon after the Start in 1974 and quickly became a 24-hour in-service per shift, the volunteer calls of varying wildly in subject and tone.

The callers want to know when certain gay club nights were happening.

Or perhaps The Call had come from a giggling group of teenagers squeezed into a phone booth, after they persuaded each other to a hoax call, would be a laugh.

Or sometimes, The Caller would be murder on the threshold of the self.

The responsibility Lisa had taken, as the listener, really at home, while on vacation in Greece with her friend.

thank A woman, the sat came up in your area on The Beach to her for the First Person to be gay you've ever spoken.

"you recognized My Voice , she remembered my name, and you wanted to tell me what had made a difference to this Year ," says Lisa .

"is That why we did it. "

Lisa went on to found Stonewall, The Charity , added: "attendant gave me the motivation for [being an activist], because they would come from a shift, sometimes just a feeling, completely bloody mad on the lives of the people were forced.

"unnecessary dumbing down of the people's lives, to tell people who were simply afraid of the people they were gay. "

Mark Gatiss called the Switchboard after The Number on a poster, on The Set of a TV sitcom, A caller, a telephone Central was at This Time a confused 12-or 13-Year -old boy named Mark.

Mark Gatiss was not to know, he would Grow Up to be a household name as an actor and a writer.

at the time, he was concerned that he could not say Out loud what he knew in his heart.

"I knew that I was gay," he says. "I just wanted to experience someone to talk to, about the actual.

"I lived in fear and terror [Coming Out ]. what I feared was the verdict. I couldn't imagine a moment in which I really say it.

"I don't was done by a very, very solid working-class North-East in the background in such things. "

He decided to telephone Central, after a poster with The Number on it in the ITV sitcom agony.

After Hanging Up on The Volunteers several times, he said down The Line : "hi, I'm gay. "

"is There a type of affirmation is," the Doctor Who and Sherlock star says. "There was no one else to say, except, you know, in The Bathroom , in The Dark .

"you often say, you can relieve probably says More to a stranger than by an old friend, because there is no comeback, there is no judgment," he said.

The 1970s, The First official Gay Pride rallies in the UK, marks say Voluntary, a certain "reputation" was part of the panel in the 1980s and 1990s In the early days, telephone Central was a small organization, and volunteers had to say goodbye to that sneaky tactic to The Number to as many people as possible.

groups of gay activists would sneak into libraries in London and stick the master number "in each book, she thought, that a young gay man or lesbian could go to read," Lisa says, as on the pages of The Bible to Express anti-gay feelings.

However, at the beginning of the 1980s, Everything changed.

scientists began noticing a weird increase in deaths in previously healthy young homosexual men.

The HIV epidemic has had his ugly face.

More Than 35 million people have died of Aids since the beginning of the epidemic according to UNAIDS, the government issued information brochures to all households in the United Kingdom Switchboard , The Number printed on them and demand for the helpline had been shot in the height.

Switchboard , was an important source of information to help people prevent HIV transmission.

But that did not stop The Virus from which the ribs by the gay community, with tragic consequences.

view a photo that says a gay pub in Islington in 1984, Lisa : "It is very poignant, as in A Shot of the best and brightest of the London lesbian and gay movement, as HIV was to meet us.

", All, the sun, all of these hopes. And a total lottery, who came through. "

Multiple Switchboard volunteers in this recording, recorded to celebrate the helpline 10-Year anniversary, which would go on to die of Aids, Diana James describes this period as "a heart-wrenching, But also a fantastic time for LGBT people".

The 60-Year -old, who lives in Cornwall, was a telephone Switchboard is The First transgender to volunteer if they entered in 1988.

It is the same Year as Margaret Thatcher , the government took the highly controversial policy, with the nickname section 28,

you Stand in a tiny office above Housman's bookshop in King's Cross, from where they used to sit and answer phones, Diana remembers the homophobic prejudices, would you and your colleagues encounter.

"in the past, We have cut a small hole in the door, so you could see outside, whether it's someone waiting For You when you said to the left," she said.

"It was a hard time. There was all sorts of right-wing groups, which thought a queer was a good way to spend an evening after a few Beers. "

Diana James was The First transgender person to join the Central For Diana, the prejudice is not always Out of straight people.

at the time, the Hotline was called the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard (with the rebranded of the " Gay Switchboard in 1986), and some volunteers enemy feeling towards the idea of bisexual or trans people to answer the phones - even if many of the callers identified as bisexual or trans itself.

Lisa Power , had argued vigorously for Diana on the setting, and it was accepted only on The Team because she is a lesbian, not because she is trans.

"There was a lot of protest and many are upset. People leave [because of the accession]," says Diana.

"This was at a time when trans issues were not understood. Sex and sexuality were still very mixed, not only of the average, especially in the Head , But those of the gay community as well.

"But , as a dyke, I wanted to help people. And it also has the reputation of being a telephone Switchboard , do volunteer work, I really wanted it to," she says.

The Hotline is still very much in demand and takes around 15,000 calls in the Year of Homophobic legislation, right-wing thugs and the fear of Aids might feel like Ancient History for young LGBT people today.

But many of the themes of the 1970s and 80s are still widely used.

Ki-Hng, a microscope technician at UCL, believes, it helps to understand the other volunteers, that many LGBT people still struggling to come Out to their Families .

AI Hng mother attempted to "exorcise", as you suspected initially, it is to be bisexual could ", Because I'm bisexual and I grew up in Malaysia, which is a very conservative, heteronormative country, I assumed I was just" AI.

"although I had crushes on girls, I had the vocabulary, and I can't identify. I didn't know that was even possible. "

According to AI broke up with her long-time boyfriend and moved to London in 2011, her mother accused her, "like girls".

"trying you started me Out ," AI says.

Ki hopes that you can draw from your "terrible" Coming Out story, to help people, she says on The Phone as a telephone operator volunteers.

kings cross, long reads, lgbt, pride

Source of news: bbc.com