Marches in London and Manchester
1989
“There was never a Clause 28 demonstration in Birmingham, the gay community wasn’t confident enough but we went to marches in Manchester and London. On the massive London march some extreme left wing militants from the SWP (Socialist Workers’ Party) tried to climb the gates to Number Ten Downing Street. This made the police jumpy. When we reached the main rally outside the War Memorial park there were police on horse back. They surrounded us and we thought they were going to charge. It was terrifying, especially for me in a wheelchair. The march leaders calmed them down and got rid of the trouble makers; people were looking at us with slight amusement to complete anger. A couple of the chants we used went like this………………….
‘2,4,6,8 Is that copper really straight?’
And
‘Give me an O O O - What have you got? -
OOOOOOOOOOOO!’
And ‘We’re out, We’re gay, but we ain’t going shopping!’”
Contributed by: Trevor Sword, 50