The problem of lesbian youth workers…
1985
“The Chair of the London
Union of Youth Clubs who later became Vice Chair of the National
Association of Youth Clubs was a really nice woman and had a very
healthy attitude - she was straight but her mother had been a lesbian
and had gone out with Vita Sackville-West! I got to know her and went
to see her at her country house estate near Melton Mowbray (Prince
Charles used to ride there) and it turned out I was knocking at the
gate house, the house was three quarters of a mile up the path. I was
at the London Union of Youth Clubs Management Committee and someone
round the table raised ‘The problem of lesbians in the youth service’,
and she said, ‘Yes I agree, it’s a big problem, why aren’t there more
of them….?’ I wanted to die, I was so happy, and the guy who’d asked
the question was just floored completely. There was a big issue,
probably a lot of other people thought it was really shocking, all
these lesbians doing single sex work with young women, we were quite
naïve. We were doing it for political reasons, not sexual, but when you
think about it now…".
Contributed by: Trisha McCabe, 51