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Trouble at the venues

1980


Bridget said that “Some of the other places which were known as a gay pub, like the Jester, people would be tactile, but not so much at the Old Mo, although everyone knew it was a load of dykes. There was trouble at times, at of the places, for example coming out of the Matador where there were socials, and even at the Star Club (Communist Party Club) – they got known as venues for lesbians and some men would be outside and create trouble with women leaving. One day we had a disco at the Star Club, some men bashed the door and came up the stairs, jumped on the banister and dropped his trousers. “We had a lighted cigarette at the time so we were able to leave an indication of our views on that on his backside!”. There were people there deliberately to cause trouble. The police at that time weren’t viewed as being very sympathetic so you wouldn’t contact the police unless you absolutely had to, they were still very homophobic and you’d like as not end up with the gay person being arrested rather than the perpetrator, so they were viewed with a high degree of suspicion and were not involved unless it was really unavoidable. That’s changed a lot now.

Contributed by: Barbara Carter, 53, Bridget Malin, 62

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