LGSM News
It's quite illogical to say ‘I’m gay and I’m into defending the gay community but I don’t care about anything else.’ It’s important that if you're defending communities, you’re defending all communities and not just one.
Mark Ashton
It's quite illogical to say ‘I’m gay and I’m into defending the gay community but I don’t care about anything else.’ It’s important that if you're defending communities, you’re defending all communities and not just one.
Mark Ashton
The book that tells the LGSM story, Pride, by Tim Tate, is set to release on Thursday 10 August 2017. It is published in paperback by John Blake Publishing and costs £8.99.
Tim is an author and investigative journalist and has done a fantastic job of presenting our story in our own words, providing an introduction and background text on the historical events of the time alongside the interview text.
Fourteen members of LGSM and/or Lesbians Against Pit Closures (LAPC) were interviewed, as well as five of the surviving key players in South Wales. Each contributor provides information on their respective backgrounds and the experiences and events that contributed towards their part in our story. Tim interweaves the interviews of each contributor to tell the real story in the words of those who were there at the time.
On Thursday 17 August, LGSM members Jonathan Blake, Mike Jackson and Gethin Roberts will be hosting the London Launch Event for Pride – the book at Gay’s The Word Bookshop. The event is free.
The event kicks off at 7pm, and Jonathan, Mike and Gethin will be available to sign copies bought from the shop that evening.
In today’s world, people use superlatives in a way that cheapens their concept and makes them meaningless. If “today” is always the most momentous, the biggest, the most significant, we all become inured to the concept. So we at LGSM try our best to avoid superlatives, unless they are warranted.
On Friday 19 May 2017, on what would have been Mark Ashton’s 57th birthday, LGSM unveiled a blue plaque above Gay’s The Word bookshop, commemorating the life and work of Mark. The funds to cover production and installation of the plaque were raised by an appeal launched on Crowdfunder in January 2017, and over 200 people donated to the appeal. The funding target was reached within 16 hours of the launch. We are truly grateful to each and every donor for making this project a reality.
Campaigners and Margaret Thatcher travel to London for Home Office Demonstration - Thursday 15th December 2016
Last year on 15th December 2015 representatives from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) submitted a legal document to the Home Office at the request of then Home Secretary Theresa May providing evidence and information about police brutality used against picketing miners at the Orgreave coking plant on 18th June 1984. The purpose of this was to enable the Home Secretary to consider holding a Public Inquiry into the events at Orgreave involving police fabrication of evidence, wrongful arrests, malicious prosecutions and perjury. No police officer has ever been held to account or been through a disciplinary procedure regarding what happened at Orgreave.
