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
For many of those who have seen Pride the film, Gay’s The Word very much appears as one of the characters of the film and the shop was definitely a significant part of the LGSM story. So it seems appropriate to share this with those who visit our website, as Gay’s The Word enters its 38th year of trading – and exists now as the only exclusively LGBTQ+ bookshop in the UK.
The second instalment of the LGSM archive is our first archive release of 2016 and we hope you find this interesting.
This is the only other audio recording that we have from our 1984-85 existence as a group. It is a recording of a public meeting that was held on 19 October 1984 to raise support and funds for the Dulais Valley strikers and their families. This meeting took place at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square a week before the first LGSM visit to Wales and there was an audience of almost 250.
On Friday 4 December, there was a joint presentation by LGSM & UNITE the Union's BASSA Branch (British Airways Stewards and Stewardesses Association). LGSM presented a donation of £2,500 and BASSA presented a further donation of £1,000. A further £700 has been raised from sales of the reprinted Mark Ashton Trust T-shirts at events we have attended over the last year.
Hefina was part of the backbone of the Neath, Dulais & Swansea Valleys Miners Support Group in 1984/85 and in life, a force of nature. For those who have seen the film Pride, her character is portrayed by the wonderful Imelda Staunton.
Her daughter Jayne has written a book that explores Hefina’s life through memories from friends and family members and photographs throughout her life. Hefina died on 5 October 2013, aged 83. Her death was just days before filming of the Pride scenes in Wales were due to start.
LGSM have started the massive task of building an archive of all the historical records from our year of existence between July 1984 and July 1985. This archive will include minutes of meetings, press cuttings, photographs, interviews, film footage, ephemera, reminiscences and much, much more. This will be supplemented with material from our reformation as LGSMA (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners Again) in 1992, when a second round of pit closures was announced. And finally, we will include more contemporary material from our reformation in 2014.
