Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Pride Badges

The LGBTQ+ Pride season is upon us. Today was the London Pride march, with 30,000 marchers. The Guardian also had a story about a treasure trove of LGBTQ+ badges being found in an attic.

That reminded me that I must still have a box containing a small collection of my own. Sure enough, a rummage in a cupboard produced:

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A few of these come from the 1970’s. The Campaign for Homosexual Equality badge may well date from 1974, when I helped organise the second annual CHE conference, which was held in Malvern, Worcestershire. I suspect the GLF badge will date from the mid 1970’s, whilst the Heaven badge was produced to celebrate the opening of the Heaven nightclub in 1979.

I attended a number of marches in those days. The early Pride marches, of course, but also anti-Fascist marches and Women’s Rights marches. This photo of me and my mother was taken in June 1975, shortly after I had finished marching (along with 20,000 others) in the demonstration organised by the National Abortion Campaign.

Mum & Geoff 1975

Heady days…

4 responses to “Pride Badges”

  1. Lauren O'Donoghue Avatar

    These are fantastic Geoff!

    I came across this post as I’ve been looking for more information about the 1974 CHE conference as part of my PhD research – I don’t suppose you can recall which venue the Malvern conference was hosted at?

    Any info would be extremely welcome and thanks for sharing these great badges!

    1. Geoff Coupe Avatar

      Hallo Lauren, the conference was held in the Winter Gardens in Malvern, with fringe meetings at various smaller locations around Malvern, in hotels and pubs… I have the programme from the 1974 conference (I was on the organising committee), so get in touch if you need further information. Cheers.

      1. Lauren O'Donoghue Avatar

        Geoff thank you so much for your swift response, you can’t know how excited I am to hear this! I have, no exaggeration, been trying to dig up this info for about two years with no success!

        I’d love to hear more if you’re happy to share. Thanks so much again!

        1. Geoff Coupe Avatar

          Lauren, I’ll continue our conversation via email. Cheers.

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