Memories by Inge Thornton
Everyone looked butch at the Old Mo
The second person Inge told was a friend she shared a house with, who knew a woman who knew some lesbians in a group ‘Women Oppose the Nuclear Threat’. This friend invited her to the meetings, then she was invited to a pub, and generally built up kno...
Making friends at the Matador
Inge started going to ‘The Matador’ (where new Bullring market is now). Lesbian Line fundraiser discos were held on the 2nd and 4th Friday and the third Saturday each month, during the period from around 1985 to 91/92. (Lesbian Line was then separate...
First lesbian kiss
Inge was born in 1961, and went to Birmingham University from 79 – 83. She had her first lesbian kiss outside Gun Barrels pub (near University) on 17th June 1983. She was shocked, but it made sense of her previous life. She pondered for a year while ...
Promoting homosexuality at the Library!
In 1987 Inge began working for Birmingham Public Libraries, shortly before Clause 28 was passed in 1988. She was involved in campaigning against it, but felt she was living a dichotomy: “All this out and proud stuff on the streets of Balsall Heath, w...
Left wing politics
From the mid-80s Inge was involved in the underground feminist movement. At this time she was also involved in other (non lesbian and gay) left wing political groups including Anti-deportation campaigns, Troops out of Ireland, miners’ strikes. She on...
Boot Women not missed a month since 1993
Inge was one of the initiators of Boot Women, a walking group for lesbians. “I remember the discussions, upstairs at the Old Mo, years after the pub was no longer lesbian, we got together on a Tuesday, just a few friends and it just came out of an id...
Council told us not to say the 'L' word!
Between 1988 and 1992 there was an annual Women's Festival in Birmingham, co-ordinated by Birmingham City Council, during which various events were held.Inge recalls: “They had groups for younger women, older women, black women, mothers etc. and a gr...
Lack of women’s venues in 1980s and early 90s
When Inge first came out in the mid 80s “There was hardly anything in town, (for women), apart from the Matador (Lesbian Line discos). I didn’t go to the Nightingale much. I first socialised at the Jug approx. 1992, but it was very hard to get into t...
Sheila's bar 88 - 90s
"There was also ‘Sheila’s Bar’ on a Tuesday Night, in the back room of the Station Pub in Kings Heath, approx ’88 to early 90s. The pub is still there. That stopped because the owner moved on. When I was a bit older and sobered up a bit, I socialised...
Women's discos in the 1990s came and went
“In the later 90s we used to hire the Union Club on Pershore Road for monthly women's discos, from around 1996/7. They were organised by a woman called Wash, who was in the Trade Union movement”. “There were two short-lived organisations, ‘Henrietta’...
More choices for lesbians in town 1996 onwards
“By the mid 1990s things were starting to happen in town (the gay village area). I remember going to the Fox in about 1996/7 before it had become a women's bar, but it was vaguely turning into a gay bar, it was just on the edge. Angels might be there...
No age division in the 80s
“When I was in my early twenties (in the 80s) the women I was mixing with were in their twenties and thirties and a few in their forties and fifties. There were a lot of older lesbians around, in their forties, who are still around now but don’t part...
Loss of political ‘umph’ in the 2000s
“What I miss now is that sense of social cohesion. We were all interested in the same thing, we all felt that we were doing things for a purpose and being lesbian was political as well. Feminism was still really strong. There was a bit of divisivenes...
Organising first Pride 'by accident' 1997
“I got involved with the first Pride 1997, almost by accident. I was in between relationships so I had a lot of time on my hands. God knows how I found out about it, but there were plans for a Pride. The initial meeting was in a back room of a pub in...
Gay guide to gardening in the Outpost, 1998
The Outpost, was a midlands based magazine with a Birmingham focus published by two women, which ran until around March 98. It included articles such as the ‘Guide to gay gardening’....
Boot women socials and ball room dancing 97-00
“Out of Boot Women came Boot Women socials, we used to have women's discos at the United Services Club, on Gough Street, barn dances, we used the Church Hall in Moseley, stuff at the University, around 2000; a couple of women, Helga and Lynda, organi...
Not on the scene so much, 2008
“A lot of women who were around are still around but not socially on the scene, though I still occasionally go to the Fox, and I am involved in Birmingham Pride Community Trust and Gay Birmingham Remembered. I have still got friends from that era, we...