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Memories by Jean Turley

Homosexual wasn't in my vocabulary in the '50s

Jean turned 13 in 1948 and talks about the lack of terminology at the time."I was a teenager in the fifties; all the words that we use now all the time - lesbian, homosexual, homophobe - I wouldn’t have known them, they were not in my vocabulary. The...

Not wanting to get married

Jean talks about the expectation and pressure to be straight, get married and have children, like other girls her age. She turned 16 in 1951."I grew up in very deprived circumstances, very working class home, back streets of Birmingham and I should s...

In the Navy - terminology

"I went in the Navy and I was in the Wrens when I was eighteen in 1953 and I have to say, hand on heart, there were no gay relationships that I was aware of. I joined up because I wanted to get out of Birmingham, I wanted to get away from that depriv...

Work and college for 13 years

Jean joined the Navy in 1953 aged 18, and after a period of work eventually went to college in her late thirties.“When I came out of the Navy I got a good job working shifts, really good money, bought a car, did all sorts. I was in telecommunication...

Joining the Communist Party

"I finished college and went to night school to do a Sociology A level, where I met a woman who was in the Communist Partyand I just liked the things she was talking about politically. I obviously came from a Labour voting family, a Trade Union famil...

Communist Party lead on women’s rights

“The Communist Party was years ahead in acknowledging the fight for women and were all for abortion, there were always huge contingents of communists on the news talking about women's rights in one way or another. My first march was ‘Kill the Bill’, ...

Awareness of sexual politics in the 70s

"That growing awareness of sexual politics, and things like Germaine Greer’s book, ‘The Female Eunuch’, was very important in moving women towards fighting. Also, some American stuff, I’ve forgotten the titles, it was everywhere. If you read the Dail...

Hiding sexuality as a teacher

"When all that was happening in 1973 I got my first job in teaching as a primary school teacher and that’s when I went off and became this radical feminist in the Communist Party. At school I was just this woman that wasn’t married, there were almost...

Getting involved in the women's movement

“I entered the Women's Liberation Movement and got to know people because we went on demos. People find it very hard to understand the Women's Liberation Movement because you didn’t join, you didn’t have a card, you didn’t have membership, you just w...

Dykes leading activists in Women's Movement

"I think what caused most of the problems really in the Women's Liberation Movement was that a lot of the activism, printed newsletters and all the rest was done by dykes, gay women, and although there were married women with children, and single wom...

Political lesbians (late 70s)

"Some of the dykes' sexuality was questioned sometimes and there was a big thing going on in the movement then about Women's Liberation Movement activists who became gay as a political end because it was a political statement to be gay. Ref: politica...

Experimenting with communal living (1970s)

 Experimenting with communal living (1970s)“There were a lot of experiments going on. I went to a Women’s Lib conference in Manchester and stayed in an all woman house and they were really trying hard to come to terms with a different way of liv...

Sleeping with women as a political statement/bisex

Sleeping with women as a political statement/ bisexuality (1970s)"It’s quite hard to explain, as I don’t want to name names. There were quite famous political women who would come to the conferences and hang out with dykes and sleep with women but th...

Transvestites in women's discos (about 1975)

"The first time anything other than man on man, woman on woman that I became conscious of was at a fund raising gay thing in the city centre and there was some transvestites there. I couldn’t understand why they were all wearing the sorts of fussy cl...

Working with men in the NUT

"My emphasis was on NUT (National Union of Teachers) politics as much as anything because by then I was well into the NUT which made me enemies in the Women's Liberation Movement because radical revolutionary feminists believe that you shouldn’t have...

Coming out through the NUT

Coming out through the NUT in 1988“I came out through the NUT which was really strange because these days it’s all male dominated. People knew but I wasn’t out. When Clause 28 came out it just made me so angry. I was a good teacher and what I felt th...

Coming out at the TGWU

Coming out at the TGWU"The one I’m most proud of is coming out at the Transport and General Workers Union, same thing, Clause 28, and that’s where it needed saying. A straight woman that was on the NUT Executive with me in Solihull was part of the Mi...

Being out at school (as teacher) - late '80s

Changing schools (Late 80s)“By then I was teaching in Birmingham and I wasn’t happy. I’d left a very happy school and was in a school that I didn’t like at all much really so I gave that up and me and my partner went travelling for seven months. When...

Living in politically conscious Moseley, 1970s

"I’ve always lived in a very politically conscious area of Birmingham, I’ve lived in Moseley. We live in Kings Heath now because we’ve downsized but Moseley was fantastic in the '70s. The pubs were terrific, there was poetry and jazz and theatre, the...

The Silver Web

The Silver Web"Apart from the Star Club which was really the one the communist women had started, the first gay club I ever went to was called the Silver Web in Wolverhampton, loads of gay women from Birmingham would have gone there. Me and my partne...

The politics of gay clubs

The politics of gay clubs"I’ve no idea about the politics of the Silver Web because we didn’t go there often enough to get to know the hierarchy but there was a lot of politics with a small ‘p’ at gay clubs about who they would let in because they we...

Butch and Femme relationships

Butch and femme“What struck us, being politicos, and still does really because it still happens and I can’t bear it, was the butch and femme women’s relationships. There were butch women who’d beat up their femme partners, copied directly from straig...

Women's night at The Grosvenor

“The Grosvenor was a big hotel on the Hagley Road with a swimming pool out the back, it was a beautiful privately owned club and they had a women’s night and you could go for Sunday lunch because they had a really nice restaurant. The gay blokes who ...

Womens eventst came and went 70s and 80s

Very little for women (in the 70s and 80s)“There wasn’t anything specific specifically except women did try to set up stuff. They (women's events) all came and went like they do in London. The Greyhound Pub had a night for dykes and then that closed....

Ageism on the scene

Ageism on the scene“When I had my seventieth birthday I thought it would be really good to have it in a gay club so I went to the Nightingale and they showed me the room upstairs which they wanted a fortune for. I didn’t want to ask all my friends th...

International Women's day celebrations 1980s

 and the Council’s Women's Unit"International Women's Day is an interesting one, this ties in with what I was saying about why it’s important for people to be politically aware. Gay people must be aware of where the money comes from, who control...

Fighting at the Conference 1978

The Birmingham Women’s Liberation Conference 1978"The split happened in Birmingham at the Women's Liberation Conference between the radical revolutionary feminists, the dyke arm, and the socialist feminists, the political arm. One of the main beliefs...