International Women's Day and GLF
1969
International Women’s Day + GLF
“The morning after this first night, which was deeply disappointing in many ways, but I’d had my rite of passage, I was part of a group of women doing an [International Women’s Day] event (March '77) and we had a rehearsal in Chamberlain Square that Sunday morning, so I was going straight there and didn’t know whether to tell anyone or not. It was a very exciting time; I was the person who had arranged with the police that we were going to have this march. We were doing street theatre and I was doing the singing, so I was doing all these things I’d never done before, seeing the police and negotiating with them, they said they didn’t want the GLF on the march, this was a ladies liberation march and what are these gay men doing here, and it was well, they come as our allies and so we’re quite happy, and singing, I always had this very loud voice and helped make up some songs, and we did them in Chamberlain Square and the Bull Ring, and it was all great fun – the next weekend was the actual event”.
Contributed by: Caroline Hutton, 51