Running away to the gay centre
1976
Karen was born in 1959. She says that when she was 14 she ran away from home to the Gay Community Centre in Digbeth, (though she may have been older as the Gay Centre didn’t open until 1976.) “There were lots of people there and it was on Allison Street and the people there were a lot older than me, they accommodated me there for three days until my dad fetched me back. They tried to sort the situation out but had no luck. My father said, ‘You can’t be doing this, your mother’s worried sick about you.’”
Contributed by: Karen Barrett, 47