Events tagged with "Switchboard"
Gay Community Centre Bordesley Street
The Gay Community Centre opened in mid 1976 in a row of Victorian shops at the junction of Allison Street and Bordesley Street in Digbeth. The building consisted of three large four storey Victorian shop premises, all interconnected. The main entran...
Gay Switchboard Volunteers
Many people have volunteered as Switchboard Operators over the past three decades. Gay Switchboard Callers Gay Switchboard Caller Profile ...
Lesbian and Gay Community Centres
In February 1976 a group of about a dozen people began regular meetings to discuss and plan the setting up of a gay community centre in Birmingham. They were drawn from all the gay groups operating in the city and from the commercial gay scene.A buil...
Nightingale Thorp Street
A two storey building on Thorp Street at the side of the Hippodrome Theatre, previously the Birmingham Anglers Club. The entrance was simply a door on the street with a small viewing hatch. You walked down a short corridor and entered a spacious indo...
Setting Up Switchboard
The Lesbian and Gay Switchboard was set up by a small group of people, predominantly men, in 1975....
Straightsville
Straightsville was a satirical cartoon produced by Zak Webber, the cartoon appeared in various news publications and also as two stand alone issues, proceeds of which went to Switchboard....
West Midlands Lesbian and Gay Switchboard
West Midlands Lesbian and Gay Switchboard was set up in Birmingham in 1975 (see Setting Up Switchboard) and has run continuously ever since, staffed by a committed team of volunteers. ...
Memories tagged with "Switchboard"
A mixed bunch on Lesbian Line
Catherine volunteered on the second incarnation of Lesbian Line. “Pat Howie got us a room in the Custard Factory. There were 8 volunteers, a mix of people, with no budget, it was a bit of a mess, but we kept going for a couple of years. We didn’t get...
All happening at the Gay Centre, Digbeth, 1977
The Gay Community Centre in Bordesley Street was set up not long after the time that Gill and Betty moved to Birmingham (1975) Gill: “Somebody secured the premises on the corner of Bordesley Street and Allison Street and people put a lot of effort i...
Being gay is a cultural taboo in BEM communities
When asked about this lack of confidence about their own identity on the part of the callers to Switchboard Mike said that he felt that life as a gay person in Birmingham was as positive as in any of the other big cities and certainly better than tha...
Being Publicity Officer for Switchboard from 1999
Mike worked as Publicity Officer for Gay Switchboard, from 1999 - 2003. With a background in marketing and sales, he identified all the media in Birmingham and set out to build as many contacts as possible, including the main West Midlands radio stat...
Comfortable at the Matador
“The Lesbian and Gay Community Centre discos went on at the Matador for years, alternating I think with Switchboard discos. I liked it very much, at times there were a lot of women, times more women than men, or vice versa, I always felt OK there, I ...
Friend Counseling Service
220 Friend Counseling Service"I was involved with Friend West Midlands, a gay lesbian bisexual counseling service that used to run alongside Switchboard. There was Gay Switchboard one side of the room. It used to be above the Nightingale then it m...
Gay Centre discos at the Matador
“Prior to the Nightingale moving into town (Thorp St) in 1981 there was nothing in the city centre other than the original Gay Community Centre discos in Allison Street, bring your own booze, and 25p for a baked potato, that sort of fund-raising. So ...
Gays are no better than dogs says Tory in 1999
Mike described a conflict with a Conservative Councillor for Harborne who, in response to an issue over some public funding, complained in a Birmingham City Council meeting that "gay people were no better than dogs". He received unsympathetic coverag...
I didn't shape up with my disability - 1985
Trevor is disabled and uses a wheelchair.“As an outsider back in the eighties, the gay scene was very frightening. I got the feeling that the scene was very body conscious and gay men in particular seemed obsessed with the body beautiful and the male...
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...
Mike Volunteers for Gay Switchboard in 1997
Mike decided to volunteer to work for Gay Switchboard around the age of 34 (1997) because he feels that he had been “to so many gay bars, so many gay clubs over the last ten or fifteen years…got so many tee-shirts that it is beginning to get quite bo...
Misleading AIDS leaflets
The following article from 'In The Pink', April 1989 highlights the anti-gay prejudice and misinformation around HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s, even from statutory bodies such as Birmingham City Council.WARNING : These leaflets may damage your healthTwo...
Nightingale charges Switchboard peppercorn rent
“When the Nightingale opened in Thorp Street (in 1981) Switchboard was invited along with Friend to take rooms there for a peppercorn rent for something like £100 a year. There was a stretch for about 3 years when the Nightingale declined to ask for ...
Picketing Jill Knights office
“People involved in the Lesbian and Gay Community Centre Aston also became involved with the Anti Section 28 campaign for lesbian and gay rights. It has been said that the Birmingham LGB community was three people and a set of mirrors and it certainl...
Pretty Police Score Again
These front two page articles from 'In The Pink' published in August 1989, highlight the level of police activity against gay men who were Cottaging.PRETTY POLICE SCORE AGAIN!Five men have received fines of £250 (plus costs of £25) at Seisdon magistr...
Second Woman Joins Switchboard, in 1977
�I was the second woman on Gay Switchboard, from 1977 � 1983. That was a great learning experience, because we knew nothing (stressed). We were hopeless and terribly unprofessional, luckily a woman called Anna Durell joined and decided to make us...
Super Pricks 88
The following article from 'In the Pink' July 1998 talks about the planned Super Pricks '88 event.HOT AND HEALTHYSUPER PRICKS 88At The Powerhouse on Thursday 25th August, just before the Birmingham Super Prix, the Gay Men's Health Group has arranged ...
Switchboard stickers in the medical books
Betty: “I was on Switchboard; Switchboard had some women on, more men, including Helen Rose, Anna, Anne Bromwich, and a couple of others; we managed to keep West Midlands Switchboard fairly balanced for a while and we used to quite often have a woman...
The Matador
“The Gay Community Centre discos went on at the Matador for years, alternating I think with Switchboard discos. I liked it very much, at times there were a lot of women, times more women than men, or vice versa, I always felt OK there, I never felt o...
The Role of Switchboard Operators
The Switchboard operators were trained not to confirm that callers were gay when they asked operators if they thought they (callers) were. Mike used 'gay' as an inclusive term for men and women as he didn’t like the demarcation implied by the use of ...
Volunteering at Switchboard 5 nights a week
Lyn became involved with Switchboard from 1983 to 2000. “I started training on the first Saturday after New Year in 1984. It was a fairly successful organisation with 20 or so regular operators. There was a separate Lesbian Line on Wednesdays but sti...