Previously unseen pictures of Brighton's first Pride march on show in August

The Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) organised Brighton's first Gay Pride march in July 1973, and though the march was photographed by the Argus newspaper, the photographs were never used. A small brown packet of negatives sat in the paper's photo archive for almost 50 years, until they were discovered six months ago by members of Gay Brighton Past, an online history group co-founded by Alf Le Flohic, part of the University of Brighton's web team.

Now Gay Brighton Past have organised an exhibition of Brighton Pride 1973 photographs running through August in the windows of the Sussex Beacon charity shop at 130 St James's Street in Kemptown.

Alf said: “They’re a big deal in terms of local LGBT history, as no one thought there were any photos of Brighton’s first Pride march back in 1973 - but we’ve found them. These pictures are a missing part of Brighton’s LGBT community history, so it was really important to give everyone the chance to see them. Even more so with Pride not happening in the usual way this year.”

Alf also managed to track down some of the SGLF members from the time, including founder member Simon Watney, who was teaching at Brighton Polytechnic Art School.

Image shown with kind permission of Brighton and Hove Stuff / Argus Photographic Archive.

Image shown with kind permission of Brighton and Hove Stuff / Argus Photographic Archive.

Simon recalls the times. “The idea that one’s 'Glad to be Gay' may sound terribly naive today, but it was the beginning of a whole notion that you could be lesbian or gay and not be ashamed - and stand up for yourself. It gave people confidence. It was a kind of training ground for all the activism that led to the great law reforms of the 21st century.”

SGLF spokesman Graham Phillips can be seen in the photos in a floor length skirt with the Civil Liberties banner. He said at the time “many homosexuals in ‘responsible jobs’ steered clear of the demo march for fear of being publicly identified and perhaps sacked as a result.” Nevertheless he “felt the march was one more step towards getting homosexuality accepted”.

Alf continues “While the small turn out for the actual march may have been reported as a ‘Gay Demo Flop’, other events that weekend were a great success such as the dance at the Royal Albion Hotel which attracted 200 people.”

As Graham Philips told Gay News “The music is provided by the gay group’s own disco and it particularly attracts the local gay girls who travel from such exotic places as Eastbourne, and the boys from faraway Portsmouth, where hardly any gay life exists.”

You can read more about Brighton Pride in 1973 and see the photographs in the August issue of Scene magazine.

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