Before Stonewall: Jane H's Interview Clip 4 of 5
From the collection of
Before Stonewall: Jane H's Interview Clip 4 of 5
Jane recalls, in this short piece, that not all lesbians are warm and cuddly and welcoming.
In this short extract Jane recalls her time working as an administrator in the extra-mural department of Birkbeck University in London in 1984, where she organised the Women's Studies course and later initiated a lesbian study group, Jane felt she had to become a lesbian in order to run the course, though up until this time her romantic involvements were primarily with men.
This decision caused a lot of rancour among other lesbians in the programme who accused her of being a 'faux-lesbian'. Jane even overheard two academic lesbians criticise her for not being an 'authentic lesbian' and even encountered similar intolerant attitudes from lesbian colleagues about the wearing of make-up.
Jane was born in the late 1940s to a family living in Hay-on-Wye in the Welsh borders. Both parents were socialists and encouraged their children to have a tolerant outlook. A happy child, Jane's mother ran a local hotel and Jane got to know many gay people who worked there. Her mother also befriended the transexual celebrity, April Ashley, and Jane recalls meeting her and her many dogs. April Ashley died in 2021.
Jane went to college, becoming an academic administrator and lived a 'straight' life until her thirties when she decided to come out as a lesbian. She was active in the 'Slip of the Tongue' theatre group as well as forum theatre in London. She also co-edited a book entitled 'Girl to Girl'.
Tags
GLAM Before Stonewall: LGBT Oral History Project
This fascinating and important collection, recorded onto videotape, contains the testimonies, in the form of interviews, from individuals of varying ages, backgrounds and ethnicities from across the LGBT community.
‘Before Stonewall: An Oral History of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community’ was a Heritage Lottery Funded project organised in 2003 by a Brighton-based organisation 'Gay and Lesbian Arts and Media', otherwise known as GLAM.
The project sought to record for posterity the first-hand recollections of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from across the United Kingdom and beyond, of a time before the events in New York’s Greenwich Village which culminated in the Stonewall Riots of 1969. This was a time which was very different, and in many respects more oppressive for homosexual and transgender people, than the one we’re familiar with today.
This fascinating and important collection, recorded onto videotape, contains the testimonies, in the form of interviews, of over one-hundred individuals of varying ages, backgrounds and ethnicities from across the LGBT community. With recollections that reach back as far as the 1920s, what all of the interviews describe and reveal is the whole gamut of human experience, from the deeply tragic to the exhilaratingly joyous - all from the perspectives of a section of society that has often been considered to be ‘different from the others’.
Journalist Charlotte Cooper, who worked for the gay press at the time, co-ordinated the project’s video-recording with volunteers and conducted many of the interviews herself. Charlotte describes her time on the project as both a revelatory and profoundly moving experience.
Screen Archive South East has made available from across this collection a total of eighty four extracts from thirty individual interviews. Together they give an insightful and first-hand account of what life was like for LGBT people, both in the United Kingdom and abroad, and in both the years before Stonewall and after.
75 videos in this collection
1
2
Before Stonewall Summary: Charlotte Cooper Clip 2 of 4
3
Before Stonewall Summary: Charlotte Cooper Clip 3 of 4
4
Before Stonewall Summary: Charlotte Cooper Clip 4 of 4
5
Before Stonewall: Jenny's Interview Clip 1 of 3
6
Before Stonewall: Jenny's Interview Clip 2 of 3
7
Before Stonewall: Jenny's Interview Clip 3 of 3
8
Before Stonewall: Eddie's Interview Clip 1 of 3
9
Before Stonewall: Eddie's Interview Clip 2 of 3
10
Before Stonewall: Eddie's Interview Clip 3 of 3
11
Before Stonewall: Chris's Interview Clip 1 of 1
12
Before Stonewall: Peter's Interview Clip 1 of 2
13
Before Stonewall: Peter's Interview Clip 2 of 2
14
Before Stonewall: Anthea's Interview Clip 1 of 1
15
Before Stonewall: Geoff's Interview Clip 1 of 3
16
Before Stonewall: Geoff's Interview Clip 2 of 3
17
Before Stonewall: Geoff's Interview Clip 3 of 3
18
Before Stonewall: Rex's Interview Clip 2 of 6
19
Before Stonewall: Rex's Interview Clip 3 of 6
20
Before Stonewall: Rex's Interview Clip 4 of 6
21
Before Stonewall: Rex's Interview Clip 5 of 6
22
Before Stonewall: Rex's Interview Clip 6 of 6
23
Before Stonewall: Roger's Interview Clip 1 of 4
24
Before Stonewall: Roger's Interview Clip 2 of 4
25
Before Stonewall: Roger's Interview Clip 3 of 4
26
Before Stonewall: Roger's Interview Clip 4 of 4
27
Before Stonewall: Jane H's Interview Clip 1 of 5
28
Before Stonewall: Jane H's Interview Clip 2 of 5
29
Before Stonewall: Jane H's Interview Clip 4 of 5
30
Before Stonewall: Jane H's Interview Clip 5 of 5
31
Before Stonewall: Jacky's Interview Clip 1 of 4
32
Before Stonewall: Jacky's Interview Clip 2 of 4
33
Before Stonewall: Jacky's Interview Clip 3 of 4
34
Before Stonewall: Jacky's Interview Clip 4 of 4
35
Before Stonewall: Jane T's Interview Clip 1 of 4
36
Before Stonewall: Jane T's Interview Clip 2 of 4
37
Before Stonewall: Jane T's Interview Clip 3 of 4
38
Before Stonewall: Jane T's Interview Clip 4 of 4
39
Before Stonewall: Sue's Interview Clip 1 of 3
40
Before Stonewall: Sue's Interview Clip 2 of 3
41
Before Stonewall: Sue's Interview Clip 3 of 3
42
Before Stonewall: David's Interview Clip 1 of 3
43
Before Stonewall: David's Interview Clip 2 of 3
44
Before Stonewall: David's Interview Clip 3 of 3
45
Before Stonewall: Joe's Interview Clip 1 of 3
46
Before Stonewall: Joe's Interview Clip 2 of 3
47
Before Stonewall: Joe's Interview Clip 3 of 3
48
Before Stonewall: Michael C's Interview Clip 1 of 2
49
Before Stonewall: Michael C's Interview Clip 2 of 2
50
Before Stonewall: John's Interview Clip 1 of 3
51
Before Stonewall: John's Interview Clip 3 of 3
52
Before Stonewall: Michael's Interview Clip 1 of 3
53
Before Stonewall: Michael's Interview Clip 2 of 3
54
Before Stonewall: Michael's Interview Clip 3 of 3
55
Before Stonewall: Millie's Interview Clip 1 of 6
56
Before Stonewall: Millie's Interview Clip 2 of 6
57
Before Stonewall: Millie's Interview Clip 3 of 6
58
Before Stonewall: Millie's Interview Clip 4 of 6
59
Before Stonewall: Millie's Interview Clip 5 of 6
60
Before Stonewall: Millie's Interview Clip 6 of 6
61
Before Stonewall: Donald's Interview Clip 1 of 4
62
Before Stonewall: Donald's Interview Clip 2 of 4
63
Before Stonewall: Donald's Interview Clip 3 of 4
64
Before Stonewall: Donald's Interview Clip 4 of 4
65
Before Stonewall: Sapphire's Interview Clip 1 of 4
66
Before Stonewall: Sapphire's Interview Clip 2 of 4
67
Before Stonewall: Sapphire's Interview Clip 3 of 4
68
Before Stonewall: Sapphire's Interview Clip 4 of 4
69
Before Stonewall: Peggy's Interview Clip 1 of 1
70
Before Stonewall: Patricia's Interview Clip 1 of 1
71
Before Stonewall: Dave's Interview Clip 1 of 3
72
Before Stonewall: Dave's Interview Clip 2 of 3
73
Before Stonewall: Dave's Interview Clip 3 of 3
74
Before Stonewall: Charlie's Interview Clip 1 of 1
75