Lesbians

31 May 1981
Sound
45m

Gay women from different generations discuss their experiences in this revealing TV documentary

Lesbian women from very different generations talk frankly about their experiences growing up and coming out in this episode of ITV series Gay Life. From 86-year-old Sybil, a one-time suffragette who recalls discovering her sexuality in the early 20th century, to Julie, a young lesbian feminist challenging social norms through the women's movement, this engaging documentary gives voice to a broad range of women's ideas about their sexuality. Two of the interviewees appeared in the groundbreaking This Week documentary Lesbians (1965), also available to view.

Gay Life was made by London Weekend Television and looked at topics such as the portrayal of gay people in the media, police harassment and gay teachers.

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From the collection

Queer Britain

This colourful and challenging collection explores screen representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lives over the past century.

British cinema boasts a long history of carefully coded queerness, but for much of the 20th century explicit depictions of gay life in drama or documentary were more or less taboo. Gay men were subject to vicious state-sanctioned persecution, while lesbians were socially ostracised and the transgender community ignored and misunderstood. Cinematic and small-screen breakthroughs in the 1950s and 60s played their part in the public debate. Finally acting on the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee a decade earlier, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalised male homosexuality in England and Wales, between two men over 21, in private. As those caveats suggest, the legislation remained problematic. But it was a step forward, paving the way for further battles - some yet to be won. From early glimpses of 'queer' characters, this collection charts the path towards '67 and beyond, through responses to the AIDS crisis to diverse reflections on queer life today.