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Gay News: The BBC has put online a free-to-view collection of programmes charting the rise of the gay rights movement in the UK
The collection covers 50 years
BBC launches gay rights archive
The collection, which is available from today on the BBC's Archive website, brings together TV and radio programmes from documentaries and news bulletins which follow the changing attitudes to homosexuality over the past fifty years.
Items in the collection include a 1957 press conference about the Wolfenden Report, which recommended the decrimalisation of homosexuality, and an interview with MP Leo Abse whose 1967 bill made consensual sex between men over twenty-one legal.
More recent items cover the 1979 London Gay Pride week, a look at Section 28 which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools, the age of consent, civil partnerships and gays in the military.
The programmes feature noted gay rights campaigners including Sir Ian McKellen, Angela Mason of Stonewall, Peter Tatchell and MEP and former EastEnders actor Michael Cashman
The launch of the collection coincides with the publication today of the BBC's report on the representation of gay men and lesbians on TV.
Julie Rowbotham, Executive Producer, BBC Archive said: “The programmes in this collection offer a revealing – although at times uncomfortable – insight into how legislation changed over the decades and what effect this had on people’s lives.
“This collection is a particularly interesting tie-in with the BBC’s research, Portrayal of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People on the BBC, and should be a useful resource for anyone who is interested in finding out more about the campaign for equal rights.”
View the BBC’s Gay Rights Archive here
