Gay UK: Love, Life and Liberty

Touching exhibition at the British Library marking the 50th anniversary since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain and how life has changed since.

There was a good section on life before the Act and the events which were starting to lead to it including the Oscar Wilde trail and the Wolfenden report. I was delighted to see a lot of material from the Bloomsbury Group including a touching recording of Vita Sackville-West reading a letter to her from the author Virginia Woolf explaining that her book Orlando is based on Vita and grew out of their relationship. I’d not realised before that Orlando was published in the same year as “The Well of Loneliness” which was banned.

There was a touching section on prosecutions including a photograph of John Gielgud in the play he was in at the time of his arrest. He had been frightened of appearing but the audience cheered him at the end.

The show was strong on how literature and popular culture have influenced and reflected change. I was amused by a display of framed single covers from the 1980s which could have come from my singles box. It also traced political movements with fascinating ephemera which had been kept including a copy of the Gay Manifesto from 1971 and a programme from the first London Pride event in 1979.

The last section looked at where we are now and included a nice video of interviews. There was also a lovely juxtaposition of a Hello magazine with Elton John, David Furnish and their children on the cover and the Attitude magazine with Prince William on its cover.

Closes on 19 September 2017

 

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