Gay UK

For our third National Life Stories podcast Charlie Morgan spoke to Steven Dryden, Broadcast Recordings Curator at the British Library and co-curator of the exhibition Gay UK: Love Law and Liberty. Gay UK ran from June-September 2017 and marked 50 years since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act and 60 years since the Wolfenden Report. The exhibition was extremely popular and it just so happened that it contained a lot of oral histories!

In podcast you'll from interviews which discuss organizations like the Homosexual Law Reform Society and the Gay Liberation Front, as well experiences ranging from World War 2 to 1970s nightclubs. You'll also hear Steven's views on how he chose clips for the exhibition and how it felt to edit, or “hack to pieces", those same clips.

Clips in the episode are taken from the following interviews:

• John Alcock, C456/003 Hall-Carpenter Oral History Project: cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/…hdata1=CKEY4014153
• Tony Dyson, C456/074 Hall-Carpenter Oral History Project: cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/…hdata1=CKEY4014176 
• Maureen Duffy, C1276/03 Authors’ Lives: cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/…hdata1=CKEY7097153
• Mary McIntosh, C1420/11 Sisterhood & After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project: cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/…hdata1=CKEY7563647
• Jonathan Blake, C456/104 Hall-Carpenter Oral History Project: sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Obser…0456X0104XX-0001V0

If you’d like to learn more check out our collection guide on Oral histories of sexuality, reproductive health and prostitution: www.bl.uk/collection-guides/or…lth-and-prostitution

National Life Stories: www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories Gay UK: www.bl.uk/press-releases/2017/…-the-british-library