taking advantage of today's good internet connection . . .

[kindkit]

. . . to say that I probably ought to be ashamed that my main reaction to these photos of British gay rights pioneers is, "damn, people were ugly in the 1970s."

Seriously. It's not just the, er, experimental clothes or the hideous stringy hippie hair. Their faces are lumpy and weird, even allowing for a bad camera and terrible lighting.

And this was the era when people were having lots of sex, all the time! I don't understand.

Comments

[kiwisue]

I had to look, and look again, just to get my head back into that era - I was at university in NZ from 1973, so the styles are familiar, although I don't recall ever seeing anything quite like that massed assemblage of bad clothes/hair/fashion (Dunedin being rather more conservative than London). But having achieved the correct headspace orientation, I have to say they look pretty normal to me.

I think the pics were tumblerised (is that even a word?) from here: http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-brixton-fairies-and-the-south-london-gay-community-centre-brixton-1974-6/

You might be interested in this blog post about Gay News magazine, referenced in Pros episode "First Night": http://www.thestirrer.com.au/denis-lemon-gay-news/
The guy on the left of the Pride photo is now living in Melbourne and presenting on GLBTI community radio.

[kindkit]

Thanks for the links! I have no doubt that they were brave people doing important work, and probably perfectly normal-looking in earlier and later eras. It's just that the 1970s (early 1970s especially) cast a pall of ugliness over everything and everyone.