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Women in Revolt!

.. is the title of a touring exhibition from the Tate, with the subtitle 'Art and activism in the UK 1970-1990'.

I saw it in August 2024 at Modern Two, part of Scotland's National Galleries in Edinburgh.

The final room, "No such thing as society",[1]".. and who is society? There is no such thing!", Margaret Thatcher talking to Woman's Own magazine, 1988 contains a large chunk of the queer stuff.

In the online copy of the exhibition guide including the captions for all of the pictures, the word 'bisexual' does not appear once. There are ten uses of 'LGBT's/'LGBTQ..'s seven of which aren't in URLs or collection titles, twenty eight uses of 'gay', and forty two uses of 'lesbian'.

But the room does have a couple of photos where I went 'I recognise them from the bi community!'. Pam Isherwood's Pride march from 1985:

Stephen Holdsworth and Kate Fearnley holding a 'Pinko Commie Queers' banner at 1985's Pride event in London

Holding the banner on the right of the photo is Kate Fearnley

Pinko Commie (bisexual) Queer Kate

The other maker of the banner, Stephen Holdsworth, is on the left.

Apparently, there are photos of Mark Ashton, of 'Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners' fame amongst other causes, holding the banner but this is one of very few showing Kate holding it – and a shot of two men holding a banner probably wouldn't have made it into the exhibition.

In Edinburgh, where Kate has lived and worked for decades, the picture is low down by the floor to the point that you have to bend down to see it, but the Tate's guide reckons it was on the top row there.

The other photo is from Dell LaGrace Volcano, On The Way There, taken on the day of London's Pride event in 1988:

The person in the middle..

Sarah

.. named as 'Sarah' on the label is, unless I am very much mistaken, this Sarah, also seen in the Double Trouble article a couple of years earlier.

Notes

Notes
↑1".. and who is society? There is no such thing!", Margaret Thatcher talking to Woman's Own magazine, 1988
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Double Trouble – The Guardian, 18th February 1986

Published in the paper's 'Open Space' section, this was my reintroduction to the UK's bi community.

At the end of August 1981, I had just arrived as a new student at Reading University for the start of 'freshers week'. Browsing – rather than buying! – a copy of London listings magazine Time Out something[1]Interestingly, writing in 1986 David Burkle thought he'd used Time Out to publicise the group in the months before it started. But looking for the relevant copy in a library, it turns out that no … Continue reading in the Student Union's shop, I noticed that the first meeting of the London Bisexual Group would be at gay nightclub 'Heaven' on Tuesday, 1st September. Read more

Notes

Notes
↑1Interestingly, writing in 1986 David Burkle thought he'd used Time Out to publicise the group in the months before it started. But looking for the relevant copy in a library, it turns out that no issues of Time Out were published in the four months before mid-September that year, thanks to a strike over the magazine abandoning its 'equal pay for everyone' ethos. Some staff quit to start City Limits and keep those principles, but their first issue was in October. It also turns out that Time Out didn't have a 'lesbian and gay' section until after then either.
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How Can We Help You? – Information, Advice & Counselling for Gay Men & Lesbians (1989)

Originally set up in 1971 with the intention of being the counselling arm of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, "Fellowship for the Relief of the Isolated and Emotionally in Need and Distress" was far more widely known as 'FRIEND'. By 1977, its national organiser stopped being on the CHE board by right, and its newsletter stopped calling FRIEND "the befriending arm of the CHE".

Also in 1977, the London arm became a company limited by guarantee, Friend Counselling (London). As 'London Friend', it ended up operating from Caledonian Road N1, and was the venue used by the London Bisexual Group from around 1990 to its end around 2004 or 2005ish. Its website is here.

As other groups sprang up, a network was created as National Friend, becoming a company in 1987. The book's author, Macolm Macourt, is described as its company secretary and a lecturer at Newcastle upon Tyne polytechnic. He was also involved with Project SIGMA that looked at the sex lives of gay and bisexual men[1]They described it as "gay and bisexual lifestyles" but it was gay and bisexual men's sex lives that were the primary focus from the start of the HIV/Aids epidemic in the UK. Read more

Notes

Notes
↑1They described it as "gay and bisexual lifestyles" but it was gay and bisexual men's sex lives that were the primary focus
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AIDS Spectre for Women: The Bisexual Man (New York Times 1987)

A three line history of bisexual men in the news:

1987 – There are "7 to 10 million" bisexual men in the USA

2005 – "Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited"

2020 – .. we've looked again at that study, and bisexual men do exist!

What's particularly interesting about the first one is that at least three of the men quoted – Richard Isay, Bruce Voeller, and Laud Humphreys – were all married to women for years, with all having children with their wives. Clearly, they were all bisexual by behaviour and to at least some degree by attraction, before deciding to identify as gay.

What won't be surprising to anyone who was a bisexual man in the 1980s is the 'bisexual men give women Aids' angle… Read more

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Square Peg 17 on 5th National Conference on Bisexuality (BiCon 5)

Following their article on bisexuality in Square Peg 14, issue 17 (published some time after June 1987[1]A THT ad elsewhere in it mentions the level of HIV infection as of June 1987.) had something in its news pages on the 5th National Conference on Bisexuality[2]BiCon 5, but this was two years before the first one to be called 'BiCon'. that was to happen in Edinburgh during mid-October.

Note the line welcoming "feminist transsexuals to women-only workshops"!

Alongside assorted art, Square Peg 17 also had one of the most erotic short stories I've ever read, Chrissy by Fi Craig; a look at the bathrooms of six LGBT people; a look at the films of Barbara Hammer and the recently deceased Curt McDowell; some photos of sex involving several women ("In issue 11 we talked about it, in issue 14 we read about it, in this issue we deliver it"); Manchester as England's second city; some photos of sex involving two or more men (probably); a look at pre-Aids gay porn stories; homo-eroticism in Italian cannibal movies; an interview with Roz Kaveney; a look at Aids in the USA; a Prague travelogue, then behind the 'Iron Curtain'. Read more

Notes

Notes
↑1A THT ad elsewhere in it mentions the level of HIV infection as of June 1987.
↑2BiCon 5, but this was two years before the first one to be called 'BiCon'.
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Square Peg on bisexuality

It looks like two lesbian and gay magazines have used the title Square Peg. The later one is American, founded by long-time lesbian activist Jeanne Córdova, and ran from 1992-94.

The original was British, started in 1983 and if it wasn't unique, I've never seen anything else like it. A later subtitle for it was '(the journal for contemporary perverts)' – a queer art and politics and art quarterly magazine. On heavy glossy paper. In a square format.

In one of the few mentions I can find of it, 1980s gay activist Colin Clews says "In effect, it was probably one of the first publications to segment the gay and lesbian market by any measure other than gender" – and that's probably why it was so good. The collective that ran it were mixed gender, at least after the first issues, and the content was far more gender balanced than any other lesbian or gay publication.

The book What is She Like: Lesbian Identities from the 1950s to the 1990s includes it in a list of lesbian publications[1]If you can think of another mixed gender magazine that someone with a very definite lesbian perspective would say that about without any hedging, do say. that disappeared in the 1980s. That last bit's not true – its last issue was in 1991 – but the comment that "It was alternative, upfront, sexual, mixed, arty, offering fiction and plenty of art work. At the time, Square Peg was decidedly innovative, and it led the way for journals with stronger design input, higher production quality and higher prices" is spot on.

The design aesthetic didn't always make it the easiest thing to read, but the actual content was all highly readable.

Anyway, somehow it became known as somewhere that – in comparison to the rest of the lesbian and gay media – Square Peg was bi friendly. Maybe that was because of the mixed gender collective, but it confused them… Read more

Notes

Notes
↑1If you can think of another mixed gender magazine that someone with a very definite lesbian perspective would say that about without any hedging, do say.