Gay Liberation
Sir: Andrew Lumsden's piece on the Gay Liberation Front (2 January) dwelt too much on our relations with the press. It is quite true that we do not want to be sensationalised or trivialised by the media : we have been exploited too long by the gutter press, the pseudo 'camp' press and by radio and tele- vision 'comedy' shows. His request for sisters and brothers to appear on television was largely ignored because three weeks previously we had been through lengthy discus- sions with a producer and director from ATV and we had decided that at this early stage of our develop- ment we just could not rely on them to give us fair coverage. The last thing we want is 'sympathetic' cov- erage that would make us seem like destitute unmarried mothers or harmless mental defectives.
Lesbians are not a merely Inc!' dental part of the group. Sisters aro
just as much part of the group as gay men. The fact that we need to make this point at all shows the male-chauvinist kind of attitudes that pervade your newspaper and even GLF. We fully support the aims of Women's Liberation. We were particularly appalled by the ffolkes's cartoon (2 January) which showed a woman with big breasts illustrating the caption 'V is for Visible assets'. This perpetu-
• ates the attitude that keeps women as sex-objects.
Andrew thinks we are 'eager to alter the surrounding community's views, less keen about revolution'. This is misleading as the two are in no way actually exclusive. The emphasis of GLF is on liberation— the liberation of gay people from centuries of prejudice and from their own senseless guilt-complexes. The complete acceptance by society of homosexuality as an equally valid form of human relationship would challenge the current norms of institutionalised marriage, the family, sexuality in general and the subjection of women. The nature of our oppression commits us to making radical demands for change.
We support other oppressed people whose demands for change are parallel to our own : women, black people, working people and the youth-culture. We will be marching with the workers against the Industrial Relations Bill. The attack on the freedom of working people to organise marks a further consolidation of the oppression of all people by this government. big business, the press and other media. Gay people are also feeling this pressure—as from the recent con- viction of the International Times. for carrying small ads through which gay men could meet one another. Like trade unionists we are only too familiar with the pre- judiced and distorted outnourings of politicians and the media.
We want to let gay people know what we think about people who put us down Robert Mellors, Bev Jackson. Jonathon Wilde Gay Liberation Front, Basement Flat, 62 Chesterton Road, London w10
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