 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2012) |
| Formation | 9 May 1969 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Ian Dunn |
| Founded at | Glasgow, United Kingdom |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 55°57′28″N3°11′20″W / 55.957660°N 3.188780°W |
Formerly called | Scottish Minorities Group |
Outright Scotland is an LGBT rights organisation based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded as the Scottish Minorities Group in 1969, it was the country's first LGBT rights organisation. [1]
The Scottish Minorities Group (SMG) was a Scottish gay rights group officially founded in Glasgow on 9 May 1969. The group was a self-help organisation working for the rights of homosexual men and women, and had the aims of providing counselling, working for law reform and providing meeting places for lesbians and gay men.
The group's first meeting in January 1969 was organised by Ian Dunn at his parents' home in Glasgow. On 9 May 1969, the group was officially launched at an open meeting in the Protestant Chaplaincy Centre of Glasgow University that was attended by about 25 men and women. SMG meetings moved to the basement of the Catholic Chaplaincy in Edinburgh with the support of its chaplain Father Anthony Ross in August 1969.
A monthly newsletter, SMG News, was started in January 1971. [2] In the same year the group organised the Cobweb disco, which was Scotland's first gay disco. [3] The DJ was Willie Peacock, it was held every Saturday, and it grew to draw visitors from all over Scotland and became "the" place to go after the Kenilworth on a Saturday night. The SMG Glasgow Women's Group was launched along with its magazine Gayzette.
In 1972, SMG started the Edinburgh Gay Switchboard. SMG organised the International Gay Rights Congress held in the Student's Union of Edinburgh University from 18–22 December 1974. It concluded with a disco which ended with John and Yoko Lennon's "Happy Christmas War Is over", by this time there was a positive feeling that the fight for gay equality was almost over too. Around 400 people attended the event and it led to the setting up of the International Gay Association in 1978. At the end of 1974 premises at Broughton Street, Edinburgh were purchased and the SMG Information Centre opened there in the Spring of 1975. The "Cobweb" had lost its premises because of the move and in its place SMG moved to a monthly one-nighter fund raising disco on the third Tuesday of the month at Cinderella Rockerfella's in the city's St. Stephen Street.
In October 1974 the Paedophile Information Exchange, a pro-paedophile activist group was founded as a special interest group within the Scottish Minorities Group. [4] SMG founder Ian Dunn was among the founding members of PIE. [5]
By 1977 the premises hosted a coffeeshop, a bookstall, a "befriending service" (non-directive counselling by telephone and face to face and modelled loosely on the approach taken by the Samaritans) and offered a friendly, sociable and informative environment to homosexuals of both sexes. The property had a large window onto a busy main street and openly proclaimed its purpose. Today this is the Edinburgh LGBT Centre. In the late 1970s a gay youth group met weekly in the basement of the University Catholic Chaplaincy although this was short-lived in the legally ambiguous climate that then prevailed in Scotland.
In 1977, the Glasgow Gay Centre was opened in Sauchiehall Street. In November 1978, SMG News was renamed (with “no trumpets”) Gay Scotland while SMG changed its name to the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG).
In 1980, Robin Cook's amendment to the 1980 Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill partially decriminalised gay sex between men over 21. This allowed a commercial scene to develop and Bennets Nightclub opened in Glasgow in 1981. There was subsequently less demand for community facilities. At its peak in 1982, SHRG had 1200 members. However, the Glasgow Gay Centre closed in 1982.
In 1988 the SHRG organised its first Lark in the Park in Edinburgh’s Princes Street gardens, the event was the precursor to Pride Scotia, which began in 1995. [6]
In 1992, SHRG changed its name to Outright Scotland.
Latterly focusing on work around the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Executive and Scottish Public Institutions such as the National Health Service, Police and Justice System, Outright Scotland is currently dormant with much of their former role being taken by the Equality Network and Stonewall Scotland.
Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK, Australia and Canada. The GLF provided a voice for the newly-out and newly radicalized gay community, and a meeting place for a number of activists who would go on to form other groups, such as the Gay Activists Alliance, Gay Youth New York, and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in the US. In the UK and Canada, activists also developed a platform for gay liberation and demonstrated for gay rights. Activists from both the US and UK groups would later go on to found or be active in groups including ACT UP, the Lesbian Avengers, Queer Nation, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Stonewall.
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) was a membership organisation in the United Kingdom with a stated aim from 1969 to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales. Active throughout the 1970s – and becoming a mass-membership organisation during this time – CHE's membership declined in the 1980s.
The Albany Trust is a British organisation which describes itself as a "specialist counselling and psychotherapy charity, focusing on a positive approach to sexuality and relationships". It was founded as a registered charity in May 1958 to complement the Homosexual Law Reform Society (HLRS).
Gay News was a fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). At the newspaper's height, circulation was 18,000 to 19,000 copies.
The Metropolitan Community Church of Edinburgh, also known as Holy Trinity Metropolitan Community Church, was the Edinburgh congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), an international Christian denomination founded in 1968 to serve the LGBT community, from 1995 to 2009. The church has now ceased worshipping independently and has merged with Augustine United Church.
LGBT Youth Scotland is a Scottish youth organisation dedicated to the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people from 13 to 25 year of age in Scotland. It was established in November 1989 as the Stonewall Youth Project by members of the LGBT community in Edinburgh.
KAOS GL, short for Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association, founded in 1994, is one of the oldest and largest LGBT rights organisations in Turkey. In 2005, the Ankara-based organisation became the first Turkish LGBT organisation to be legally registered as an association, after their application was initially appealed by deputy governor of Ankara. The organisation has been publishing the journal KAOS GL since its founding. The group operates the KAOS Cultural Center, which hosts cultural activities, meetings, and showings of films. The centre also houses an LGBT history library.
Pride Scotia is Scotland's national LGBT pride festival. Since 1995, volunteers have organised a Pride March and a community-based festival in June, alternating between the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The 'Glasgow LGBT Centre' was a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community centre located at 84 Bell Street, Glasgow G1 1LQ. It was fully wheelchair-accessible, with a chairlift. It closed in April 2009, following withdrawal of funding from Glasgow City Council. This in turn was caused by reported concerns of mismanagement.
The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British pro-paedophile activist group, founded in October 1974 and officially disbanded in 1984. The group campaigned for the abolition of the age of consent. It was described by the BBC in 2007 as "an international organisation of people who trade obscene material".
Events from the year 1943 in Scotland.
The National LGBT Federation (NXF) is a non-governmental organisation in Dublin, Ireland, which focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.
The LGBT community in London is one of the largest within Europe. LGBT culture of London, England, is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho. There are also LGBT pubs and restaurants across London in Haggerston, Dalston and Vauxhall.
The Rainbow Project (TRP) was a non-governmental organisation advocating for LGBT rights and acceptance in Namibia. It provided resources to marginalised communities and worked to counter homophobia and discrimination against sexual minorities in the Namibian community. At its inception, TRP was the only organisation of its kind to focus on injustice against and abuse of sexual minorities in the country; this contrasted with other prominent Namibian LGBT organisations, such as Sister Namibia, which primarily supported lesbians.
Gay Scotland was an LGBT magazine created by the gay rights organisation, the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG). The magazine grew out of SHRG's internal newsletter – which had previously switched from the foolscap-sized SHRG News to the A4-sized Gay Scotland from November 1978. Its first issue was published at the start of March 1982. The magazine was originally edited by Ian Dunn who remained as editor for several years. As part of later reorganisation – especially once SHRG relaunched as Outright Scotland – the role of publisher was, by the 1990s, shifted to Calosa Publishing Ltd and, by 2003, Outright Scotland Community Press Ltd—both companies wholly-owned by Outright Scotland.
Ian Campbell Dunn was a Scottish gay rights and pro-paedophilia campaigner. He was founder of The Scottish Minorities Group, one of the first British gay rights organisations, and helped establish Britain's first gay newspaper, Gay News. Dunn also worked as the editor of Gay Scotland magazine and co-founded the Paedophile Information Exchange.
Derek Andrew Ogg QC was a Scottish lawyer who, through the Historical Sexual Offences Pardons and Disregards Scotland Bill, campaigned for automatic pardons for gay and bisexual men with historical convictions of sexual offences that are no longer illegal in Scotland. In 1983 Ogg established the Scottish HIV and AIDS awareness charity Scottish AIDS Monitor.
Sheila Lennox MacAskill was a Scottish gay rights campaigner who had a pivotal role in decriminalising homosexuality in Scotland. MacAskill was also the first Chairwoman of the Scottish Minorities Group (SMG), the only female executive, and was responsible for establishing their first premises in Glasgow, on Sauchiehall Street, in 1977.
Sigrid Catherine Nielsen is best known as the co-founder and co-owner of Scotland's first gay bookshop, Lavender Menace Bookshop.
