Doug Coupe was the Secretary of the Sussex Gay Liberation Front and the contact listed in Gay News and other publications. His decision to have his name and Brighton home address publicly linked to a gay organisation was a brave move for the early 1970s. As a local teacher his job was most definitely at risk should he be outed.
More recently Doug has played a key part in collecting and preserving memories of the group, and has deposited paperwork at local history archive The Keep. Like many of us he also has a collection of badges from groups he’s joined and events he’s attended. He agreed to share a few memories with me…
Berlin and Boots
Berlin: souvenir from ECMC event hosted by Berlin MSC in West Berlin, 1980.
“I was into leather in a limited way and I had a friend who lived near Rochdale who was a dedicated follower including wearing the full gear, cap chains, studded belt etc. He was a lorry driver and suggested we go to the leather fest in Berlin for a long weekend. There was a lot of beer drinking and cruising and one main event was the biggest orgy I have ever witnessed on the second floor of the Charlottenburg festhalle [Festival Hall]. I later lost interest in the leather scene because there were too often activities associated with it which were sexually very dangerous.”
Boots: souvenir from a leather bar in Frankfurt. Date unknown.
“I have had an affection for Germany for some years having had German lovers and visited many German cities including Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bonn and especially Cologne where a close English friend lived for 15 years. Boots was leather bar I visited on my travels, and they hold a huge Fasching carnival in most cities.”
Eagle and the GLF
Eagle: Souvenir from the New York men’s bar in 1976. Established in 1970 it was originally known as the Eagle’s Nest.
“Again my enthusiasm for world travel took me to the Big Apple in 70s perhaps on the way to San Francisco. Just another leather bar but of course The Eagle is a much-used name for bars the world over including Manchester.”
GLF (purple)
“The purple badge came from one of the early GLF groups in the USA. Bob Mellors brought some back from America after his visit in summer 1970. The American badge was in different shades of purple. It was redesigned for London GLF with the white fist to make it stand out more.” – Philip Rescorla
GLF (green / blue)
“Designed by Alan Wakeman in 1971, it features the symbol for Jupiter. The purple [badge] being first, more popular and longest lasting, despite mild controversy over its display of conventional female (Venus) / male (Mars) symbolism. The green, created because it was theoretically less sexist merely drew the response ‘What the hell is that?’”. – Ted Brown
“These were created to wear during 70s when being ‘visual’ and meeting like-minded people was an important activity and affirmation of being ‘out’.”
International bears, pink triangle and the Ramrod
International Bears Weekend: souvenir from the event at Ilam hall in Derbyshire, 2001.
“These weekends were advertised in Gscene and other gay mags so when I dropped the leather scene I became more interested in the growing bearded bear scene which offered an alternative to the bar and disco fraternity in 70s & 80s. I went for the bear tribe and tried a weekend at Ilam hall in Derbyshire which was quite fun, lots of bed hopping in the dormitories but I found the snoring put me off communal sleeping.”
Pink triangle: home made badge featuring a pink triangle. The symbol was used by the Nazis to identify homosexual men (and other sexual ‘deviants’), in concentration camps. It was revived as a symbol of protest in the 1970s.
“In 1973 we wore the pink triangle when laying a wreath in memory of those gays who died fighting for our country.”
The Sussex GLF made these badges to wear when they laid a wreath at Brighton War Memorial in November 1973. It was reported in Gay News issue 37: “The arm bands are pink ribbon and the badges a pink triangle on a blue background. This is now the badge of the Sussex Gay Liberation Front.”
Ramrod: Souvenir from one of New York’s most popular leather bars in 1970s. It opened in 1976 and was used as a location in the film Cruising. The Ramrod closed shortly after the film was released in 1980 following a homophobic murder.
“I was in NY in 1978 when I decided to take some art prints of mine to try to conquer the Art market, which didn’t happen, but when I moved on to San Francisco I met Ben Nickerson a black guy with whom I had a close relationship for a couple of years. He came to stay with me for a while to hopefully study at Sussex Uni but he wasn’t allowed to stay in the UK.”
