The Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) organised º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ×'s first Gay Pride march in July 1973, and though the march was photographed by the Argus newspaper, the photographs were never used. A small brown packet of negatives sat in the paper's photo archive for almost 50 years, until they were discovered six months ago by members of Gay º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ× Past, an online history group co-founded by Alf Le Flohic, part of the º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ×'s web team.
Now Gay º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ× Past have organised an exhibition of º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ× Pride 1973 photographs running through August in the windows of the charity shop at 130 St James's Street in Kemptown.
Alf said: “They’re a big deal in terms of local LGBT history, as no one thought there were any photos of º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ×’s first Pride march back in 1973 - but we’ve found them. These pictures are a missing part of º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ×’s LGBT community history, so it was really important to give everyone the chance to see them. Even more so with Pride not happening in the usual way this year.”
Alf also managed to track down some of the SGLF members from the time, including founder member Simon Watney, who was teaching at º£½ÇÒùĸÂÒÂ× Polytechnic Art School.