The new Queer Britain Museum, the first dedicated LGBTQ museum in the UK will be screening a dramatic short that will be a must-see for anyone intrigued with the history of the lesbian community
Back in 1966, homosexuality between men is still criminalized. Women didn’t fare any better. A woman who was exposed as a lesbian could expect to lose her job, her lodgings, her family. It is a tough, dangerous and nerve-wracking existence.
But in one subterranean corner of Chelsea, society’s rules don’t apply. The Gateways club offered a safe haven for women to dance, express themselves, and love who they want. Or did it?
Maureen Duffy, was the first gay woman in British public life today to be open about her sexuality. and came out publicly in her work in the early 1960s published The Microcosm in 1966. She turned her probing gaze to London’s first and infamous lesbian hang-out. In this searingly honest work, based on her own experience, Maureen examines if this gay bar, and those like it, really offers the freedom its patrons crave.
Fifty-six years later Maureen’s words are brought vividly to life by two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson. Glenda, along with director Joe Ingham, draws striking parallels between the past and the present and explores the uncomfortable paradox that exists within queer spaces.
The Microcosm
Queer Britain from Wed 12 October until Mon 24P.S. You may also want to check out Gateways Grind documentary with Sandi Toksvig on a journey through lesbian London, to uncover the history of the Gateways club and the women who drank, danced and loved inside it. London, It is currently playing the Film Festival Circuit
