'Breaking the Silence - Gay Teenagers Speak for Themselves', Joint Council for Gay Teenagers, 1981

S/PTC/2/2/3

Autumn 1981

58-page half-A4 booklet, edited by Michael ('Micky') Burbidge and Jonathan Walters, both Islington residents. It included the responses of 34 LGBTQ+ teenagers from across the UK to a series of questions about their lives, collected in 1979. The un-edited answers included were chosen from about twice that number received, as "interesting and representative accounts of the diversity of experience and views among gay teenagers". The publication was widely used and quoted in the campaign to lower the age of consent for sex between men in the UK from 21 years old, and to explain and justify the need for youth services and youth groups for LGBTQ+ teenagers. Item contains sensitive subject material and provocative language. The Joint Council was set up in 1978 and included many of the organisations in the UK providing support to young LGBT people, including: Grapevine London, Campaign for Homosexual Equality, London Friend, London Gay Switchboard, London Gay Teenage Group (all based in Islington), Lesbian Line, Parents Enquiry, Release, Cara Friend Northern Ireland, and a number of other gay youth groups from around the UK and Ireland.

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LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning+) Community, LGBTQ+ Campaigning and Politics, LGBTQ+ Publications, YOUTH SERVICES, CRIMINAL LAW

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