Title (as given to the record by the creator): Lesbian & Gay Freedom Movement Newsletter #5
Date(s) of creation: Summer 1991
Creator / author / publisher: Lesbian & Gay Freedom Movement
Location: London, UK
Physical description: 16 page zine
Reference #: LGFM5-1991
Source: QZAP
Links: [ PDF ] [ QZAP ]
Transcript:
[Cover: Line drawing of an arrow overtop and underlining the title, “Lesbian and Gay Freedom Movement”. “Newsletter 5 – Summer 91”. Solid black arrow beneath, bisected by the triangle of the logo.]
[Logo is three upside-down triangles stacked over each other slightly askew. The middle triangle is grey and the front triangle has an A on it.]
[Cover illustration Light skin nude person with breasts and long hair. They are waist-deep in a large body of water and are cradling a dolphin under a crescent moon.]
Title: LGFM SUPPORTS DOLPHINS WHO WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH HUMANS
LGFM, Bm Box 207, London, WC1N3XX
[solid black arrow under address]
40p
[Page 2 of 16]
Article title [underlined by line drawing of arrow beneath title]: Lesbian & Gay Freedom Movement
Subtitle [underlined]: Campaigning to inspire people to have more radical view about sex and sexuality, patriarchy, pornography, the police, and the state.
In recent times the lesbian and gay movement has become less radical and more respectable; asking now for limited “rights” rather than liberation, and grovelling to the police, the courts, and the politicians. Parts of the feminist movement has even aligned themselves with the moral right on sex and sexuality issues. The less conventional sections of the lesbian and gay and feminists movements have been disowned and attacked both verbally and physically. The list of those outlawed is growing and is of all sexes. It includes the very young and the very old, and people with mental or physical disabilities; also those who are non-monogamous, like cottaging or picking people up in public places, and those of us who enjoy sex toys and pornography. It includes sexualities such as bisexuals, transsexuals, transvestites, girl/women and boy/man lovers, and people into SM sex, and sex with animals.
The Lesbian and Gay Freedom Movement is aiming to shift the political agenda in the opposite direction to a campaign for sexual liberation, to inspire and excite people to think about freedom, and to join in the fight to overthrow patriarchy and the sate. We are trying to bring these revolutionary ideas to as many people as possible of all sexualities and sexes by distributing leaflets and newsletters, by talking to people, and by holding open meetings on controversial issues. We also try to raise the issue of sexual liberation and anarchism with other groups.
Title [all caps]: Pornography
LGFM is also actively campaigning on the issue of pornography. We do want a world without male power, sexism, and sexual violence, but we totally oppose the elimination of pornography as a way forward. We believe that not all pornography is sexist and some can be liberating. It has in no way been established that there is a link between pornography and sexual violence. It is so easy to blame pornography for what’s wrong with society, because that is exactly what the state wants – more laws to censor and oppress us. We are living in right-wing anti-sex times, with the government attacking anyone whose sex or sexuality challenges the nuclear family (eg. section 28, attacks on abortion rights and artificial insemination). The would certainly support a move against pornography.
Pornography is a complete distraction from the real [real is underlined] causes of sexism and sexual violence. Sexism is mirrored in imaged, and not [not is underlined] created by images. We want men to talk about and challenge institutionalised male power and sexism in the real world; not attack our fantasies which are completely different from what we do in our everyday lives. We want men to challenge sexism and male power in the workplace, the pub, in the nuclear family, in schools; and in advertising, TV, and magazines, which constantly show women in the role of servicing men, rather than as people.
We believe that a more radical approach is needed to challenge male power and sexism and sexual violence in our society. We need to attack the patriarchal institutions that will always keep men in power and oppress women and children: we need to campaign against all governments and the institutions they set me up to enforce their oppressive laws like the police and the courts, and most importantly we need to challenge the nuclear family which is where most sexual violence against women and children occurs.
(cont.)
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[Page 3 of 16]
Title [Underlined]: Pornography continued…
It is sexual oppression and lack of understanding about sex and sexuality that leads to sexual violence. We need a less sexually oppressive society where we can discuss everything and sex is no longer seen as ‘naughty’ nor driven underground. A society where the state no longer makes us wear clothes, no certain types of clothes depending on our gender. We need more information about sex and sexuality around for all of us, including pictures of naked bodies and people having sex. There is nothing wrong with sexual excitement and masturbation in itself. It can be very liberating to read about or see pictures of other peoples bodies – naked and/or having sex – particularly for lesbians and gays, as there is so little information about for us. Lesbian pornography is very difficult to get because of censorship; any new censorship laws will always be used against this sort of pornography, not against sexist images in advertisments [sic]. Pornography is especially important for people who don’t want or don’t have the ability for partner sex, e.g. isolated, disabled, elderly, and people with HIV/AIDS.
LGFM BELIEVES THAT PORNOGRAPHY DOES HAVE A POSITIVE ROLE TO PLAY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LESBIAN AND GAY LIBERATION, AND OPPOSES ALL CENSORSHIP.
[end]
[Article excerpted from unknown newspaper]
Title: Pornography is a dirty word at this men only party
by: Nicholas Farrell [simple line above and simple underline beneath byline]
The conference was limited to “men only”, and the 100 gentlemen filing into the auditorium had one thing on their minds…pornography.
But it had nothing to do with the girile [sic] magazine of the same name and there was not a dirty mac in sight.
Yesterday’s conference was organised by the Campaign Against Pornography and Censorship, which felt men would feel less inhibited if they could discuss the matter quietly behind closed doors away from women.
There was a woman there, Ms. Catherine Itzin, the CPS’s co-ordinator, but she gave an opening address, then quietly left. But before doing so, she told her all-male audience not to worry because both she and the CPC were “pro sex”. She added: “To see men in these numbers I find quite…aaah…overwhelming.”
There were also women outside—as well as men—representing a group called The Lesbian and Gay Freedom Movement, which objected to the aims of the CPC.
Launched in 1989, the CPC, a voluntary pressure group, aims for the eliminations of pornography on the grounds that it contributes to sex discrimination and violence against women. It campaigns for legislation that would give women the power to sue pornographers for damages.
But the lesbian and gay freedom people felt pornography was not the real issue and the CPC would, despite its title, end up with that dreaded word: censorship.
Their leaflets urged the men going inside to tackle “male power and sexism in the real world; not attack our fantasies”. The real world meant, according to the leaflet, the workplaces and the pub, among other things.
Inside the conference centre in Brixton, the 100 men attending were not so much good and true but, in the parlance of those committed to such issues, “straight” and “gay”.
Among the speakers was Mr Michael Moorcock, 50, the prolific and – [sic] hugely successful writer of 69 books, mainly on science fiction, who was also until two years ago a singer with Hawkwind, a rock band much admired by hippies.
He once worked for a pornographic magazine called Nugget, but is nowadays a fervent anti-pornography campaigner.
He said: “My interest in common justice and in empowering people who are victims of injustice to take charge. It’s a men only even because it’s essential men get together to discuss their views on porn. In some ways it’s a lot easier to do that if it’s men only.”
Ironically, Mr Moorcock’s daughter, Sophie Moorcock, 28, a journalist and writer, co-produced a controversial lesbian erotica magazine last year whose title is unprintable in these pages and is a member of something called “The Well-Oiled Sisters”.
But said her father: “She’s a grown woman. I’m quite happy for my children to be opposed to me. It’s quite healthy.”
[end article]
[Excerpt from article sandwiched between preceding text “LETTER FROM LGFM PRINTED IN ‘CITY LIMITS’ MAGAZINE
and OUTRAGE WANTS GAY POLICE…LGFM WANTS NO POLICE!” and ‘OUTRAGE WANTS GAY POLICE….LGFM WANTS NO POLICE!]
Letter title: No Fair Cops
We were disturbed to learn from Keith Alcorn’s ‘Sound Off’ (CL 464) that the supposedly radical lesbian and gay action group ‘OutRage’ is advocating liaison with the police, including the demand that ‘openly lesbian and gay recruits should be accepted into the police force and a recruitment campaign targeted at the lesbian and gay community’.
The demand for anti-gay remarks to be made a disciplinary offence has some merit but this demand is chilling. The police, after all, are agents of the state and are there to enforce homophobic laws.
In post Section 28 Britain, lesbian and gay sexuality is marginalised, and much gay male sex is still illegal We know the police keep records of our sexualities, and sometimes AIDS status on their computers. Perhaps we should we [sic] be flattered that we should be considered such a threat?
OutRage should stop encouraging lesbians and gays to become acceptable to the police, and concentrate on campaigning against police oppression and for accountability. We believe it would be more in the interests of lesbian and gays to work with other oppressed groups to transform society, rather than just trying to fit into it as it is.
[Illustration bottom right of page: English police helmet, called “bobby helmet” or “custodian helmet”. A tall black helmet with short brim and chin-strap. Instead of the usual metal crest at the centre there is an upside down triangle.]
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[Page 4 of 16]
[Page heading: Prison is a tool of social control.]
Title: Prisoner of Conscience
In 1990, Ben Wilson won his lng battle against the British Government at the European Court of Human Rights. Ben is a prisoners, and in spite of the fact that our Government was found guilty by the court of violating international standards, he is still in prison.
In 1973, Ben Wilson was convicted of having sex with boyfriends under 16 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Judge May said in court that up to seven years would be correct as a punishment, but that he would give a ‘merciful’ life sentence so that Ben could be cure of his ‘freakish affliction’, and he hoped be released much sooner.
The ‘treatment’, which they arried out on three separate occasions, was ti implant female hormones into his body. He grew breast, and his capacity to function sexually was temporarily damaged. Of course he is still attracted to boys rather than women. Even after this degrading and horrific treatment he still wasn’t released and as the years went by he ran a one person campaign, writing to every M.P. and organisation that might help. He went on hunger strike threetimes. By profession Ben Wilson was a baker, but in prison he strudied law on his own, and won a case against the Home Office with the Ombudsman. He also wn his first European Human Rights case against the British Government after the authorities intercepted a letter he had written to a barrister, saying that he had been wrongfully convicted of the acts of buggery that he was doing life for.
Winning these cases will not have made him popular with the authorities, and nor did the fact that he openly stated his vew that the relationships he had with boys were mutual, caring, and did the boys no harm.
Finally, in 1981 he was released ‘on license’ to a hostel for ex-offenders. He was given a tiny attic room with only a leaky skylight as a window, which he pointed out was worse than his prison cell. He was also persecuted by other ex-prisoners for his sexuality. Ben made a big fuss about his accommodation, and in September 1982 he was arrested and recalled to prison. All he was told was “your condust is giving cause for concern’, and ‘you are not co-operating with your probation officer. He had committed no new offence.
Ben took this issue of his re-imprisonmnet at the whim of the state to Europe. His case was heard along with three other prisoners in similar situations. The case was that it was a breach of articles of the European Convention for lifers to be re-imprisoned, with no right to see the reports on which the decision was made, no right to a hearing, no right to call witnesses, no right to legal representation. NO RIGHTS – just a secret decision made behind closed doors, by unaccountable people. Ben won the case, and the court said that the British Government should now change the law to allow a fair hearing for all lifers. So far they hace ignored the judgement. The Government was found guilty, but it is Ben who is still in prison. He is 75 now.
It is perfectly obvious why the state won’t release him, it’s spite. Spite because he has won three cases against the Government, and spite because he refused to say that his relationships were either sick or sinful. He’s done far longer than people convicted of murder, child abuse, multiple rape, or arson, and certainly far far longer than the trial judge ever intended as punishment.
Ben Wilon has refused to grovel to the system, he has stuck to his beliefs, and is now as surely a Prisoner of Conscience as any adopted by Amnesty in some far off country.
[large all-caps letters] Free Ben Wilson!
[End article]
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[Page 5 of 16]
[Pencil illustrations of a nude person with shoulder-length hair tied back with a scarf. Their buttocks and right breast are visible. They are bending over a bin, a piece of paper or cloth in their hand. It is not clear whether they are dropping it in or taking it out of the bin. The person is bending around a dining chair. The room has a checkerboard floor pattern.]
Title [text underlined]: Drawn by female supported aged 14.
[Page number bottom right corner: 5]
[Page 6 of 16]
Title: Homo. Alone.
“Have you got a boyfriend? No? Why not? When I was your age…
Does this sound familiar to you too? For me, being a 17 year old female, these are the questions that I am asked all the time. Rather than think up some stupid explanation, it would of course be much easier if I just said that I was a lesbian. There is nothing I would like better than to ‘come out’ to people. With a homophobic family like mine though, that would probably go down as well as, “by the way everyone, I’m a mass murderess who chops people up into pieces and sells the flesh to the local butcher”. As far as my parents are concerned, I am still a child who does not know what a lesbian is, so therefore I cannot be one. Being 17 and still at school, it would also not be very wise of me to admit to my homosexuality. My life would be even more of a misery.
Once I am older and do eventually ‘come out’, it may help people who know me to see that gays are normal human beings like everyone else. (whatever normal actually is.) Until then, I will have to carry on living a lie. Having to suffer a boyfriend once in a while, just to keep my family happy. Having to hold back from defending yself and other gays when my family make nasty ignorent comments. Hardest of all is trying to hide my obvious admiration when I see a beautiful woman and pretending that in the film ‘Pretty Woman’, its Richard Gere that turns me on and not Julia Roberts!
Whether people like it or not, I’m gay and happy to be gay, and no-one can say or do anything to change that because the path of homosexuality has been walked by my body. I have found my true path.
[End article]
[heavy black line]
[Excerpt from Dear Ann Landers, an advice column]
Title: Mom tries to turn son into dau [end of word cut off]
Dear Ann Landers: this letter will sound bizarre and I’m sure most of your readers will thing it was mde up by a student at Yale. Every word is true, so help me. I am praying that you will print it because my wife refuses to listen to me and I need some help with this problem. She respect you, Ann.
“Susan” and I have been married for seven years. We have a 6-year-old son and cannot have any more children. She was hoping for a girl and was deeply disappointed when “Jack” was born. Susan has treated our son like a girl from the day he came home from the hospital. She dresses him in frilly pinafores and puts ribbons in his hair. My family thought Susan was nutty at first and told her so. She threatened to keep them from seeing “Jackie” if they continued to be critical, so they caved in and now they even buy him tea sets and dolls.
When Jackie started kindergarten last year, he was registered as a girl. No one at school knows he’s a boy. He wears dresses with fancy underwear and plays with dolls. He seems quite comfortable as a girl and loves to go shopping with his mom. I’ve told Susan that she is ruining Jackie for life, but she says several famous men in history were raised as girls, citing Ernest Hemingway (one of her heroes) as a prime example. Is this true, Ann?
My wife insists that I shouldn’t worry because she’s going to turn him into a male when he reaches puberty and he will be as manly as Hemingway. I get a sick eeling when I see her teaching him to sit like a lady and apply lipstick. This child should be playing with boys and learning how to be a boy.
Do you believe that what my wife is doing will cause a problem to our son later in life? She insists not, but I need some help.- Mr. T.B. Santa Ana, Calif.
Dear T.B.: First, a bit of history: It is true that Ernest Hemingway’s mother dressed him in girl’s clothes. Actually, she attempted to create the impression that he and his sister were twins.
Although Hemingway was regarded as one of the foremost writers of his time, his personal life was a mess. His mother was a bizarre woman and he despised her. His father, a physician whom he also loathed, was an angry, bitter man, trapped in a nightmarish marriage. He committed suicide as did Ernest, his sister Ursula, and his brother Leicester.
Your wife is in desperate need of counseling and your son needs plenty of help, too, especially if his ditzy mother insists on bollixing up his sexual identity. I urge you to enlist the cooperation of the child’s pediatrician, his teachers–anyone who will help you rescue that unfortunate boy from this sick situation.
[end article]
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[Page 7 of 16]
Heading [cursive font, heavily underlined]: Book Reviews
Title [underlined, all caps]: ‘Diggers and Dreamers’ – The 1990/91 Guide to Communal Living.
This useful guide gives a background history to communal living and discusses it in the light (or should I say the dark) of the Thatcher years. Commune members share with us their experiences of starting their home, and give details of a typical day at their place. The book considers various aspects of communality, such as decision making, work, income sharing, etc. The second half is a summary of 57 communes. Thee are illustrated with a map and a a table of qualities (eg. the number of occupants, whether open to new members), and any particular focus such as feminist, gay, anarchist, vegan, and so on. Each commune also has the chance, in one page, to tell us about themselves.
The book is packed with advice, usually form a personal angle. It’s all very readable and convenient, and as diverse as the communities themselves. Edited and published by members of the communes and the Communes Network, and printed on recycled paper. It’s a must for anyone interested in the subject.
Available for £5.75 inc. p&p from;- Communes Network, Lifespan Community, Townshead, Dunford Bridge, Sheffield, S30 6tG.
[end article]
[The bottom left quarter of the page is taken up by very grainy image of a magazine cover. Title of magazine: “Clash: International Newspaper for/from the resistance.” There is an image of a person smiling, thumbs up looking into the camera. Around the image is a line and stars border. Issue title: The future is unwritten. At the bottom of the page, it says “buy from your local info/bookshop”.]
[Text along the vertical side of magazine cover is in all-caps and underlined.]
‘Clash” is a new international anarchist magazine with articles fro Germany, Netherlands, Britain, France, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Norway. They say “Let’s fight together against imperialism, faciscm, and patriarchy”. Send £ to Clash, Slagerzicht Overtoom 274, 1054 JB, Amsterdam, Netherlands, for latest edition.
[End article]
Title [title is all-caps and underlined] Quim – Lesbian sex magazine
Issue no.2 now available includes photos, fiction features on coming, safer sex, and fantasy. Order from bookshops for £3 in. p&P from Quim Magazine, BM BOX 2182, London, WC1N 3XX. Also [text all-caps and underlined]…for females only, Quim’s “Sin in Cinema” Party! 8 June, Scala Cinema, Pentonville Rd, Kings Cross, London. £3:50 concs. £5.50 waged. Come as your screen idol.
[End article]
[Page number bottom right corner: 7]
[Page 8 of 16]
Title [all caps in large bold font]: Sexual fantasy &
Sexual fantasies and dreams are an element in nearly everyone’s life. There has been debate in the feminist movement as to the role of sexual fantasy and its possible includence on behaviour outside of the sexual context. The three theories are:
- That certain sexual fantasy is a cause of sexit behaviour by men and an expression of self-oppression in women;
- That sexual fantasies can be an expression and reflection of sexism in society; and
- That sexual fantasies, whether or not you believe they are rooted in upbringing and the sexual repression of society, stand outside the ambit of sexism. This theory sees fantasy as separate from social practice.
The argument that the feminist anti-porn lobby uses against pornography is that it can influence men’s behaviour outside of the sexual context and can lead to sex discrimination, misogyny, and even rape. Many feminists who are not persuaded by this logic nevertheless feel concerned that certain types of sexual fantasy may contribute to women’S oppression, and, therefore see it as the task of feminists to criticize our own and other women’s fantasies in order to bing them in line with our feminist politics. Women whould also try to make men “clean up” their fantasies, in the same way as anti-porn women feel men should be educated not to want porn.
There is, of course, a link between the role of pornography and the role of fantasy in our sexualities. The role of pornography is to stimulate our imagination and thereby create fantasies. Pronography is not an end in itself, it’s a tool.
Some feminists assert that fantasy has a direct effect on women’s social, economic, political and sexual position in society. Sheila Jeffreys, author of [title is underlined] Anti-Climax, states that under male supremacy, if one wonders why women are not free, one only has to look at their masochistic fantasies. She believes women should try to change and purify their fantasies in conjunction with trying to eliminate pornography. This done, men would have less stimulation for fantasies that are not “premised on equality”.
The Campaign Against Pronography and Censorship (CPC) actually defines “erotica” (acceptable) as “sexual material premised on equality” as opposed to “pornography” (degrading, dangerous) which depicts power relations in sex.
Perhaps the current obsession with “cleaning up” sexual material, chanigng our fantasies and viewing certain expressions of sexuality as contributing to women’s opression (S/M is the current favourite) is simply a manifestation of sexual repression rather than being part of the struggle for women’s freedom. Maybe sexual fantasy and, indeed, our sexual practice withint the sexual arena as a simple reflection of attitudes and practice in the world outside is not correct.
The anti-porn/anti-sex lobby make this simple equation: men who fantasize about rape go on to comit rape; therefore, they must change their fantasies, and we must removed pornography because it stimulates fantasy. But is this correct?
Do women really have more to fear form men who have rape fantasies than from those who do not? It is worth noting that, contrary to popular myth, pornography rarely depicts rape, whereas horror films, the general media and news reports increasingly feature this topic. If fantasy is so closely related to behaviour outside sexual relationships, what abou the fact that many women have fantasies
(cont.)
[Page number bottom right corner: 8]
[Page 9 of 16]
Title [all caps in large, bold font]: Sexual Politics
about being raped? It is not suggested that women who have these fantasies then go out to try and get raped. There is a vast diference between what we may find stimulating in fantasy and what we may really want to do. Sex play involving rape fantasies for the purposes of arousal is probably more prevalent than is generally admitted, because it is such a taboo subject – especially amongst feminists.
And what about men? If men’s sexual fantasie are simply a reflection – or worse, a cause – of sexist behaviour, then it is very hard to explain masochism and masochistic fantasy in men. It is well established that men who enjoy being beaten, humiliated or infantalized are sometimes judges, MPs, police officers, busines executives, and others in authority in society. In fact, sexuality and position in society can be opposite.
Fantasy is the shadowy side to our sexual nature, and there is still very little known about why certain things turn us on. For instance, do rape and masochistic fantasies in women arise form women’s internalization and sexualization of our subordinate role in society and in relationships, as anti-porn feminists argue? Or is the role of fantasy a little more complex? Perhaps it is not the origin but rather how we relate to our fantasie that is important.
I would argue that, while many women have fantasies that they feel guilt about, fantasy is a personal rather than political issue, and the problem is the guilt, not the fantasy. It is the guilt which should be tackled. For instance, a social assertive, sexually confident women challenge exist assumptions about women by her actions and attitudes. If she has “unliberated” sexual fantasies, how can this affect anything outside herself and anyone she chooses sto share them with? As long as she feels comfortable with her fantasies, what harm are they doing and what business is it of anyone else’s?
This is true of men, too. What difference does fantasy or xonsensual sexual practice make except to those involved? It is rightly argued that sometime men try to force their unwilling partners to share or act out their fantasies – the Meese Commission was impressed by testimony to this effect. But here the issue is not fantasy, but rotten, unequal relationships without respect for women’s sexual independence – just like rape in marraige. It is the power relations that need to change, not the fantasies.
My own view is that it may be interesting to ponder the origin and nature of our fantasies and whether we want to change them, expand them or are happy with what they are. As far as the fight against sexism is concerned, this issue is worse than a red herring – concentration on the purification of our fantasies poses a real threat to women’s right to explore her sexuality without guilt and restriction.
We are not int he age of ‘returning to Victorian Values’, the AIDS scare, the growing censorship of sexual materians, restriction on sex eduation, and of Section 28. This is the time to defence sexual divertiy and the role of sexual fantasy in our lives, and not to play into the hands of the right and the anti-porn lobby by trying to restrict fantasy to what the feminist police deem acceptable.
[end article]
Title [all caps large font]: Good news
[Title is followed by solid horizontal black bar]
A 12 year old girl has won her case in court to be allowed to have an abortion against her parents wishes. Her 16 year old boyfriend nos not being prosecuted.
The age of consent in Holland has been lowered from 16 to 12 years old.
[end article]
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[Page 10 of 16]
Title [all caps large font]: How you can stop the oppression of fat dykes
- Stop assuming that being fat is a matter of choice for most fat womyn.
- Stop assuming I should lose weight – one of the oppressive assumptions that thin womyn make is that all fat womyn want to lose weight.
- Stop assuming or believing that I’m killing myself by being fat – oppression kills!
- I have lots of feelings when I eat. So do thin people. Don’t attribute pain, despair, low self-esteem, or other mental symptoms to me just because I’m fat.
- Don’t always assume fat people are jolly and funny.
- Don’t ignore fat people. Fat people are easily ignored because we often try hard to be inconspicuous.
- Don’t point ot the exceptional weight loser. Weight loss is statistically atypical.
- Don’t expect Fat Liberation to become a major political movement before you [you is in all caps] start to change.
- Remember, I am me. I am not your dictatorial fat father, I am not your nurturing Aunt Clara. I am not your seductive fat mother.
- Get rid of your terror of being fat. Get rid of your fear of fat people. It is hurting all of us.
- Don’t leave it to fat dykes/womyn to do all your consciousness raising for you.
- Don’t treat fat people like we’re uncool. Just because we are not allowed to wear the latest styles doesn’t mean we don’t know what’s going on.
- Let yourself be attracted to a fat dyke/womyn. It’s not an addicent if you’ve ‘never’ been attracted to a fat lesbian.
- Have sex fantasies about fat womyn/lesbians without turning us into earth mothers and comforters.
- Whenever you fantasize, raw or otherwise image lesbians/womyn, see us as we really are, all shapes and sizes and colours. It is the responsibility of artists and graphics womyn, etc to show fat images in a positive way.
- Invite us to go swimming or to the sports club. Take our pictures when you have your camera out (unless we ask you not to). Don’t put your shame of fat upon us.
- Don’t drink diet pop or in any other way support the diet industry. The patriarchy makes huge amounts of money through the diet industry by playing on womyn’s fears of being fat or getting fatter.
- Remember that fat oppression is a fat person’s problem too. We are all taught to be afraid of being fat, or fatter.
- Remember what Vivian Mayer says: “Fat is not a feminist issue, fat LIBERATION [liberations is in all caps] is!!”.
- Stop dieting yourself!
In summary, support me as a fat dyke by:…understanding my oppression…exposing fatphobia where you see and hear ti (eg don’t let your agency or organisation post notices about diets or groups that assume we need to lose weight)…letting and helping me love my body FAT [fat is in all caps] without any over or cover assumptions of having to lose it. Encourage fat lesbians and womyn you know to…stop dieting…join a support group or talk with other fat dykes about being fat…come out of our closets…build pride and rid ourselves of self-hatred.
End title [large font and all caps]: Help us throw our weight around!
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[Page 11 of 16]
[Along the vertical side of the page from bottom to top are three line illustrations of running horses looking behind themself at a hand-written sentence.]
[First horse] Freedom is not a commodity
[Second horse] Liberation is not a sports bra
[Third horse] Resistance is not a grapefruit diet
[Article is placed horizontally, taking up the remaining vertical two thirds of the page.]
Title [bold, large font in all caps]: Blood on their surgical gloves
Once again the power-people of the world have sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people to their political manoeuverings. Two countries have been trashed, and an environmental disaster created that may have far reaching effects for years to come. And, we’re told, it’s all the fault of Saddam Hussein. Bollocks! [Bollocks is in all caps] The war was about hte control of oil reservesl about Bush and Major (U.S.A. and Britain) wanting to be leaders of the world and continue imperialism; about distracting the people of the ‘allied’ countries from the problems at home (especially the worsening livings standards); about boosting the arms trade of the industrailised countries in a slump after the dwindling of the cold war, about providing a new enemy, a reason for keeping our massive armies and nuclear weaponsl and a new fear to keep us thinking we need our governments to protect us. It was NOT [not is all caps] about liberating an invaded country.
The usa would have no reason to consider the invasion of a country to be wrong anyway – it does that itself (Grenado, Vietnam, Panama, and Nicaragua via the Contras), and there are plenty of other countries around the world that have been occupied by foreign armies. The Indonesian state under General Suharto has been inflicting a brutal regime on the people of Eat Timor since 1975, but no-one’s ‘liberated’ them. And has Kuwait been liberated anyway? No. [No is all caps] The reinstated Emir (leader) of Kuwait has busied himself with a masss of barbaric torture, and the deportation of 200,000 or so Palestinians.
The only reason that Saddam Hussein gets to look more blameworthy than the ‘allied’ leaders is because our media is subject to massive (but subtle) control and manipulation designed to keep us in the dark.
[End article]
[Bold black borderered box around the following text] Lesbian and Gay Pride March 1991 [text is all caps and underlined]
LGFM is meeting at 12 noon outside Temple Underground Station on Sat 29th June to go on the march. Look out for our black flags!
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[Page 12 of 16]
Title [large bold all caps] Sadomasochism
Sadomasochims is the scare word anti-sex crusaders use to tell you how horrible pornography is. There are pictures, they say, of sadomasochism, and these are pictures of men dominating women, men raping women, men treating owmen as slaces. And men look at these pictures and think that women want to be slaves, wnat to be dominated, and want to be hurt and raped. So we have to censor pornography, or men will learn to treat women like slaves and dominate and rape women.
What ban-the-porn crusaders don’t want you to know is taht most pornography isn’ s/m, and most s/m pornography doesn’t show male dominance. There’s more female dominance in s/m than tere is in anything else you’ve ever read.
And anti-pornography crusaders don’t want you to know that women like to look at s/m images, and although we have fantasies of both dominating and being dominated, we know very well that this has nothing to do with the way we want to be treated in real life. Or that when men look at s/m images, they have fantasies both of dominating and of being dominated, and they also know that it has nothing to do with real life.
Anti-porn crusaders claim that men get their ideas about women from reading s/m pornograpjy. That would be interesting. Men would be getting the idea that males are submissive, or even irrelevant, in sex. Most of the pictures in porn are of women, either alone or with other women. Pictures of people dominating are usually other women.
Most people who have s/m fantasies know that they are not about how we really want to be treated. We don’t like to be pushed around, and we don’t like to be talked down to. When we go to work or out to see people, we want to be treated with respect. And dominance fantasies don’t really mean we want to have to push people around, either. Some of us can be made to feel guilty about having submissive or dominant fantasie, if we think it means there is something aboutus that secretly doesn’t want to have dignity or to respect other people. But that just isn’t true, and we shouldn’t have to feel guilty.
Maybe we have fantasies ato relieve the stress of living in a world where we do get pushed around, when we want to be in control. We get frustrated with people always pretending they know how we’re supposed to feel or what we’re supposed to do. We get angry with people lying about what they feel or what we’re supposed to do. We get angry with people lying about what they feel and playing games so nothing is ever honest. In our fantasies, people can say and do those same stupid things, but we are in control and they can’t really push us around, and they can’t be dishonest about what they feel.
Nobody really knows why we have these fantasie. There are a lot of theories, but most of them have nothing to do with our real experience. All we know is that when we try to deny the fantasies, they don’t go away. Calling people names and making them feel guilty for having fantasies only hurts people.
[End article]
Title [all caps large font] Bad news
[Title is followed by solid horizontal black bar]
During 1989 (latest stats), nearly 100 gay and bisexual males were imprisoned for consenting [consenting is all caps] sex – soliciting, indencency or procuring were the laws used against them. 153 young gays aged 10-21 were also convicted with twelve jailed. A further 99 young gays were also cautioned, six of whom were aged 10-14.
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[Page 13 of 16]
[Top left quadrant of page has a black border around handwritten text and illustration.
Text: Beware of lust, my friend…les us be spiritual, not genital. Les us dance in a circle and do obeisance to the moon and sublimate our urges to higher things.
[Illustration shows a person with long wavey haird dressed in a nightshirt with a bow and flannel pyjama bottoms. They are pulling a vinyl record out of a sleeve that reads “the cervix systers sing for you”.]
[Top right quadrant]
Title: Census [in large, all-caps 3D-style black and white font]
Hope you managed to avoid being included on the census! They claim that the information collected is confidential. If this is so, then they shouldn’t have asked for names & addresses. On the form it amidst that they do [do is all caps] keep our postcodes on their computer. There are lots of ways the state could use this information against us. Immigration officers, poll tax snoopers, and the polie would love to know where we all live. In the future we could be living under an even more repressive regime/dictatorship, and all this personal information would be in their hands.
Some lesbians & gays started a daft (maybe dangerous) campaign for a question to be on the census about peoples sexuality! We have been campaigning for years for our sexuality not [not is all caps] to be on police files. We must not trust the state with personal information about ourselves.
[text all caps and underline] We’re not of us free till we’re all free!
[end article]
[Bottom right quadrant of page]
Title [all caps]: Green Bikes
A group of people in Bristol are going to put free bikes on the street for people to use whenever they want. They want to raise consciousness about cycling and shock people into realising that ownership doesn’t have to be a necessity. Contact Karen 0272 427031/Alison 522131 if you can offer skills, money, bikes or storage space.
[Bottom left quadrant of page is an illustration of two nude people overlayed in a lino-cut print style. Their left profiles of their bodies are in view, with their breasts hanging down. They have flowing wavy hair, and the line style of the hair is echoed along the border of the image. Their legs are folded under them and are smiling, looking toward the left.]
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Tile [Large, bold, all-caps]: Letter from America
There are several ways to characterise what and who is doing the real damage to the youth in our so called moral society. No groups suffers more guilt feelings ortrauma than the children that have been discovered in a concensual sexual relationship with an adult or intergenerational sex. The embarassment of discovery is so great that the young person loses all their sense of self esteem and self confidence. The media and social services see to it that the child has a stigma attached to them for the rest of their lives. The question I put to the readership is – who i doing the damage and putting the kids in this position?
The truth of the matter is very easy to see. Just look at who profits from this exposing of a consensual intergenerational sexual relatiosnhop. First you have the police, they have been for years spending tax payers money chasing and prosecuting victimless crim to raise arrest statistics so the gullable public will think they are fighting crime. What a joke, if they weren’t spending your money. Then you have the ever expanding social services agencies that are trying to get a bigger budget through the exploitation of exposing this relationship and breaking it up. Then comes the real money grabber. The sex sells media, who blows the whole situation out of context and makes a bundle in doing so. They say that they withhold the childs name in this, but all the childs friends and school chums know who this adult is and their are real problems at school and at home, and carries around the label pervert or queer. Family will now be suspicious of anyone the child finds to be a friend. What a trip to lay on a kid from the people who are supposed to be supportive and protective.
In all these cases they have shattered the childs life, taken away a relationship he or she wanted. They were in a relationship where they could find self confidence and were given a high self esteem, they were always made to feel wanted and loved, and in one day all this was yanked from them, and their friend was dragged off to prison, and their relationship opened up to the public. The truth is that all real girl and boy lovers centre their lives around that of the child, and sex is seondary to the tru relationship. But the medial and public officials hunting more money for budgets would have the ignorant and gullible public to believe that these people only got together to have sex, sex and more sex; which is far from the truth. Most people believe anything they read or hear ton the news and never question anything that has a controversy to it. It’s an issue that people, lesbian and gay and straight, are afraid to address for fear of someone else or the government putting a label on them and put their own life in ruin.
Lets look at the typical life of thse children today, and find out why so many of them are looking for a relationship with an adult. They know what chance they are taking, but more and more kids are willing to take that chance lately. Parents today delegate responsibility for children to a neighbour, babysitters, schools, churches, etc. Parents today are busy and obsessed with self-centre schedules to be bothered with their kids. So they put the kids in front of the TV and put the VCR on and let that do the teaching where they can learn about violence, how to get even, kill, hate the average person, learn not ot trust, to be a cold person. Then to add insult to injury they are fed a fast good firet of McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Wendys, Fried Chicken, etc. Now it’s complete, not only are they rejected but now their health can be ruined. They leave knowledge to the churches that don’t have logical answers, and only taught to hate anyone that doesn’t believe int heir form of religion; and to schools that are war zones, not educational centres. They are told over and over to say no to any form of sexual situation, they are never [never is underlined] told they also have a right to say yes to a natural feeling. They may have only a fuilt ridden, body guilt complex, that this society has.
What we give them for moral leadership is even more of a disaster; just imagine having to look up to religious and government leaders like Nixon, Oliver North, Jim Baker, Jim Swagert, Jim Jones, the list could go on and on. These people give them their conception of truth that is shrouded in a mouthful of lies and leads them down a path of violence. The so called moral leaders send our youth off to jungles and deserts and foreign lands where they can teach them to hate and kill and maime other humans and then returned home with a warped mind from the acts they were expected to perform for those in power.
(cont.)
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Tile [Large, bold, all-caps, underlined]: Letter from America continued…
To get back to the main points of this letter, we are told by experts that all these ‘abused’ kids keep this dark secret. But that is not the truth; they will not express to another person what is private in their relationship because simply they do not wish this relationship to be ended. They know that by telling an authority figure about it will mean that this friendship and relationship will be taken away from them. Until all the experts expose them and give them what is considered therapy they never gave much thought to the sexual part of that relationship. That is to say they did not feel it was wrong to address the feelings they had until the social service agencies brain wash them into this concept of wrong and body guilt.
This letter is written by an inmate in the New York State Prison System who has run afoul of the age of consent laws. Anyone may write with comments to Wayne, ℅ LGFM.
[End of article]
[Half of the bottom three quarters of the page is arranged vertically]
Title [large print, bold, all caps] : Letters
Please send letters to Newsletter (Letters page), LGFM, BM Box 207, LONDON, WC1N 3XX.
[Following text is presented in a black bordered box]
Title [large print. all caps]: Letters…letters…letters…letters…letters…
Its been 10 years since I was on the gay scene, and I have some catching up to do, and welcome news of the LGFM campaign for sexual liberation. Personally, I think lesbians today are lucky having organisations such as yourselves for support. In my day there was no support except amongst ourselves. Even then, I lost a dear friend who ended her life because no-one else would understand her ‘strange’ feelings and another was sent to hospital for shock treatment to cure her of her ‘odd behaviour’. All of this was in the 60’s, and I never did see her again when she was sent away.
It was all so sad then, the following years brought us out of hiding, although not altogether accepted. Thankyou for reading this, I wish your organisation luck for the future for the good work.
[End letter]
[Along the length of the black bordered letters box is a grainy, horizontal image of a child, barefoot and wearing a hoody. They are holding a placard that reads: children are people too!]
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[Page 16 of 16]
Title: A few goings on [in large, all-caps 3D-style black and white font]
Subtitle [all caps and underline]: In the last few months there have been 3 major attacks by the establishment upon the liberty of lesbians and gays.
The bizarre ruling of Judge James Rant in the S&M trial effectively outlawed all S&M sex which involves any form of wounding. The men were tried following the seizing of home videos in 1987 as part of Operation Spanner. In November ‘90, Rant ruled that “Consent is no defence,” and on 19/12/90 eight men were sentenced to prison terms between 1-4 ½ years. This ruling clearly has no element of protecting people; it’s pure social control, the imposition of their moral values on us. Are love-bites now illegal?? The appeal is expected later this year. With Paragraph 16 of the guidelines to the new Childrens Act, the government showed how thin is their pretence of democracy. Having to the Childrens Act passed proceed to change its meaning by issuing these guidelines to its implementation which state “no-on has a ‘right’ to be a foster parent. ‘Equal rights’ and ‘gay rights’ policies have no place in fostering services”. The obvious intended effect is to bar lesbians and gays from fostering. However intensive campainging resulted in the paragraph being re-worded in April, with the reference to gay rights removed. The Criminal Justice Bill (published 8/11/90) is an altogether repressive piece of work, and included clauses which will allow longer sentences for a number of gay ‘crimes’. Clause 2 (2)b gives powers for these longer “deterrent” sentences when it’S “necessary to protect the public from serious harm from the offender”. Clause 25 lists the sexual crimes eligible. Five of these (out of 11) are gay, usually consensual, victimless ‘crimes’: Indecency between men. Solicitation by a man; Procuring others to commit homosexual acts; Living on the earnings of male prostitution; and Indecent assault on a male.
Clause 3 obliges courts to “take into account any information…relevant to the offenders attitude to the offence, and his physical and mental condition”. This may mean that anyone not expressing shame and regret for their ‘crime’ will get longer sentences.
[End article]
[There is a thick black bar separating the article from the illustrations and text below]
[Illustration of an animal with spikey fur and a curled tail jumping off the ground. The thought bubble above the animal has in all caps: “Yipee!………..Animal liberation will [will is underlined] include sexual liberation!”]
[Text to the right of the illustration is large text in all caps and underlined]
The views of contributors to this newsletter are not necessarily the views of LGFM.
[Text in smaller font beneath]
Cover picture [Cover picture is underlined] – thanks to Forum Magazine
Newsletter [preceeding word all caps and underlined] – Please send us your poems, articles, letters, graphics, news, review, cartoons, thoughts, ideas, or anything else…for the next newsletter.
Support the Lesbian and Gay Freedom Movement [preceeding text is all caps and underlined]: Become a supporter by sending us your name and address, along with £5 waged/ £3 unwaged cahs or blank p/o as we don’t want a bank account. It’s free if you really can’t afford it. For this you’ll receive the new 4 issues of the newsletter whenever they are produced and it will also help us with costs of our campaign work.
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