London’s revolutionary kiss-in

05/25/21 • 39 min

Ted Brown is a black LGBT rights pioneer who helped organise the UK’s first Gay Pride march in 1972, featuring a mass ‘kiss-in’ that, at the time, would have been considered gross indecency, which was against the law. When Brown realised he was gay, homosexuality was illegal in Britain - the only person he came out to was his mother. She cried and told him he’d have to battle not just racism but homophobia too; both were rife in society at the time. At one point Brown felt so dismal about his future that he considered taking his own life. But inspired by the Stonewall Riots, he found hope in Britain’s Gay Liberation Front and became a key figure in fighting bigotry in the UK. He tells Emily Webb his moving life story.

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Picture: Ted Brown (left) with his partner Noel and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell (right) at the first Pride march in London, 1972 Credit: Courtesy of Ted Brown

If you need support with issues relating to sexuality or gender, help and support is available from BBC Action Line - just search for bbc.co uk/actionline

Get in touch: [email protected]

Picture: Ted Brown (left) with his partner Noel and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell (right) at the first Pride march in London, 1972 Credit: Courtesy of Ted Brown

Previous Episode

Rickie Lee Jones: Why music became my bridge to the world

Rickie Lee Jones was making up songs from the age of four. Part of a musical family - her grandparents were vaudeville stars in Chicago - she says music acted as an "accidental bridge" between her and the world. After running away from home at the age of fourteen, Rickie Lee eventually headed for California and set her heart on becoming a singer. She went from life on the breadline to fame, fortune and Grammy success at the age of 24. She tells Emily Webb about her remarkable life including her relationship with the singer Tom Waits, her secret battle to overcome heroin addiction in the late 1970s and why she feels that, as a woman, she faced more stigma as a result. She also tells Emily why she’s still inspired by the very first album she was given as a child – West Side Story. Her memoir is called Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: June Christie

Picture: Rickie Lee Jones performing in Paris, France in 1979 Credit: Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Next Episode

The nightclub fire that rocked Romania

When Tedy Ursuleanu went to see a gig at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, in the autumn of 2015, she was lucky to escape with her life. A fire swept through the venue, which only had one fire exit. Tedy sustained life-changing injuries, and 27 others died at the scene. The surviving victims were transferred to hospitals, but in the weeks that followed, they continued to die in large numbers. At Gazeta Sporturilor, one of the oldest sports newspapers in Europe, editor Catalin Tolontan watched events unfold. At first, he remembers, he and his team felt "almost paralysed" by events. Then, an informant contacted them.

Tedy Ursuleanu and Catalin Tolontan give Emily Webb their perspectives on the fire that unseated a government, and uncovered a lethal network of corruption.

Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Laura Thomas

Photo: Pictures of victims of Colectiv nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania Credit: DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images