Historic images of first ever Brighton Pride in 1973 unearthed

Photos taken by The Argus from the parade, organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) in 1973, were found among negatives in the Argus Photographic Archive and “reset the timeline” of Brighton’s LGBTQ+ activism, according to one historian in the city.

Historian Alf Le Floic teamed up with fellow historian Tina to create the Gay Brighton Past Facebook page, as a place to share images from Brighton's colourful LGBTQ+ history.

READ MORE: Everything you need know about Brighton's LGBTQ+ history

During lockdown, Andy Garth, who has guardianship of the Argus Photographic Archive, provided Tina with some negatives to look through, and found one titled ‘Gay Lib March 8/7/73’.

“I couldn’t believe what I was holding,” Tina said.

“This packet reset the timeline for local queer activism from the longheld belief of starting in the late 1980s with the Stop the Clause and Section 28 Campaign to fifteen years earlier.”

Tina explained that, prior to this discovery, only one photograph was available of the SGLF’s first protest in 1972, held at the Bishopsgate Institute.

Protesters march down the street in Brighton, flanked by a policeman: credit - Argus Photographic Archive

“Yet here in my hand were two strips of negatives - seven photographs of the most amazing bravery and campness you could ever hope to see which had previously remained unseen,” Tina said.

With Pride cancelled due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic, the two historians worked with the Sussex Beacon shop on St Jamess’ Street, Brighton to display some of the images in a way that is accessible for all.

"Glad to be gay" proclaims one banner carried by an activist: credit - Argus Photographic Archive

“As one who was 14 at the time of the march, as with anything else that wasn’t football, it passed me by - yet now, nearly 50 years later along with this little brown with age packet of negatives, these marchers are forever in my heart,” Tina said.

“I feel the timing of finding the images to be fortuitous and yet maybe, at a time where we find our space once more being eroded, perhaps it is the baton being handed over to march once more both for pride and with Pride.”

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