Description:Issue of 'Gladrag', the newsletter of the Birmingham Gay Liberation Front, showing a very different image of a lesbian to the stereotypical representations found in the media.
“I suppose all through this time again was this constant thing about sort of sexuality and I never, you know, I spoke about stereotypes and my stereotype of a gay woman was this shaven headed dyke with Dr Marten boots and dungarees on and I was thinking but I don’t want to be like that, I want to be myself and I just want to look like I look and be gay, you know, I thought I don’t want to shave my hair off or anything. And you know a lot of it is down to ignorance and the lack of sort of media coverage, I mean things are a lot better now but you know, back in sort of 19 what 86, 87 even earlier than that, I mean the further you go back the worse it gets, there was no positive role…positive gay role models and nowadays there are loads…you know I would hope that young people today, could look forward and say like, yeah, it’s OK, this is how I feel it’s OK for me to be gay because that person looks exactly the same as me, you know, they don’t look any different, so there’s nothing wrong with me, you know, I am not abnormal or anything”. [MS 2255/2/54]
This oral history extract comes from a longer interview undertaken as part of the Millennibrum Project in 2000. Transcripts and listening copies of the full interviews are available in Local Studies and History on floor six of Birmingham Central Library.