April 1984 Marxism Today 37

GAY SWITCHBOARD — 10 YEARS ON Jeffrey Weeks

Last month one of the most enduring And its fame is worldwide, with calls vices seems to be limited only by the ability creations of the movement celebrated even from such ostensibly gay meccas as of an overstretched group of volunteers and its 10th birthday. Largely unknown or San Francisco and New York. Today it overworked phone-lines to respond. taken for granted in the outside world, receives on its four jammed lines as many Its success is an impressive testimony to London Gay Switchboard (837 7324) has calls a month as it did in the whole of its the effectiveness of self-activity — not the been a vital element in the building of the first year, and the increase shows no signs of chilly and individualistic 'pull-yourself-up- and gay communities. For the easing off. Even on Christmas Day last by-your-own-bootstraps' self-help of That- million and a quarter callers who have year, when all personal differences are cherism — but the collective endeavour sought basic information, personal advice, supposed to be assuaged by a mellow that has been central to the emergence of legal help, employment, accommodation or familialism, there were nearly 300 calls. the new social movements of the past 15 medical assistance, or just wanted a chat, The demand for Gay Switchboard's ser­ years. London Gay Switchboard was one of since March 1974 Gay Switchboard has been a friendly lifeline and, in the words of the late Gay Sews (less durable, alas, than Switchboard), 'the best thing the move­ ment ever made'. London Gay Switchboard is basically a telephone information, advice and referral service. Staffed entirely by volunteers, some 90 in all, it has grown from very modest beginnings, on tap for five hours a night in its first year, to become the largest gay information service in the world, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Though only about 10% of its volunteers dre women, it actually has more women filers than the specialist information service, Lesbian Line (to which it refers women who prefer an all-women service). 38 April 1984 Marxism Today

the many small collectives that emerged in attack on the gains of the last 10 years, and can expect easy access the early 1970s, spun from the initial while the modern Conservative Party, to them. dynamic of the new' gay movement. Some defender of family and home, even tolerates A community service like Gay Switch­ of these groupings were explicitly political; a gay group within its ranks, trading on its board is a sensitive barometer of these others were functional or entertainment name. But there has been a closing of space, changes. Only about a quarter of its callers oriented; yet others took up the unglamor- a narrowing of the opportunities for growth ask for entertainment information pure and ous but essential task of counselling or and experimentation that marked the early simple. The rest of are concerned befriending. Switchboard was one of a 1970s, and a nibbling at the edges of an with a miscellany of issues. The biggest number of help lines that developed in the openly homosexual life. increase in calls in recent years have been early 1970s (FRIEND, Icebreakers, Les­ The result is a paradox. On the one those dealing with employment, accommo­ bian Line and a variety of services outside hand, the lesbian and gay communities are dation and medical problems. The latter London) in response to the obvious increasingly constituting themselves as a has seen the biggest leap of all, up 60% in isolation, misery and oppression, or just new social presence, establishing them­ 1983, fed by the moral panic around plain ignorance about what actually existed, selves as a new sexual minority, which can sexually transmitted diseases (the so called that huge numbers of homosexual people be politically wooed and won, or ignored 'revenge of the swinging sixties') and the still experienced, despite the glittering and lost. As John D'Emilio recently put it fear evoked by the appearance in Britain of euphoria produced by the breakthrough of (in Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities), AIDS. The AIDS scare in particular has a mass gay movement. Their founding the group life of male homosexuals and cast unprecedented light on the continued principle was the validity of , lesbians has come to encompass not only marginalisation of the homosexual experi­ their organising belief that it was the task of erotic interaction but also political, ence. Much of the media coverage has gay people themselves to respond to the religious and cultural activity. As a result, encouraged the idea that AIDS is a dire needs of other gay people. Today, as homosexuality and lesbianism have become punishment for sexual experimentation throughout its decade of activity, London less sexual categories and more the core of (the 'gay plague'), while its mysterious Gay Switchboard is not in any sense a party 'human identities' —and political constit­ aetiology and devastating impact has had a political or politically aligned grouping but uencies. On the other hand, the closing of fearful effect on many gay men, especially it embodies the crucial characteristics of space marked by the swing to the right has those still uncertain of themselves and their the radical sexual politics of the 1970s, in meant a new pressure on sensitive aspects identity. In such circumstances contact its affirmation of homosexuality as a sexual of the gay community. There is a with a group like Switchboard can be preference and choice, and in its implicit widespread feeling that police harassment crucial: it can offer calm information, if opposition to moral as well as political like anti-gay violence has increased over the necessary referral to specialist help or a authoritarianism. past few years, while the rise of self-help group, and above all supporting One of the favoured targets of the New unemployment and the strain on the social encouragement. At a time when the cash Right and New Puritanism in the United services has inevitably had its disruptive nexus is being officially elevated into a States has been the new social and political impact on gay people. Far from being a godhead, virtues of solidarity and human prominence of the 'gay minority'. As the 'privileged minority' (as the American new warmth have much to recommend them. religious Right unfurls its flag behind family Right like to present the situation), gays are Over the years the gay community has and 'traditional morality', the claim to likely to suffer disproportionately from a supported Gay Switchboard with funds legitimacy of once silent sexual subjects crisis in housing; mass unemployment raised through appeals, benefits and appears as a portent of social and moral makes it more difficult to be openly gay at donations (though recently the GLC has disintegration. In Britain the rise of the work; while financial stress inevitably given some financial help, for instance for New Right has depended much less on limits mobility and increases isolation. The its accommodation service). But Switch­ sexual conservatism, and the moral proliferation of new commercial subcul­ board itself has more than repaid the authoritarianism of the Right has shared an tures of bars and discos might offer generosity. A product of the youthful gay uneasy bed with economic individualism. unprecedented new possibilities for pleas­ movement it has contributed immeasurably There has been no direct or concerted ure, but probably only a minority of to the building of a mature gay community.