Community News Brighton & Hove LGBTQ+ Switchboard at 50 Hello, Brighton 27878. You’ve reached the Lavender Line, how can we help? By Alf Le Flohic • 3 min read
Features & Longread A Salty-Sweet History: Brighton’s queer seaside by Alf Le Flohic Studies have shown that spending time by the sea is good for our sense of wellbeing. The vast expanse of water, with little else, is emotionally restorative. When combined with sunshine, relaxation, and friends, the enduring popularity of the seaside is obvious. The sense of freedom associated with By Alf Le Flohic • 5 min read
Community News Much more than just a pub disco! The Sunday Almanac celebrates 10th birthday Brighton is well known for having a transient nature, so anything that stands the test of time can rightly be proud. The Sunday Almanac is celebrating its ten-year anniversary on Sunday, January 28. Calling it a pub disco does it a massive disservice, but in the simplest terms that’s what it is – th By Alf Le Flohic • 2 min read
Features & Longread Pioneers at Pride: Sussex Gay Liberation Front returns to the heart of LGBTQ+ communities Lead Pic: Pedal People and Sussex GLF, courtesy of Elly Hargreave Brighton & Hove Pride in 2023 was certainly memorable, and not just for the atrocious weather. The first ‘Gay Pride’ here took place in 1973, organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front. Fifty years later, members of the group were a By Alf Le Flohic • 2 min read
Features & Longread The Safari Bar: a gay bar, in a zoo, in Bognor Regis, in 1983… “In the dark you could walk into the zoo. Right underneath you had little animatronics like the Dwarves’ Diamond Mine. You’d go down there for a bit of how’s ya father as well.” By Alf Le Flohic • 5 min read
Features & Longread FEATURE: ‘Fighting Spirit – An interview with Colin’, by Alf Le Flohic Alf Le Flohic speaks to Phil Mills, Health Reporter of The Argus who wrote ‘Fighting Spirit of AIDS Victim’ piece in 1987 By Alf Le Flohic • 4 min read
Features & Longread LGBTQ+ History: The Hotel Roger Dee A gay couple opening a hotel near Brighton is so commonplace these days it’s almost a cliché. In 1972, however, few people had seen the likes of the Hotel Roger Dee before… By Alf Le Flohic • 5 min read
Arts Mighty Real Visual artist Josef Cabey reflects on both the musical and personal influence that iconic singer Sylvester had on him as a young gay black man, while local historian Alf Le Flohic shares a few memories and tracks down Sylvester appearing in Brighton during the 1980s By Alf Le Flohic • 7 min read
Exhibitions Vintage Photo’s from Brighton Pride 1973 After Gay Brighton Past found a trove of never-used pictures from the original 1973 Gay Pride march in Brighton, Alf Le Flohic managed to track down some of the people involved and get their stories. By Alf Le Flohic • 7 min read
Community News Pride & Protest: Brighton Pride 1973 After Gay Brighton Past found a trove of never-used pictures from the original 1973 Gay Pride march in Brighton, Alf Le Flohic managed to track down some of the people involved and get their stories By Alf Le Flohic • 7 min read
Community Sussex Gay Liberation Front – The Gay Day Before Pride On a windy afternoon in October 1972, a small group of people gathered between the piers on Brighton seafront. This was the Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) and they were there to make a point By Alf Le Flohic • 3 min read
Community News Leather, Love and the Sussex Lancers Historian Alf Le Flohic has been using his time in lockdown to video interview people who used to be members of the Sussex Lancers – the Brighton-based gay leather motorbike club, 1980-2001. Here is his feature from the June issue of Gscene. By Alf Le Flohic • 4 min read
FEATURE: Commemorating the Brighton United Twins Violet and Daisy Hilton were huge stars in America in the 1920s and ‘30s but have lapsed into obscurity in their home town of Brighton. They were petite, attractive, could sing, dance and play musical instruments, but their unique selling point was the fact that they were conjoined twins, or Siamese By Alf Le Flohic • 6 min read
