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# LGBT Humanists to celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2024
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/lgbt-humanists-to-celebrate-its-45th-anniversary-in-2024/
- Published: 2024-03-13T12:29:21.000Z
- Updated: 2024-03-13T12:29:21.000Z
- Description: This year, LGBT Humanists celebrates a remarkable milestone – its 45th anniversary. For nearly half a century, its volunteers have been a driving force for LGBTQ+ rights, championing compassion, reason, and human rights across the country. But how did it all begin? LGBT Humanists’ story begins in 19
- Author: Contributor
- Tags: Features & Longread, Brighton, Humanists UK, LGBT, LGBT Humanists, LGBTQ

This year, **LGBT Humanists** celebrates a remarkable milestone – its 45th anniversary. For nearly half a century, its volunteers have been a driving force for LGBTQ+ rights, championing compassion, reason, and human rights across the country. But how did it all begin?

[LGBT Humanists’ story begins in 1976](https://heritage.humanists.uk/exhibition/into-the-archives-out-of-the-closet/?ref=scenemag.co.uk). It was then that **Mary Whitehouse**, a teacher and social conservative, initiated a ‘blasphemous libel’ case against *Gay News* for publishing **James Kirkup**’s poem *The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name*. The poem, depicting the love of a Roman centurion for a crucified Jesus, led Whitehouse to decry an ‘intellectual, homosexual, and humanist lobby’. This lobby didn’t actually exist, but the idea certainly resonated with humanists. Inspired by this notion, LGBT Humanists was created in 1979.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2-14.png)](https://heritage.humanists.uk/lgbt-humanists/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)

The Gay Humanist Group became GALHA (Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association) in 1987\. It later became LGBT Humanists in 2015

LGBT Humanists (then the Gay Humanists Group) officially launched at the **Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) Brighton Conference** in August 1979\. Initially, the group formed as activists opposing Mary Whitehouse and her lawsuit. Co-founders **Barry Duke** and **Brian Parry** envisioned a group that would challenge ‘ignorance, superstition, dogma, and bigotry, encouraging more gay humanists to confidently express their identities and beliefs’. Today, LGBT Humanists proudly continues this tradition.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/5-10.png)](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/fighting-back/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)

Humanist Heritage project will explore the legacies of LGBT humanists like Alan Turing, Lorraine Hansberry, and Maureen Duffy

The history of LGBT Humanists is rich with interactions and collaborations with various groups, all striving towards a more tolerant society. [LGBT Humanist campaigns](https://humanists.uk/community/lgbt-humanists/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) have achieved so many significant victories: the end of section 28 in schools, the introduction of same-sex marriage in the UK, an end to blasphemy as a crime in England and Wales, the establishment of the **International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia** in the UK, and the ongoing fight against ‘[conversion therapy](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/fighting-back/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)‘.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/6-6.png)](https://heritage.humanists.uk/lgbt-humanists/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)

LGBT Humanists on the march and campaigning for a more compassionate society circa 1979

#### Apply to be a LGBT Humanist Interviewee

If you have ever marched under a LGBT Humanists banner, contributed to a newsletter, campaign, event, or humanist ceremony, [email Humanists UK’s Heritage Project Officer Cas Bradbeer](mailto:cas@humanists.uk) and introduce yourself. The **Humanist Heritage** project is recording the memories of anyone who has been part of LGBT Humanist, These could range from recent events to recollections of the foundation of LGBT Humanists as the Gay Humanist Group in 1979!