Catalogue Number
NMLH.1992.128.2
Object Name
T-Shirt
Title
'Pits And Perverts. Lesbians & Gay Men Support The Miners 1984-1985'
Place
Electric Ballroom, Camden, London, Dulais, Neath, Wales, UK
People
Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), National Mineworkers Union (NUM), Lesbians Against Pit Closures (LAPC), Mark Ashton, Nigel Young, Mike Jackson
Events
1984-85 Miners' Strike, Pits and Perverts Concert
Date
1984-1985
Description
A white t-shirt reading 'Pits And Perverts. Lesbians & Gay Men Support The Miners 1984-1985' in pink and white text over a black and white image of a miner in a pit helmet. Below the miner are a pink triangle and a black triangle.
Known to the world through the 2014 film, Pride, Lesbians and Gays Support The Miners (LGSM) was a solidarity campaign between left wing LGBTQ+ activists and mining communities on strike during the 1984-85 Miners' Strike. The founding branch of LGSM was based in London, and twinned with a mining community in Dulais, South Wales, co-founded by two activists originally from Greater Manchester - Mark Asthon, who was born in Oldham and Mike Jackson, from Accrington. As word of LGSM's successful fundraising grew, other autonomous branches were founded around the UK and Ireland. This t-shirt commemorates the 'Pits and Perverts' fundraising night held in December 1984 at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, compared by LGSM activist Nigel Young. Funds from this event were used to sustain the striking miners in Dulais during the strike - feeding, clothing and providing other necessities for the community.
LGSM shows the importance of cross community solidarity - people were surprised the LGBTQ+ community would care about miners, as mining communities were perceived as universally homophobic. But LGSM members thought that the vilification the government and the press were aiming at the striking miners had the same intention as the vilification of LGBTQ+ people - to divide and conquer. LGSM's acts of solidarity, raising tens of thousands of pounds for the striking miners and their families, and visiting their twinned mining community to build bonds of friendship, encouraged mining communities to show solidarity with LGBTQ+ people in return. At the Pits and Perverts night, miner Dai Donovan made a statement promising that miners would remember the generosity of LGBTQ+ communities, and respond by fighting in solidarity for LGBTQ+ rights. Hundreds of miners marched with LGSM banner leading Gay Pride in London in 1985, and following the strike the National Union of Mineworkers began to
successfully advocate for LGBT+ rights in the Labour Party.
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