Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.371.11
Object Name
Badge
Title
Centre Forward
Place
London
People
London Lesbian and Gay Centre; Greater London Council
Description
White badge with black text reading "CENTRE forward" with "forward" inside an arrow pointing to the right. The point of the arrow is pink making a pink triangle. Along the bottom edge black text reads "LONDON LESBIAN & GAY CENTRE".
The London Lesbian and Gay Centre was a community centre established by the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1985. This established a space in London for members of the LGBTQIA community to meet, one of the few in the UK at the time, alongside Manchester Gay Centre, Edinburgh Gay Centre, and Birmingham Lesbian and Gay Community Centre.
The pink triangle symbol was reclaimed by the gay community after originally being a symbol of persecution. The symbol originated as a pink triangle cloth patch, used to identify gay men in prisons and concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Its reclaimed use spread through the gay liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s and is now positively associated with the wider LGBTQIA community.
Multimedia
