Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.371.62
Object Name
Badge
Title
NALGAY
People
NALGO; NALGAY
Description
Red badge with black text reading "NALGAY" in front of lambda symbol.
This badge was celebrating the establishment of the gay and lesbian worker branch of the National and Local Government Officers' Association (NALGO), which was humerously named "Nalgay". NALGO was the first trade union to adopt an openly gay- and lesbian-inclusive policy position, and published the newsletter NALGAY from 1976. NALGO also successfully campaigned against the dismissal of workers on the basis of their sexuality, fought against misinformation during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and fought against discriminatory laws such as Section 28.
The lambda is a lower-case Greek letter which was chosen by designer Tom Doerr as a symbol for the Gay Activists Alliance group in New York in 1970. At the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh in 1974, it was adopted as a symbol for LGBQ+ rights.
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