Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.2
Object Name
Briefcase
People
Michael Steed, Campaign for Homosexual Equality, Liberal Party, Liberal Democrats
Description
The brown leather briefcase is adorned with stickers that Michael Steed collected as he travelled to conferences across Europe during his time as president of the Liberal Party in the late 1970s. These include environmental activism stickers from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, a sticker protesting against nuclear weapons, another against border controls, and several for liberal political parties around the world.
This briefcase belonged to Michael Steed (25 January 1940 - 30 August 2023), a Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat politician, political scientist, and campaigner for LGBTQI+ rights and against apartheid. Born in Kent, Steed became politically active as a young man, travelling to South Africa to engage in human rights work including with victims of the Sharpeville Massacre. He joined the Young Liberals, the youth wing of the Liberal Party, while at university, and became a prominent radical member of the party in the 1960s and 1970s, advocating for pro-European policies including advocating for a single European currency. Later in his career he campaigned for the abolition of the Prime Minister's right to dissolve parliament, successfully passing the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011. Steed was also a regular feature on election night television, creating methods of explaining election results to voters via 'Swing-o-meters' that were accessible to the public which are still used
today.
As a campaigner for the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) in the 1970s, Michael Steed was integral to shifting the public mood on LGBTQI+ people, creating a less hostile society by increasing public awareness and tolerance of LGBTQI+ people at a time when homophobia was still the norm. A public meeting in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1971 where he spoke out in favour of LGBTQI+ rights is viewed as a significant moment in the creation of the grassroots gay rights movement.
Michael Steed donated the briefcase to the People's History Museum alongside an archive of his papers, which can be found in the Labour History Archive.
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