Prestwick: 8 February 1969
A FIRST MEETING OF INDIVIDUALS
TO DISCUSS THE POSITION OF
THE HOMOSEXUAL IN SCOTLAND
The Meeting was held in Glasgow 7-10pm on
Friday 7 Feb. 1969 in Ian Dunn's parents' house].
Five were present: Ian Dunn, Jim Halcrowe,
Ted MacDonald, Bert Henry, Donald Brooks.
It was hoped that agreement could be reached on the formation
of a committee, what it should do, and its title.
For various reasons no firm agreement was reached. Being virtual
strangers,
much time was taken up reading assembled correspondence,
and exchanging personal experiences. It was all too easy to wander
- conversationally
- down interesting side roads!
We keenly felt the lack of someone with experience at
the meeting. At future meetings we hope to have
Colin Harvey, the former NW-HLRC Chairman, and someone with a
legal background
present. As we expand and make contacts, we hope
that this will be a diminishing problem. Much discussion centred
round the
idea of giving any committee we set up a Charitable
Status. Jim Halcrowe will "explore" this. About a dozen
titles were
proposed. It was decided to exclude reference
to "Law Reform"
for this will only be a first aim - support (from other
Scots we hope) must be on a continuing basis. The word "Homophile"
was rejected. We were unable to decide upon "welfare" or "counseling",
"association" "society" or "committee".
Donald Brooks wanted some association with the Albany
Trust. The pros and cons of
this were discussed. Ian Dunn agreed to ask Anthony
Grey for reaction/support when next in London.
ACTION DECIDED UPON: |
(i) Next Meeting THURSDAY 6 MARCH 1969 (possibly same place
- this is another problem to resolve!)
(ii) J.H. and D. B. contact
as many others as they reasonable
think will contribute to the work,
(iii) I.Q. see Anthony Grey in London on Friday 14 February.
As we didn't appoint office bearers, I decided to distribute
this as "the man holding the fort".
I have also enclosed a copy of a letter recently
received from the President of the Mattachine
Society of Washington D.C. Purely for info to
show the different
mode of approach in the U.S.A. Was read out at the meeting.
Kind regards, [manuscript note]
File copy (There were 5 copies of minute issued)
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