Guardian 23 Dec 1974 p?:
A "better deal" for homosexuals in the world's churches was demanded at Edinburgh yesterday when an international gay rights congress ended its five-day session.
Ordained and lay members of various Christian communities, who admit to being practising homosexuals, ... attended by 400 delegates from all over the world ... motion carried overwhelmingly. It said "There is no denying that the homosexual woman and man feels alienated from other Christians. ... we urges all churches to invstigate their attitudes and pastoral practice."
Guardian 29 Sep 2004 Society p5:
'GLF was so noisy it drowned out others'
Martin Stafford was a teacher and a member of Campaign for Homosexual Equality. He made a speech at a gay rally in Glasgow in 1973 in protest at radical gay activism.
The meeting was about whether homosexuals should integrate into society rather than fight against it. My argument was that we wanted greater recognition and integration. This was the time when the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was starting out. They believed that the prejudice against homosexuals was so great and deep-rooted that the only way to beat it was to overthrow capitalism, abolish marriage and end the concept of the family - very revolutionary and radical, but naive nonsense. The problem was that the GLF was no noisy and so radical that it drowned out the voice of others within CHE, and CHE itself seemed to tolerate this. I think the GLF's attitude dissuaded a lot of moderate people from coming out for feat of being branded as some sort of subversive anarchist. The GLF also gave so much ammunition to hardline opponents of any decriminalisation of homosexuality.
The funny things is that the things we campaigned for 30 years ago, acceptance and being able to have recognised relationships, are the things gay groups want now. They want to be able to marry - totally at odds with the sort of things the GLF was saying then.