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SLAGO — The Surrey and London Association of Gay Organisations

Please note, as of August 2021, SLAGO has closed down. This website is being maintained for a short time as a matter of record.

Out of the Shadows book

Out of the Shadows book coverMany members of SLAGO and other organisations have been collaborating on the book Out of the Shadows, a history of the pioneering London gay groups and organisations, 1967–2000, edited byTony Walton, with a foreword by Michael Cashman MEP.

ISBN 978-0-9566091-0-6. 250 pages, 74 illustrations.

"... an eye-popping account of the explosion of activity in London which followed the change in the law in 1967. The years preceding this date were grim indeed for many gay people and this legislation was nothing short of life-transforming. ... There is much in this book which has not been previously put to paper and that is why it forms a valuable historical record."— Michael Cashman

The book was formally launched at the Annual Conference of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), 4 July 2010.

CHE held a reunion for everyone concerned with the book in November 2010. If you were unable to attend, but would like to get in touch, please contact reunion@foxearth.demon.co.uk.

Out of the Shadows is published by Bona Street Press, BM Box 7128 London WC1N 3XX. You can buy this book via Lulu for £11.50 plus postage and packing,and it's also available at Gays the Word bookshop; alternatively e-mail tsbbooksearch@hotmail.com for further details.

The initial print run has now sold out, and we've reprinted the book with a few corrections.

See below for reemaining errata, and groups that didn't get included.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Contributors

Contributors include:

Contents

Chapters include (in chronological order):

  1. The St Katharine’s (SK) Group
  2. London Gay Liberation Front (GLF)
  3. CHE in London
  4. The London Monday Group
  5. The Marypad Group
  6. The Croydon Group
  7. Annual Events in London
  8. Harrow Group
  9. Jewish Groups
  10. Wandsworth-Richmond CHE
  11. London Friend
  12. The Lewisham Groups
  13. A Miscellany, including:
    Ealing Gay Group (EGG)
    Octopus Group
    The Walking Group
    Pimpernel
    Naturist Groups
  14. The Streatham Group
  15. Icebreakers
  16. Quest
  17. WAGS (Wimbledon Area Gay Society)
  18. Metropolitan Community Church, London
  19. Gay Teachers and Schools OUT
  20. The Transport Group
  21. Bexley and Bromley Gay Group
  22. CHE Youth Group
  23. The Southwark-Lambeth Group
  24. The Kingston Group
  25. 3F (LGCM London)
    with a section on the London L&G Centre in Cowcross Street
  26. GALHA (Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association) London
  27. SAGO/SLAGO
  28. Courage UK
  29. The Barnet Group
  30. South London Gays

Some Web Addresses

Many of the groups mentioned in this book have their own websites:

and for gay groups throughout London see LGBT London – www.lgbtlondon.com – and for LGBT history generally see the new wiki at www.lgbthistoryuk.org.

Some groups that didn't get included

Since the book was published, we've started to hear about some other groups, including the London Gay Teenage Group: see Gary James's tribute to Philip Cox, one of its founders.

Outrage! didn't quite fit in with our original scheme, being mainly campaigning rather than social, but we were interested to see that their re-launched website includes a lot of material from their 20-year history.

Errata

On Page 2 of the book we promise to put amendments and corrections on this website. We've found (or been notified of) a few, so far - see our Errata page.

Currently we think we've corrected all the known errors in the reprint – see the page of changes between this and the original print run.

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Last modified:29 January, 2022.