This is #LgbtqHistory Month .We call on the Home Secretary to Pardon the Uk LGBTQ Civil Rights Leaders. will you support our Campaign?
Ray Barron- Woolford FRSA
Charity CEO .Activist .Author .Award winning film maker latest film ‘ Afeni Shakur & the trial of the Black Panther 21 ‘ out 2024 following global success & 51 Awards #Liberty Kath Duncan untold struggle 4 civilrights
Right Honourable Home??Secretary Priti Patel The Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1 4DP?
24??January 2022?
AN open letter in which we seek to secure pardons for the most important LGBTQ civil rights leaders. As we head towards February’s global LGBTQ history month there could be no better tribute.?
Dear Minister,?
Today we welcome and thank you for putting right a long overdue injustice, i.e. accepting that the criminalization of LGBTQ people simply for loving a member of the same sex was wrong and that each and everyone deserves not only applauding for their bravery but also a pardon, regardless of whether they are still alive or not. This will send a clear message globally that discrimination against LGBTQ people has never been and IS NEVER acceptable.?
Here, we put the case forward for a small group of LGBTQ heroes whose bravery cost them not just their liberty, but their health and ultimately their lives, while each one played a crucial role in establishing the civil rights movement in 1930s Britain which lead to the establishment of the National Council of Civil Liberties (now known as LIBERTY), the organization by which every civil rights group globally is guided.?
Henry Ward?from Brookmill Road, Deptford, London SE8, a journalist who, at the age of 40, was given his twelve convictions under the Prevention of Crime Act. His only crime, and one which saw him serve two sentences of three years penal servitude, was to refuse to stop loving his gay partner and to walk arm in arm with him in unflinching pride. He spoke up about his human right to choose whom to love and asked what right the state had to intervene or pass judgment. For this, he was given 12 months of hard labor – clearly a horrendous abuse of the police and legal system.?
Charles Thomas from Brookmill Road, Deptford, London SE8, a chauffeur and the partner of Henry Ward. They were arrested as a couple and Charles also received five convictions and was given three months of hard labor under the Prevention of Crime Act. He left the political speech on rights to his partner and although his sentence was much shorter it was still wrong so he is also worthy of a pardon.?
Percy Duke?was a resident of the home of Kath Duncan, 68 Ommaney Road, New Cross. A home that would be described by the state as a house of deviants and revolutionaries. When Percy Duke was arrested and charged for dressing as a woman in Bishopthorpe Road in Sydenham, South East London, he could easily have fallen on the mercy of the judge, apologized, and just served just one week in jail. But, influenced by Kath Duncan to speak out on civil rights, he demanded “wherein the law does it state it’s a crime to wear the clothes I choose?” and the judge handed Percy a sentence of six months hard labor.
The arrest and jail sentences of these civil rights activists were crucial to the UK civil rights movement and to LGBTQ history.?
Kath Duncan,?Scot LGBTQ and Primary School teacher, and the most important UK civil rights leader in the last 100 years was so outraged at the injustice and jail terms given to her friends that she became the Marty of the British civil rights movement?
At 1 pm on July 30, 1934, on Nynehead Street, New Cross, opposite what we call today the Job Centre, UK civil rights history was made when Kath Duncan was arrested as she was about to stand on her soapbox, not for what she said, but for the state’s fear that what she would say could cause a revolution.?
Her arrest was, like that of her friends, under the Prevention of Crime Act, although Kath Duncan was charged under Prevention of Crime Act 1871, s,12, as amended by the Prevention of Crime Amendment Act 1885, s,2. (Duncan vs Jones ).?
The arrest of Kath Duncan, attending The National Unemployed Workers Movement, was witnessed by:
R. Kidd for Council for Civil Liberties, which, due to Kath’s nationwide profile would see them take up this case as the first civil rights case in UK history and change their name to The National Council for Civil Liberties;?
A.Bing (Barrister);
E.Hanley (Amalgamated Engineers Union).?
Kath Duncan was a political LGBTQ woman of major importance in British history who was jailed without any legitimate charge; her only crime was to utter five words.
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We, therefore, call on you Home Secretary, to pardon all these extraordinary LGBTQ heroes. Their personal bravery in their stand against injustice is a story of which we should all be proud These are truly national heroes and worthy of a pardon, our thanks and so much more.?
NOTES
The extraordinary life Story of Kath Duncan can be read in the book?The Last Queen Of Scotland.
The play about this little-known part of UK History is called LIBERTY and is also a book of the same name. The book can be found on Amazon, here:?https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liberty-struggle-civil-rights-ebook/dp/B07878VSDB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S8KE6QR5GW1E&keywords=Liberty+Ray+Woolford&qid=1641643218&s=books&sprefix=liberty+ray+woolford%2Cstripbooks%2C42&sr=1-1
As part of LGBTQ History Month in February of this year, the true story of all these civil rights activists will be told for the first time in the above-named film which tells the true story of how the UK Civil Rights history was fought and won by these and other brave people.?https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/the-last- queen-of-scotland-to-be-celebrated-in-award-winning-filmmakers- documentary-3180496?
www.Kathduncan-equality-civilrights-network.co.uk? has been established to carry forward the work of Kath globally, and the UK’s largest independent food bank, We Care Food Bank, is based at Kath’s Place Community Hub (named after the inimitable Kath Duncan) in Deptford, South East London, the area in which she launched her life of extraordinary activism.?
All inquiries:
Email:?[email protected]
Text: 07871187162
Correspondence address:
Kath’s Place
50 Friendly Street
London SE8 4DR