Abigail Dombey in conversation with Kate Wildblood, reflecting on queer life on Brighton during 1989-1992 and the community created through protest and Pride courtesy of the discovery of Abigail’s long lost slide film collection. From her job in the local camera shop to the streets of Brighton, Abigail Dombey, a budding 18-year-old queer reportage photographer, was capturing the passion and the prejudice of early 1990s Brighton, one 35mm slide film at a time. A time where bigotry and fear stalked the LGBTQ+ community as they fought against the Tories’ hateful Section 28 legislation, the media’s toxic narrative and society’s demonisation of queer lives at a time of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. A time of Doc Marten’s pounding the streets in protest, placards held high, hearts full of the desire for action (and occasionally each other). A time of grassroots activism as the shame fuelled by Section 28 loomed large over our lives, homophobic violence a daily reality, challenging our sense of LGBTQ+ community as we fought to create our modern day Pride movement. It was our time, of baby dykes and glorious queers, of prejudice, protests and those all-important picnics. A time that saw us determined to challenge the unremitting homophobia that filled our lives and change the world together. One protest t-shirt at a time. ​History ​isn't just in the past; it's in the present. All the steps and moments we take as a ​community lead to ​radical changes. We invite you to bring photos ​or look through your memories of what's in Brighton and ​is making ​history. We will have a map ​of Brighton to gather around and discuss what makes Brighton ​the ​place for you. Queer Heritage South; powered by Marlborough Productions. Made possible thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Filmed by Lucy Lebrocq

Flyer containing information about London Gay Pride events in July 1996. Events include LGBT Pride march at Hyde Park and Pride Festival held at Clapham Common for the first time. Schedule of the Cabaret tent and Bisexual tent at Pride Festival are detailed.

Poster for trans pride season featuring Alok Vaid-Menon at the Marlborough Pub & Theatre in July 2018 Image of poet & performer Alok Vaid-Menon

Memory of pride 2024 The text reads: I have great memories from Pride last year (2024). My aunt came to visit from Italy and we saw the parade and wandered around the city taking in the atmosphere. She then went to see the Mika gig in Preston Park, which she loved. I love the way Pride takes over the city and the joy and colour everywhere.

National AIDS Memorial Quilt On the 14 March 1992, Our House Body Positive & Pink Parasol held their first support group to encourage Brighton contributions to the National AIDS Memorial quilt at the Morley Street Family Centre. At this first session the film ‘Common Threads – Stories from the Quilt’ was shown, and this inspired me to create a quilt panel for my friend Andrea Philippe Regard. A series of exhibitions of the completed 6’ x 3’ panels celebrating the lives of people who died was arranged as part of the 1992 Brighton Lesbian and Gay Pride. On the 17th May (then known as Lesbian & Gay Remembrance Day - now International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) some of the quilt panels were displayed in the Brighton Museum, and then between the 19th and 21st May the whole National AIDS Memorial Quilt was laid out at the Holy Trinity Church, Ship Street - now the home of the Fabrica Gallery. The quilt which my ex-partner Alf Le Flohic and his friend John Twoomey helped me to make, was also displayed at the Brighton Gay and Lesbian Pride celebration in Preston Park that year.

Parade Protest Perform Flyer (2011)

Philip’s panel was part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt display in Washington in October 1992, and I went with mum and the UK gang for a week. His panel came up on CNN news later that day picked out from thousands. Philip was from Bootle in Liverpool, and we started going out when I was 17 and he was 21. He was insulting, cheeky and funny, blind in one eye, five foot one with size 3 feet, but his mouth made up for his stature. I am always intrigued by people who take the mick out of me so I was hooked. We moved to London in 1978, and he worked at the post office on the King’s Road. He was diagnosed HIV+ in 1985 and with full blown AIDS in 1987. Australia was our last chance of a holiday together as he was beginning to get weaker. He loved music, especially Philadelphia soul and Helen Reddy. He loved laughing and would tell people their friends had died for a laugh - weeks later they'd bump into them on the tube...ha, he was a monkey. Him and my family got on great and he was my first proper bloke to go out with. We had a beautiful Dr in Hackney called Dr Feder. He tried all kinds to help at a time when hospital staff treated us like the plague. I used to tell people he had cancer when they asked, because it seemed mild in comparison. It all seems another life away, but it's always just under the surface because it was a massive thing for us to go through. I was 24 when he was diagnosed and it took me about five years after Philip died to feel something like me again, but I'm sure he’s fine now in Oz. He's had a quilt panel, a painting and Australia - that's your bloody lot...ha xxx Words by Gary Sollars 'My partner Philip Munro. Died 13.1.89. Aged 34' a painting by Gary Sollars On a hospital bed bathed in an ethereal light lies a man who has just died. Weeping by his side are two women. Another man is kneeling with his arms stretched across the mattress. Two more men, their bodies naked stride away. From the hand of one of them flutters a red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness. The painting earned Gary Sollars the overall prize for outstanding work at the Sussex Open art competition of 1996. It’s a deeply personal work which Gary saw as a final stage to the sorrow he experienced after losing Philip to AIDS after 13 years together. “The bed scene kept coming up in my head,” he said. “I wanted to do something about being gay, and the obvious subject was the loss.” The first stage of Gary’s grieving process was to scatter Philip’s ashes over Ayers Rock in Australia. “We went on holiday to Sydney in 1987, and coming back we had to choose between seeing Disneyland or Ayers Rock. We went to Disneyland - I wanted Philip to have had the experience of being in both places.” Gary went on to make a panel for the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt which depicts Ayers Rock with footsteps leading the way. It was exhibited alongside other local panels during Brighton Lesbian & Gay Pride in 1992. “You don’t realise it, but the bereavement process takes a long time. You’re think you’re OK for a while, and then something triggers it off again.”

Seven images of Brighton Pride event at the Level in 1994

Photos of Brighton Pride Park event 1995

Photos of Brighton Pride Parade 2000

11 photographs of Brighton Pride celebrations in 1994 and 1995

My first time feeling confident enough (and having friends who wanted to go!) for the Trans Pride afterparty at Concorde 2. After quite a few drinks and realising I had a crush on my friend (now my partner) the three of us got these instant photos from the photobooth and laughed as we realised how unflattering they were. It was also the night the Royal Albion Hotel burnt down - the air was full of smoke and the energy was a bit manic. It was nice to celebrate trans joy amid turbulent times for our community.

Anthony Luvera is an Australian artist, writer and educator based in London. Anthony collaborated with Queer in Brighton on our first commissioned project ‘Not Going Shopping’ to explore the lives of LGTBQ+ people in Brighton. Anthony invited eleven participants to meet him and bring photographs that told their story, and they were encouraged to consider what being queer means to them, and to photograph their experiences and the things they are interested in. The group met regularly to discuss their work and share photographs, and created self-portraits in a photo booth on the North Laine, which led to discussions about photography and identity. Anthony said of the project: “the prospect of creating this work seemed to me to offer a useful way to further my inquiry into participation and self-representation with groups of marginalized individuals, and at the same time provide an opportunity to confront my own views of queerness as a gay man… Images play a powerful role in the stories we tell about ourselves and the histories told about us. Not Going Shopping expresses the points of view of the participants and myself about what it is to be Queer in Brighton.” This collection of photographs were taken by Kelly McBride, one of the respondents to Anthony's open call for submissions. 1. This photo captures an individual sat on a park bench overlooking the park, with a pride rainbow flag draped over their shoulders. 2. This photo depicts a newspaper A-Board with The Argus' headline for the day; it reads "CITY SAVED BY SUNSHINE".

Anthony Luvera is an Australian artist, writer and educator based in London. Anthony collaborated with Queer in Brighton on our first commissioned project ‘Not Going Shopping’ to explore the lives of LGTBQ+ people in Brighton. Anthony invited eleven participants to meet him and bring photographs that told their story, and they were encouraged to consider what being queer means to them, and to photograph their experiences and the things they are interested in. The group met regularly to discuss their work and share photographs, and created self-portraits in a photo booth on the North Laine, which led to discussions about photography and identity. Anthony said of the project: “the prospect of creating this work seemed to me to offer a useful way to further my inquiry into participation and self-representation with groups of marginalized individuals, and at the same time provide an opportunity to confront my own views of queerness as a gay man… Images play a powerful role in the stories we tell about ourselves and the histories told about us. Not Going Shopping expresses the points of view of the participants and myself about what it is to be Queer in Brighton.” This collection of photographs were taken by Matt Robinson, one of the respondents to Anthony's open call for submissions. 1. This photo depicts a rainbow pride flag hanging from a window and moving with the wind. 2. This photo shows a doorway shutter which is painted with rainbow stripes.

Pride 1992 was organised by a short-lived committee: Pink Parasol. The cheque stubs show its first and last payments, just a year apart. Wisely, Pink Parasol decided to register as a limited company, thus protecting its members from being held personally liable for the debts that remained after the Pride event was over. Pink Parasol was an attempt to broaden the appeal of Pride beyond the radical activists (including me) who had organised the first Pride weekend in 1991. It included some business people and, if I recall correctly, someone from the Metropolitan Community Church. But the commercial gay scene never really got involved and didn’t invest any substantial funds into the event. The committee also included some people with big ideas and grand plans. More and more attractions were booked for the march’s arrival in Preston Park – a stage, a funfair, numerous food and drink vendors, even fireworks! Tragically, we had gambled that the crowd would be bigger, and would spend more freely, than proved to be the case on the day. As treasurer, already aware of how badly things were heading into the red, I spent the afternoon attempting to extract the promised fees from disgruntled stallholders. As the day ended with a moving performance from Labi Siffre and a spectacular firework display, I remember feeling decidedly sick with dread. Somehow, all the big ideas people melted away and it was left to me and one other woman to close down the company and sign all the letters to our creditors explaining that we could only pay them 15% of what we owed them. Just as Pride was getting started, this was a major setback. But we picked up the pieces and moved on. These chequebooks are deposited at The Keep (East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office), as part of the Ourstory archive (Papers of Dani Ahrens, OUR 37/1/2).