Switchboard is the UK’s leading LGBT+ helpline, providing information and lending a reassuring ear to anyone who reaches out. After opening in March 1974, calls quickly came flooding in with questions ranging from requests for local drag bar recommendations, or where to find lesbian-friendly accommodation, to reports of police raids, queer-bashing incidents, and people sharing suicidal thoughts. While Switchboard has had to adapt to the changing motivation behind the calls they receive, the demand still remains high, and today the organisation answers around 15,000 calls per year from all over the country.
Living with the Light On: Switchboard in the 70s is an audio documentary exploring the early history of the charity. The piece attempts to capture the revolutionary mood of the period and challenge the linear perception of LGBT+ history. As 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Living with the Light On pays homage to a generation of campaigners and activists that established the framework for the gay liberation movement in the UK. Consisting of interviews with former Switchboard volunteers, original music and archive material, the piece explores participation and activism in the LGBT+ community in the era before the HIV/AIDS epidemic came to dominate Switchboard’s work.
Interviewees: Lisa Power and Julian Hows
Vocals: Maya Britto
Actor: Jonathan Dryden Taylor
Photos: Robert Workman
Lisa Power joined Switchboard in 1979 and was co-founder of LGBT charity Stonewall, and former policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Julian Hows was a Switchboard volunteer from 1978 and is a prominent figure in the lesbian and gay activist movement and the response to HIV.
Living with the Light On: Switchboard in the 70s is an audio documentary exploring the early history of the charity. The piece attempts to capture the revolutionary mood of the period and challenge the linear perception of LGBT+ history. As 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Living with the Light On pays homage to a generation of campaigners and activists that established the framework for the gay liberation movement in the UK. Consisting of interviews with former Switchboard volunteers, original music and archive material, the piece explores participation and activism in the LGBT+ community in the era before the HIV/AIDS epidemic came to dominate Switchboard’s work.
Interviewees: Lisa Power and Julian Hows
Vocals: Maya Britto
Actor: Jonathan Dryden Taylor
Photos: Robert Workman
Lisa Power joined Switchboard in 1979 and was co-founder of LGBT charity Stonewall, and former policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Julian Hows was a Switchboard volunteer from 1978 and is a prominent figure in the lesbian and gay activist movement and the response to HIV.
