The organising of union members, and external support from groups such as Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Gay Liberation Front worked in tandem from the 1970s to assert basic human rights for LGBT+ people. NALGAY, the first national union LGBT+ network, was set up in 1974 among other groups that formed through the 70s and 80s. These groups won trade union support for adding sexual orientation to equal opportunities and anti-discrimination policies and paved the way for an eventual pathway to greater acceptance in the general population, despite the rampant homophobia of the 80’s.
By the 80’s, there were a growing number of wins on workplace discrimination, individual and collective. For example, the National Union of Railwaymen (now part of RMT) won travel rights for unmarried same-sex partners. Mutual solidarity grew from groups such as Gays and Lesbians Support the Miners.
LGBT+ trade unionists led Stop the Clause, one of many groups campaigning against Section 28. In the 90’s, the civil service unions negotiated the end of ‘vetting’ in the Foreign Office, which prevented the hiring of gay people. There were campaigns run jointly by TUC and Stonewall on pensions equality, and rights for unmarried partners. This decade also saw legal cases protecting trans people for the first time owing to European Court rulings under the Sex Discrimination Act.
