Ted Brown, veteran of the Gay Liberation Front and a driving force behind black gay activism in Britain, joins us to trace a path from a civil rights–inspired childhood to organising the first UK Pride, and to a battle many don’t see coming - staying out and safe in elderly care.

We start with Ted’s mother, a Jamaican activist who stood with the US civil rights movement and taught him to read prejudice as a system, not a personal failing. From there, Ted walks us into the early GLF meetings at the LSE, where liberation meant more than law reform. He shares how drag, gender-nonconformity, and the idea of sexuality as a spectrum found space in rooms that were chaotic, joyous, and deeply political. We get inside the strategy debates—CHE’s legal focus versus GLF’s cultural transformation—and the reality of racism and sexism in early gay spaces.

Ted details the founding of black queer institutions, including Europe’s pioneering Black Gay and Lesbian Centre, and the hard lessons from confronting media homophobia during the Justin Fashanu saga. His organising forced a powerful newspaper to rethink its stance, showing how targeted pressure can shift hostile narratives.

Then comes a sharp turn to the present: the quiet violence of care homes that ignore or erase LGBTQ relationships. Ted recounts fighting for his partner Noel’s dignity, the systemic misrecognition of their civil partnership, and the ease with which abuse can hide in “care”. He lays out “Not Going In The Care Closet”, a campaign ensuring no one must hide at the end of life.

This episode was hosted by Jonathan Chambers and James Alexander

Editing by Hannah Stewart

Music: Mystify created by AlterEgo

Visit our website, https://tvfh.co.uk

Follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/theviewfromherepodcast

Lisa Power joins us to chart a raw, funny, and fiercely practical road through UK LGBTQ+ history—from Switchboard’s midnight calls to the birth of Stonewall, from Section 28’s chilling effect to the sudden light of Vancouver 1996 when HIV combination therapy changed everything.

We dig into the messy reality of coalition building: why Stonewall chose equality as the shared baseline, how the age of consent fight was won in stages, and what it took to navigate the frictions between feminism, the left, and queer communities. Lisa brings history to life: the cramped Switchboard office with maps and files; early THT meetings; treatment-activist showdowns where community experts out-briefed pharma reps.

Lisa's call is simple and sharp: stop fighting each other, fight the right enemy, and keep pushing the window of acceptance forward.

If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Tell us what moment or tactic you’d pass on to the next generation.

This episode was hosted by Jonathan Chambers and James Alexander

Editing by Hannah Stewart

Music: Mystify created by AlterEgo

Visit our website, https://tvfh.co.uk

Follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/theviewfromherepodcast

A boy from Limehouse learns to disappear to survive. Decades later, he chooses the opposite—and everything changes. Michael Cashman joins us for a vivid, unflinching journey from dockside childhood to EastEnders fame, from the terror and tenderness of the AIDS years to the kitchen-table founding of Stonewall. He shares how art, politics and everyday compassion forged a life of showing up when silence was safer.

Michael dissects the tabloid machine, Thatcher-era fearmongering, and the “double helix of hatred” that braided homophobia with AIDS panic. Then he walks us through Section 28: the strategy behind inserting “intentionally,” the coalition that grew beyond identity, and how a law designed to erase visibility sparked a generation to come out and organise.

From living rooms stacked with wine racks to a one-night revival of Bent that funded a movement, we trace how Stonewall took shape and why rights remain fragile without relentless solidarity. Michael is clear: equality means the right to opt in or out—and it strengthens everyone’s freedoms. We close with a call to reject complacency, stand with trans people and migrants, and demand politics that allows honesty, course-correction and courage.

If this conversation moved you, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone. Your support keeps these stories alive—and keeps the door open for the next person to walk through.

This episode was hosted by Jonathan Chambers and James Alexander

Editing by Hannah Stewart

Music: Mystify created by AlterEgo

Visit our website, https://tvfh.co.uk

Follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/theviewfromherepodcast