“Sir, we are homosexuals…” - Hatchards Piccadilly

We are delighted that Christopher Stephens will be here at Hatchards this evening to discuss his new book:

The Light of Day: The first man to come out at the dawn of gay liberation

and the life of Roger Butler who, in June 1960, along with two others, signed a letter to several British newspapers that began “Sir, we are homosexuals…”.

Publishing such a letter seven years prior to the decriminalisation of homosexuality was a radical and dangerous move. But it was a risk that marked a huge milestone in the fight for gay rights. By the 1970s, the Gay Liberation Front was calling on people to come out.

Part biography, part social history, The Light of Day takes us through a criminalised underworld of pubs, parties and campaign gatherings to tell the story of how Roger helped bring about a change in the law, legalising sex between men, but then soon found himself marginalised from the movement.

As we will discover this evening, Roger Butler is a character who has been, until now, missing from the history of fighting for equality.

We hope you will be able to come along to what promises to be a very special evening.