Allan Horsfall (20 October 1927 – 27 August 2012) was a British gay rights campaigner and founder of the

Campaign for Homosexual Equality The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) was a membership organisation in the United Kingdom with a stated aim from 1969 to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales. Active throughout the 1970s ...

. Horsfall was also the co-founder and leader of the North-Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee (NWHLRC), a regional and provincial branch of the Homosexual Law Reform Society (HLRS) in Manchester.

Life

He was born on 20 October 1927 at

Laneshawbridge Laneshawbridge (otherwise Laneshaw Bridge) is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 918. It is to the east of Colne in Lancashire and is the easternmost settle ...

. In 1956, following the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

, he became radicalised and became a local Councillor in his home town in 1958. He joined the North-East Lancashire

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...

. In 1958, he started campaigning for the

Homosexual Law Reform Society The Homosexual Law Reform Society was an organisation in the 20th century that campaigned in the United Kingdom for changes to the set of laws which criminalised homosexuality at the time. History In 1954, the Conservative government set up a D ...

to implement the findings of the Wolfenden Report published in 1957. Horsfall began campaigning through his local Ward Committee, in order to push for a pro-Wolfenden Resolution in 1958. Although he was initially met with resistance, the Ward Committee passed a resolution on the second try. Outside of local politics, Horsfall criticised the lack of Labour Party solidarity in Parliament in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, particularly after the failure of Kenneth Robinson's 1960 proposal. In 1963,

Antony Grey Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright (6 October 1927 – 30 April 2010), better known by his pseudonym Antony Grey, was an English LGBT rights activist. Grey was credited by Lord Arran to have "done more than any single man to bring this social prob ...

(core member of the HLRS and leader of the Albany Trust- the Society's charitable branch) permitted the HLRS to add a provincial element to its campaigning. Grey put in contact Horsfall with Stanley Rowe and Colin Harvey, who soon became the core Committee members of the NWHLRC. The North-Western Committee's activism was largely the work of a few core campaigners, particularly the work of Horsfall, who had published his private addresses on several of the Committee's leaflets (‘Three Robert Street, Atherton’). Although Horsfall was initially concerned about his safety and the response of his local mining community to his activism, they appeared indifferent, thus suggesting that Northern working-class sentiment was not as harsh at the time as expected. This reassured Horsfall in the long-term to approach NUM Labour MPs that supporting decriminalisation would not mean there would be a loss of electoral support. Campaigning from Horsfall including leafleting, advertisements, as well as behind-the-scenes lobbying of MPs. During the 1970s, Horsfall attempted to set up 'Esquire Clubs', co-owned social clubs built on the model of

working men's clubs Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, English Midlands, Midlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreati ...

for lesbians and gay men. On 30 July 1971 Allan was part of a CHE public meeting in Burnley Central Library, called "Homosexuals & Civil Liberties". Horsfall spoke of his 1960s campaigning at

LGBT History Month LGBTQ History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher ...

events, and he was interviewed for the Millthorpe

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

project.

In popular culture

Allan Horsfall is the lead character in "The Burnley Buggers' Ball", a play by Stephen M Hornby. The play was commissioned by LGBT History Month to mark the 50th Anniversary of the

Sexual Offences Act 1967 The Sexual Offences Act 1967 (c. 60) is an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, on the condition that they were consensual, in private and between two men who had attained the age of 21. ...

and was performed at the original site of the 1971 CHE meeting "Homosexuals & Civil Liberties" in Burnley Central Library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horsfall, Allan 1927 births 2012 deaths Councillors in Lancashire English gay politicians English LGBTQ rights activists Labour Party (UK) councillors 21st-century English LGBTQ people