Chris Tsielepi (1981-1983)

Alumni

"I came to Liverpool University in October 1981. I knew I was gay. I’d had sexual experiences with men but I was convinced that I would be able to get through my 3 years at uni without the need for sex.

A few months into the course I saw a poster advertising a Gay Society meeting organised by the Student Union Welfare Officer. I remember she was called Wendy. There had been nothing at Fresher’s Week so I was tempted to go.

I can’t remember the detail but the inaugural meeting of the Gay Society proper was at 1pm in the Small Music Room. I was really nervous going up to the room and I was hesitating outside for a few minutes trying to pluck up the courage to go in. The door was closed and I was wondering whether I should knock or not.

I looked at my watch and it had just gone 1pm so I decided it was now or never and purposefully grabbed the door knob, opened the door and walked in.

Everyone stood up! The guy at the front looked over and said “We’re just finishing” I replied “Oh, I thought you were just starting”. He said “What group do you want?” I said “The Gay Society”, to which he replied “Oh, this is the Methodist Society”.

I knew at that moment I was not meant to be in the closet, having outed myself to the Methodists.

When the others eventually came to the meeting, I became the Membership Secretary of the GaySoc. I remember we met every Monday evening at the Everyman for a social. We thought it was important to provide an alternative to the commercial gay scene in town. We held evening meetings, I think monthly. We would invite speakers and hold discussions.

One speaker I remember was called Julia, a photographer who made the society’s banner with a logo designed by my cousin Andrew, a graphic design student at Brighton. Julia was speaking about feminism and during the talk said something like she would line all men up against a wall and shoot them. I remember a very awkward silence followed by our chairman quickly closing the meeting and adjourning to the bar.

The early 80s was a very different time to today when being gay was nowhere near as widely accepted like today. The age of consent was 21, so in theory as students we could not legally have sex till we finished our degree! We did have a run in with the University authorities, well one guy in particular; who I think was ex-Navy who would not allow us to hold an event as we could go to prison, so he said. His threat worked and we backed down although the Student Welfare Office was always supportive.

Other students weren’t our natural allies. During a sit-in against education cuts in the Arts Library we were the only organisation to have taken a banner in with us, which we draped over the balcony. There was mumblings from others who obviously objected to being under this “umbrella”. The banner also saw action in London at student demos there.

I also remember going round putting posters up advertising our meetings in the various university departments. They didn’t usually last very long in the Law building I seem to remember.

We also used to hold a bookstall in the student union I think once a week. I would collect book from “News from Nowhere” on a sale or return basis. It wasn’t a great success and come to think about it most customers were friends who would hang around as protection, but like the sit-in and the posters, the more we were visible and got up homophobes noses the better.

I’d like to think our greatest moment was the speech I wrote and delivered to our Student Union in support of our struggle for Equality. Our Union then took the motion to the NUS National Conference and it was adopted by the Conference. I’m pretty sure the NUS were the first national organisation to press for Equality in the age of consent for hetero & homosexual sex. This was around 1983 or ’84."