Contents Page 5 – Increase in the reporting of LGBT Hate Crime in South Wales Page 6 – Author Will Cross talks about Pride Cymru and his new book The Abergavenny Witch Hunt Page 18 – Gay Conversion Therapy – A New Idea? Page 22 –Pride Cymru – A fantastic day in photographs Page 31 – Gay and Christian
South Wales: Increase in reporting of LGBT hate crime More people are reporting homophobic and transgender hate crime in South Wales, figures show. A freedom of information (FOI) request by Plaid Cymru found hate crimes on the grounds of sexual orientation jumped from 121 to 161 in a year, while gender identity crimes in the force area rose from nine to 29. BBC News reports the leader of Plaid Cymru, Leanne Wood, said: “Intolerance and hatred in all of forms must be confronted wherever it raises its ugly head. “There is an obligation on all of us in our communities to work together with people from all backgrounds to stand up against hate crime and racism.” South Wales Police said hate crime had been under-reported and it was “working to encourage” victims to come forward. “What is equally important is to see increasing levels of satisfaction of hate crime victims, particularly in the follow-up after an incident has been reported to us,” a spokeswoman added. Unity Group Wales, an LGBT support group, welcomed the statistics. Chief Executive Andrew Davies said: “Last year for every nine callers we’d get, only one would end up going on to report hate crime to the police. “Today, it’s about two in nine. There’s still some distrust of the police but we’ve been working with South Wales Police and getting it out to the community that the police aren’t what they were 30 or 40 years ago.” He added: “I’m quite happy to see the figure go up – it’s a much better picture of what’s going on.” There were a total of 1,224 hate crimes recorded in the South Wales area in 2013/14 compared to 1,019 the previous year.
The Abergavenny Gay Witch Hunt of 1942 Newport-based author, William Cross, writes about attending Cardiff Pride and describes his controversial new book “The Abergavenny Witch Hunt: An account of the prosecution of over twenty homosexuals in a small Welsh town in 1942.�
A time to tear down……..and a time to build up After watching the colourful parade marching through the streets of Cardiff it was a pleasure to take part in Pride Cymru on 16th August, 2014 in Cardiff’s Cooper’s Field slap bang in the middle of the Welsh capital. The atmosphere was buzzing from the word go. At the entrance gates I discovered throngs of happy, smiling pilgrims of all ages who had descended from almost every nook and cranny of South and West Wales. As I waited to get into the ground I greeted a few strangers with my customary innocuous chat-up line of “Have you come far?” I learned some folk had travelled from nearby Newport, Pontypool, Bridgend, and Swansea. Later I met others who have ventured from as far afield as Leeds, London and Bristol; I even encountered two excited visitors from Blackpool in Lancashire (on holiday at Penarth) and several attendees from places overseas. Thanks to the excellent pre-publicity given by the LGBT Unity Project website about my book signing event on their stall, in the end a dozen
people turned out to buy copies of this new book “The Abergavenny Witch Hunt”; scores more were almost certainly drawn in by curiosity over the very distinct mauve coloured banner and the large headline that was attached to the pitch of
“HOMOSEXUAL WITCH HUNT“. Many folk (and this included an impressive stream of young people passing by) were interested in knowing something more about the tale but understandably had earmarked their precious funds for other more instant pleasures of the day than buying a book. However several took away an information leaflet containing the book’s synopsis, which sets out a sad and grim story involving the prosecution of over twenty homosexuals in the small Welsh town of Abergavenny, in 1942: “In 1942, the Welsh town of Abergavenny was scandalised by disclosures after the arrest of over twenty youths and men on charges relating to homosexual activity and corrupting boys.
George Rowe, the 40-year-old manager of Abergavenny’s Coliseum cinema was at the centre of a Police enquiry after one of the pageboys complained about being molested. The boy’s complaint turned into a witch-hunt of ‘queers’ across Britain revealing an oddball mix of abused and abusers; a farmer, a clerk, two chefs, a fireman, several serving soldiers, a hairdresser, an actor and others were arrested and brought back to Abergavenny, where almost all the offences were committed. Before the case reached a Judge at Monmouthshire Assizes, three men attempted suicide, one young man succeeded in taking his own life. In the years that followed rumours persisted that several people had got away scot-free, including one notable public figure. Others went on the run to escape capture and disgrace, since all homosexuality was illegal in Britain until the changes started by the Sexual Offences Act, 1967. William Cross the biographer of Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, and of salacious tales about the Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales, is no stranger to controversial histories. Cross examines the facts in the Abergavenny case and sets out details from contemporary newspapers
including closed files at National Archives, now released under the Freedom of Information Act. Here for the first time is the unvarnished truth, the background, the preliminary proceedings, the trial and the aftermath of a grisly, but sad tale from Abergavenny’s past that some would prefer to see buried forever.” Of those poor sods arrested, charged and jailed several went to prison for up to ten years serving their time in Cardiff Prison, a stone’s throw from the Pride location that day; during the Second World War Cardiff was one of Britain’s worst penitentiaries. Those would-be punters at Cooper’s Field trying to escape the hard sell for the book were spared nothing including the horrific details about the suicide of Lewis Matthews a nineteen- year- old Abergavenny lad – who could not face his fate and threw himself under a train. Moreover potential customers did not get off without also making me a solemn promise. It was that those accepting a leaflet must pop into their local library to get the book on loan, and if they should find it was not yet available they persuade their local librarian to order it to grace the branch’s LGBT book shelves.
I was insistent on this saying that the book filled a missing chapter about an important ( but forgotten) episode from Welsh history and these monstrous homosexual persecutions, nothing short of a ‘ witch hunt’ of ‘queers’ ( the latter was the emotive word more often used than ‘gays’ in 1942). The Abergavenny case was one of Wales’s most notorious scandals. This quiet Welsh town (only otherwise famed in the social sub-culture for a pop song in the 1950s from the rock and roller Marty Wilde) found itself in the limelight. But the whole place rocked in a different way when it became centre stage of this purge of gay men and youths and subsequently the glaring, show trial involving the savage prosecution of twenty-four of these individuals for their participation in homosexual vice. “An orgy of perversion”, reported the News of the World. The local South Wales newspapers carried headlines a little less sensational but which were equally marked out by the nature of the case. There were almost two hundred offences cited in the indictment sheets, with uncompromising references to unnatural and illegal acts, deeds of buggery, attempted buggery and gross indecency.
Author William Cross at Pride Cymru’s Book signing event .
In 1942 all sexual activity between males was against the law. Until the reforms began by the great Welsh politician Leo Abse in 1967 gay men and youths hid their activities behind a veil of secrecy. How times have changed when now, thank heavens, everyone over sixteen can choose how they live and who they take to bed.
It has to be said that amongst those “caught” in 1942 a few of the participants in the case deserved apprehension, evidence was found of the corruption of underage teenage boys by the manager of the local YMCA in Abergavenny. Another blackguard was the manager of one of the local cinemas in the town who preyed on his youthful employees. But few of the others rounded up like stray animals were offenders ( in today’s terms). Of the twenty- four arrested only a handful molested boys. But the remaining men and youths who were simply engaged together in consensual sex were swept into the same furnace as the peodophiles. That mud stuck as did the hostility from the town’s people of Aberagevnny who tarred everyone with the same brush. That was the way it was at the time. In the decades since with grief, remorse, gossip, backtalk, sneering, sniggering and much rumour, including countless dark stories that are simply untrue, one might hope that the publication of a book charting the full, albeit uncompromising history of the circumstances surrounding the event might provoke some interest from the populace of Abergavenny and that it might also inspire some intelligent discussion. The book has begun well and has sold copies in The Abergavenny Book Shop in High Street ( the very last remaining bookshop in the town selling new boos). The local newspaper The Abergavenny Chronicle has been supportive and carried a full
Abergavenny Book Shop in High Street (the very last remaining bookshop in the town selling new boos). The local newspaper The Abergavenny Chronicle has been supportive and carried a full page in its edition of 24 July 2014 (please e-mail me if you would like a copy of this). The LGBT Unity Project in Swansea has been most kind in its support for the book and I must acknowledge the always encouraging Norena Shopland (who very nearly wrote up the tale herself a few years ago). Unity’s pitch at Cardiff was a perfect place to offer the book and I am most grateful to Andrews Davies and his colleagues for letting me gate crash at Cooper’s Field. One kind reader remarks about the book “I would like to thank you for writing the book about the Abergavenny event as it reflects the cruelty and prejudice of society at the time and brings knowledge of it to a new audience.” Another commenting on the harrowing tale said “the trials in Abergavenny are particularly awful. You certainly feel for the wretched individuals who were up in court. Thank God we live in more enlightened times.” The title of this article includes a uplift from the Bible about “ time”. This is taken from the well known lines that for everything there is a season etc… ‘ a time to born and a time to
The title of this article includes a uplift from the Bible about “time”. This is taken from the wellknown lines that for everything there is a season etc… ‘a time to born and a time to die’ etc. Here I refer to the lesser known fragment of the epistle viz “ a time for tearing down” and then “a time [ usually later] for building up” again. In 1942 the ruling authorities, comprising the Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Magistrates and the Judge in the case did the “tearing down” I dearly hope Abergavenny in 2014 is a mood to offer the “building up” again. That answer remains unclear. The story is damned, the wounds run deep, some individuals in local families remain shamed; there are still survivors of those abused ( NB none of the ‘victims’ are named in the book) who must still be protected by silence. Profits from the sale of the book ( available at The Abergavenny Book Shop at 1, High Street, Abergavenny, or direct from the author @ £12.00 ) will go to a charity in memory of Lewis Matthews, the nineteen-year- old lad who killed himself. ISBN 978-1905914-22-7 Book Midden Publishing ( 2014).
William Cross can be contacted by e-mail williecross@aol.com
A 69 year old man tells how he was given electric shocks on the NHS in the 1970s to ‘cure’ my sexual orientation. A Birmingham man has spoken of his deep regret at undergoing gay ‘cure’ therapy on the NHS in the 1970s. The 69-year-old, described as “John”, told BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Victoria Derbyshire: “I’m going to pass from this life without ever having a full relationship with a human being.” The victim spoke of how a young GP told him that he had found a “cure” for being gay in the 1970s.
“In my innocence I thought ‘hey that sounds pretty good’ so I went along with it”. Asked to describe the ‘cure’, John replied: “It was a variation of aversion therapy called ‘avoidance therapy’. It involved showing photographs of men, photographs of women, and giving the person a series of electric shocks.” He continued: “But also giving you an element of choice, so if your saw a picture of a male and you rejected that, then there was a fighting chance that you would avoid the electric shock.” Reflecting on the therapy John said: “It gave me very false hope”. “It was never ever going to kick in, it was never ever going to work, [and] the whole thing has been a failure”. He went on to say: “I still feel very disappointed because it means as a consequence I am going to pass through this life without ever having a full relationship with a human being. “And that is a matter of deep regret,” he added: “Perhaps in the grand plans of things it is not ‘that’ horrendous, I have a wonderful friendship with my wife – but it’s never been a complete relationship, and nor can it be or ever will be.”
John said that he had only come to terms with his sexual orientation “fifteen years ago”. Care Minister, Norman Lamb, said homosexuality was “not an illness” and should never be treated as such, which is why he strongly opposed such treatment and would never fund it with public money. Mr Lamb has ruled out the statutory regulation of psychotherapists in order to prevent doctors from referring patients to therapists who may seek to provide the treatment. He favours instead a “voluntary register” for psychotherapists. Earlier this year, Swansea Labour MP Geraint Davies published a Private Members’ Bill in Parliament aimed at banning the practice by regulating the psychotherapy sector.
Swansea Labour MP Geraint Davies
Pride Cymru 2014 Wales’ Biggest LGBT Event A Fantastic Day In Photographs
Gay and Christian? ............... YES! The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement is a UK-based international Charity which challenges homophobia and transphobia, especially within the Church and faith based organisations, as well as working to create and praying for an inclusive church. The organisation started in April 1976 as the Gay Christian Movement (GCM) and changed the name to recognise the contribution of the female membership ten years later. LGCM has continued to grow, despite opposition and numerous attempts to get the organisation to fold and now has members from all corners of the world and from all the major denominations as well as no denominational affiliation. Our membership is open to all people regardless of sexual orientation or faith belief as long as they uphold our Statement of Conviction. The South Wales L.G.C.M. group meets on a monthly basis, usually in the Cardiff area, we are a small, but friendly group; comprised of people from different backgrounds, and with different experiences of being LGBT and Christian. A personal perspective: My name is Andy, I had had some unfortunate experiences in my life within the Christian church. I was “saved” at the age of 27. I would attend a church, until it became too uncomfortable, with people wanting to know if I was “courting”, or worse, trying to set me up with a “nice girl”.
Some people guessed I was gay, even though I wasn’t a “practicing” homosexual, and kept myself very closeted; I guess I was in denial. When I finally “confessed” about my feelings, I would meet very challenging, or condemning attitudes and remarks. I ended up drifting from on denomination to another, hoping for acceptance, fearing rejection. I ended up going through a “healing” and an “exorcism” and went through counselling and a 12-step redemptive programme. I was declared “healed”. But I knew that I wasn’t. In November of 1998, I was walking through town and saw a “flier” titled “Gay & Christian?”. I wrote to the P.O. Box. And received an invitation to a group called L.G.C.M. (The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement). They were gay, they were Christians, and they didn’t see my condition as a sin, or as something I needed healing from. I was accepted at last for who I am, and the way was set for my true healing – accepting myself, my sexuality, and learning to love who am. In April of 2001, I attended a Conference hosted by LGCM, it was in Swansea University, and spanned three days, with workshops, talks, and social times together. It was there that I met Bob, who was attending from a group in Kent. Bob and I “clicked” we kept in touch; and he moved to Swansea in 2003. We have been together for thirteen years now, and had a Civil Partnership in 2012. We are both active in our local church, we are both “out” and proud; moreover, we are accepted as any other couple would be, which of course is what we are, just another couple. I have seen a lot of changes since I first “Came-Out”, but there is still a long way to go, especially in churches. There are still people living with inner hurts and guilt; often inflicted by fundamentalist religions
seeking to “save” and “deliver” us from our life styles. But we are who we were born to be, we are loved and made by God, and he accepts us whether we’re L, G, B, T or even straight! Future Events Saturday 6th September: ‘Day Out in the Bay’; Assemble from 10:30 hrs. at ‘Sunflower&I, 111 Bute Street, Cardiff, CF10 5AD; followed by a river boat trip at noon (cost £6), and concluding with a meal at 1pm at Wetherspoons in Cardiff Bay. Friday 3rd October. AGM at the Bridgend Quaker Meeting House, 87 Park St, Bridgend CF 31 4AZ Friday 7th November: Alan will give a presentation describing activities of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups, and some associated organisations, at City URC, Windsor Place, Cardiff. Saturday 6th December. Christmas Carols at 7pm at City URC, Windsor Place, Cardiff CF10 3BZ Friday 9th January 2015, Post Christmas Communion Service, at St. Paul’s Church, Paget St, Grangetown, Cardiff CF11 7LA. Saturday 24th January 2015, Post-Christmas Meal. Details to be confirmed. All meetings start at 7.30 pm prompt, unless stated otherwise, and include a short time of devotions and a chance to socialise over a cup of tea or coffee. If you need a lift, or more details of any of these events, contact us by email or phone (details are given above). All are welcome. Contact Us: Tel: 07749 775 607 or email us at southwales@lgcm.org.uk