On a Monday evening, in a pokey room above a bookshop near King’s Cross, a helpline aiming to provide information and support to the LGBT+ community began.
It was the 4th March 1974 – 50 years ago this year – that Switchboard first picked up the phone.
Then known as London Gay Switchboard, they opened five hours each evening to answer any and all queries, from how to come out to your family, how to safely have anal sex, or how to find other queer people.
Switchboard’s existence has spanned from the aftermath of the partial-decriminalisation of male homosexuality, right through the AIDS epidemic, the Admiral Duncan pub bombing and Section 28, to today.
They estimate they’ve supported more than 4 million people since their humble beginnings.
So, how is Switchboard’s 50th birthday to be celebrated? How can half a century of work be summed up, let alone honoured with the poignancy it deserves? A big event? Fireworks? Grand speeches?
Inevitably, the answer is as Switchboard began: modestly, and with an outstretched hand to those who need it.
An outstretched hand…
It was David Lloyd, a 73 year old retired social worker and a Switchboard volunteer listener of 12 years, who suggested a poetry competition.
David had never written poetry before he lost his partner of 43 years, Peter Dobson, to cancer in 2017.
They’d met in 1974, incidentally just one month before Switchboard began.
David knew that Pete had written poetry from time to time and, after Pete passed, he discovered a number of poems and illustrations left behind in a folder.
David made them into a book and exhibition, and they became vastly important to him as he reflected on his life with Pete.
David said: “While I was grieving my partner, I started to write notes and little brief reflections on my feelings and what I realised at that time was how helpful it was to actually put things down on paper, when I couldn’t really talk to anybody about how I felt because it was too difficult.”
When David stepped back to look at his fragmented pieces of writing, he realised his scribblings resembled poetry, sparking the idea for a poetry competition.
“It just came to me, because it would be an opportunity for people in our community – who maybe can’t talk about how they feel or have never been able to phone Switchboard – but that have things inside them that they want to put out.”
For David, the 50th anniversary was the perfect opportunity for a competition that encourages open discussions.
After his own struggles and 12 years supporting others through his volunteering, he views Switchboard’s work as vital.
“There is very very rarely a shift I do when I don’t feel, at the end of that shift, that I’m really glad I was here for that person,” David said.
… To those who need it
Jamie Griffen, an ex-social worker who felt burnt out and whimsically became an agent for dogs in films, first called Switchboard in 1983.
He was 16, had just run away from home, and wanted to know where the local gay bars were after moving into a flat in Earl’s Court.
Unbeknown to him, Earl’s Court was one of the epicentres of the LGBT+ community at the time.
“This girl on the phone said to me, ‘Oh, good god, stick your head out the window!’’’
Jamie lets out a belly laugh as he continued: “I thought she was joking. I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ and she said, ‘You’ve landed in a pot of jam, love. You couldn’t have done better!’.
“I thought, wow, this Switchboard thing is great!”
Jamie also knew others who’d contacted Switchboard.
He knew some who called for housing advice after being evicted by their landlord for being gay.
He knew others who called for legal advice after being entrapped by police – known as the ‘pretty police’ – who pretended to be gay to arrest gay men.
“Back then it was a godsend because it told us what our rights were – even when we didn’t have a lot of them.
“We all could quote the number and, if a friend came in and they were in trouble for whatever reason, we’d always phone Switchboard.
“They were like a saviour in the background of our lives.”
While Switchboard was essential for a time in which information on queer people was rare and shielded, it does beg the question – how relevant is Switchboard now, in an age of endless information at one’s fingertips?
For Charlie Michael Baker, a 17-year old author and content creator, Switchboard is as important as ever.
Charlie first called when he was around 12 – he was struggling at school and with his sexuality, knowing that he may be gay but unsure where to go from there.
In the few times that Charlie called since, he received advice on sexual health and HIV, where his nearest sexual health clinic was, how to figure out his identity and, when he felt ready, how to come out to his parents.
“The person that I was speaking to – I remember this really well, it’s ingrained in my mind – they talked me through literally every scenario, because I didn’t know how my parents were gonna react,” Charlie said.
“They were literally my rock. I had no friends at the time, I was young and naïve, and I saw them as my friends.”
Walk ahead, on co-ordinated feet
In total, 128 people submitted poems to David’s competition, proving to be an emotional experience for him.
He said: “It’s been really moving, reading through some of the submissions we’ve had. I’m so grateful to everybody.”
Of the 128 submissions, 28 will be collated into a book set to be released in July.
As you wait for your chance to read the winning entries, below is one of the poems that inspired the competition, left behind in Pete’s folder.
“After rain and darkness, sunshine seems more sweet;
Autumnal adumbrations like goldleaf on the street.
Winter looks less ominous when worried minds can meet,
And we move forward, walk ahead, on co-ordinated feet”
Featured image credit: David Lloyd
