Difference between revisions of "Icebreakers"

'''Icebreakers''' was a support group for gay men and lesbians. It was planned in 1972 <ref> Papers in the Bishopsgate Institute: TOWNSON/21 Papers and correspondence regarding gay counselling organisations </ref> but appears to have been established in 1973 <ref> Gay News no 28 1973 Dennis Hudson and Micky Burbidge write 'We started operating on 10th May 1973, from an address in Brixton' &  Gay News no 46 1974 'Icebreakers celebrate their first anniversary Happy Birthday' was the headline on the front page </ref> , and ran until about  1984 from a squa in [[Brixton]] <ref> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjiJcIiCwvA Nettie Pollard and Michael Parkes on Icebreakers and GLF LSE Library Jul 19, 2024 </ref>  <ref>''[[Out of the Shadows]]'', Chapter 15. The start year for Icebreakers is given as 1971 in an article in Mister Vol 3 no 4 </ref> <ref> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjiJcIiCwvA&list=PLPK_Rz82LOLDYsp_aux0ncBnmgx0feQQ5&index=8 Nettie Pollard and Michael Parkes on Icebreakers and GLF, LSE Library (accessed 23 February 2025). The premises where the helpline was run from was a squat in Railton Road.</ref>.[[Micky Burbidge]] was an active member of Icebreakers. Icebreakers ran a disco at the [[Prince Albert]] ([[Central Station]]), and then from summer 1979 at the Hemingford Arms in London every Friday evening <ref>Capital Gay 17 July 1981 listings. Admission was 30p. The disco was held upstairs at the Hemingford Arms pub. A 12 minute audio recording done at the Hemingford Arms at an Icebreakers disco in 1982 is held at the British Library (Catalogue C586/319) </ref>. Antony Grey (1992) states that Icebreakers was 'an offshoot of the GLF ([[Gay Liberation Front]]) anti-psychiatry group''<ref> Antony Grey (1992) p 181 Quest for Justice; Towards Homosexual Emancipation (Sinclair-Stevenson;London) ISBN 1 85619 155 9 </ref>.