Parade Protest Perform Flyer (2011)

Paul Overton “Paul Overton died on the 21 May 1994. In true Overton style, it was one day before his birthday and in the building where he was born 46 years earlier. I am not going to romanticise about Paul now that he is no longer with us - he could be a right pain in the neck when he chose, but he was dedicated to doing as much as he could for the AIDS/HIV community in Brighton. He was the co-ordinator of Our House BP as well as sitting on the management committees of SACH and the Sussex Beacon. He was always either in meetings with the Health Authority or writing letters to organisations and newspapers when there was something printed which he felt was derogatory to those living with HIV. His time was spent tirelessly trying to improve people’s perceptions of AIDS/HIV, he contributed to ‘Inform’ regularly and was a prolific short story writer in his own right. Paul wasn’t the person I’d have chosen to be stranded on a desert island, but I did spend many evenings in his company and realised his bark was much worse than his bite! He wasn’t bothered about winning any popularity contests- he was bothered about getting his job done. I miss him.” (Words by Phil Scott - Our House BP)

Paul Tay 19 June 1959 - 20 May 1992 Paul was born in Hammersmith to a mother from London and a father from Ghana. I first encountered him at the University of Leicester in 1979, where we both studied. I don't recall us ever speaking, but our eyes would frequently meet as we passed each other on our bicycles. In London three years later, I spotted a very beautiful black man across the circular bar of Harpoon Louie’s in Earls Court. I plucked up the courage to ask him if he was that person from university and we became inseparable. Paul was funny and charming, with an infectious laugh; his model good looks were eclipsed by his kind and wonderful soul. His passion was driving and cars, especially vintage ones, so our weekends were spent exploring London gay bars, in his old Saab or my 1967 Triumph Vitesse. We would also spend time at the flat in Kingston-upon-Thames where he lived with his lone parent mother, the wonderful Betty. She once said we ‘might as well be engaged to be married’ considering the amount of time we spent together. To hear these words of support for our sexuality in the early 1980’ s was both unimaginable and magnificent. In 1991 Paul rang after a couple of weeks of not returning my calls; something which had never happened in our ten years together. He said, ‘you will never guess what I've got,’ and told me he had AIDS. For the next ten months I’d drive from Brighton to visit Paul at his mother’s flat and later the Broderip Ward at the Middlesex Hospital – London’s first dedicated HIV ward, opened by Princess Diana. Paul made it clear that he did not wish to discuss his illness and I respected that. One day, I asked him how he was doing, and he replied, ‘why do you ask?’ My reply ‘Well, you’re not looking your best’ made him smile. That’ s how we dealt with it, we didn't talk about it between us, and I never told any of my friends - a sign of the times. I struggle to have any pictures in my head of Paul, other than of him being happy and healthy, always so beautiful with an infectious laugh and a wonderful, beautiful soul. If he knew there was a four-metre-high great lump of bronze in Brighton named after him, he would chuckle. Words by Romany Mark Bruce

Paul Theobald had already been diagnosed HIV+ when we met and became good friends. He lived just opposite the Sussex AIDS Centre and Helpline (SACH) with his partner Terry Morgan, and I lived nearby. Paul was worried that there were no weekend services for people with HIV, so he decided to start group meetings at his flat on a Wednesday. Back then SACH had a telephone helpline seven nights a week and a buddying service staffed by volunteers like me. There was also a small BP group, but volunteers were not allowed to go unless invited. I was fortunate enough to be invited alongside a paid worker we called ‘mother.’ Open Door provided lunch Monday to Friday and I cooked vegetarian food there every Tuesday. Paul’s meetings were popular because he was very charismatic, and soon something bigger was needed, so Sunday lunches were started in different homes each week, alternative therapies were introduced, and it wasn’t long before Our House Body Positive was born in 1992. Paul had it registered as a charity and premises above the old fruit & veg market in Circus Street were found. Paul was the first Chair we had, and I started fundraising with bric-a-brac stalls in the summer. I remember one Easter we put an advert in the Evening Argus for unwanted bits & pieces. I went down to Paul’s flat early one Saturday after stopping to buy 30 bunches of daffodils with our own money. We then drove all over to the homes of people who’d donated, and as people gave us their items, we wished them Happy Easter and gave them daffodils as a thank you. Paul worked very hard for OHBP and after a while it started affecting his health, so he stepped down. After his relationship with Terry ended, he decided to move back to London into a ground floor Flat in Islington where I visited a couple of times. His health improved, and he was soon back to the Paul we all knew. Sadly, we lost touch until 2004 when he phoned me to say he'd like to come to Brighton for a few days if I promised not to tell anyone. He said he'd let me know when he was coming, but alas that's the last I heard of him.

I first met Paul Woodward (also known as Morticia) at the Our House Body Positive premises in Circus Street. Paul’s partner was also called Paul, so we called him Kim to avoid confusion. They were always together and came to OHBP most days. It was handy for them as they'd recently moved into a flat nearby on Ashton Rise. We became good friends because Kim was a hair stylist, and I needed a new one as the person who’d been doing my hair had crossed the rainbow bridge. Paul and Kim always came to my flat together. Paul wasn't 100% well and he’d had about eight operations for a collapsed lung at different times. Despite this he continued to chain smoke which really didn't help. The three of us did a Millinery course together after I said I was fed up with the gay community making better hats than me. We also used to go out a lot together as they had a car. They took me on holiday to a farm in Somerset once as a birthday present and lavished me with some beautiful gifts. Paul was not very well on holiday, but he still insisted on doing the cooking despite his poor sight which was deteriorating rapidly. I suggested he took up pottery so he could sense things and learn to feel with his hands better which he seemed to enjoy. There was a time when I was over in Rhodes seeing my daughter which coincided with a cruise they were on. Their ship docked at Mandraki Harbour for the day and I met them to show them around the old city. By this time Paul was using a white stick. As we strolled along with our arms linked, everyone seemed to be staring which made us all feel really uncomfortable, but we still had a memorable day. I heard that Paul crossed the rainbow bridge in 2008. Sadly, I’d lost touch with them as I was in Kenya by then, but I did send Kim a letter of condolence. Words by Avee Isofa Holmes

Peter Burton, The Godfather of Gay Journalism - One of the main writers on Spartacus, the UK’s first gay magazine run from a guesthouse in Preston Street, Brighton in the late 1960s, Peter Burton (1945-2011) went on to become Literary and Features editor on Gay News and Gay Times for over three decades. Living in Brighton for almost 40 years, Burton interviewed some of the most famous gay people in the world. Gay Times, 1992.

Philip’s panel was part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt display in Washington in October 1992, and I went with mum and the UK gang for a week. His panel came up on CNN news later that day picked out from thousands. Philip was from Bootle in Liverpool, and we started going out when I was 17 and he was 21. He was insulting, cheeky and funny, blind in one eye, five foot one with size 3 feet, but his mouth made up for his stature. I am always intrigued by people who take the mick out of me so I was hooked. We moved to London in 1978, and he worked at the post office on the King’s Road. He was diagnosed HIV+ in 1985 and with full blown AIDS in 1987. Australia was our last chance of a holiday together as he was beginning to get weaker. He loved music, especially Philadelphia soul and Helen Reddy. He loved laughing and would tell people their friends had died for a laugh - weeks later they'd bump into them on the tube...ha, he was a monkey. Him and my family got on great and he was my first proper bloke to go out with. We had a beautiful Dr in Hackney called Dr Feder. He tried all kinds to help at a time when hospital staff treated us like the plague. I used to tell people he had cancer when they asked, because it seemed mild in comparison. It all seems another life away, but it's always just under the surface because it was a massive thing for us to go through. I was 24 when he was diagnosed and it took me about five years after Philip died to feel something like me again, but I'm sure he’s fine now in Oz. He's had a quilt panel, a painting and Australia - that's your bloody lot...ha xxx Words by Gary Sollars 'My partner Philip Munro. Died 13.1.89. Aged 34' a painting by Gary Sollars On a hospital bed bathed in an ethereal light lies a man who has just died. Weeping by his side are two women. Another man is kneeling with his arms stretched across the mattress. Two more men, their bodies naked stride away. From the hand of one of them flutters a red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness. The painting earned Gary Sollars the overall prize for outstanding work at the Sussex Open art competition of 1996. It’s a deeply personal work which Gary saw as a final stage to the sorrow he experienced after losing Philip to AIDS after 13 years together. “The bed scene kept coming up in my head,” he said. “I wanted to do something about being gay, and the obvious subject was the loss.” The first stage of Gary’s grieving process was to scatter Philip’s ashes over Ayers Rock in Australia. “We went on holiday to Sydney in 1987, and coming back we had to choose between seeing Disneyland or Ayers Rock. We went to Disneyland - I wanted Philip to have had the experience of being in both places.” Gary went on to make a panel for the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt which depicts Ayers Rock with footsteps leading the way. It was exhibited alongside other local panels during Brighton Lesbian & Gay Pride in 1992. “You don’t realise it, but the bereavement process takes a long time. You’re think you’re OK for a while, and then something triggers it off again.”

This review was done after a performance of ‘Pulp’ at the Premises, Norwich Arts Centre. "Siren, here acting women with 'pasts'...will, without a doubt, make it even bigger in the future."

This Phone was bought from The Only Samsung Store In Barbados (After i dropped my old one in the pool, whoops!), A Country that as Of Writing (December 2024) Is Illegal to Be Transgender thanks to a Law Left Over from British Colonial Times that Hasn't Been Changed, Despite Homosexuality Being Legalised there in 2021.

Seven images of Brighton Pride event at the Level in 1994

Photos of Brighton Pride Park event 1995

Photos of Brighton Pride Parade 2000

11 photographs of Brighton Pride celebrations in 1993 or 1994

Promotional photoshoot for dance theatre performance 'New Ways of Living' choreographed by Gary Clarke. The photos feature performer Eleanor Perry with makeup inspired by The Bloolips. The photoshoot took place on St James St int he Morrisons lift and carpark, outside the former One Stop Travel Shop and in the electrical retailer Deans. Photo credit Katariina Jarvinen / Light Trick Photography

Photo Album: Queer in Brighton Anthology Launch (2014)