A speaker at the 1985 Conservative Party Conference was cheered when he said, “If you want a queer for your neighbour, vote Labour!” Today, many leading Conservatives support gay marriage. A watershed in the long struggle for civil rights for LGBT citizens was resistance to Clause 28, which prohibited local authorities from presenting ‘homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. How did such hostility and prejudice give way to tolerance and now, perhaps, the possibility, at last, of equality?

Speakers included Peter Tatchell (Peter Tatchell Foundation), Lisa Power MBE (Terrence Higgins Trust) and Michael Cashman MEP (Labour politician, founder of Stonewall). The event will be chaired by Dr Matt Cook (Birkbeck, University of London).