Mike Jackson

Research Partner

Mike grew up in a working-class town in Lancashire, surrounded by cotton mills, drizzle, factory hooters, drizzle, heavy industries, stinks, coal mines and more drizzle, all backlit in grey monochrome from sky above to pavement below. Despite this backdrop it was a happy, proud, childhood, imbued with a deep sense of community. The one exception was the prevailing attitude to his sexuality. He moved to London (and colour) in 1973, aged 19, to study horticulture at Kew Gardens and within months ‘came-out’. By 1977 he was a founding member of North Staffs Gay Switchboard and in 1983 a volunteer on London Gay Switchboard. It was there where he met Mark Ashton and a year later the two of them, acting to support the NUM in the 84/5 Miners’ Strike, initiated ‘Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners’ (LGSM), immortalised in the movie “Pride’ (Pathé, 2014). After the strike the mining community campaigned to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and against Clause 28. These ties between a large section of the LGBT+ community and the former mining communities are thriving 40 years later and being handed down to younger generations.