Brighton Lesbian and Gay Switchboard celebrates its 30th Birthday. The organisation is now one of the oldest Brighton only charities and is certainly the oldest lesbian and gay organisation in the city.

"It's a milestone for our city and its community. I know that other switchboards are older, but back in 1975 our city was a smaller town and the fact that the community came together to form the organisation and the fact that it's still here is a massive achievement and much thanks must go out to all the volunteers that have helped over the years" Iain Gowers Trustee of Switchboard.

What went on to be named Brighton Lesbian & Gay Switchboard took its first phone call on April 26th 1975. It was launched by four men and two women in a room in a café in Brighton. At that point it was called 'The Brighton Lavender Line' so as to prevent callers having to announce their sexuality. The phone line was based in the Open Cafe in Victoria Road. The café was not the best place to run a helpline. The clientele of somewhat "shifty" characters didn't help, especially when they burst in whilst you were trying to deal with a tricky call.

Over the years, like most of the city's gay scene Switchboard has been based in Hove and Kemptown, finally settling in at its home in Bartholomews. The organisation has played a vital role in the community's history. During the early 1980's the AIDS epidemic had started to take a strong grip on the gay community within Brighton. Following on from a conference organised in 1983 by London Gay Switchboard, Brighton Gay Switchboard decided to deal with the ignorance about AIDS, and the tabloid hysteria of the time, by producing a basic facts leaflet. Written at the end of 1983, the leaflet was released in January 1984. It is one of the earliest printed UK leaflets and material and predates the terms HIV or HLTV2, or any knowledge of safe sex information, as this was not known then. The helpline also became an invaluable source of information and a space to deal with the issues.

In the late 1990's Switchboard launched a counseling service which aimed to meet the needs of the lesbian and gay community through offering low cost counseling. Today the service helps over 150 people a year and has 10 counsellors and one administrator. Switchboard remained an entirely volunteer run organisation for most of the 30 years, until 2000 when a decision was taken to employ a counseling project co-ordinator to help deal with the administration. Louise Johnson Trustee of Switchboard said "It doesn't matter what avenue you come in via Switchboard, you will always be dealt with by a volunteer, all our helpline operators and counselors are volunteers, they all want to help and are not paid. The benefits of having a worker for the counseling project means that later in 2005 we plan also to employ an admin worker for the helpline". If you would like to volunteer to be an operator, please see the website.

We have come a long way since our formation but there are a number of things which are still the same today as then. Today we still provide a helpline, as well as an email help service and a Minicom service. We are open every night and receive over 5,000 calls per year and our website handles over 60,000 visitors per year. Our complementary services lend a friendly ear and keep people in touch, whatever the need. We also provide an accommodation service, assisting by letting callers have the details of those with spare room in their homes. We have over 35 volunteers drawn from City's lesbian and gay community, which is estimated to be around 35,000 (13% of the total population). Switchboard offers a unique service operated from the heart of the community by a range of ordinary lesbian and gay men with the skills to listen.

Notes To Editors

1. For more information on Switchboard's history please see :- http://www.switchboard.org.uk/brighton/history.htm

2. Switchboard has been a registered charity since 2000

Release date: 8th August 2004