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  • OutRage!
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  • The group was formed at a meeting on May 10, 1990, called after the murder of gay actor Michael Boothe (which occurred on the previous April 30). Many of those involved in calling this meeting had been members of the Organisation for Lesbian and Gay Action (OLGA) which had itself arisen out of the campaign against Section 28. There were four principal founders: Simon Watney, Keith Alcorn, Chris Woods and Peter Tatchell. Between 40 and 60 people attended the first meeting, including many who had been active in the Gay Liberation Front and other campaigns.
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abstract
  • The group was formed at a meeting on May 10, 1990, called after the murder of gay actor Michael Boothe (which occurred on the previous April 30). Many of those involved in calling this meeting had been members of the Organisation for Lesbian and Gay Action (OLGA) which had itself arisen out of the campaign against Section 28. There were four principal founders: Simon Watney, Keith Alcorn, Chris Woods and Peter Tatchell. Between 40 and 60 people attended the first meeting, including many who had been active in the Gay Liberation Front and other campaigns. A second meeting, this time in public, was held on May 24. Alcorn came up with the name and Tatchell wrote the first draft of what became the Statement of Aims. Michael Burgess and Steve Stannard were elected joint treasurer as the first officers. The first OutRage! action was on June 7 at Hyde Park Public Toilets to protest Metropolitan Police entrapment of gay men cruising, and attracted some media attention. OLGA offered the group office space at its base at the London Lesbian and Gay Centre, and regular fundraising was set up with the group selling T-shirts with its logo. One of the defining images of OutRage! actions was taken in September 1990 when the group organised a "Kiss-in" at Piccadilly Circus to protest against arrests of gay men for kissing in public. One member, identified as an actor called Richard, climbed up and kissed the statue of Eros. From January 1991 the group established a series of "affinity, focus and caucus groups", which took on specific aspects of the group's remit. They were given intentionally obscene and insulting names: the Policing Intelligence Group (PIG), the Whores of Babylon (tacking religious homophobia), Perverts Undermining State ScrutinY (PUSSY - tackling censorship), QUeers Asserting the Right to Ride Every Line Safely (QUARRELS - on safety on London Underground), Expanding The Non-Indigenous Contingent (ETHNIC), and Lesbians Answer Back In Anger (LABIA). To go along with these names, the financial team adopted the name QUeer Accountants Never Go Out (QUANGO).