Meet the legendary women featured in groundbreaking documentary Legendary Children (All Of Them Queer)

Sue Sanders, Roz Kaveney, Angela Mason and Nettie Pollard speak to DIVA about the history and power of the LGBTQIA+ community 

BY NIC CROSARA, SUE SANDERS AND ROZ KAVENEY AT PRIDE 50 IMAGE BY ROB FALCONER

Pride season is here, and the release of the groundbreaking documentary Legendary Children (All Of Them Queer), directed by Rob Falconer, arrives right on time on for this year’s Pride marches everywhere. Filmed over two years, the film explores the lasting impact of London’s very first Pride march in 1972 and how it has impacted the UK’s Pride movement. Audiences get to hear the impactful messages from the people who marched then and are still marching now. 

DIVA got to speak with four of the trailblazing (and legendary) women from Legendary Children (All Of Them Queer): LGBT+ History Month’s co-founder Sue Sanders, writer, critic and poet Roz Kaveney, former director of Stonewall Angela Mason CBE and LGBTQIA+ and women’s liberation activist Nettie Pollard. Here’s what they had to say on our community’s past, present and future.

DIVA: Legendary Children (All Of Them Queer) will be released this Pride month. What do you think of what Pride is today, compared to what it was when it first started? 

Roz: I have the standard complaints – too apolitical, too commercial… But I love the feel of it nonetheless – that sense of solidarity and possibility. I particularly love smaller local Prides and, of course, Trans Pride which have more of a feel of what I always loved.

Sue: I attended the first Pride in Sydney and the first lesbian march there. The former ended up as a riot, and the latter was about five of us and a dog in the rain! The sense of adventure, having no idea of what would happen, if we would be supported by others, if we would be attacked, was palpable. The subsequent attack by the police was frightening and at one point I was arrested,  but the police officer left me standing and told me to stay where I was. Obviously I ignored him. The event was both celebratory and frightening. As so often oppression does, it strengthened the resolve to fight prejudice.

Is there anything you’d like to say about what life was like during the time that the GLF was formed? 

Angela: I remember it as a revolutionary time. The credibility of the old world was changing. The post-war settlement was very sexually conservative, but when women, students, and Black power, began to blow their trumpets, the citadel began to crumble. If peasants on bicycles in Vietnam could challenge the mightiest military empire, why not us?

The documentary talks about this, but is there anything else you’d like to address when it comes to the contributions lesbians have made to the GLF?

Nettie: The presence of so few women in GLF is hardly surprising, but as women got together we found that sisterhood is powerful and women began to organise and take a bigger and bigger role in Pride each year. This was still a time of great oppression for lesbians. A lesbian would invariably lose custody of her children and if she had a job could be sacked for being a lesbian. This is in addition to the prejudice and discrimination suffered by all women.

How does it feel to watch the archival footage shown in Legendary Children? 

Sue: It is incredibly uplifting and leaves me wondering why I did not know about it at the time. The downright bravery and stubbornness of ordinary LGBT people determined to challenge oppression is wonderful to witness and is reminiscent of minority groups everywhere who find the strength to both publicly challenge oppression and celebrate their existence in the teeth of invisibilising.

I really appreciated the intersectionality of this film. It was great to see the lives of LGBTQIA+ refugees discussed. Do you have any ideas on how we in the UK can better advocate for LGBTQIA lives around the globe?

Nettie: Pride in the UK and round the world now is organised by women as well as men and non-binary people.  This is largely because the position of women has changed and that women have become far more confident. In the early days, Pride was largely about men it is now a movement for change and a celebration of sexual diversity.

Is there any advice you’d give the upcoming next generation of LGBTQIA folks when it comes to collective action? 


Angela: There is an old feminist slogan which says, ‘Ten women, in any place, anywhere, can do anything’ so don’t be afraid. The wider your movement the stronger it will be. Build progressive alliances. Take actions together, intervene in the public discourse, mobilise your constituency. Learn to shout and whisper. 

What is the main thing you hope audiences take away from watching this documentary?

Roz: Just how radical we all were and are, how determined to change things.

Legendary Children is available to stream worldwide on Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Google Play Movies.

The Tall Houses theme song music video has already been released in special partnership with UK LGBT+ History Month, now available on Apple Music Video and VEVO

@niccrosara

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