As well as being known as one of the oldest surviving people living with HIV in the UK, Jonathan Blake is often talked about due to his role in the activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM); an alliance of lesbians and gay men who supported the National Union of Mineworkers during the year-long strike (1984-1985).
The history of LGSM has been fictionalised in the popular film, Pride, which features a character based on Jonathan Blake’s life, holding his name.
“It was Steven Beresford who wrote the screenplay, it was his version of me, and I was flattered by it.” Jonathan explains.
“What was fabulous, first of all, was how he got to create this film, because he was at RADA in 1993 when John Major was closing the remainder of the pits that Thatcher hadn’t closed, and he said to his boyfriend at the time ‘why isn’t everybody up in arms, they should be out on the street, it’s outrageous that they’re doing this.’ And his partner, who at that time was older, said to him ‘let me tell you a story’. So, he told him the story of Lesbians and Gays support the miners, and Stephen was having none of it, he felt he was being patronised, and it couldn’t possibly have happened. I mean the idea that lesbians and gay men go down to South Wales and support mining, that was ridiculous… But it stayed with him.
“Then, when computers became more accessible, he kind of thought I wonder if this is true so he tapped in ‘Lesbian and Gay men support the miners’ and up pops this 27-minute documentary called ‘All Out Dancing in Dulais’ and it’s still there, you can still get it. And the whole story was there. But there were all these talking heads but no names underneath it so he basically had to wait until the end to get the cast list.”
Jonathan Blake explains that Steven Beresford decided to pursue the least common name, figuring it would be the easiest way to find someone, and so he messaged Reggie Blennerhassett who then connected him with Mike Jackson who had met fellow activist, Mark Ashton at Lesbian and Gay Switchboard before they founded LGSM together.
Reggie and Mike vetted Stephen to ensure that he understood the politics of LGSM, and they both concluded that their story was safe in his hands, and therefore it was safe to pass on the details of all the other existing members of LGSM.
“I remember that Stephen came around and he interviewed myself and Nigel. He must have been with us for about four hours,” Jonathan explains. He went away and Jonathan and Nigel both believed that nothing would come of it, but soon, Jonathan received a message from Stephen again wishing to come and see him.
“He said, something in your story just inspired me, and I have written a character, he’s based on you, and you cannot read the script, You have no say in the matter, and the company will pay you £1 to use your name. And I just thought, that’s fine because we all thought the story would die with us.”
3 months later, Jonathan received another call asking if the director and actor who was going to play him could arrange a meeting. So, Jonathan baked a lemon drizzle cake because “you can’t have people to tea without cake”, and the next day, Stephen arrived with a bouquet, followed by the director, Matthew Marchus and the actor, Dominic West.
During their meeting, Jonathan showed Dominic his garden, and he tells Midlands Rainbow about the history of the home which was once an old gay and lesbian squat, and how he and Nigel came to live there. “Back in the mid-70s, there were five houses on one road that were squatted and three houses on [another] road, and the squatters knocked down all the walls and made paths so that in the dead of winter you could get across relatively dry, between the eight houses.” There was one house in the middle, which was derelict and full of dry rot, this home would eventually become the space Jonathan shared with his partner, Nigel Young.
Jonathan met Nigel Young at a “gays for a nuclear-free future” stand-together heading from London to Greenham Common. Jonathan had picked up a copy of Capital Gay, which offered advice and information. In this paper, Blake found a small advertisement for “gays for a nuclear-free future” who were travelling from Gay’s the Word bookshop on a coach.
Jonathan says: “I decided that was going to be my re-entry into society. So, I remember girding my loins, leaving my flat, going to the tube, coming out at Russell Square, and I could see the coach outside Gay’s the Word, and I just thought what the fuck am I doing, and was literally turning on my heels to flee and this voice went ‘hello my name’s Nigel, who are you?’ I stopped in my tracks, swung round, and I see this guy who was wearing green wellington boots, crimson and ochre pantaloons, he had this crimson fair isle singlet and a mop of black curly hair, and that was Nigel Young. And I just went oh Jonathan. And we walked off to the coach together and had the most amazing day. I told him about my diagnosis and it didn’t seem to make any difference, I think he didn’t hear. I said to him at the end of the day, why don’t you come over to my flat and have tea? The next day he arrived with a bunch of anemones and two jam doughnuts, and he says, basically ‘You’re living isolated in the East End, I’m living in North London, I know of a squat in Brixton why don’t we move in together’. And I just thought, I’m going to be dead in a couple of months, why not?”
They moved into one place, where they lived for three months together. Then, Jonathan's involvement in a housing cooperative’s development sub-committee, as a way of coping with the virus and staying busy, resulted in the re-development of the house in the middle of the gay squat. That house became Jonathan and Nigel’s flat; since they were fortuitously next on the housing list. He has now been there for over 35 years.
Jonathan describes his time as an activist with LGSM – an experience he shared with Nigel – as the most extraordinary experience. He highlights, in particular, his interesting connection with South Wales that pre-dated it; firstly that his mother was born in Swansea, and secondly that during the ‘three-day week’ period of the miner strikes (1972-73), he was playing in Aladdin at the Grand Theatre, Swansea.
“Being part of LGSM, it was almost like it was supposed to happen, there were just so many connections.”
“From what I gather, from the end of this year, LGSM is going to be put to bed. It’s served its purpose. It’s been amazing to be a part [of it] over a period of forty years and to still have the connection with South Wales.”
Striking with Pride: United at the Coalface is a new documentary about LGSM which Jonathan Blake says: “fills in more of the story… There are people who don’t often speak. I’ve been fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to speak, and I think because of my HIV status, it’s really important that one talks about living with HIV and that you can live well and one can thrive with it… There are some people who don’t often speak and [in this documentary] you hear voices you don’t often get to hear.”
Unless stated otherwise, all images courtesy of Jonathan Blake.
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