"So as a teen watching a 30 min comedy ITV prog on a b/w set what are my ****ing options ?"
A) Look at homosexuality like some sort of Carry On Film and pretend it'll all end up alright, bury your head in the sand and go about life as normal, wilfully ignorant of what's going on.
B) Realising that gay people were getting a rough deal and that efforts should be made to curtail that abuse. Then make an effort, regardless of who or where you are because it's the right thing to do.
C) Join in with the 'jokes' and other **** because if you didn't, people would consider you 'queer' and you'd lose your social standing.
Those were the options. Which one did you choose?
My concerns about the gay community in the 70s in Hull were avoiding them
Public toilets were seedy/sleazy dangerous places for a teen back then. I recall various West Hull ones getting shut down by the police due to 'activities' therein. Anlaby Rd near the flats, top of Walton Street, Calvert Lane etc...all closed .
The bogs in Hammonds / Paragon station etc were also to be avoided for the same reason.
The mass killer Bruce Lee's trial revealed this twilight world of young boys being paid by homosexual men for 'favours'.
Sorry if this is too specific, but that was how I remember 'real world' homosexuality back then.
They were at best a pest, at worst a sinister and seedy blight on the city's bogs.
I lived through these times, you didn't. I was there. you weren't. Your well-intentioned virtue signalling comes across as absurdly naive and ill-informed as to how 'real life' was back then. .
