About Us | Switchboard

Switchboard is the UK’s LGBTQIA+ support line. Right from when we plugged in the first phones in 1974, we made each other feel heard. We found hope. We
found joy. To this day, every phone call, instant message, or email is answered by a volunteer from the LGBTQIA+ community. Whatever is thrown at us, we’ve never stopped showing up for each other. We’ve supported millions. We’re not stopping now.

Switchboard's History

Switchboard (then, London Gay Switchboard) was founded on March 4th 1974. The information and support helpline operated for 5 hours every evening above a bookshop in London near Kings Cross station. Due to rapidly increasing demand, it very quickly became 24-hours.

The service was established in response to a call to organise a ‘helpline’ by the Gay Liberation Front and Gay News, who were receiving an ever-increasing number of calls to their offices. Initially helping individuals to navigate the LGBTQIA+ scene that began to emerge after the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality, it has provided for members of the community through police raids, the HIV/AIDS crisis, Section 28 and more.

We estimate that Switchboard has provided support and information to more than 4 million people since our service began in 1974. Today, our volunteers have around 15,000 every year.

Throughout our history, we have been at the forefront of supporting the community in facing the issues of the day. Through all the crises, celebrations and changing attitudes, Switchboard has been a clear and unmistakable voice.

1970s

We helped support people coming out after the 1967 partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality and provided much-needed signposting to the newly developing “gay scene”.

1980s

Switchboard was the leading source of information on the then-new and unknown disease of HIV/AIDS. As the effect on our community became apparent, we collated and maintained a detailed manual of the latest and most up-to-date information available. We not only shared this with the many frightened callers to our helpline but also with the general public, as our volunteers staffed the BBC helplines to take calls after programmes about HIV and AIDS. Organising a public meeting in 1983, our volunteers went on to set up some of up the UK's leading HIV charities, such as Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and National AIDS Manual (NAM).

1990s

Our support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community was never more evident than throughout the aftermath of the bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho in 1999, when volunteers not only answered hundreds of calls from concerned friends and relatives but also helped many people deal with the after-effects of the attack in the following months. Additionally, Switchboard supported many people coming of age or working with young people under Section 28, the "prohibition of the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities".

2000s

The LGBTQIA+ community achieved huge changes in legal equality (the Age of Consent laws were made consistent regardless of sexuality, the repeal of Section 28, The Adoption and Children Act, Employment Equality Regulations, The Gender Recognition Act, and The Civil Partnership Act). Additionally, with the progress of technology, LGBTQIA+ information became much more accessible. While significant progress was being made, LGBTQIA+ people continued to struggle with many of the same challenges as decades before (coming out, relationships, sex, discrimination, etc).

2010s - Present

We have seen an ever-rising tide of contacts from trans and non-binary service users in the last decade from all across the UK expressing anxiety around representation in the media, the public debates around their identities, access to healthcare, and personal safety.

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