Legendary journalist and lesbian rights activist Jackie Forster is to be honoured with a rainbow plaque at her former home on Warwick Avenue in London.
Beginning in 2018, the Rainbow Plaques programme commemorates significant people, locations, and historical episodes in LGBTQ+ history with markers around the country.
Past honourees have included 19th century diarist Anne Lister, computer scientist Alan Turing, the site of the Black Lesbian & Gay Centre, the film My Beautiful Laundrette, and the inaugural meeting place of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) group.
One of the rare out-and-proud lesbian broadcasters of the 1970s, Forster dedicated her life to lesbian visibility. In the same year as the Stonewall riots, she came out and joined the CHE, becoming both an activist and a journalistic voice for the queer community.
She wrote for the UK’s first lesbian-specific magazine, Arena Three, and would go on to co-found one of her very own, the lesbian publication and social group Sappho (1972-1981). Later in her career, she became a member of the Greater London Council’s Women’s Committee, a curator for the Lesbian Archive, and she set up Daytime Dykes.
In addition to journalism, Forster, who passed away in 1998 aged 71, was both a tireless activist and an actress. Forster’s rainbow plaque, which was nominated by the public and selected by the Rainbow Plaque panel, will be located at her former home on Warwick Avenue, according to Diva magazine.
Forster’s partner, Anne Lacey, celebrated the city’s recognition of Forster’s contribution to queer history. “This is a fitting tribute to a wonderful woman and a great character in the history of LGBTQ+ rights,” Lacey said.
“Jackie spent the last half of her life working unceasingly for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility. From the day she ‘came out’ at Speakers’ Corner in 1969, she fought for the celebration of the word ‘lesbian.’”
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