Scottish Minorities Group
The Scottish Minorities Group was a gay campaigning group in Scotland, founded in January 1969 by Ian Dunn in Glasgow.
SMG meetings moved to the basement of the Catholic Chaplaincy in Edinburgh in August 1969. A monthly newsletter, SMG News, was started in January 1971. In the same year the group organised the Cobweb disco, which was Scotland's first gay disco, and the SMG Glasgow Women's Group was launched along with its magazine Gayzette.
In 1972, SMG started the Edinburgh Gay Switchboard. TSMG organised the International Gay Rights Congress held in Edinburgh from 18–22 December 1974. Around 400 people attended the event and it led to the setting up of the International Gay Association in 1978. At the end of 1974 premises at Broughton Street, Edinburgh were purchased and the SMG Information Centre opened there in 1975.
In 1977, the Glasgow Gay Centre was opened in Sauchiehall Street. In 1978, SMG News became Gay Scotland and in October SMG changed its name to the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG). In 1980 the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 partially decriminalised gay sex between men over 21. This allowed a commercial scene to develop and Bennets Nightclub opened in Glasgow in 1981. There was subsequently less demand for community facilities. At its peak in 1982, SHRG had 1200 members. However, the Glasgow Gay Centre closed in 1982. In 1992, SHRG changed its name to Outright Scotland.
By 2006, according to the Equality Network website, Outright Scotland was "currently not an active organisation."[1]
References
Partly based on a Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outright_Scotland
