Louis Eaks

From LGBT Archive
(Redirected from Louis Eakes)
Jump to: navigation, search

Louis Eaks (born 1945) (died 1991) was a leading member of the Young Liberals, serving as its chairman for 1969–70. He later became a political journalist. With Peter Hain, he set up the Stop The Seventy Tour campaign against the South African cricket tour.

In 1970 he was arrested for importuning on Highbury Fields during a police entrapment exercise. He claimed that he was heterosexual, and had merely been asking someone for a light. The arrest provoked the Gay Liberation Front's first ever demonstration, which took place at Highbury Fields on 27 November 1970.[1]. Eaks was convicted and fined £60 (with £30 costs).

The following year Eaks was again in court. On 19 April 1971 he was convicted at Lambeth Magistrates Court of gross indecency in Hyde Park and fined £100 [2]. His address at the time was given as Pyrland Road, Islington.

Louis Eaks died of an AIDS-related illness in December 1991.[3]

The spelling of his name as "Eaks" is attested for instance in his authorship of a book, From El Salvador to the Libyan Jamahiriya: A Radical Review of American Foreign Policy under the Reagan Administration (1988)[4] but it is often misquoted as "Eakes", for instance in No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles.

References

  1. Lisa Power, No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles, pp 28–31.
  2. Birmingham Daily Post 20 April 1971
  3. Lisa Power, No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles, Appendix 4, and Ancestry co uk website Louis Wayne Eaks b 26 Dec 1945 died 17 December 1991 Kensington and Chelsea, London.
  4. http://www.amazon.com/El-Salvador-Libyan-Jamahiriya-Administration/dp/B000ITU9XG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410273596&sr=1-1