Darryl Telles
Darryl at Haringey Has Pride event (2018) at Chestnuts Arts & Community Centre
Cover of We're Queer And We Should Be Here: The perils and pleasures of being a gay football fan (2017) by Darryl Telles, © Haringey Archive Service, Bruce Castle Museum
Life in Haringey
Childhood photo of Darryl with his family in Nairobi, Kenya (1967)
Darryl Telles was born on August 18th 1964 in Nairobi, Kenya, and identifies as a gay man. He has lived all over London and now lives in Saint Leonards, East Sussex. His parents got married in 1957 and moved to the UK in May 1968, ending up in Muswell Hill. Darryl lived there for a year when he was four and went to Our Lady of Muswell Hill Catholic Primary School, later moving to East Finchley. However, he continued to be more associated with Muswell Hill - he had friends there, did shopping on the Muswill Hill Broadway, and would go for Saturday shows with his brother at the Odeon Cinema in Muswell Hill. He was also a member of the Jacksons Lane Community Centre. Darryl later got involved in Haringey Vanguard.
​
​
Here Darryl talks about his life in Haringey
Identity
Along with his sexuality, Darryl's religion and race are equally important to him. He was raised as a Catholic and is still a person of faith, which Darryl talks about here.
​
Content warning: mentions of suicide
Here Darryl talks about having to move out of a bedsit in Brixton in the 1980s with his boyfriend and straight friend when the landlady discovered Darryl and his boyfriend were gay.
​
​
Activism and politics
Haringey was very active in LGBT+ campaigning in the 1980s. Labour won control of Haringey Council in 1986 and the council's Lesbian and Gay Unit was launched - the first of its kind in England - to highlight the rights of LGBT+ people and council staff.
In the same year, a book called Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin - which told the story of a girl living with her two dads - became available to schoolchildren in Haringey. Consequently, the Parents' Rights Group (PRG) formed. It was made up of a group of local parents who protested against the use of 'positive images' (words which appeared briefly in the Labour manifesto for the 1986 council elections) to represent LGBT+ people and families. The book played a significant role in the implementation of Section 28, which was introduced in 1988 to prohibit the teaching and promotion of homosexuality as a 'pretended family relationship.'
In response to the PRG, a LGBT+ campaign group formed who adopted the name 'Positive Images' to support council policies on LGBT+ issues.
​
​
Listen to Darryl talk about his involvement in Haringey LGBT+ activism and politics in the 1980s and the importance of intersectionality. Mentioned in the clips are: Black Sections, Linda Bellos, Bernie Grant, Vince Gillespie, Savitri Hensman.
Darryl in 1999 campaigning to raise funds for victims of the Admiral Duncan bombing (one of three far-right nail bombings in 1999) and their families
'Gay lessons', Weekly Herald (1984), © Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives
Football
Darryl is a lifelong football and Spurs fan. He was co-founder of the Proud Lilywhites - Tottenham Hotspur's LGBT+ support group - when they first formed in 2014. He has also been involved in the Gay Footballers Supporters' Network (GFSN), a football supporters' group which formed in 1989 to support LGBT+ players and fans.