Eastbourne campaigner recognised for her work battling for equality

Betty Gallacher has been campaigning for more than 40 years as a trade union representation and a gay woman fighting for equality.

The booklet – called Betty Gallacher: Standing up for all workers – launches later this month and it tells Betty’s life story.

Unite is interviewing activists from its past and Betty is only the ninth person to receive such an accolade.

Betty said, “I am absolutely thrilled to have been recognised nationally in this way. It is a great honour and I feel very humbled. But the battles go on and there is so much to campaign for.

“I lived in Scotland until I was 17. I knew I was different from the age of about 13. In those days you thought you were the only one. Life was so very lonely.

“I went into the army at the age of 17 because I knew that there would be people there who were like me. Yet within eight months I had been thrown out because of what was referred to as ‘lesbian tendencies’.