Mark Ashton

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Wikidata image Mark Christian Ashton ((1960-05-19)19 May 1960 – (1987-02-11)11 February 1987) was a British gay rights activist and co-founder of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) support group. He was a member of the Communist Party of Great BritainTemplate:Sfn and general secretary of the Young Communist League.Template:Sfn

Biography

Ashton was born in Oldham, and moved to Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, where he grew up.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He studied at the former Northern Ireland Hotel and Catering College in Portrush, before moving to London in 1978. Richard Coles wrote about this period: "Mark also worked for a while as a barman at the Conservative Club in King’s Cross, or, rather, as a barmaid, in drag, with a blonde beehive wig. I was never sure if the patrons worked out that he was really a man".Template:Sfn

In 1982, Ashton spent three months in Bangladesh visiting his parents, where his father was working for the textile machinery industry. The experience of his sojourn had a profound effect on him.Template:Sfn Upon his return, he volunteered with the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, supported the Campaign for Nuclear DisarmamentTemplate:Sfn and joined the Young Communist League (YCL).Template:Sfn In 1983 he featured in the Lesbian and Gay Youth Video Project film Framed Youth: The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts, an early documentary that won the Grierson Award 1984 for Best Documentary.

He formed, with his friend Mike Jackson, the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM)Template:Sfn support group after the two men collected donations for the miners on strike at the 1984 Lesbian and Gay Pride march in London.Template:Sfn The group was formed in Ashton's flat in Claydon House on the Heygate Estate, Elephant and Castle.

After LGSM, he became involved in the Red Wedge collectiveTemplate:Sfn and became the General Secretary of the Young Communist League from 1985 to 1986.Template:Sfn

Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, Ashton was admitted to Guy's Hospital on 30 January 1987 and died 12 days later of Pneumocystis pneumonia.Template:Sfn His death prompted a significant response from the gay community, particularly in publicising and attending his funeral at Lambeth Cemetery.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Personal life

A friend of Ashton's, Chris Birch, described him in 2014 as "a lapsed Catholic who still went to mass very occasionally".Template:Sfn

Legacy

Blue plaque which reads 'Mark Ashton 1960-1987 Political and Community Activist LGSM met at Gay's The Word bookshop on this site 1984/5'

Blue plaque commemorating Mark Ashton

In his memory, the Mark Ashton Trust was created to raise money for individuals living with HIV, and since 2007Template:Dated maintenance category (articles) it had raised £20,000.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Since 2008, the Terrence Higgins Trust has included the Mark Ashton Red Ribbon Fund, which had collected more than £38,000 since 2017Template:Dated maintenance category (articles). The Trust also memorialised Ashton in May 2014 on a plaque at the entrance its London headquarters.Template:Sfn Ashton is remembered on a panel on the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.Template:Sfn In 2017, on what would have been Ashton's 57th birthday, a blue plaque was unveiled in his honour above the Gay's The Word bookshop in Marchmont Street, London, the site where LGSM met and held meetings during the miners' strike.

The ballad "For a Friend" in the album Red from synth-pop duo The Communards was written in his memory.Template:Sfn Mark Hooper of The Rough Guide to Rock wrote that the cut may have been Jimmy Somerville's "most impassioned moment".Template:Sfn Ashton was a friend of both Somerville and Richard Coles. "For a Friend" reached number 28 on the British charts.Template:Sfn

The Constantine Giannaris film Jean Genet Is Dead (1989) was dedicated to his memory.Template:Sfn

The LGSM's activities were dramatised in Pride, a film released in September 2014 featuring Ben Schnetzer as Ashton. Ashton's role in the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group was recalled in a series of interviews with some of its other members prior to the film's release.Template:Sfn However, Ashton's membership in the Young Communist League was not explicitly mentioned in the film, possibly to avoid alienating American audiences.Template:Sfn Fellow communist activist and a close friend of Mark Ashton, Lorraine Douglas, accused the film of having "glossed over Mark's politics and said nothing about the fact he subsequently became General Secretary of the YCL." Schnetzer was nominated for two British Independent Film Awards for his performance. Following the film's release until 21 September, the Mark Ashton Trust received £10,000 in donations.Template:Sfn

On 25 September 2018, the Council of Paris awarded the garden adjoining the the new name of (Hôtel-Lamoignon - Mark Ashton Garden), in his memory.

On 2 June 2021, the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council approved the erection of a memorial blue plaque in his hometown of Portrush.

On 28 August 2022, a tree was planted in Ashton's memory at St. Columb's Park, Derry, as part of the 2022 Foyle Pride events. The planting ceremony was attended by his former LGSM colleague Mike Jackson and by civil rights activist Bernadette McAliskey.

On 5 August 2023, Mark Ashton's hometown, Portrush, held its inaugural Pride rally in honour of him.

See also

• Claudia Jones