Skip to main content
Paris to commemorate Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners founder
Support the Miners at London Pride 2015 [David Jones/Creative Commons]

PARIS is to honour Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) founder member Mark Ashton, who paved the way for gay rights to be adopted by Britain’s trade unions.

Mark Ashton in 1986 (pic: Johnny Orr/Creative Commons)

The council of the French capital’s fourth arrondissement, a sector which includes the gay village Le Marais, is set to commemorate Mr Ashton as “a role model for young people” after Communist Party councillors proposed a street or public place be named after him.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
The banner takes its place on the Edinburgh Pride parade. Pic: Andrew Johnstone
Internationalism / 29 June 2026
29 June 2026

ANGUS REID and ANDREW JOHNSTONE report on an initiative that we must take this summer

Winston Pinder
Features / 23 May 2026
23 May 2026

A lifelong communist and community organiser, Pinder helped shape anti-racist and anti-colonial activism in Britain while dedicating himself to youth work and collective struggle, writes David Horsley

Heather
Durham Miners’ Gala 2025 / 12 July 2025
12 July 2025

The Big Meeting isn’t simply nostalgia, it’s a happy day and a day to show resistance. HEATHER WOOD explains why

Members of the British Battalion, Major Attlee Company, 15th International Brigade, displaying their banner during a lull in the fighting during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939
Features / 10 July 2025
10 July 2025

LYNNE WALSH reports from last weekend’s moving remembrance of the International Brigades in London’s Jubilee Gardens where anti-fascists gathered to hear how even in the darkest of times we can build a vision of a better tomorrow, as the Brigaders fought to do 89 years ago