Abstract

The British National Party (BNP) may have descended into electoral oblivion, but it has not vanished from the history of post-war British politics. Over the past few decades, historians have been keen to study the BNP ’s attitudes to migrants and people of colour, the place of women within the party, as well as maintaining a more traditional focus on its electoral history. This talk summarises the major themes of my previous project, the first study dedicated to post-war British fascism’s opposition to homosexuality, and seeks to centre anti-gay attitudes in the history of the BNP . Looking at the party under its first leader, John Tyndall, this talk will argue that an opposition to homosexuality – and to gay men in particular – was a central tenant of the party from its inception, and begin to look at how this prejudice manifested itself in party discourse.