Hidden Earth 2025

Adventures with Gay Outdoor Club Caving Group

30 minute Lecture|Philip Judson

Abstract

The Gay Outdoor Club was founded in 1974 so that gay and lesbian people (that being before the coining even of the broader term, "LGBT") could enjoy outdoor activities, away from the incessant homophobic banter that came up whenever wider groups of people got together at that time. It started as a collection of local groups arranging day walks and occasional weekend events but specialised groups were set up - cycling, swimming, climbing, caving, and more.

The Club as a whole experienced problems with homophobia - some shocking and some simply farcical - but GOC Caving soon found that the caving community was accepting and welcoming. Joining CNCC was straightforward and so was booking spaces in club huts - albeit with some comical moments of kindly misunderstanding.

GOC Caving developed from a group of casual weekend cavers doing short trips into grade 3 and 4 caves into a much more committed one, ticking off the standards such as Otter Hole, Smith's Armoury, and Daren Cilau. A Ghar Parau grant funded an expedition to the Russian Caucasus in collaboration with the University of Moscow Speleological Society to look for new caves. Two more expeditions followed, leading to the finding of what has become the deepest cave in Russia. Later there were expeditions to the Gouffre Berger and to New Zealand.

Gay Outdoor Club, now a registered charity, continues to expand but the Caving Group has not been active for some time. Perhaps its disappearance is the evidence that members of the LGBTQ+ community feel fully at home in "mixed" caving clubs and have no need for an organisation of their own.