The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) is a membership organisation in the United Kingdom with a stated aim from 1969 to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales. Active throughout the 1970s and becoming a mass-membership organisation during this time CHE's membership declined in the 1980s. History CHE began in Manchester as the North-Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee in 1964 as a local branch of the Homosexual Law Reform Society. An initial meeting was held on 4 June 1964, but only about eight people attended. A decision was made to re-establish the group on a wider basis, and an "advisory group" formed. This group chose the name "North-Western Homoseuxual Law Reform Committee". The new group was launched at Church House, Deansgate, Manchester, on 7 October 1964. Allan Horsfall was its secretary and most visible member. In 1969 the NWHLRC was renamed the Committee for Homosexual Equality with aims to becoming a national body for England and Wales, meeting at the Swarthmoor Centre in Leeds in 1971 and later in the same year changed its name to the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). London Friend was set up in London in 1972 intended to provide counselling. In 1972, CHE members took part in the first London Pride at Hyde Park, followed by a march to Trafalgar Square, nominally to protest at the age of consent, then age 21. That year, CHE had become the largest lesbian and gay rights organisation in the country, representing a more reformist goal than the liberationist Gay Liberation Front. By 1973 it held the first national gay rights conference in Morecambe. In this period, CHE claimed 5,000 members and some 100 local groups. In 1974, CHE appeared alongside London Friend in a documentary titled Speak for Yourself produced by London Weekend Television, at which time the organisation's offices were in at 22 Great Windmill Street, London and Friend was at 47 Church St, London NW8. The organisations worked closely together through social events. CHE at the time had 4000 members and was involved in campaigns and politics, whereas Friend was a counselling service. It organised a national Homosexual Equality Rally in London. The rally was supported by the women's movement and people from ethnic minorities. Where earlier actions had concentrated on legal protection from criminal persecution, this rally was part of gay and lesbian people starting to establish