OutRage!

Formation	1990
Type	LGBT
Legal status	ad hoc
Purpose	Activism for LGBT rights
Region served	United Kingdom
Website	http://outrage.org.uk/

OutRage! is a British LGBT rights group. It describes itself as "a broad based group of queers committed to radical, non-violent direct action and civil disobedience" and was formed to advocate that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have the same rights as heterosexual people, to end homophobia and anti-LGBT violence and to affirm the right of queer people to their "sexual freedom, choice and self-determination".

It is a group which has at times been criticised for outing individuals who wanted to keep their sexual orientation private. OutRage! ran the Stop Murder Music campaign to condemn the promotion of Jamaican music that glorifies the murder of gay men, which some argue is a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. Members of the organisation have also been arrested in the course of some of their actions, and although the membership has declined since the early 1990s, OutRage! remains active.

The group was formed on 10 May 1990, called after the murder of gay actor Michael Boothe (which occurred on the previous 30 April). There were four principal founders. Between 40 and 60 people attended the first meeting, set up by Keith Alcorn, Chris Woods and Simon Watney, including many such as Peter Tatchell who had been active in the Gay Liberation Front and other campaigns.

A second meeting, this time in public, was held on 24 May. Alcorn came up with the name and Tatchell wrote the first draft of what became the Statement of Aims. Michael Burgess was elected with another man as joint treasurer as the first officers. The first OutRage! action was on 7 June at Hyde Park Public Toilets to protest against Metropolitan Police entrapment of gay men cruising, and attracted some media attention. OLGA offered the group office space at its base at the London Lesbian and Gay Centre, and regular fundraising was set up with the group selling T-shirts with its logo. One of the defining images of OutRage! actions was taken in September 1990 when the group organised a "kiss-in" at Piccadilly Circus to protest against arrests of gay men for kissing in public. One member, identified as an actor called Richard, climbed up and kissed the statue of Anteros.

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