On 9 May 1969, the group was officially launched at an open meeting in the Protestant Chaplaincy Centre of Glasgow University that was attended by about 25 men and women.
SMG meetings moved to the basement of the Catholic Chaplaincy in Edinburgh with the support of its chaplain Father Anthony Ross in August 1969.
It concluded with a disco which ended with John and Yoko Lennon's "Happy Christmas War Is over", by this time there was a positive feeling that the fight for gay equality was almost over too.
In the late 1970s a gay youth group met weekly in the basement of the University Catholic Chaplaincy although this was short-lived in the legally ambiguous climate that then prevailed in Scotland.
In 1980, Robin Cook's amendment to the 1980 Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill partially decriminalised gay sex between men over 21.
In 1988 the SHRG organised its first Lark in the Park in Edinburgh’s Princes Street gardens, the event was the precursor to Pride Scotia, which began in 1995.