Documentary: Hating Peter Tatchell
[Peter Tatchell, gay activist:] A social movement outside of parliament is often the real vehicle and mode of change. Grassroots movements have been the originators of social change which parliamentarians have later put into practice. [...]
[Tatchell:] This charge of counterproductive tactics has always been used, you know, against every rising social movement. It was used against the Suffragettes in Britain. It was used against the black civil rights movement in the United States. Most historians accept that the catharsis of those direct-action protests was the necessary spark to generate public awareness about the scale of discrimination, and to build momentum for change.
source: Quotes from the documentary 'Hating Peter Tatchell'; (Netflix gives 2020 as date of the documentary, IMDb gives 2021); 2021