LGBT+ History Month
This LGBT+ History Month, why not use this specially collated list of resources to learn about LGBT+ History? Our wonderful staff and students have suggested some of their favourite resources.
Dr Alessandro De Arcangelis
- The Digital Transgender Archive
- Queer as Fact - a podcast run by four Melbourne-based queer people with a background in history and a passion for sharing queer stories.
- The Road Here - a podcast on British queer history.
Digital Collection of the San Francisco LGBT Historical Society.
Reading List
- Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (2014)
- Christopher Bram, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers who Changed America (2012)
- Paul Flynn, Good as You (2018)
- Samra Habib, We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir (2019)
- Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives (2020)
- John Dececco (ed.), Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context (2002)
- Patrick Moore, Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality (2004)
- Alan Downs, The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World (2012)
- Matthew Todd, Straight Jacket: Overcoming Society’s Legacy of Gay Shame (2017)
- C. Riley Snorton, Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (2017)
As recommended by…
Gursi Dhillon, 2021 Student Facilitator of the UCL History LGBTQ+ Student Network
“Throughout recorded history and since time immemorial, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. Terms such as transgender, gay, or bisexual are Western constructs that often assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as three sexualities (gay/straight/bisexual), and only two genders (man/woman)… Take a tour with this world map and learn how many cultures see gender diversity.”
As recommended by…
Resources from the Royal Historical Society (RHS)
- 2020 RHS LGBT+ Report
- LGBT+ Histories and Historians resources - a collection of recommended reading, archives, support and more.
As recommended by…
English Heritage Project Website
- Pride of Place: England’s LGBTQ Heritage - “Queer heritage is everywhere. Pride of Place uncovers and celebrates places of LGBTQ heritage across England, ranging from the frontiers of Roman Britain to the gay pubs and clubs that remain important in our lives today.”
As recommended by…
My 25-year fight for trans equality: Stephen Whittle’s talk at the LSE - Stephen Whittle is a trans man, activist and Professor of Equalities Law at Manchester Metropolitan University. In a lecture given at the LSE, he discusses Press for Change – which was founded in 1992 and campaigned using social education, legal case work, and parliamentary lobbying to successfully change the UK into what is now one of the most transgender-friendly countries in the world.
Various Archival Resources
- The British Library holds the oral history part of the Hall Carpenter lesbian and gay archive, as well as many other LGBTQ+ resources and regularly blogs about its collections.
- The archival material from the Hall Carpenter collection is held by the Women’s Library at LSE - access here.
- The Bishopsgate Institute has a large collection of LGBTQ resources which includes the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archives - access here.
- The London Metropolitan Archives have a research guide helping researchers to identify LGBTQ+ records in their collections, which include the rukus! Black LGBT cultural archive - access here.
- West Yorkshire Queer Stories is a local history project which has posted excerpts from LGBTQ+ oral history interviews online - access here.
- From a Whisper to a Roar is an exciting new lesbian oral history project - access here.
As recommended by…
- Queering the Map is a community generated counter-mapping platform for digitally archiving LGBTQ2IA+ experience in relation to physical space.
- The Oral History Society Website - LGBTQ Special Interest Group.
- The Log Books Podcast - gives an incredible glimpse into LGBTQ+ life from decades ago; each episode centres around log book entries made by the volunteers who staffed the phones from the charity Switchboard, a helpline opened in 1974 for anyone who wanted to talk about gender identity and sexuality. Each episode takes a different theme, using Switchboard’s log book entries as a springboard into contributors’ memories and discussions about the same issue in 2019 to 2021.
- The NYC Trans Oral History Project.
As recommended by…
Dr Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite
Watch It’s a Sin - Russell T. Davies’ incredibly moving drama about the AIDS epidemic.