LGBT History Month 2017

We're now almost a week into LGBT History Month and, to my shame, this is my first post.

I plan, however, to remedy that by making a number of posts over the next few weeks to celebrate the 2017 theme, PSHE: Citizenship & Law - with special interest in the Law aspect.

There are a number of anniversaries to be celebrated this year. The most salient of them being the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts between men by the Sexual Offences Act 1967 - so long as they were consenting adults, over 21 and in private, obviously.

Coincidentally, in September, 2017 also sees the 60th anniversary of the publication of the Wolfenden Report, whose recommendations were - after 10 long years - adopted in the Sexual Offences Act.

Both anniversaries are splendidly celebrated by the coming into effect of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, which received Royal Assent on 31 January 2017. The Act includes a posthumous pardon for all gay and bi men who were convicted under pernicious laws in the last century that enabled the police to criminalise people for being who they are. This is an important milestone, which will help draw a line under the damage caused to many thousands of lives.
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/our-work/blog/turing-law-receives-royal-assent

As always, a real fount of information is to be found at
http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/
Find them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/LGBTHistoryMonth and follow them on Twitter: @LGBTHM.

LGBT History for Beginners

Last night (10th January), as a taster for LGBT History Month, I presented LGBT History for Beginners to a (thankfully) appreciative audience, who were so engaged that we had a half hour conversation after the presentation finished. Very enjoyable.

As promised, here are links to the slides and my presentation notes:
The slides -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8ebwbwlyzmsmvu/LGBT%20History%20For%20Beginners%20-%20Vestry%20Hall%2010Jan17.pptx?dl=0
The notes - 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7p7dvyydd927h9k/LGBT%20History%20for%20Beginners%20-%20Notes.docx?dl=0

Please feel free to use this material and to pass it on to anyone who may be interested.

Past2Present 2016

At last! Much later than we had hoped for, due to ailing IT at the Park household, here is the 2016 edition of Past2Present - the LGBT History Project's annual magazine.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/P2P-2016.pdf

PLEASE feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might enjoy it. (NB: it's a 12Mb download.)

Movie Nights

This is a little bit late for tonight's offering, I'm afraid, but there are more to come...

Sutton LGBT Forum, in association with Sutton Central Library, is screening a movie each Thursday evening throughout February to celebrate LGBT History Month.

Each film has been selected for its (admittedly, sometimes quite slender) connection to the 2016 LGBT History Month theme  - Religion, Belief and Philosophy.

Merton LGBT+ Forum is also showing these films on each Friday of February at Mitcham Library.

All are welcome to join us. We may even provide...

LGBT in Justice

On Monday 14th December 2015 at Mitcham Police Station, Chris Park, on behalf of Merton LGBT+ Forum, gave a presentation on the history of UK legislation that particularly impacted on the LGBT+ communities.

The history stretches from 1533 to the present day with lots of depressing things happening to start with but with a great deal of good news to end with.

The presentation slides are available for download here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iioaet40q1uo3w8/LGBT%20in%20Justice%202.41%20-%20Merton%20LGBT%2B%20Forum.pdf?dl=0

Chris's presenter's notes are here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlrsa035arf9nqz/LGBT%20in%20Justice%20-%20Presenters%20notes%20for%2014Dec15.pdf?dl=0
NB: The notes were updated on 18th December 2015 and now include further references and links to background information. 

Both are in PDF format. If you would prefer them in the original PowerPoint and Word formats, please contact Chris via chris@lgbtsutton.co.uk.

Vintage Drag

Thanks to Facebook, I recently found a link to webpage with a large collection of photos of cross-dressed men going back to the 19th century.
http://www.viralyak.com/vintage-photos-drag-queens/

We've mentioned cross-dressing on this blog before:
While the link above concentrates on men who defied contemporary gender norms, some of the following stories are about women who did so too.

We can't say now how any of these individuals identified. It is possible that some of them may have thought of themselves as being in some category akin to the present concept of transgender, but there is no evidence about their inner feelings.

Johannes Richer, or Eleanor, was a cross-dressing prostitute arrested in 1395.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/johannes-or-eleanor.html

In December 2011, I found an image of the Servants' Ball of 1938 in The Metro.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/annual-servants-ball.html

In the early 18th century, there was Mother Clap’s Molly House.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/mother-claps-molly-house.html
See also:
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/mollies-club-1709-1710.html

In the early 19th century, Anne Lister, considered one of the first modern lesbians, regularly dressed in masculine clothes.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/knowing-your-own-heart.html
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/jack-lass.html

James Miranda Barry was a physician and Inspector General of Hospitals in the 18th century. Upon his death in 1865, his charwoman was laying out his body and discovered his body was physically female.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/james-barry-inspector-general.html
http://www.exploreyourarchive.org/explore-your-archive-the-strange-case-of-dr-james-barry.asp

Fanny Park & Stella Clinton (aka Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park) were the subjects of a notorious trial in 1870.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/curious-case-of-lady-stella-and-miss.html
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/fanny-and-stella.html
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/a-plaque-for-fanny-stella.html

Then there are  the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, radical drag nuns.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sisters-of-perpetual-indulgence.html

Billy Lee Tipton, a 20th century jazz musician, lived as a male.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/billy-lee-tipton-1914-89-jazz-musician.html

French diplomat and spy, the Chevalier d'Éon lived in the 19th century. There was a great deal of interest in their gender; at different times, they lived as a male and a female.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/chevalier-deon-patron-saint-of.html

Eugene Falleni would certainly be considered today to be a transgender man; things were different in Australia at the turn of the 20th century.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-story-of-eugene-falleni.html

Colonel Barker (or Valerie Arkell-Smith) was a cross-dresser who posed as a Royal Air Force officer after World War One.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/colonel-barker.html

In the Victorian and Edwardian music hall, there were a number of male impersonators.
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/male-impersonators.html

That should be enough to keep you going...

LGBT Titbits - The Presentation

http://www.lgbtsutton.co.uk/

Last night (5th February), I gave a public presentation at Sutton Central Library (https://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2121), based on the exhibition posters I created for Sutton LGBT Forum.
(For the posters, see http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/lgbt-titbits.html.)

During the presentation, I promised to make the slides and my presentation notes available. Please feel free to make use of them, if you wish. (NB: I have linked to PDF versions of the material, if you would prefer the original PowerPoint/Word files, just contact me at the email address given in the blog's header.)

LGBT Titbits - Presentation slides
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/LGBTHM2015%20LGBT%20Titbits%20slides.pdf

LGBT Titbits - Presenter's notes
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/LGBTHM2015%20LGBT%20Titbits%20notes.pdf

We also marked the recent Royal Pardon for Alan Turing with an extra poster:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/LGBTHM2015%20Alan%20Turing.pdf
The BBC article linked at the foot of the poster itself includes a link to the petition demanding a pardon for the estimated 49,000 gay men convicted under the same legislation as Turing.

Finally...

COMPETITION

Sutton LGBT Forum has a 12 day guest pass for a local Nuffield Health gym (worth over £100) to give to the person who can answer five questions based on the exhibition posters. The questions are here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/LGBTHM2015%20Competition.pdf
You can email your answers to the forum at info@lgbtsutton.co.uk.

See also
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/lgbt-titbits.html

http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/