LGBT+ History Month

The Forum for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality in Post-School Education and a number of trade unions, in association with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) History Month, have produced a wallchart, Voices and Visibility: Uncovering Hidden Histories to help raise awareness of sexual orientation and gender identity equality and diversity.

It highlights important legal milestones whilst identifying significant contributions made by individuals and groups. 

Members of the University community can learn more about some of these individuals on Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a library collection of biographies for individuals who have shaped British history and culture.

Below are links to some biographical entries of note:

• Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858 - 1944) - composer and member of the suffrage movement. She composed 'The March of Women'.
• Radclyffe Hall (1880 - 1943)  - poet and author famous for writing the novel 'The Well of Loneliness', a lesbian novel published in 1928. 
• Alan Turing (1912 - 1954) - mathematician and computer scientist, convicted under Victorian laws as a homosexual and forced to endure a chemical castration. 
• Lionel Blue (1930 - 2016) - first rabbi to publicly 'affirm his homosexual orientation.   

News archives such as Nexis and Access World News are also great sources for researching these important individuals and/or historical events. 

[Image credit: Wallchart 'Voices and Visibility: Uncovering hidden histories' by The Forum for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality in Post-School Education]