Amiable Warriors: the history of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
By
Peter Scott-Presland
on
13 Feb 2015
Peter Scott-Presland is a journalist, playwright and cabaret singer-songwriter who has been active in the LGBT movement for over 40 years. He has worked for Gay News, Gay Times, Capital Gay, and Axiom.
Amiable Warriors is his first book, the history of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). Founded in 1964 as the North West local committee of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, CHE mutated over the next few years into the largest LGBT organisation this country has ever known.
Peter will be launching the book over the festival weekend!
Lights, Camera, Activism!
By
Festival Team
on
12 Feb 2015
American LGBT history has a wealth of cinematic output: from the classic Paris Is Burning (1991) to Milk (2008) and Dallas Buyer's Club (2013). On our side of the Atlantic, what film representations are there of LGBT history?
Last year's release of Pride we hope ushers in a watershed of films about LGBT activism and history. We're delighted to show Pride alongside two other audio-visual presentations about LGBT activism in London and Cork.
LGBT Collections at People’s History Museum
By
Catherine O'Donnell
on
6 Feb 2015
Catherine O'Donnell from People's History Museum talks about their extensive LGBT collection.
Find out more about how you can donate to the archive or support us financially, and about the materials on display at the Museum.
From the Castro to Section 28: Harvey Milk, Schools OUT UK, and forty years of Educating Out Prejudice
By
Festival Team
on
5 Feb 2015
How can we all make the world more equal for LGBT people? “Hope will never be silent”, said iconic American politician Harvey Milk, who was assassinated alongside colleague George Moscone in 1978. When faced with tragedy, or oppression everywhere, it's easy to feel powerless and insignificant – both natural responses to seemingly insurmountable problems.
Stuart Milk will be appearing at the First National Festival of LGBT History, to talk about the Milk Foundation's legacy changing rights for people around the world.
A Very Victorian Pub Quiz
By
Festival Team
on
2 Feb 2015
Do you know what a 'pose plastique' is? It's got nothing to do with rubber…
The First National Festival of LGBT History invites you to a pub quiz like no other: a historical sex quiz. LGBT Historian, Jeff Evans, will be delving into the steamy history of sex to find questions that both challenge and offend.
Russell T Davies announced as Patron of ‘A Very Victorian Scandal’
By
Festival Team
on
23 Jan 2015
Man of the moment, Russell T Davies, writer of Cucumber, Queer as Folk and Doctor Who has been announced as a patron of A Very Victorian Scandal.
A Very Victorian Scandal (#AVVS) is a groundbreaking, new theatre project, which will be performed at three sites over St Valentines Weekend 2015 in Manchester.
Documenting trans history
By
Christine Burns
on
19 Jan 2015
Veteran campaigner and equalities specialist Christine Burns MBE talks about overcoming the challenges to document trans history.
The First National Festival of LGBT History is now just around the corner!
By
Festival Team
on
15 Jan 2015
Our schedule is nearly completed, venues are booked, and volunteers primed to present three centuries of history for adults and children of all ages.
Trailblazing campaigners speaking at the event include Christine Burns MBE (Press For Change), Peter Tatchell (Gay Liberation Front), Mike Jackson (featured in the year's smash hit “Pride”), Stuart Milk (chair of the Harvey Milk foundation) and veteran ex-politician Linda Bellos OBE.
London Rebel Dykes of the 1980s
By
Rose Bush
on
2 Dec 2014
Rose Bush talks about documenting London's rebel dyke underground of the 1980s.
“I lived in London in the 1980s in a lesbian feminist community rarely mentioned in feminist history books. We were not second wave feminists, who were seemingly mainly interested in meetings and theories and political lesbianism, with its anti-sex rhetoric; neither were we the Riot Grrrl movement that was yet to be born.”
“We were instead something new and wild and raucous, and focussed on direct action. Our links were as much with anarchism and punk as they were with feminist theorists.”
‘Queer Noise’ — the history of LGBT music and club culture in Manchester
By
Abigail Ward
on
20 Nov 2014
Abigail, founder of "Queer Noise", talks about the birth of punk in 1976; the house music explosion of the early 90s; and the alt-gay scene which developed a decade later as a response to the homogeneity of the music in Manchester’s gay village.
Abigail will be presenting her research at the festival on Saturday. She also wants your contributions! Read on to find out more about Manchester's queer music heritage, and how you can contribute to the growing archive.
