LGBT History Month
Report 2007
Executive Summary
The full report can be found at
This includes several reports from local authorities, and organisations that celebrated LGBT History Month and analysed the process, and event.
LGBT history Month 2007 can certainly be called a success:
• we had more traffic in the site
• we had more events on our calendar
• we have become a national resource
• we have more bulletin subscribers
• we have a bigger and more diverse committee
We can definitely claim that LGBT history month is the biggest LGBT national cultural event.
FINANCES
The month is still utterly dependant on hundreds of unpaid hours both by the committee and across the country.
This year The DfES sponsors for the last 2 years gave us no funding, claiming that the grants paid previously were “pump primers”. This was news to us. It was a devastating blow and could have put paid to the month.
After the success of the pre-launch, at the TUC, however, we were fortunate enough to receive £25,000 in anonymous donations, which made us secure in 2007. We also received £2000 from the Metropolitan Police Authority, £2500 from the Crown Prosecution Service and £1500 from Transport for London. Further to that, we received £3100 financial and "in-kind" support from a number of trade unions and the TUC. So in total in 2007 we had £33800.
We are very grateful for these contributions because they have enabled us to:
• redesign, maintain and develop the website
• provide further advice on staging events -
• engage more fully with the media and multimedia to publicise the Month
• engage more fully with LGBT groups nationwide
• maintain mailing list and regular mailings – and produce an expanded bulletin
• organise Pre-launch and launches nationwide during the Month
• liaise with other individuals, groups and organisations with similar and mutually supportive aims –
• write report of LGBT History Month 2007 and distribute to DfES as well as other grant providers and supporters
• research and write material for the website
• promote the Month and the importance of LGBT history at events nationwide
• buy 2 digital cameras so we can record events on the website.
• buy 2 exhibition stands so we can attend conferences and exhibitions with a professional looking display.
• obtain a recording system so we can start interviewing and pod casting.
We are currently seeking charity status and we are seeking ongoing funding so that we can provide full-time salaries and invest in a secure future and an expanding operation. We at present have no clarity as to how we might fund 2008.
The London Criminal Justice Board is hosting the Prelaunch this year and the event will be in the Royal Courts of Justice.
We are hoping that we will be able to utilise such a prestigious event to secure permanent funding; or at least embed the concept in the government and secure some clarity on funding.
In the future we need to
• Develop and explore effective links with educational organisations
• Expand our impact on schools and colleges
• Investigate the possibility of initiating – or helping to initiate – European LGBT History Month
• Develop an LGBT History Month blogand network for event organisers round the country
• Make the website relevant 12 months a year
• As well as continue all the work we have done in the past to enable this event to be the national success it is.
• Secure funding to enable us to employ fulltime workers on the project.
MEDIA
Three things marked this year as different.
First, the right wing mainstream press left us alone.
Second, the mainstream broadcasters produced a lot of supportive programming throughout the month.
Third, the LGBT press gave the Month more publicity and support than ever before.
The Daily Telegraph’s Education guru John Clare told a teacher he should be appalled at LGBT History Month in an article dated May 17th 2006. Thereafter it printed nothing. The Sun and The Daily Mail left us alone too. This suggests that we are becoming an accepted mainstream event.
The BBC and Channel 4 marked LGBT History Month by broadcasting a number of extraordinary programmes. On February 4th and 9th gay journalist and musician Neil Tennant was the guest on Desert Island Discs. Radio 4 also transmitted an edition of The Archive Hour entitled Out on Air on February 10th. This programme revealed the role of radio in promoting homosexual rights – particularly throughout the 1980s and 90sOn February 17th, Radio 3 broadcast It Don’t Mean a Thing, in which Russell Davies explored the role of gays in the development of the jazz movement. In its most exciting and audacious programming, January and February saw the broadcast of The Tchaikovsky Experience on BBC1, BBC2, BBC4 and Radio 3. This included dramas, documentaries and the broadcasting of all his works. Channel 4 led the way in schools and college broadcasts, with a week of youth broadcasts aimed at LGBT issues such as coming out at school, asserting yourself and celebrating your sexuality in the from of an end of school prom. This was called Channel 4’s Gay Week. Finally, the TES promoted the month with an article in its February 2nd edition. This was linked to a critical article concerning the film Notes on a Scandal, which questioned its stereotypical representation of older lesbians and included an interview with Schools OUT/LGBT History Month’s Tony Fenwick.
The LGBT media were fantastic this year. Gaydar Radio supported the month with regular promotions and its own LGBT History Poll, as well as an interview with Sue Sanders at the EmpressState building, where the Metropolitan police held their now annual event.
Fyne Times, Pink News, UK Gay News, The Pink Paper Bent and GT (formerly Gay Times) all gave us generous coverage, both on-line and in hard copy publications. It must be said that photographs of the committee with Sir Ian McKellen at our Schools OUT AGM boosted our publicity value. Fyne Times continues to feature a monthly biog of an LGBT character who made history. ,
EDUCATION
Schools were given more opportunities to engage in the Month this year. GALOP and The Metro Centre worked with Greenwich Metropolitan Police and Greenwich Picturehouse on a project inviting young people educated within Greenwich borough to attend screenings of The Laramie Project, as part of PSHE/Citizenship.
The Laramie Project is a film based on the real murder of a young gay man and the subsequent trial of two individuals from the Laramie community. Adapted from an acclaimed play which has become the most performed production across American high schools, this powerful and moving film portrays the true story of the murder of Matthew Shepherd, a young gay man growing up in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming, USA. His brutal killing brought a wave of media attention on the issue of hate LGBT crimes not just in the States, but worldwide.
Plumstead Manor, Eltham Green, St Pauls Academy and WoolwichPolytechnicSchool for Boys participated, with pupils attending from Year 10 through to 6th Form.
Many schools held their own individual events a detailed account is in the report of one such school in North London.
North Lincolnshire and Tower Hamlets used the month to launch their guidance and web based resources respectively.
In 2007 fifteen universities, organised special events to celebrate the Month - and many probably never made it to the Month’s website.
It is heart-warming to see that some schools and many universities are so involved and so supportive, whether it is in terms of assemblies and special lessons in terms of schools or social events organised by LGBT student groups or academic events and debates that inform us and move LGBT campaigns forward in universities. It is essential that schools and university campuses are safe spaces for all their communities and the Month helps LGBT and questioning students to be visible there.
EVENTS
From a camper than campCinderella to a sober discussion with Peter Tatchell, universities and colleges across the land organised a range of events. It is heart-warming to see the Universities being so involved and so supportive, whether it is in terms of social events organised by LGBT student groups or academic events and debates that inform us and move LGBT campaigns forward. It is essential that University campuses are safe spaces for all their communities and the Month helps LGBT and questioning students to be visible there.
This year we were not pro-active in seeking out events. This was partly because we were unable to fund an events seeker (a time consuming job) and partly because, unlike the previous year, the events came in thick and fast without one. This is yet more proof that we are entering the mainstream as a serious and widely known national annual calendar event. There were 40 more events in 2007 than in 2006 that reached the website.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
We had a very gratifying response from an encouraging number of councils, many of which clearly sought the involvement of their local LGBT groups. This will have had the benefit of making a traditionally "hard to reach" section of the population a bit easier to reach. Some were old friends such as Southwark and Manchester and some new like Camden who put on an event almost every day of the month. Much publicity, leaflets and memorabilia is being produced and we need to see how this can be captured and used to everyone’s benefit. There are pages on the website for people to share ideas actual PDFs of publicity and offer events for LGBT HM events across the country.
LIBRARIES
Libraries participated with a range of displays and events. There were four writers who supported the month. Stella Duffy spent an evening at Willesden Green library in Brent. Neil McKenna spoke about his book The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde at KentishTown library, while crime writer Jenny Roberts spoke at Manchester. Derby library hosted a talk by local author Narvel Annable.
MUSEUMS
The Museum of London held a queer history study day, the British Red Cross hosted an exhibition showcasing the contribution of two extraordinary women during WW1 and LiverpoolNationalMuseum held a maritime exhibition entitled ‘Hello sailor!’
Now, a new community history project will be helping to discover and record a new history of Liverpool over the next 18 months. Working with the Museum of Liverpool Life and Liverpool Libraries, Our Story Liverpool will uncover the history of Liverpool’s lesbians and gay men from 1939 to the present day .
GloucesterMuseum claims over 6,000 visitors for its LGBT memorabilia exhibition. Not all visitors were welcoming, which shows there is more work to be done.
WEBSITE
The website is bigger and better than ever. 1918 websites have a link back to our website. We have over 700 people on our mailing list, with more requesting to be put on it every week, even now.
We have a new web manager who has added a new clicker board marking major events. We hope to update the podcast and provide a blog in order to make the site more relevant during the other 11 months in the year.
We also have a new mission statement:
We are lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. We exist in all times and places. We speak each and every language. We laugh and cry. We talk and remain silent. We are emperors and peasants. We are conservatives and revolutionaries. We are actors, artists, bricklayers, bookies, cab drivers, cooks and clowns. We are employed and unemployed. We raise our children and we bury our dead. When we can, we attend school, college and university. When we can, we go out into the streets. We read the papers and watch the TV. We attend church, synagogue, temple and mosque. We are free and confined. We celebrate and we hide. We are happy and sad. We are supported and alone.
Our lives are both ordinary and extraordinary. This website celebrates all we were, all we are and all we may yet be.
We now have a flickr photo pool where we can view and share photos of LGBT history month events
All this from a voluntary organisation!
We are assured that LGBT History Month is now a fundamental - and increasingly mainstream - event; not just in the sphere of education but throughout the entire public sector. Its central aim - which is to make lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople visible in our present and in our past - remains crucial. Now that we are becoming part of the mainstream, we can also stake our claim to inspire others in the field of LGBT equality. LGBT History Month has had a great impact: on the LGBT community; on LGBT equality; on helping inform Government policy; and on inspiring other stakeholders to take initiatives and realise ideas and dreams.