Main Page

LGBT History Project time capsule

The LGBT History Project is an LGBT online encyclopedia – a wiki web site. Its aim is to record the knowledge and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the UK. It’s a virtual time-capsule, capturing the experiences of our time – the changing law and challenges, the amazing response health epidemics, the newspapers and magazines that come and go, TV programmes, sports, lesbian, gay, bi and trans businesses, arts, music and theatre, and of course events, pubs and clubs. Anything you can think of that has been related to you as an LGBT person. You can even write about yourself!

Finding information There are several ways to find information on this site. Note that anywhere you see a word or phrase in blue, you can click on it and be taken to the item in question. If you see words in red, they are links to an article that hasn't been written yet. browse by date: a good place to start browsing this website is Timeline of UK LGBT History; for links to some more specific timelines see Category:Timelines. browse by category: to get an overview of the range of material that we cover, go to Category:Main categories. browse by area of the country: our map on the United Kingdom page gives an overview of our geographical coverage, and our maps of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland give links to places round the country see our small list of Selected articles take pot luck: use the Random page link at the left. search for a particular item, using the search box at the top right of the page.

Some recent articles A few of the new articles we've added recently: AARGH! was a one-off comic book published to help the fight against Section 28. Stephen Fox (1704–1776), MP and later Earl of Ilchester. was the lover of: John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey ((1696–1743) also an MP and later member of the House of Lords. William Longchamp (died 1197) was Bishop of Ely and virtual ruler of England while Richard I was away on the Crusades. Kevin Marques, previously known as Kevin Sheldrake (born 1961), is an athlete, singer and charity worker. Sir Edmund Backhouse (1873–1944) was an expert on Chinese history and suspected forger. Frank Hird (1873–1937) was a journalist and writer, long-term lover of Lord Ronald Gower, and subject of a portrait (pictured) by Henry Scott Tuke.

Who is writing it?

You are! If you know a bi, gay, trans or lesbian person, have been a member of a gay club, read a gay newspaper, have  a memory of going out with your mates to a gay pub or club, we want to hear about it – wherever you are in the country. If you’ve never done anything gay, because there was nothing in your area, or you were too scared, we want to hear about that too! We also want to hear from those that run gay clubs, businesses, venues, media – when did they start, who started them? Why were they started? Who joined?

Alternatively you can write something personal to you, a ‘vox-pop’. This could be your ‘coming out’ story, or your experience of visiting your first gay bar. These first-person stories are valuable for academics who seek ‘qualitative primary sources’ – i.e. a story that is not necessarily factual, but gives a glimpse of your personal experience and your own viewpoint. If you created one of these, there’s no need to disclose your actual name, and prefix the page title with ‘VP’ and suffix it with the year, e.g. “VP: Joe B’s Coming Out 1985” or “VP: Joe B’s first gay bar 2001”.

If you want to know where to start contributing, click ‘Special pages’ and then ‘Wanted pages’ – this will give a list of page links that have currently not been written. Pages that do not currently have links to, but which we think are important to create, can be found at Articles needed.

We've recently created a new category of "Stub" pages - there are pages with only the most basic information, which we haven't yet had the time or the information to make into a proper article. Any help on these would be very welcome. See Category:Stubs.

For more about contributing to this Wiki, see LGBT History UK:Writing for this Wiki.

External links

You may also be interested in

• LGBT History Month http://www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk
  
• LGBT History Month Scotland http://www.lgbthistory.org.uk
  

LGBT Archives and research

• Gay History and Literature by Rictor Norton http://rictornorton.co.uk/
  
• Hall-Carpenter Archives at the LSE http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/holdings/lesbian_and_gay_archives.aspx
  
• Lesbian & Gay Foundation http://www.lgf.org.uk/
  
• LAGNA – Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive at the Bishopsgate Institute http://www.lagna.org.uk
  
• London Metropolitan Archives http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/
• Manchester Source Guide http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/520/lgbt_source_guide/1
  
• National Archives "Out There" http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/out-there.htm
  
• Outhistory (American): http://outhistory.org/
• Scarlet Collection http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=scarlet
  
• Stradivarius http://www.kemglen.talktalk.net/stradivarius/OurHistory18cent.htm