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The UK LGBT History Project records the history 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, and a chronicle of the achievements and challenges of previous centuries – the changing law, the amazing response to health epidemics, the newspapers and magazines that come and go, TV programmes, sports, lesbian, gay, bi and trans businesses,arts, music and theatre, events, pubs and clubs, and of course the amazing diversity of people who have had a part in our history. The project was launched in June 2011. It was re-launched as The UK LGBT Archive in December 2015, but reverted to it's original name a decade later. In 2015 this project became a Key Partner of LGBT History Month. and CHE voted to support it. In February 2016 Ross Burgess read a paper about this site at the LGBT History Month academic conference in Manchester. By early 2021, articles on this Wiki had been viewed twenty million times. They've now exceeded 45 million.

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 – and for LGBT History Month 2016 we created a new Timeline of UK LGBT Religion, Belief and Philosophy. 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. Who is writing it? You could be – and we'd love you to join us. The LGBT History Project is written and maintained by volunteers from all walks of life, all ages, and all parts of the UK. You don't need to be an academic, a professional writer, or an expert. You just need to care about LGBT history – and ideally know something about a part of it that isn't well covered yet. What can you write about? Almost anything connected to LGBT life in the UK: pubs, clubs, businesses, venues, newspapers, organisations, campaigns, legal battles, sport, art, music, local history. If you ran a gay club, organised an event, worked for an LGBT charity, or simply remember a time and a place that shaped your life – that knowledge belongs here. We also welcome first-person Vox Pop accounts: your coming-out story, your memory of the first gay bar you visited, what it was like growing up LGBT somewhere that had nothing going on at all. These personal accounts are genuinely valuable – academics call them "qualitative primary sources," but what that really means is: your experience matters, and it should be recorded before it's lost. Getting started To contribute, you'll need to request a free account – this takes just a moment to set up, but it may take us a day or two to approve it, as each one is reviewed to make sure we don't let spam advertisers in. We ask for your real name (kept private unless you choose otherwise), and we ask all contributors to follow our Editorial Policy, Style Guide and Image Rights Policy. If you're new to wiki editing, don't worry – the basics are easy to pick up, and we're here to help. Your first articles may be reviewed by an experienced contributor before they go live, not to put obstacles in your way, but to give you a helping hand and make sure everything looks its best. Once you've found your feet, you'll be able to publish freely. Wherever possible, please note your sources so that others can follow them up – a link, a book title, a newspaper reference. For personal memories, simply noting "personal recollection" is fine. Editors Club We run a monthly Editors Club – an informal one-hour online meeting on the third Wednesday of each month (starting September 2026), 19:00–20:00 (UK time), via Google Meet. It's a friendly space to ask questions, share ideas for new articles, and meet other contributors. Prospective editors are welcome before their account is approved. → Add to Google Calendar Where to start The Articles needed page lists topics we know should exist but don't yet have their own articles. The Stubs category has short articles waiting to be expanded. If you know anything about the Districts with no LGBT history still shown on our map, any help there would be especially welcome. For more about contributing, see LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki.

Some recent articles Bang Disco (photo courtesy Bob Workman Archive, Bishopsgate Institute) A few of the articles we've added recently: Robert Wintemute Professor of Human Rights and author of Transgender Rights vs. Women's Rights: From Conflicts to Co-Existence. William Mahoney was a gay man who kept diaries that are now in the Bishopsgate Institute. With the often highly polarised debate about transgender, Detransition has become a newish feature of LGBT affairs. William Longchamp (died 1197) was Bishop of Ely and virtual ruler of England while Richard I was away on the Crusades. Elvira Chaudoir (1911–1996) was a Peruvian socialite and a double-agent for the British Secret Intelligence Service during World War II. Transex Liberation Group was featured in a groundbreaking episode of the BBC's "Open Door" series on 4 June 1973. Lesbian Line, created in 1977, was a volunteer-run telephone helpline for those needing to talk about their lesbian identity. For a full list of recent additions, see New Pages. Did you know? Edward White Benson Edward White Benson (pictured), Archbishop of Canterbury, is thought to have been a repressed homosexual; his wife, his brother-in-law, and five of his children were almost certainly gay or lesbian. Chelsea Manning, American soldier serving 35 years in gaol for leaking military secrets, went to school in Haverfordwest. The poet Lord Byron swam from Europe to Asia in 1810, which is said to have started the sport of open water swimming. The Ladies of Llangollen eloped from their families in 1780 and lived together for the rest of their lives. Sex between men was illegal in the Isle of Man until 1992. The sixth-century King Maelgwn of Gwynedd in North Wales was described as "addicted very much to the detestable vice of sodomy". In 1981 the London Pride march was moved to Huddersfield. Princess Seraphina (c. 1700–unknown) was referred to as "her royal highness" by witnesses at the Old Bailey in 1732 – one of the earliest documented accounts of a gender-nonconforming identity in British history. Roberta Cowell (1918–2011) was a Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war before becoming the first known British person to undergo gender reassignment surgery, in 1951 – two years before the more widely reported case of Christine Jorgensen in Denmark. Alan Turing, who helped break the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between prison and chemical castration. He now appears on the £50 note. Chris Smith became the first MP to openly come out as gay when he did so in 1984, while serving as Member for Islington South and Finsbury. Michael Dillon won a rowing blue at Oxford as a woman, then after transitioning won another at Trinity College Dublin on the men's team. When his history became public in 1958 he fled to India and was ordained as a Buddhist monk. Oscar Wilde was prompted to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel after receiving a card at his club reading "posing somdomite" – the Marquess's own misspelling. The case collapsed and led directly to Wilde's arrest and conviction in 1895. Follow us We post stories from the archive every fortnight. Follow us on: @LGBThistoryUK on X @lgbthistoryuk on Instagram UK LGBT History Project on Facebook

Some other resources

Some sources of information about LGBT history

• Gay History and Literature by Rictor Norton
• A Brief Timeline of LGBT History – Historic Environment Scotland
• Timeline of OurStory – OurStory Scotland
• Queer Scotland
• Hall-Carpenter Archives – HCA – at the LSE
• Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive – LAGNA – at the Bishopsgate Institute
• Manchester LGBT Source Guide
• Gay and Lesbian history at the National Archives
• Outhistory (American)
• Scarlet Collection
• QueerBio.com (see QueerBio.com)

Copyright issues and reuse

All text in this wiki is freely reusable with certain provisos – see LGBT Archive:Copyrights. Some of the images may be subject to copyright restrictions. See LGBT Archive:Illustrations. Please email us if you consider we have infringed your copyright.