On 30 November 2015 the BBC aired a documentary entitled, Coming Oot! A Fabulous History of Gay Scotland.
United Kingdom
Homophile Priests, LGBT Rights, and Scottish Churches, 1967-1986
Jeffrey Meek There’s a long history to the intersection of religious faith and sexuality in Scotland. The introduction of same-sex marriage, LGBT clergy, and the Church of Scotland’s liberalising attitude to LGBT+ rights and issues all attest to significant changes within the institution. While the Church of England played a crucial role in the […]
Revisiting Love’s ‘Golden Age’
Alana Harris and Timothy Willem Jones In the first week of July, we were among over two hundred historians who attended the Rethinking Modern British Studies conference at the University of Birmingham. Alongside our own panel on religion and sexuality, a number of the plenary speakers and the concurrent sessions […]
Why I Oppose a General Pardon for Historical Convictions for Homosexual Offences
Why a general pardon is good politics but bad history.
Queers, Homosexuals, and Activists in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain?
Charles Upchurch What does a historian of sexuality do when confronted with something that looks compellingly modern, but decades before it was supposed to exist? Specifically, I mean evidence of identity and political activism built around a positive interpretation of same-sex desire in the 1820s. The evidence, although fragmentary and […]
Rainbow Plaques: Mapping York’s LGBT History
Kit Heyam There are over 70 plaques in York, marking historically significant places from a Roman fortress (Bootham) to a minuscule street (Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate). While the original “blue plaque” scheme was started by English Heritage, any group may erect a plaque, marking spaces linked to people or events they consider worthy […]
Sexuality, Family Planning, and the British Left: An Interview with Stephen Brooke
Interview by David Minto A sweeping account of sexuality and socialism in twentieth century Britain, Stephen Brooke’s Sexual Politics has the feel of a traditional political history even as it foregrounds a subject still too often ignored in the analysis of political modernity. Demonstrating how leftist organizing shaped national battles over abortion, […]
