Here in the South West we are busy gearing up for our part in the National LGBT History Festival. We will have a fabulous weekend of events on February 20th and 21st, hosted by our good friends at M Shed.
Stuart Milk from the Harvey Milk Foundation will be with us all week and has a packed diary of school visits, public events and media appearances.
Our guest activist speaker for the Civic Launch on Friday 19th will be Phyll Opoku-Gyimah of UK Black Pride who turned down an MBE in this year’s New Year’s Honours List. She told Diva magazine, “I don’t believe in empire. I don’t believe in, and actively resist, colonialism and its toxic and enduring legacy in the Commonwealth, where – among many other injustices – LGBTQI people are still being persecuted, tortured and even killed because of sodomy laws, including in Ghana, where I am from, that were put in place by British imperialists.”
Phyll will be staying with us to talk about the creation of UK Black Pride. We also have a wide range of talks on other subjects including: Radclyffe Hall; LGBT Rights in the Workplace; Gay Buildings; Trans People of Colour; Out and Proud in Trade Unions; and The Impact of Religion on Sexuality and Gender in Black British Community.
On Sunday 21st we’ll be having a local history day. We have talks on subjects including Mary Renault and her book, The Charioteer; the 20-year history of Freedom Youth; Trans Pioneer Michael Dillon; the Tara Hudson campaign; and LGBT Community Radio. You can also catch up on the project we are doing with Bristol University, and funded by Arts & Humanities Research Council, to create an online map of Bristol’s LGBT History. The day will be capped by a theatrical performance created by local performance artist, Tom Marshman, in collaboration with Professor Steve Poole of the University of the West of England.
Update: Sadly Fox Fisher is no longer able to attend. We are actively looking for a similarly high profile trans speaker.
To keep up with all of the news about the Bristol hub, check out the OutStories Bristol website and follow us on Twitter.
