LGBTQ+ History Month

10 February

February is #LGBTQHistoryMonth 🏳️‍🌈

We've had a plethora of activities planned by our English literature teacher Emily MacKellar to support LGBTQ+ history month. So far, activities have included daily slideshows featuring an LGBT+ historical figure, documentary screenings, and an LGBTQ+ display produced by our students see above).

Our theme this LGBT+ History Month is ‘Beyond Heroes’, which focuses on the history of sexuality, desire, gender and the body outside of the exceptional individuals that we might usually praise as LGBT+ ‘heroes’ or ‘icons’.

This focus emphasizes a few things: that many important LGBT+ figures in history were not heroic but are still worth remembering; that the lives of unremembered, ordinary LGBT+ and their communities matter; that the LGBT+ ‘community’ is not homogenous, and that the terms and ideas we take for granted now such as gay or straight have frequently been contested and will continue to be contested.

Focusing on LGBT+ history beyond its heroes means embracing the fact that LGBT+ history is not an inevitable arc of progress but is complicated and messy.

#GoFurther