Making local LGBT+ history, don’t miss Leeds very first OUTing the Past: Festival of LGBT History – conference which sees us become part of a dedicated international network of host cities showcasing hundreds of years of LGBT+ culture and communities.

Programme

09:15-09:30 Performance: Re-creation of 1970s / 80s demonstration by arts project participants

In front of museum

09:30-09:50 Registration and coffee

09:50-10:00 Opening speech by popular TV presenter, reporter and journalist Owain Wyn-Evans

10:00-10:30 Mick Ward: Aids Activism in Leeds in the Eighties

Mick’s presentation is a recollection (from direct involvement) of Aids Activism in Leeds in the 1980’s. It will focus on the work of AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT Up) Leeds, though placed in the wider context of the AIDS crisis and the response by the LGBT+ community and allies. The presentation will include a series of photos of direct action carried out by ACT Up Leeds - mostly in Leeds, but also abroad.

10:40-11:10 Angela Clare: Outing Anne Lister

Angela is collections manager for Calderdale Museums and responsible for Anne’s home, collections and archives at Shibden Hall, and in turn, preserving and sharing Anne’s story for the future. She will discuss Anne’s remarkable life and legacy and how her story and sexual identity has been hidden and revealed in a museum setting, in print, on television and online.

11:20-11:50 Susan Phillips: The challenge of a lesbian becoming a mother in the 1980’s/90s

Susan’s presentation – which includes projected images, is about an informal, voluntary self-insemination service that was founded and run in Leeds, for lesbians who wanted to become mothers. The presentation will outline what the societal circumstances were at the time; how the initiative was organised; what the process was; and some anecdotal stories. Susan is joined by contemporaries from the time and some of the now grown-up children conceived through this initiative.

12:00-12:30 Kate Hutchinson: Blurring the Lines

Rock music has long been a voice for minority groups, this includes the trans and gender variant community. From lyrics in songs from Lou Reed and the Kinks, to Bowie and New York Dolls blurring gender stereotypes in image, through to trans pioneers such as Jayne County from the punk era and Laura Jane Grace today. Trans musician, activist and educator, Kate will run through this history and talk about how it has helped in changing attitudes and bringing about awareness.

12:40-13:20 LUNCH

Performance by the acclaimed Gay Abandon choir

Information / display stands:

- West Yorkshire Queer Stories

- Feminist Archive North

- Leeds Gay Community

- Leeds Central Library – local and family history

Display of original banners loaned by Feminist Archive North

Display of a new piece of artwork in the museum’s prominent window space, entitled ‘LGBTHM - VISIBLE - 36point7’, which aims to create visibility for the 36.7million people living globally with HIV and AIDS.

13:20-13:50 Olivette Cole-Wilson: Founding Stonewall – what happened?

A black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) perspective testimony taken from the original founders of Stonewall in 1989 on the 30th anniversary of its founding. Olivette will tell ‘who we were, why we did it, how we worked together, what we decided to include/exclude – and what the reactions were of the late 80s BAME lesbians and gay movement’ (as it only was, then).

14:00-14:30 Trudy Howson: LGBT Poet Laureate: An LGBT Life: Then & Now

Trudy has based her presentation on her poetry and personal experience as a performer and political activist from the 70’s to now. It’s a celebration of the diversity and development of the UK LGBT+ movement, and its struggle for visibility and respect. She will explore how our community has overcome adversity and succeeded in challenging prejudice and legal oppression.

14:40-15:10 Caroline Paige: War into Peace: - A Trans ‘Twenty in a Hundred’ Perspective

Caroline, who in February 1999 became the first openly transgender officer in the British Armed Forces will reveal military trans history through her own and the lived experiences of two other RAF trans trailblazers who served their country in peace and war whilst championing trans rights. Roberta, a WW2 Spitfire pilot who pioneered ‘changing sex’ in the UK;

and Catherine, who is influencing the current generation as the trans LGBT+ Freedom Network Rep in RAF service today.

15:20-15:30 Close

Register

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