Why LGBTQIA+ history month?

16 Feb 22

As part of LGBTQ+ history month, colleagues across the Trust would like to share their stories and experiences with you.

Meet Stuart Charlesworth, Charge Nurse, UNISON Equalities officer, LGBT+ officer & Steward, Outlook staff network vice chair, and here is his contribution…

“Why LGBTQIA+ history month? You may be forgiven for asking. Here in the UK, LGBTQIA+ communities are so visible, there have been same sex marriages for years, and there’s always lots of big, joyous noise during Pride month.

And yet it is not so long since the holding of LGBTQIA+ history events could be seen as an illegal activity in this country. A couple of decades before that, any talk of recognition for LGBTQIA+ people at all was couched in a language of pity, where MPs strove to distance themselves as far as they could from the taint of “Gross indecency” – this was the language used at the time when talking about homosexual men. Lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex people would have to wait much longer for recognition.

LGBTQIA+ history month is important because we all have an inalienable right to be gay, if that is what we feel ourselves to be. We all benefit from a society where this can be the case. Like so many other communities that have been marginalized, criminalized, and ridiculed in this country, it is important to know what has happened before, so that we might help ourselves and others in the future.”

Related Pages

Why LGBTQIA+ history month?