What LGBT+ History Month means to #TeamMDX
Tuesday 23-02-2021 - 17:42
For this year’s LGBT+ History Month, we asked Middlesex University & MDXSU staff, students and alumni to explain the importance of the month.
Read on to hear the experiences of #TeamMDX LGBTQ+ Community and allies below!
Want to be a part of the community?
Click here to join LGBT+ Liberation group for students
OR click here to join the LGBT+ community as a staff member
Follow MDXSU's LGBT+ Liberation Groups on Instagram
Follow Middlesex University LGBT+ Network on Twitter
Joseph Galliano
(Co-Founder and CEO Queer Britain, the national LGBQ+ museum)
"LGBT+ History Month plays a vital role in giving space to the queer heroes of our past who have otherwise been obscured from view. Like anyone, it is vital that LGBTQ+ people can see themselves reflected and celebrated. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, it’s much harder to see where you are headed and to be filled with the amazing potential of life. At Queer Britain we are working to make every month about queer history, and we build on the brilliant work of our partners and friends at LGBT+ History Month"
Sue Sanders
(Professor Emeritus, Harvey Milk Institute and Founder of LGBT History Month UK)
"Back in the day, well the sixties to be exact, I was the only out lesbian at the New College of Speech and Drama, now part of Middlesex University. There had been rumours of young women who had been expelled who might have been lesbians, but it was all very shrouded! Invisibility was the issue, paucity of women's roles let alone LGBT roles!
As a stroppy fledgling lesbian, I wanted to change that. When I took up a teaching post, I came out fairly quickly and when worked in theatre. I worked with agitprop women and lesbian groups. Challenging racism, disablism and homophobia. I set up LGBT+ History Month with another drama teacher Paul Patrick under the auspices of Schools OUT UK of which we were co-chairs. Ten years later Dr Evans, a member of Schools OUT UK, founded OUTing the Past a specific LGBT+ History festival as up till then, while the month had inspired many activities and was celebrating LGBT people there was not much history! The festival, not only contains presentations of lost or forgotten LGBT+ history we also commission original theatre which explores just that. This is our 16th year of LGBT+HM and sixth of OUTing the Past and we are, along with thousands of people across the country, ensuring that LGBT+ HM is alive and well and celebrations our being beamed into our own homes. We are determined that LGBT+ people in all their diversity and their issues will be visible, celebrated and explored"
You can read more about Sue’s reflection on the history of LGBT+ History Month in the UK here and find LGBT+ resources, all year round, for teaching here.
Bel Bale
(Co-Chair of the MDX Staff Gender Network)
"For me, LGBT history month should have two purposes- to reflect, and to reorganise. We reflect on historical events, both for and against the freedom of queer people, which have led the movement and community to the place it is today. We remember activists who've fought for our rights and emancipation. We make space for those who haven't been given the right representation. Then, we reexamine our ideas of queerness, of queer issues and politics, and we keep ourselves accountable. We regroup and refocus on our changing values, and learn from each other in how to provide the right spaces and support to each other. And we reorganise to continue to fight for the emancipation of our community"
Nic Beech
(Vice Chancellor, Middlesex University)
"There remains too much prejudice in our society and it is enormously important for us to learn, be educated and celebrate LGBT+ lives, history and contributions to society. This month is a great opportunity for increased visibility and for us to genuinely value diversity"
Ant Babajee
(Co-Chair of the MDX Staff LGBT+ Network)
"Universities are more often than not where history is written. I came out as gay at the age of 19 in my first year, and by my final year I was not only leading the LGBT student society, I was also writing my dissertation about the history of gay men in Weimar and Nazi Germany.
Just as the pink triangle has been reclaimed by us as a symbol of power and solidarity, so too must our histories be reclaimed and told in all their beautiful, rainbow-illuminated complexity.
Please know that the work is not done – and that there are people, even now at our open and inclusive University, who live in fear of revealing their true selves and telling their stories.
It’s a Sin has simultaneously warmed and broken our hearts. Our histories are begging to be told. We’re not hiding in the shadows any longer. We’re here. We’re queer. Hear us!"
Silence = Death artwork by Keith Haring (1989)
Rachael Wall
(Co-Chair of the MDX Staff LGBT+ Network)
"LGBT+ History Month is a celebration of how far we’ve come with LGBTQ+ rights but is also an opportunity to highlight the work that we still need to do to achieve equity for the LGBTQ+ community. This month is a time to reflect on the what has been achieved, both at Middlesex University and in the wider community, and continue to work on improving the lives of our LGBTQ+ students and staff. For those who don’t self-define as LGBTQ+, this is an opportunity to check out some resources here, do your own research and learn how you can be an active ally to the community"
