OutStories Bristol in association with Bristol Museums will be holding a day of events on LGBTQ+ history at M Shed museum. Details to follow soon.
Saturday 24th February 2024
Save the day!
The OutStories Bristol AGM will be held on Saturday 21st October 2023, 11am to 1pm.
Venue: Studio 2 at M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN
Getting there Access
The AGM is quite a brief meeting and will start around 11.00 am. Following the meeting there will be an opportunity to socialise and catch up with members who we may not have seen in a while, and also a chance to hear about plans for LGBTQ+ History Month 2024. And much more.
Studio 2 is on the first floor of M Shed, turn left at the top of the stairs in the entrance foyer.
Formal Notice of the AGM will be sent to members of OutStories Bristol by email.
Our thanks to Bristol Museums for hosting.
OutStories Bristol in collaboration with the University of Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT) present the 10th John Addington Symonds Annual Lecture.
Saturday 7th October 2023, 2pm to 4pm
Museum Bums explore the inspirations for John Addington SymondsJack Shoulder and Mark Small take a closer look at some of the characters in John Addington Symonds‘ works, in their own trademarked cheeky way.
Jack and Mark are the duo behind the eponymous viral Twitter (‘X’) account @museumbums. They’re also going to do their best to sell their new book “Museum Bums: A Cheeky Look at Butts in Art” to you!
This free lecture, which is open to everyone, will take place in hybrid format: both in-person at the Wills Memorial Building and streamed online via Zoom.
Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ
Map Accessibility
The talk will be held in Lecture Room 3.33 on the third floor.
After the talk and Q&A, which will last around an hour, you are welcome to join us for tea/coffee in Room 1.5 on the first floor. This is your opportunity to come and chat with members of OutStories Bristol about our activities.
From the main entrance on Queens Road there are stairs to each floor. There is also a ramped entrance at the front of the building and a lift to each floor.
To attend in person please book via this Eventbrite page. Due to room capacity, attendance is limited to 22 people so book early! You do not need to print your ticket.
If you wish to join the online webinar instead, please register here. Prior to the event you will be sent an email with Zoom joining instructions.
Mark Small and Jack Shoulder
The talk is an annual celebration of the life of John Addington Symonds (1840-1893), Bristol-based writer, art historian and pioneer of homosexual rights.
This event is held by OutStories Bristol in collaboration with the University of Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT). Our thanks to the IGRCT for hosting this event.
Find out more about the IGRCT on their website; you can also find them on Facebook and Twitter @Bristol_IGRCT.
Bristol based performance artist Tom Marshman is hosting a series of tea parties to discuss the impact of Section 28 on the queer community.
The tea parties are a place to meet and share stories over tea and biscuits. You could have lived through this time or be curious to know more. Everyone is welcome.
These tea parties are research for a new show by Tom for Bristol 650 as winner of an Unlimited Partner Award chosen by Bristol Ideas. With permission, participants’ responses will feed into this new work as an important and valuable part of the process. A work in progress of the work will be presented in November at The Wardrobe Theatre.
One of Tom’s tea parties will be held at Bristol’s M Shed museum.
Admission is free but a donation to M Shed would be appreciated.
Book via the M Shed website.
Saturday 26th August 2023, 11am to 1pm.
M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN
Map
Jonathan Rowe, a regular contributor to this website, will give an illustrated talk on Bristol-born gay poet Fabian Strachan Woodley (1888-1957). A military hero of the First World War and awarded the Military Cross, he was also a jounalist, sportsman, school teacher and a Christian.
Some of his poems feature in the very first American anthology of male same-sex love poetry published in the USA in 1924.
This is a Brislington Conservation and History Society event.
£4 for non-members. Refreshments available
Thursday 26th October 2023, 7:30pm
St Cuthbert’s Church Crypt, Sandy Park Road, Brislington, Bristol BS4 3PG
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After welcoming an incredible 40,000+ people to The Downs in 2022, Bristol Pride Day is back!
OutStories will be there with a stall in the Community Area. Come and say hello!
Saturday 8th July 2023, 1pm onwards
The Downs, Westbury Park, Bristol
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Not only is Bristol Pride one of the largest UK Pride events, it’s one of Bristol’s largest festivals, and named in the Top50 World Pride events in 2018 & 2019.
Buy your Pride Day Supporter Wristband now! Bristol Pride is a not for profit charity and every penny from supporter wristbands goes to make Pride happen.
See you there!
© Bristol Pride
With just days to go to the start of Bristol’s 2023 Pride fortnight, two incidents show that homophobia still lurks.
An attacker damaged a billboard advertising Bristol Pride within 24 hours of the poster being displayed. The fire service were called just after midnight 19/6/2023 after reports that the billboard in Station Road, Montpelier, had been deliberately set ablaze. Police investigated the incident as a ‘hate crime’. Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees condemned the attack saying there was ‘no room for senseless vandalism or hate’ in Bristol.
The incident was the second attack on the LGBTQ+ community in less than a week.
© Bristol Post
Susie Day and her partner put a £6 Dunelm ‘Pride’ doormat outside their Bedminster home. The doormat was soon stolen so they went out and bought a new one, this time glueing it down so it couldn’t be taken. Later they found the rainbow-coloured doormat had been blacked out with spray paint.
But this story had a positive ending. When their neighbours learnt what had happened, many responded by going out and buying their own Pride doormats. Now the street is gradually filling with the colourful doormats and the couple say they have been overwhelmed by the support.
Join Bristol Pride and Outstories Bristol for a special LGBT+ history tour on the water.
We once again take you across the historical harbourside of Bristol and tour guides from Outstories Bristol will rerun their insightful tour into Bristol’s LGBT+ history drawing on the surrounding areas and sights you will see during this one-hour tour. By popular demand we are running two sessions this year.
Sunday 2nd July 2023. 10am and 11am
Tour starts from Prince Street ferry stop, near Arnolfini
Map
£10 + £1.97 booking fee. Booking is essential and spaces are limited. Book via Bristol Pride. SOLD OUT
Our thanks to South Gloucestershire Council for supporting this event.
Throat parched: hand trembling: choice made. They reach for the phone: a piercing ring: the wait unending. Deep inhale: a silent breath: the whole world pauses just for a moment…
Hello? Is anybody there…? Are you a …. are you a gay person?
Welcome to Switchboard, a LGBTQ History Month show by radical performance artist Astro-Zenica.
The show draws on archival research, call logs from the Bristol Lesbian and Gay Switchboard (1975–2012), and oral histories about queer nightlife and protest in the 1970s and 80s. Astro explores the myriad codes and languages developed by queer people to reach out, hook-up and find community. The codes for making friends and fighting back in a world often violent and harsh to the emergence of the queer spirit. Naïve in its beginnings, there is a longing for acceptance and search for connection.
There’s something in this being held, in the call that answers… before the phone connection dies and the next choice is made….
This is a show about class, violence, access, visibility, hedonism, sexual freedom and community.
Written as a Valentine’s Day love letter to the radical queers, the club promoters, the party starters, the drag artists, the volunteers at the switchboard, and most of all to Dale Wakefield, who opened the switchboard at her home in Totterdown in 1975.
Dale and the team received thousands of calls in the Switchboard’s opening years. They were listening to the fears, signposting to the club, offering rescue missions to those attacked on the street, and becoming a beacon of support during the AIDS crisis. All because of a belief in and commitment to the power of community.
For those who are living and for the many more who have died, this one’s for you.
Written by Astro-Zenica. Set design by Emily Diamond. Image: Jason Leung.
Find the artists on Instagram:
@AstroZenica_
@TheHouseOfSavalon
@e_diamond_sculpture
This event is provided by Bristol Museums in assocation with OutStories Bristol.
Tuesday 14th February 2023. 7.30pm—9.30pm
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL
Getting there Accessibility
This event is aged 18+
Tickets: £12 adult, £10 concession
Book in advance from Bristol Museums
A 17th century opera singer, skilled duellist … and one-time convent arsonist to rescue her nun girlfriend?
Julie d’Aubigny, aka La Maupin, has a larger-than-life track record. And although some parts of her story are lost between fact and fiction, her open love of both genders has made her a historical bisexual icon.
Join us for an exploration of Julie’s life, how her swordfighting intersected with ideas of queerness in early modern France and how she has inspired new LGBTQ+ and feminist retellings.
This event is provided by Bristol Museums in association with Outstories Bristol for LGBTQ+ History Month 2023.
Speaker:
Claire Mead (she/her) is a fencer and a sword lesbian public historian. When she is not working around community engagement and queer representation in museums and heritage, she is educating around inclusive arms and armour via her YouTube channel JoustGalPals and her podcast on swordswomen throughout history, Bustles & Broadswords. She also has a webcomic, Girls’ School of Knighthood. Find her at @carmineclaire on most social media.
Guest host:
Cheryl Morgan (she/her) is the former Co-chair of Outstories Bristol and a Senior Trainer for the Diversity Trust. As a self-confessed ‘trans history geek’, she is a regular speaker on the LGBTQ+ History Month circuit and has written several history blogs.
Wednesday 15th February 2023, 6:30pm to 7:30pm
This free, online talk will be held over Zoom
Book via the Bristol Museums website. Details of how to join the session will be in your registration email. Bookings close at 6pm on Wednesday 15th February.
Although this talk is free, Bristol Museums would be grateful if you could consider making a donation.
Aleksandr Aleksandrov was a hero of the Napoleonic wars. Ukrainian by birth, he had signed up as a teenager to fight for Russia against the French invaders. His bravery earned him several medals, including receiving the Cross of St. George from the Tsar himself.
But Aleksandrov was not quite what he seemed. His birth name was Nadezhda Durova. He had a husband and a son.
After the war, Aleksandrov continued to live as a man. He became friends with the novelist Pushkin who encouraged him to write an autobiography. This was later published as The Cavalry Maiden.
Since then, Aleksandrov’s story has often been portrayed as that of a brave woman disguising herself as a man to fight for her country. But recent research into Aleksandrov’s personal archive tells a very different story, and one that will be very familiar to trans people today.
In this talk Cheryl Morgan will reveal the life of Aleksandr Aleksandrov and recent research about ‘The Cavalry Maiden’.
This event is provided by Bristol Museums in association with Outstories Bristol for LGBTQ+ History Month 2023.
Cheryl Morgan
Speaker:
Cheryl Morgan (she/her) is the former Co-chair of Outstories Bristol and a Senior Trainer for the Diversity Trust. As a self-confessed ‘trans history geek’, she is a regular speaker on the LGBTQ+ History Month circuit and has written several history blogs.
Guest host:
Kim Renfrew (she/her) is a Postgraduate Researcher (PhD) at UWE who is researching gender, sexuality and lesbian identities. She is a former Trustee of Outstories Bristol.
Tuesday 21st February 2023, 6:30pm to 7:30pm
This free, online talk will be held over Zoom
Book via the Bristol Museums website. Details of how to join the session will be in your registration email. Bookings close at 6pm on Tuesday 21st February.
Although this talk is free, Bristol Museums would be grateful if you could consider making a donation.
Come and say ‘hello’ at the OutStories Bristol stall at the Trans Pride South West Community Day on Saturday 26th November. The event is free and open to all.
Find out how we research and record the stories of LGBTQ+ people in this region. We want more material from the trans communities in the south west. Do you have documents, leaflets and newsletters about local groups that we could add to our archives? Newspaper cuttings? Photographs?
Above all we seek to record the experiences, life stories and recollections of anyone, regardless of age, who identifies as transgender, non-binary or intersex.
The Trans Pride South West Community Day is part of a fortnight of events for Trans Pride South West 2022.
Saturday 26th November 2022, 12pm to 4pm
The Station, Silver Street, Bristol, BS1 2AG
Map
Website: http://tpsw.co.uk
OutStories Bristol in collaboration with the University of Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT) present the 9th John Addington Symonds Annual Lecture.
Saturday 15th October 2022, 12pm to 3pm
The Old Council Chamber, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ
First floor of Wills Building – go up main stairs and turn right
Map Accessibility
© Jamie Edler
In The Key of Blue is a daring collection of writing by John Addington Symonds which flirts with being an out and loud declaration of sexual identity and pride.
As one of the team members who helped open Queer Britain, the first LGBTQ+ museum in the UK, guest speaker Dan Vo explores the title poem and compares the way Symonds struggled to define the colour blue, a clever metaphor for same sex love and desire, with the impossibility of trying to encapsulate what ‘queer’ means to a modern audience.
Dan Vo is Head of Learning and Engagement at Queer Britain, the first LGBTQ+ museum in the UK as well as Project Manager of the Queer Heritage and Collections Network. Described by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as one of “our most inspiring LGBTQ+ Londoners”, Dan founded the award-winning volunteer-led V&A LGBTQ+ Tours and was Course Leader of ‘A Queer History of Objects’ at V&A Academy. He has also developed LGBTQ+ programmes for other museums in the UK including the National Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, National Museum Wales and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
The talk will be preceded by the AGM of OutStories Bristol (very brief!). Members of OutStories have been sent a separate email with reports.
The event is free and open to everyone. Tea and coffee will be provided after the talk. This is your opportunity to come and chat with members of OutStories Bristol about our activities.
Please register to attend on Eventbrite – not essential but helps us anticipate numbers for catering.
You do not need to print your ticket or show on entry.
The talk is an annual celebration of the life of John Addington Symonds (1840-1893), Bristol-based writer, art historian and pioneer of homosexual rights.
This event is held by OutStories Bristol in collaboration with the University of Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT). Our thanks to the IGRCT for hosting this event.
Find out more about the IGRCT on their website; you can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Photo: Betty Woolerton
Bristol church The New Room, the world’s oldest Methodist building, has voted unanimously to permit same-sex marriage ceremonies.
The New Room was founded in 1739 as a space for Methodists to meet by evangelist and founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley. For nearly 300 years, John Wesley’s New Room has served as a multi-purpose building for the local community – including housing a museum.
Now, the chapel in Broadmead has announced it will begin officiating same-sex weddings to coincide with the 2022 Bristol Pride.
In 2021, the Methodist church became the second largest religious denomination in the UK to allow same-sex marriages after voting in its favour. The motion required a change to the definition of marriage to be “a lifelong union in body, mind and spirit of two people who freely enter it”. Now ministers will be able to conduct weddings for LGBTQ+ couples living in Bristol in the New Room’s buildings. The move was voted for unanimously.
Same-sex marriages are not currently allowed by the Church of England.
Rev. Mandy Briggs (left) and Rev. Josette Crane (right) with the application to the General Register Office (Image: John Wesley’s New Room)
Reverend Mandy Briggs, the chapel’s education officer and responsible authorised person said:
“This decision to register John Wesley’s New Room as a venue for same-sex marriages is the latest step in our journey of allyship with the LGBTQIA+ community.”
“The chapel has been a venue for services organised by Christians at Bristol Pride since 2018 and so this registration feels like the natural next step.”
Marking 2022’s celebrations, the church is also holding a rainbow service for LGBTQ+ Christians to allow them to “celebrate Pride through their faith”. Following the service on July 9, attendees are invited to wear purple, bring placards and join the Pride march from Castle Park.
This article was written by Betty Woolerton and first published by Bristol 24/7, 30 June 2022.
Theatre Royal, Bristol
Image: Bristol Post
The Killing of Sister George was the first English play to deal with lesbianism and was written by German Jewish playwright Frank Marcus (1928-1996) who had escaped with his family from Nazi Germany in 1938. Premiered by the Bristol Old Vic at the Theatre Royal on 20 April 1965, the original stage play is more implied whereas the 1968 film version has the lesbian elements darker and more explicit.
“Sister George” is a much loved character, June Buckridge, in a popular radio soap opera (changed to TV in the film). In real life she is a gin guzzling, cigar smoking, slightly sadistic butch lesbian who lives with Alice “Childie” McNaught, a childlike girl obsessed with playing with dolls. June dominates feminine Childie, mentally and physically, and the couple perpetuate the classic butch/femme lesbian couple stereotype. When June discovers her soap character is to be killed off she becomes impossible to live and work with. Matters are made worse by the intervention of a third woman, radio/TV executive, Mrs Mercy Croft, herself a predatory lesbian.
The title character in both the original stage production and the film was played by Beryl Reid, primarily known for her comedy roles beginning on radio in the 1950s. In the original Bristol Old Vic production Childie was played by Eileen Atkins with Lally Bowers as Mrs Croft. The play was directed by Bath born Val May who was artistic director with the company 1961-1975.
From the run at Bristol the play went on tour. It opened in London on 17 June 1965 at the Duke of York’s Theatre, and transferred to the Belasco Theatre, New York, in October 1966, still with the original cast. Beryl Reid won the 1966 Tony Award for Best Performance by a leading actress for the Broadway production. The play caused a sensation in the West End and on Broadway. The actresses were sometimes refused admission to shops because of the plays lesbian content.
The Stage review of 24 June 1965 was headlined ‘A Triumph for All’ and said “A comedy as brilliant in its wit and humour as in serious comment and pathos”. It was the first stage play for Beryl Reid who was hailed as “An actress of enormous talent … previously known for her film and radio comedy roles, her performance was arresting, haunting and memorable”. The review noted Val May directed “with sensitivity and panache”.
Beryl Reid remembered the pre West End tour:
”The tour was a disaster. We were pathfinders. In the British theatre nobody before had spoken about lesbianism, and this really destroyed the people we were playing to. In Bath we were deafened by old chaps in their bathchairs being wheeled out by their nannies, their urine bottles rattling as they went, saying ‘Disgusting, disgusting’…. Hull was the biggest disaster of all. The people of Hull would barely serve us in the shops they were so horrified”. Beryl played the part for two years but found it impossible to use one word to describe it. ”Some people call it a comedy. It has a lot of laughs but to me it isn’t a comedy. It is funny, but it is also very harrowing and sad. It’s ‘life with the lid left off’ … the story of people’s relationships to one another”.
In 2014 Eileen Atkins, the only member of the original cast still alive remembered opening night in Bristol when she heard the banging of seats in the auditorium. She spoke to Beryl Reid about it in the interval who said ”My dear, you haven’t done standup. That was everyone leaving”. Reviews were not good and the play was thought to be a flop until it opened in London where it was a huge success, both critically and commercially, with Eileen Atkins receiving the Evening Standard Best Actress award.
The film version was made in 1968 with only Beryl Reid from the original Bristol production in the title role. Childie was played by Susannah York and Mercy Croft by Coral Browne. The film was promoted as ”a shocking drama” and the lesbian element was made much more explicit; the sex scene between Childie and Mrs Croft not appearing in the original stage play.
Some location filming was done at the Gateway Club in London. ‘The Gate’ was one of the few places in the UK where lesbians could meet openly in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and club regulars featured as extras in the film.
In 1965, the same year The Killing of Sister George was premiered at the Theatre Royal in Bristol, ITV broadcast a documentary about lesbians in the This Week series. On the day of its transmission the Daily Express pleaded with its readers to “stop this filth entering your living room”.
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Today attitudes have greatly changed and The Killing of Sister George in its own way helped to pave the way for more open and tolerant feelings towards lesbianism.
Jonathan Rowe 2021
After welcoming an incredible 40,000 people to The Downs in 2019, Bristol Pride Day is back!
OutStories will be there with a stall in the Community Area. Come and say hello!
Saturday 9th July 2022, 11am on
The Downs, Westbury Park, Bristol
Map
Not only is Bristol Pride one of the largest UK Pride events, it’s one of Bristol’s largest festivals, and named in the Top50 World Pride events in 2018 & 2019.
Buy your Pride Day Supporter Wristband now! Bristol Pride is a not for profit charity and every penny from supporter wristbands goes to make Pride happen.
See you there!
Come cruising with Pride!
To mark the 50th Anniversary of the first Pride marches in the UK join Bristol Pride and Outstories Bristol for Bristol’s first ever LGBT+ History tour on water!
Taking you across the historical harbourside of Bristol, tour guides from Outstories Bristol will share insights into Bristol’s LGBT+ history drawing on the surrounding areas and sights you will see during this one hour tour aboard a Bristol Ferry boat.
Saturday 25 June 2022. 1pm to 2pm
Tour starts from Cascade Steps, Narrow Quay
Map
£10 + £1.29 booking fee. Booking is essential and spaces are limited. Book via Bristol Pride. SORRY – SOLD OUT
Our next work group meeting to develop our ideas and activities is:
Tuesday 5th April 2022, 6:30pm
Like to get involved?
This is an in-person meeting in Bedminster.
Contact us via this webform or email contact@outstoriesbristol.org.uk and we’ll let you know the location. Everyone welcome.
We hold monthly meetings in Bristol to develop ideas and activities, e.g.:
Like to get involved? Contact us via this webform or email contact@outstoriesbristol.org.uk.
We will let you know the time and place of the next meeting. Everyone welcome.
Andrew Foyle tells the story of a remarkable gay couple and the museum they founded – the American Museum & Gardens at Claverton Manor, near Bath.
Dallas Pratt was the grandson of a US oil magnate with a thirst for learning and access to a vast fortune. John Judkyn was a middle-class Midlander, furniture restorer and antique dealer with impeccable taste. From their chance meeting in 1937 until John’s tragic early death their love and lives embodied a passion for collecting which inspired them to create the museum.
Andrew Foyle is a historian specialising in Bristol’s history, and a member of OutStories Bristol. Andrew co-curated Revealing Stories, Bristol’s first exhibition of LGBTQ history at Bristol’s M Shed Museum in 2013.
This talk was a collaboration between M Shed, the American Museum and Gardens, and OutStories Bristol.
Our thanks to the American Museum & Gardens for access to their archives and photographs, and to M Shed who hosted this online talk on 16th February 2022.
