Bristol Pride Day is back! Not only is Bristol Pride one of the largest UK Pride events, it’s one of Bristol’s largest festivals.
OutStories will be there with a stall in the Community Area. Come and say hello!
Saturday 13th July 2024, 12pm onwards
The Downs, Westbury Park, Bristol
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Buy your Pride Day Supporter Wristband now! Bristol Pride is a not for profit charity and every penny from supporter wristbands helps to make Pride happen.
See you there!
Join Bristol Pride and Outstories Bristol for a special LGBT+ history tour on the water.
A Bristol Ferry Boat will 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, at 12:30pm and 1:45pm.
Sunday 7th July 2024. 12:30pm and 1:45pm
Tour starts from Prince Street ferry stop, near Arnolfini
Map
£11 + £2 booking fee. Booking is essential and spaces are limited. Book via Bristol Pride.
Our thanks to South Gloucestershire Council for supporting this event.
This talk by Jonathan Rowe is about lesbian novelist Mary Renault, her Bristol associations and her ground-breaking 1953 male gay love story The Charioteer which is set in a fictionalised Second World War Bristol.
Thursday 8th February 2024, 12:30pm
Bristol Central Library, Deanery Road, Bristol, BS1 5TL
Map Access
This talk is free and will be held in the library foyer. No booking is required.
Jonathan is a local historian, Bristol born and bred. He regularly writes for OutStories Bristol and the Bristol Times supplement of the Bristol Post. He is also chairman of Brislington Conservation and History Society, and Secretary of his local drama group for which he has written several productions.
Celebrate and discover LGBTQ+ lives across the centuries.
Bristol’s social history museum M Shed in partnership with OutStories Bristol present a fascinating range of talks highlighting LGBTQ+ stories and heritage. Topics range from the search for ancient trans Celts to a cheeky look at butts in art.
Saturday 24th February 2024, 11am to 4:45pm
M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN
Getting there Access
The event will be held in the Studio Room on the first floor, upstairs from the main entrance.
Entrance is free. Booking is not required – just come and go as you wish.
There will also be information stalls including Bristol Pride, Bristol Radical History Group, Gay West and the Bristol Museums gender exhibition team.
Each session includes time for Q&A and breaks between talks.
11.10am – 11.15am Welcome by hosts Chloe Little and Marek Barden, Trustees of Outstories Bristol.
11.15am – 11.55am H.H. Gore – Bristol’s Nineteenth Century Gay Christian Socialist Solicitor
Mike Richardson, Bristol Radical History Group
12.05pm – 12.45pm Novelist Mary Renault’s Bristol and The Charioteer Jonathan Rowe, OutStories Bristol
12.55pm – 1.35pm In search of Trans Celts Cheryl Morgan, trans history specialist and diversity advisor
1.35pm – 2pm Interval
2pm – 2.40pm The Gender Exhibition Helen McConnell Simpson and Steve Bradley, Bristol Museums
2.50pm – 3.30pm They’re Just Good Friends – a cheeky look at butts in art and historical documents
Mark Small of Museum Bums
3.40pm – 4.20pm A Sinkhole of Vice and Infamy: Transportation for Sodomy in 1840s Bristol
Andrew Foyle, social historian and member of OutStories Bristol
4.45pm Event closes
Hugh Holmes Gore was a key figure in Bristol’s labour movement during the last two decades of the 19th century. A popular “people’s solicitor” at the service of Bristol’s working class, he also defended militant trade unionists, anarchists and revolutionary socialists.
However in 1898 Gore vanished under mysterious circumstances. His friends suggested a scandal, most probably because of his sexual attraction to men at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence.
Mike Richardson is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the West of England and an expert on the history of the labour movement in Bristol. One of Bristol Radical History Group’s most prolific writers, his publications include the biography The Enigma of Hugh Holmes Gore.
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This talk by Jonathan Rowe is about lesbian novelist Mary Renault, her Bristol associations and her ground-breaking 1953 male gay love story The Charioteer which is set in a fictionalised Second World War Bristol.
Jonathan is a local historian, Bristol born and bred. He regularly writes for OutStories Bristol and the Bristol Times supplement of the Bristol Post. He is also chairman of Brislington Conservation and History Society, and Secretary of his local drama group for which he has written several productions.
Tribal societies around the world are known to make space for gender diversity in their societies. We’ve observed this in places like the Americas, Africa, Polynesia and Australia. But similar societies in Britain are in the distant past, and from times when little or no writing was done. What can we tell about gender amongst the ancient people of Britain?
Cheryl Morgan, is a Senior Trainer and Consultant in Trans Awareness for the Diversity Trust and a former co-chair of OutStories Bristol. An expert in trans history and literature, she writes for various history blogs and is a frequent speaker at LGBTQ+ History Month events.
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Find out about this exciting exhibition due to open in Spring 2025 exploring the complex and rich theme of gender identity. The show is being developed in partnership with National Museums Liverpool, Brighton & Hove Museums and local communities. The exhibition will tour following its debut in Bristol. Hear about:
Speakers: Helen McConnell Simpson (Senior Curator of History) and Steve Bradley (Exhibitions & Displays Manager), Bristol Museums.
They’re Just Good Friends – a cheeky look at butts in art and historical documentsBased on their eponymous viral Twitter (‘X’) account @museumbums, Museum Bums take us on a whirlwind tour of butts in museums and art galleries around the world. Heritage scholar and art educator Mark Small pairs tongue-in-cheeks humour with insightful commentary on the representation of the naked body in history, and how galleries and museums approach gender and sexual diversity today.
Tasmanian Convict Station, c. 1850 (courtesy State Library of Tasmania)
Andrew Foyle presents new research on the harsh lives of two Bristol men convicted for sodomy in 1842, constructing from scant evidence a plausible hypothesis for their discovery and betrayal. He follows the extraordinary tale of their transportation and eventual fates in the notorious convict stations of Tasmania.
Andrew is an architectural and social historian, and a founder member of OutStories Bristol.
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
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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
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!
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
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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.
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.
Courtesy: American Museum in Britain
In this online talk, Bristol historian Andrew Foyle tells the story of a remarkable gay couple and the museum they founded – the American Museum & Gardens in 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 American Museum in Britain at Claverton Manor near Bath.
Wednesday 16th February 2022, 7pm to 8pm
This free online talk is hosted by Bristol’s M Shed Museum in partnership with the American Museum & Gardens and OutStories Bristol.
Pre-booking is essential. For full details and to book your ticket click this link to M Shed’s website.
Although it is free, M Shed would be grateful if you make a donation when booking.
February is LGBT History Month!Bristol’s M Shed Museum in conjunction with OutStories Bristol are presenting a series of exciting online talks to celebrate our achievements and stories. These free talks will be held over Zoom. Pre-booking is essential.
Saturday 12th February 2022, 11am to 12 noon
Free online talk: From China to UK, Qiuyan Chen’s journey as a LGBTQ+ activist
What’s the situation for LGBTQ+ people in China? How do queer Chinese rethink their intersectional identities? How can the community mobilise to promote cross-cultural connections?
Wednesday 16th February 2022, 7pm to 8pm
Free online talk: An Anglo-American love story
Bristol historian Andrew Foyle tells the story of a remarkable gay couple, Dallas Pratt and John Judkyn, and the museum they founded – the American Museum & Gardens in Bath.
Thursday 17th February 2022, 1pm to 2pm
Free online talk: Allan Gordon, a ship’s boy
Norena Shopland tells the extraordinary story from 1902 of a 15-year-old sailor, Allan Gordon, who was arrested in Bristol when it was discovered they were female.
But what was the real reason for his arrest? The press were determined to find out just who Allan was and why they had gone to sea.
Thursday 24th February 2022, 7pm to 8pm
Free online talk: Girls on stage
Cheryl Morgan takes us on a tour of some of the queerest moments of theatre with men taking female parts in plays from Classical Greece through to Shakespeare and beyond.
What did this cross-dressing mean to those who performed these roles – and to those who watched them. Has the theatre always been gay? Or trans?
Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th February 2022, 2:30pm/7:30pm Northcott Theatre, Exeter
Theatre: The Beat of Our Hearts
A tender and poignant exploration of loneliness and belonging as experienced by LGBTQIA+ people.
Saturday 19th February 2022, 2pm-3pm Online
Talk: Same Sex Love, 1700–1957: History and Research Sources for Family Historians
Gill Rossini discusses the challenges of researching same sex relationships in family history.
Saturday 19th February 2022, 4pm-5:30pm Arnolfini, Bristol
Documentary film: Rebel Dykes (certificate 18)
A rabble-rousing documentary set in 1980s post-punk London. The unheard story of a community of dykes who met doing art, music, politics and sex, and how they went on to change their world.
See the LGBT+ History Month website for more events around the country.
