OutStories Bristol

Move Over Darling poster

Sun 17 February, 11am

M-Shed, Princess Wharf, Bristol, BS1 4RN
Free British Sign Language interpreted tour of Bristol’s first ever LGBT history exhibition. Find out about Bristol’s LGBT past, and the ways people have fought to shape and control their lives since the 1950s. After the tour, join us to meet the exhibition team, and share your memories of LGBT Bristol!

 Booking:  please book online at Eventbrite.

This event is free, but donations to OutStories Bristol gratefully received.

This event is one in a series for LGBT History Month in Bristol, February 2013. View our upcoming events and Eventbrite page, or visit LGBT Bristol for details of other LGBT History Month activities.

Thursday 21 February, 19:30pm

Bristol Central Library, College Green
An illustrated talk by historian Robert Howes about the development of cartoons representing homosexuals, from the early 19th century to the present. Taking examples from Britain and other countries, the talk will show how images of homosexuality and LGBT people have been constructed through cartoons and caricatures. Starting with depictions of scandal by a usually hostile press, the talk will go on to show how LGBT cartoonists have used the medium to comment on the everyday incidents of domestic life.
Free event: no booking required, but donations to OutStories Bristol project gratefully received.

This event is one in a series for LGBT History Month in Bristol, February 2013. View our upcoming events and Eventbrite page, or visit LGBT Bristol for details of other LGBT History Month activities.

Sunday, 24 February 2013 from 14:00 to 15:30pm

Meet at the War Memorial in Queen’s Parade, Bath

A walk around the centre of Bath, pointing out the buildings and monuments which have LGBT associations, either as places where people socialised or as meeting places for the LGBT movement over the last forty years. The walk should last about an hour and a half and finish back by the War Memorial, with the option of warming up in a local tea-shop. Led by Robert Howes of Gay West.

This is a free event but a donation to OutStories Bristol would be welcome. You can book your place online at Eventbrite.

Contact: 0800 321 3083

Accessibility: This is a short walk on the streets of central Bath on a wheel-chair accessible route.

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month takes place every year in February and celebrates the lives and achievements of the LGBT community. OutStories Bristol are co-ordinating events for February 2013 in Bristol and Bath.

An initial meeting to draw up the 2013 programme will be held Thursday 27 September 6pm to 7pm at The Council House, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TR.

The agenda is:

• Welcome
• What went well in 2012
• Proposals for 2013
• Actions for 2013
• Publicity
• Future planning dates
• Any other matters

Everyone welcome.

See last year’s programme.

OutStories Bristol is preparing an exhibition on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans life to be held at Bristol’s M Shed museum in February 2013. We are holding two open-door workshops at M Shed on Sunday 2 September.

11:30am to 12:45pm: Volunteer information session

If you would like to help create the exhibition, come to this session to hear what’s involved and what you could do. We need volunteers to help with:

• Designing the exhibition
• Getting people to attend our events
• Organising publicity
• Organising supporting events
• Raising money
• Research
• Staging the exhibition
• Working with the designers
• Writing leaflets
• Writing the exhibition panels.

2pm to 4pm: Content Workshop

In the afternoon we are holding a workshop to look at what should be in the exhibition. We need a range of views to ensure a good balance and nothing is missed.

Key topics:

• Family, children and extended family
• Health
• Identity and acceptance
• Information and communication
• Law and Policing
• Moral and religious attitudes
• Politics and activism
• Pride
• Relationships (lovers/partners)
• Relationships with media
• Socialising
• Trans life
• Women’s movement/Feminism

Sunday 2 September 2012
M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN

These sessions are open to everyone wishing to be involved – you can attend one or both sessions as you please.

It would help with catering if you let us know if you are planning to attend.

If you can’t join us on the 2nd, contact us or write to: OutStories Bristol, c/o LGBT Bristol, Create Centre, Smeaton Road, Bristol BS1 6XN.

Programme for LGBT History Month 2012 (pdf)

BLAGS, Bristol’s long-running Lesbian and Gay switchboard, is closing at the end of February. One of the first L&G switchboards to set up in the country, and currently the second-longest running, the volunteers have decided to hand over the service to another group to ensure that calls coming from the region will still be answered.

Although the group has decided to close down their office in Bristol, people will still be able to call the switchboard number for help as well as access a new web site, set up to carry information of local LGBT venues and services as well as containing a potted history of the group. From March 1, be manned by the London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard (LLGS) and which will be provided with up-to-date information on local gay amenities by BLAGS’ volunteers.

Exhibition at Hydra Books, 34 Old Market Street, Bristol, BS2 0EZ
Sunday 26 February 2012, 4pm to 8pm

An exhibition at Hydra Books will feature material gathered by the Switchboard over the last four decades including documents relating to Bristol’s original Gay Centre and to the Bristol Gay Festival, a forerunner to Pride. The exhibition at Hydra Books is free and open to everyone.

Farewell party: Old Market Tavern, 30 Old Market Street, Bristol, BS2 0HB
Sunday 26 February 2012, 7pm to 10:30pm

The group are marking their passing with a party at the Old Market Tavern for volunteers past and present. Former volunteers and supporters who would like to attend the party should email gayvenue@sky.com for an invitation.

“It’s very sad that, after almost 40 years, we feel that the time has come to close the Bristol L&G Switchboard down, but we’re all absolutely adamant that local LGBT people, their friends and families, should still have access to help if they need it,” said a Switchboard volunteer. “We want to turn the passing of BLAGS into a celebration of everything we have achieved over the last four decades and invite everyone who has had a part in the Switchboard over the years to help us do that.”

Bristol Lesbian & Gay Switchboard website

Download the full programme for LGBT History Month 2012 in Bristol and Bath (pdf).

Oral History Workshop

Saturday 25th February 2012,  2pm to 4pm

M-Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol, BS1 4RN
All welcome. Free event but booking required.

OutStories Bristol is looking for volunteers to gather the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in or associated with Bristol and the surrounding area. This is a voluntary, oral-history project.

If you’re interested, please come to this workshop arranged in conjunction with M-Shed. At the workshop you’ll learn about OutStories Bristol, why oral history is important, how it’s done and how you can get involved.

Book a place online with Eventbrite but, if you can’t, phone or text 07802 422091.

This is a free event, but a donation to OutStories Bristol would be welcome.

Download the full programme for LGBT History Month 2012 in Bristol and Bath (pdf).

Gay West: Civil Society, Community and LGBT History in Bristol and Bath 1970 to 2010

Talk by Robert Howes

Tuesday 21st February 2012, 7:30pm-9pm

Bristol Central Library, Deanery Road, Bristol.  Free event

Robert Howes talks about the background to his recently-published book Gay West: Civil Society, Community and LGBT History in Bristol and Bath 1970 to 2010.

Gay West is one of the longest-lasting LGBT organisations in the country, tracing its roots back to the Campaign for Homosexual Equality Bristol Group and Bath Gay Awareness Group. The book covers both the history of the group and the wider context of the local and national LGBT movement, as well as the development of the area’s commercial scene.

Robert will reflect on his experience in researching the book and suggest some questions about civil society and community which it raises.

This is a free event, but a donation to OutStories Bristol would be welcome.

Please visit or phone your local Bristol library to book a place.

You can book a place online (or just let us know you’re coming) at Eventbrite.

Download the full programme for LGBT History Month 2012 in Bristol and Bath (pdf).

Robert Howes has published an article Voluntary Action and the LGBT Movement on the website of the Voluntary Action History Society. It provides a brief but informative summary of the development of the LGBT movement in Britain from the 1960s on.

Mystery History Tour in Bristol

Sunday 19 February 2012,  2.30pm

Starting in Corn Street, Bristol, BS1 1JG. Booking required

OutStories Bristol history walk, February 2011

Bristol historian and author Andrew Foyle leads an easy stroll through the city, lifting the curtain on our own peculiar and sometimes outrageous histories. Find out where men met for sex in the 18th century and how they were punished, Bristol’s pre-war gay pub, sites of protest by lesbian Suffragettes, what window shopping in Park Street used to mean, and a remarkably early moment in the history of transgender surgery.

Meet outside the Register Office (Old Council House), Corn Street; nearly opposite the Exchange and the Nails.

£3, to go to OutStories Bristol funds.

This event has been oversubscribed on three previous occasions. Limited places, pre-booking essential: phone 0117 907 0784, or book a place online at Eventbrite.

Download the full programme for LGBT History Month 2012 in Bristol and Bath (pdf).