OutStories Bristol

Cycle tour of locations linked to critic and historian John Addington Symonds

Sunday 19th February 2012, 11am – 1pm

Starting and finishing in Queen Square, Bristol.  Free event.

Born in Clifton in 1840, Symonds was an early advocate for the legitimacy of same-sex love. This is a CycleOut Bristol event which will be led at a relaxed pace by Gemma Tiley.

Meet at the King William Statue at the centre of Queen Square. Novice cyclists are especially welcome on this ride. Indeed, if need be, we’ll pump up your tyres!

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

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).

Read more about John Addington Symonds

“Transgender before transgender: cross-dressers and the establishment in Victorian England”   Juliet Jacques

Thursday 9th February 2012,  7pm to 9pm

Hydra Books, 34 Old Market Street, Bristol, BS2 0EZ.  Free event

The emergence of public cross-dressing in the 19th century industrial city caused great anxiety to the Victorian legal establishment and England’s new police forces alike. In this talk, Guardian and New Statesman writer Juliet Jacques (long-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2011) explores how those who cross-dressed were criminalised, most famously in the scandalous trial of Ernest ‘Stella’ Boulton and Frederick ‘Fanny’ Park in 1871, and how contemporary transgender identities began to evolve in response.

Juliet Jacques is a journalist and author, best known for writing “A Transgender Journey” for The Guardian – the first time that the gender reassignment process has been serialised for a mainstream British publication. She has also written for the New Statesman and TimeOut, and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2011.

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

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).

LGBT History Walk around Bath

Sunday 5 February 2012, 2pm to 3:30pm

Meet by the War Memorial in Queen’s Parade, Bath.  Free event.

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. For details phone 0800 321 3083.
Free event, but a donation to OutStories Bristol would be welcome.

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

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

“Changing Images of Trans People in Speculative Literature”  Cheryl Morgan

Thursday 2nd February 2012,  7pm – 9pm

Hydra Books, 34 Old Market Street, Bristol BS2 0EZ.  Free event.

The availability of magic and advanced science has allowed writers of fantasy and science fiction literature to explore issues of gender in their work. Hugo Award winning critic, Cheryl Morgan, explores how the way in which trans characters have been portrayed in speculative literature has changed as real trans people have become better known to the general public.

Cheryl Morgan is, to her knowledge, the only out trans person ever to have won science fiction’s highest honour, the Hugo Award. Born in Somerset, she has lived in Australia and California and now resides near Bath where she runs a small ebook publishing company and bookstore. She blogs regularly at www.cheryl-morgan.com.

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

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

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

Come to the OutStories Bristol inaugural general meeting at 7pm on Monday, 10th October 2011 at The Council House, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR.

OutStories Bristol was established in 2008 as an informal group of interested people. But, a formal structure is now required for dealing with public bodies. We need a constitution and membership.

Please come to this meeting to sign-up and have a say on the constitution. A copy of the agenda and the proposed constitution is available by e-mail or by post on request to lgbt-historyofbristol@live.co.uk