Here’s every Bristol Uni event celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month

LGBTQ+ History Month is an annual celebration that takes place every February to increase the visibility of LGBTQ+ people, their history and their experiences.

While it provides everyone with a chance to celebrate and reflect on the progress that has been made for LGBTQ+ rights, it also allows for time to acknowledge the barriers that are still present in our society and the importance of continuing to fight to remove these barriers.

A theme is chosen each year to help create a focal point for celebrations, and this year’s theme is “Behind the Lens”, which aims to celebrate the contributions of LGBTQ+ people in the world of film and cinema.

This year the University of Bristol and the Student Union (SU) are working in collaboration with the University of the West of England (UWE) to create and host a series of events for students and staff from both universities.

@uoblgbtplus

Events

Monday 13^th of February – PRISM Exeter’s Speakers series will be taking place for a fifth year, as LGBTQ+ individuals working in the STEMM sector will be providing brilliant autobiographical talks. The talks will be given by physicist Dr David Newman and Booking.com tech recruiter and Isca Apollo FC founder Lewis Bell. These will be held in person at Exeter Library at 6.30 pm or on Zoom at 6.50 pm.

Tuesday 14^th of February – performance artist Astro-Zenica will be performing their show “Switchboard”, which 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. This event is being held at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm.

@astrozenica_

Wednesday 15^th of February – Claire Mead, a sword lesbian public historian, and Cheryl Morgan, former Co-chair of Outstories Bristol, will be providing a talk that explores the life of Julie d’Aubigny, looking at how her sword fighting intersected with ideas of queerness in early modern France. Their online talk, taking place from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm, will also look at how Julie’s life has inspired new LGBTQ+ and feminist retellings.

Friday 17^th of February – a chance to meet up with new people from the LGBTQ+ community in a casual environment, where you can discuss what LGBTQ+ History Month means to you. This will be happening in the Balloon Bar, at the Bristol SU, from 5 pm until 7 pm.

Tuesday 21^st  of February – Cheryl Morgan will be providing a second talk alongside Kim Renshaw, a Postgraduate Researcher at UWE who is researching gender, sexuality, and lesbian identities. They will be delving into the life of Aleksandr Aleksandrov and looking at recent research about ‘The Cavalry Maiden’ in an hour-long online event starting at 6.30 pm.

Friday 24^th of February – a screening of the movie Portrait of a Lady on Fire will be taking place in the Biomedical Science Building at the University of Bristol from 6 pm. The movie is about an affair between an aristocrat and a painter she has commissioned to do her wedding portrait.

Find out more about all of these events by clicking here.

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