LGBTQIA+ History Month has been celebrated throughout February at the university every year since 2005.

Its purpose is to raise awareness of LGBTQIA+ history, celebrate people within the LGBTQIA+ community and make progress towards a more equitable future.

For 2024, we have an exciting and diverse range of events, activities, and celebrations our university community can get involved in.

These include film screenings, talks and workshops, as well as opportunities to get hands on and creative as well as to ask questions and learn about LGBTQIA+ identities.

Find a full list of events to get involved with for this year’s LGBT+ History Month celebrations here.

Highlights of the months programme include:

LGBTQIA+ reading list – borrow and suggest titles throughout February in all UoN Libraries

Find your next good read with Libraries’ LGBTQIA+ reading list of staff and student suggested titles including award-winning fiction, graphic novels, essay collections, poetry and more. Do you have a favourite book by an LGBTQIA+ writer that’s missing from the list? Let Libraries know by completing the online form. Libraries will add suggestions to the shared reading list and purchase as many of the titles as possible.

Most titles from the reading list are available from our libraries in print or ebook format. Click through on the reading list to check availability on NUsearch, its location in our libraries or to place a Click and Collect request.

Poster Competition: LGBTQIA+ Scientists – Hidden Histories
When: Deadline for poster submissions is Monday 5 February at 5pm
How: Please email entries to naturalsciences@nottingham.ac.uk with the subject “LGBT+ Poster Competition”.

This LGBT+ History Month we are celebrating the “hidden histories” of LGBTQIA+ scientists, whose achievements have often been undermined or ignored because of their LGBTQIA+ identity. We are looking for students to produce a poster of a LGBTQIA+ scientist to raise awareness of their contributions to science.

All posters will be printed and displayed at our celebration event in February. The winner of the competition will receive a goodie bag, including a UoN hoodie of their choice.

Screening of ‘Are You Proud?’ for LGBTQIA+ History Month
Tuesday 6 February, 12pm-2pm
LG140 – Screening Room in Hallward Library, University Park campus

To celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month, we’ll be screening the 2019 documentary ‘Are You Proud?’. Combining rare archive footage and interviews across a spectrum of historical campaigns and current activists, this film celebrates the LGBTQIA+ Pride movement’s landmark achievements in the United Kingdom.

We’ll also be joined by Ella Guerin from the School of Health Sciences whose research focuses on health inequalities faced by LGBTQIA+ people, as well as the opportunity to feedback on the topic: What can the university do to make it a more inclusive and safe space for staff and students?

Book a space onto the event here (click Join the Guestlist).

Please note due to room size, we have a limited capacity for this event and will be working on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are no longer able to attend the event, please contact Jessica Chilton, so your space can be re-allocated.

Queer Café (Sutton Bonington Campus)
Thursday 8 February, 12.30pm-2.30pm,
The Nest, The Barn, Sutton Bonington Campus

Queer Café for students and staff along with allies, to come together to chat, eat, drink, and socialise. Activities available to engage with, along with LGBTQIA+ Quiz where one lucky winner will receive a £20 Amazon voucher!

Please book your place via MyWellbeing.

Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask – Exhibition
Saturday 13 January – Sunday 17 March
Free Admission, Angear Visitor Centre, University Park campus
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm; Sunday, 12noon-4pm

Born Lucy Schwob, Cahun adopted her pseudonym in 1917 to free herself from the narrow confines imposed on her sex. At the beginning of her artistic career, she was aligned to the Surrealist movement but distanced herself both physically and politically after fleeing France on the eve of Nazi occupation. With her lifelong partner (Marcel Moore, née Suzanne Malherbe), Cahun settled in Jersey and embarked upon her defining photographic series. In these now famous self portraits, she explores a fluid gender and the constructed nature of identity.

Find out more about the exhibition.

Decolonising Drag: Drag Up! Film Screening and Director’s Q&A
Monday 26 February, 11am-1pm
Trent LG11 and online via Teams
Register for the event here

In June 2023, seven young, queer, and Chinese-identifying people signed up for a performance art project in East London. In this month-long community art project, they would learn about what is drag and how to perform it, discover their queer Chinese heritage, and explore ways to de-westernise and decolonise drag. The training was hard but also fun. Most nerve-wracking of all, they would put on a live show in front of an audience. On a roller-coaster journey of self-discovery, they would find out about what their identity, community and politics means to drag.

This event will screen the 52-minute documentary Drag Up! (directed by Qianlin Wang, 2023) about the Drag Up! Project, a community art project that took place in London in 2023, and Q&A with the project producer Dr Hongwei Bao and drag artist and workshop convenor Felicia Jiang. All welcome!

LGBTQIA+ Cozy
Wednesday 28 February, 5pm-7pm *** Moved from original date – Tuesday 27 February ***
The Hive, Sutton Bonington Campus
No booking required, free to attend.

People are invited to drop into an LGBTQIA+ History Month celebration event at The Hive at Sutton Bonington. We will be hosting the results of the photography competition and have lots of activities for you to get involved in. Food and refreshments will be available.

This is an open event to the LGBTQIA+ community and allies. This event will celebrate all that is unique about the LGBTQIA+ community, where members can openly celebrate their identities — identities that have been stigmatized and criminalised throughout history. It will be a space for respecting the concept of being “out and proud.” Within the community, this may mean that people will unapologetically demonstrate their personalities through their outward appearance. As allies, you can offer support, respect and openness.