The Heritage Lottery Fund supported us to produce a project about sexuality for young people - that's how Rewriting History came about.

A group of young people researched Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) history and conducted interviews to produce this resource. It is designed to help teachers to bring the contributions of LGBT people into the curriculum and the wider school environment, as well as for use in youth groups.

In a world where to call something “gay” is a negative judgement it is important to show that being LGBT is neither a negative thing nor is it something that can stop you making positive contributions.

Why LGBT history?

This resource looks at certain key moments and issues of the last 50 years of British LGBT history. In a sense there is no such thing as LGBT history separate from the rest of history. But the category has arisen to counteract the trend whereby LGBT lives, contributions and achievements are erased. This resource is part of an effort to ‘re-write’ history to address those gaps and silences. The idea is neither to make heroes nor victims of LGBT people, but to celebrate and commemorate. 

People who are LGBT have made contributions to society in a number of fields, from science to literature, and politics to the arts. Since homosexuality was partially decriminalised in 1967, there has been significant change on both the legal and social fronts, and this resource explores these legal and social developments.

Looking at history helps us to understand the present and how we got here. This resource encourages us to ask questions about how societal change occurs, about the relative roles of changes in the law and social attitudes, the nature of community and communities, and how prejudice affects people, and arguably more importantly, how it can be overcome.

Who is LGBT history for?

For people who are LGBT, having role models who are LGBT and seeing LGBT contributions, both historical and contemporary, can lead to improved self-esteem which translates into better health, educational achievement and general well-being. But it is not only those who are LGBT who stand to gain from learning about LGBT history. Everyone stands to gain.

LGBT people have a role in history, and when these contributions are acknowledged alongside other contributions, homo/transphobia becomes less likely. A society that is open and accepting, where homo/transphobia and other forms of prejudice and discrimination are absent, is a better society for all. People who are LGBT are not the only ones at the receiving end of homo/transphobia. Those who are perceived to be LGBT or who have an LGBT parent or other family member are also likely to encounter homo/transphobia. 

How to use this resource

The units of this resource are overlapping and there are a number of ways to approach the themes. For instance, rather than a separate unit on media, there are activities addressing the media throughout the units. Each unit contains different sections. In this pdf you will find the main issues for each section outlined, with suggested activities and exercises. The appendices pdf contains photos, quotes and all other supporting material for the suggested activities. Of course, you can also use this material in a number of ways.

This resource has been developed to be a cross-curricular. Rather than having an “LGBT History Lesson” this resource can be used in a range of subjects, including citizenship, PSHE, English, history, media, drama, art, ICT etc.

For an excellent and comprehensive timeline of LGBT history produced by the Hall Carpenter Archives

The young people who worked on this resource are:

Holly Beckett
Stuart James Redfern
Danielle-Lacey Ryan
Joseph Ronan
Colin Warriner
Jasmine Wynter
Ashley Yin-Campbell