Throughout my education, I was taught about the likes of Emily Dickinson, Frida Kahlo and Marie Antoinette – but I was never taught about their queerness. Yes, historians really read Emily Dickinson’s love letters to Susan Gilbert (“Now, farewell, Susie… I add a kiss, shyly, lest there is somebody there! Don’t let them see, will you Susie?”) and thought that they were just “best gal pals”. Suffice to say, queer erasure is nothing new. However, it’s not just LGBTQIA history from centuries gone by that faces this. The horrors of our not-so-distant past, such as Section 28, the UK law that banned teachers from “promoting homosexuality”, are frequently swept under the rug. How can we avoid the past repeating itself if we are not taught about it? I spoke with a range of LGBTQIA folk aged 50+ to find out about their lives then and now.
LGBTQIA LIFE IN… THE 70S
Language is always evolving. Not too long ago, the label “queer” was a derogative term, mostly used against homosexual men. However, many within the community have now reclaimed this
