#lgbt uk

[delusivextay]

little update

[loudestcloud]

Alice Litman got on the Gender clinic waiting list at 16 and died at 20 because of the waiting. I have had to wait the exact same time but now I keep thinking about how I'll always be waiting longer than her now. She'll never get to transition, it was robbed from her. I'll think of her every step I take now. No one should have to wait 4 years, let alone the now expected 10.

[sir-klauz]

It is historically accurate that medieval queers in England only eat Pink Porridge.

[ofcloudlessclimbs]

Not to be gay, but I’m so ready to go on museum dates & take photos of my future gf because their the art. I’m so ready to hold their hands while I’m going down on them, I’m so ready to be filled with love knowing it’s for them & only them. Yeah, not to be gay.

[b-is-for-borderline]

Trans-tumblr, I need advice.

(Gay cis man in the uk for context)

So basically at my work organisation, we have a pride lanyard, but my department made their own lanyard and are pressuring people to ditch personalised lanyards (including the pride lanyard work gave people who were lgbt)

I haven't given up my lanyard yet (I will not do so unless expressly ordered) but I have been protesting this pressure in my own way. My main one has been adopting the Progress pride flag (the one withe the trans and blm arrows) pin as part of my uniform, putting the PPF on my noticeboard, and am now my departments representative for the orgs LGBTQ+ Network.

This led to a *lot* of students asking, or demanding, to know if I'm trans. So I need Trans approval for something.

Basically, I wanna lean into this to help trans visability. I wanna buy trans-flag colours, get motivational pin ups for my office, and theres a reslly cool "trans women are women" pendant I wanna buy and wear at work.

But, ofc, this means that at first instance, I am knowingly letting a lot of students think I'm trans at first instance, when I 100% am not, just to double-tap them to learn more about lgbtq people.

Trans community, is this a problem for you? I'm not pretending to be trans but actively am leaning into peoples stereotypes (mainly wearing trans pride things and being uber supportive) to direct them in the right direction.

Also @agoddamnedrayofsunshine tagging you cause you have the best opinions on things like this.

[guitarsanddeathstars]

🌈

[bexs989]

[midnightsuggestion]

santorini u were a dream

[salted-caramel-tea]

hi hello happy pride month !!! been thinking a lot recently and not a lot of people are aware of queer history outside of the states so I thought it'd be fun to explore the history of lgbt rights and community in the UK!!

Criminalisation and Abolition

this is going to be condensed as possible so bear with me. To start as a general statement, sodomy was illegal across the UK for a good majority of history. The earliest date I can find was an English bill from 1533 making sodomy punishable by death, and this law was extended to Wales (1543) and Ireland (1634), but was not applied to Scotland. This doesn't mean we were any better we had a similar bill although i'm struggling to find out when it was introduced.

The death penalty for sodomy was overturned in 1861 and instead was punishable by 10 years imprisonment, but this decision only effected England, Ireland and Wales, Scotland was excluded on grounds of 'civil attitudes', or the idea that sodomy was not well accepted in these nations. Scotland followed suit with the abolition of the death penalty in 1887.

this isn't that great it was still illegal to commit any homosexual act at this point as stated by the Criminal Law Amendment in 1885, which was actually used to send Oscar Wilde to jail- that one is for the straight guy literacy nerds who still in the year 2022 say people were exaggerating calling him gay, he was literally arrested for homosexuality .

it stayed that way until 1967, the introduction of the Sexual offences Act partially legalised private homosexual activity between men over the age of 21 in England Northern Ireland and Wales, and it took another 13 years literally it was 1980 when Scotland made the same amendments. Its important to note that female homosexuality was never explicitly discussed in legislation on the basis that it was harder to prove and that politicians were scared that the sheer mention of it would encourage women to pursue lesbianism.

Scotland was the first to legalise same sex marriage in February 2014 with England and Wales following suit a month later, but it wasn't until 2020 that Northern Ireland passed a bill legalising same sex marriage.

Researching bills protecting transgender rights in history is a little harder but I can say that the earliest legal thing I can find would be that transgender people have been changing their sex on legal documents and passports since 1970, and again 1999 amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act that states that discrimination of people based on their gender reassignment in the workplace is prohibited. It was declassified as a mental health condition in 2002, although was instead classified as a "widely recognised medical condition". 2006 saw the Equality Act and Gender Equality duty in Scotland that included transsexualism under basic equality and discrimination and that harassment was to ben taken as a serious mater and includes all transgender people.

there is still a long way to go, especially in regards to transgender rights and protection with Bills realted to banning conversion therapy being dropped and trans girls being banned from most girls private schools as well as transphobic microaggressions in politics and education and general public attitudes as well as legally recognising nonbinary identities (Mx titles and nb indicators in schools are allowed).

Community and Pride

Did the criminalisation of homosexuality stop anyone? absolutely not.

as early as 1603 King James VI of Scotland (and I of England) was presumed to have had homosexual preferences. The son of Mary Queen was written by historian Pauline Gregg to have said 'You may be assured that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else and more than you who are here assembled... Christ had his John and I have my George'. ok

anyway there's so many things to cover so I won't be able to get to everything but the LGBT+ community made up such a large and vibrant subculture of cities across the UK. the 19th century has the introduction of 'Molly-houses' which were essentially taverns, coffee-houses or social situations for homosexual men to socialise with and pursue each other. there was also a large fashion element in gay culture including the 'Macaroni' culture which referred to men who dressed flamboyantly or with a sense of femininity. this would involve waistcoats with a floral patterned silk or softer colours as apposed to the standard plain fashion of the 19th century and into the 20th century.

The First pride parade was held in 1972 as a political movement in response to the treatment of queer individuals by the police force and the Stonewall riots in New York a few years prior. Attendants from the 1978 pride event were seen wearing multitudes of badges like these but not limited to these

Important ones to note here are the pink triangle worn worldwide to remember the gay men who died as a result of nazi incarceration during the Second World War, and the 'Scrap the Section' Pin referencing the bill that was passed in the UK prohibiting the publication or teachings of ideas which may 'promote homosexuality' which directly affected areas like schools and libraries .

A lot of jewellery worn by WLW in this time reflects the labrys, a double sided axe that was associated with the Amazons, to subtly display their pride as a lot of different identities did in a society that could have them fired, publicly outed or arrested.

Hidden Identity

honestly I just wanted to fight the idea that being queer was a new thing. so here's some cool queer ppl that u might find interesting

1812 Dr James Barry earned a degree from the Edinburgh school of medicine, after death he was discovered to have been assigned female at birth

English novelist Mary Shelley aids her novelist friend Walter Sholto Douglass (pen name David Lyndsay) in gaining a passport so he can travel to frabce with his fiancé and helps to make that reflect his identity as male in 1827

look we can go back to roman Britain and talk about the grave of a transwoman Gallus, who transitioned to become a priestess serving under Cybele from around 229 AD

Obviously Oscar Wilde was a huge MLM figure in the 19th century i love the picture of Dorian Gray

The first female doctor in Scottish history, Sophia Jex Blake, graduated from the University in Edinburgh and retires in 1899 to live with her partner Dr Margret Todd.

Great Welsh artist Gwen John was known to have affairs with both men and women throughout her life although never settled down and was largely outcast in her later life.

Former spitfire pilot Roberta Cowell became the first woman to receive vaginoplasty in 1951, and had a successful career as a racer driver after transitioning

Irish pirate Anne Bonny and English Pirate Mary Read both confessed their identity as female to the other after admitting that they experienced a romantic attraction to the other

there’s so many things to talk about that i didn’t get round to - like the governments handling of the aids crisis and protesting throughout u.k. history how, the experience of queer women and a lot more but it’s so long already but my point is . learn your history . know your history

[delusivextay]

took a step out of my comfort zone

[loudestcloud]

Hey! Look on the bright side, they're no longer aloud legally psychologically fuck us up!

Remember tho, they're REALLY gonna puch this instead of what else they're doing

[animentality]

[i-like-rocks22]

Dear anyone who has ever reblogged anything I have written, please know I am kissing you on the mouth.

[ofcloudlessclimbs]

It’s daddy 2 you.

[b-is-for-borderline]

I graduated from my PhD (law) today and I accidentally outed myself by saying "Parents often want you to bring home a nice Lawyer or Doctor. My future fella is going to get a 2 in 1 deal" in my graduation post without thinking fella = boi cause my humour is just that good.

I now have over 50 unread messages I am not dealing with right now.

Well LGBT peeps, I'm now publically part of the Heinz Alphabetti People now.

[mywitchcultblr]