Using archives, oral history and cultural artefacts, the research team, led by Dr Tom Hulme from the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s, and Dr Leanne McCormick, from the School of Arts & Humanities at Ulster University, are asking for participants from the public to come forward and share their experiences to recover this hidden history.

Speaking about the project, Dr Hulme from Queen’s said: “Until now, public knowledge of this history has mostly been concerned with intolerance and stories of those activists who struggled to change attitudes from the 1970s onwards. But there is a longer and untold history of hidden lives, encounters and relationships we are keen to tell.”

The team are eager to hear from the public about hidden histories and lives that were less conventional before 1982. Areas of interest include:

•  Sexual orientation.
• Were members of your family, friends of the LGBTQ+ community?
• Experiences of socialising, of meeting places, of how relationships began and continued from that time.
• Attitudes and experiences, or things that perhaps might be understood differently today.

“We are interested in both the negative and the positive experiences to try and understand what it was like to be LGBTQ+ in the past, and are also searching for letters, diaries and photographs that tell the stories and the hidden histories,” added Dr McCormick from Ulster University.

If you are interested in participating in the project or would like to find out more, please email queerhistoryni@gmail.com or phone/leave a message on Tel: 02895367116. All inquiries will be treated with respect and contributors to the project will be offered the option of anonymity.

To find out more about the project, please visit: www.queerhistoryni.com

Media

Media enquiries to Queen’s Communications Office on email: comms.office@qub.ac.uk or Tel: (028) 9097 3091.