February is LGBT History Month, so I thought we could take a look at what LSBU’s archives can tell us about the LGBT experience at the university in the past. It isn’t always easy to find this sort of information, sexuality it rarely noted in university records so we have no real idea of what life would have been like as a gay lecturer, for example. There are some more clues about life as an LGBT student though, thanks to the student magazines and handbooks.
Student handbooks in the 1970s call for a GaySoc to be set up, but it was 1979 before it actually was. Whether this was due to social stigma or student reluctance is hard to tell, but the handbooks pointed students to other sources of advice such as the Albany Trust helpline and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, meaning that support was available.
The 1977 Rag Week Magazine hasn’t survived into the archives, but appears to have been a demonstration of all the attitudes that the then Polytechnic’s LGBT students would have been uncomfortable with. Complaints about it, sent to the regular magazine include:
A tirade of unfunny “jokes” about Irish, Blacks and Lesbians
My particular concern is an offensive and narrow view of lesbians taken by the said [editor] and expressed in the most banal way in the magazine… I personally, as a feminist and lesbian, wish to express my distaste for such ******* rubbish in order to ease the minds of other lesbians in the college who are too oppressed (because of such halfwits as [editor] to do so themselves.
In writing this as a lesbian in the fortunate position of being able to identify myself as such I take issue with those on the Rag Committee who see choice of sexual orientation as a laughing matter (from the VP Finance)
In total the complaints made came to three pages of the magazine.
The magazines were more positive in the 1980s, in the first edition of the 1983 magazine Right Off there was a small section specifically on “Gay Ents” detailing where meetings were, when the lunchtime social was and promoting the stall at the Freshers’ Fair. There was also a whole column (below, right) on the Society encouraging students to join and offering help for any who felt they needed someone to talk to.
In 1986, the student magazine were asked by the Polytechnic to be the front of the AIDS campaign that was running. As a result, the magazine had the striking cover below and an article about the AIDS epidemic. The articles in the following editions of the magazine are encouraging about the campaign and refreshingly lacking in the bad taste jokes that some of the 70s magazines seem to have!
It was all a bit more fun in the 1990s, the student magazines had stopped running by then but the handbook was still going. As well as being an invaluable source of advice on all aspects of student life, it also had more specific advice for students who weren’t “White, hetty or male”, as the picture below shows.
The GaySoc became the Lesbian and Gay Society and is now the LGBTQ+ Society: https://www.lsbsu.org/organisation/LGBT/ As when it was founded back in 1979, it’s there for advice and campaigns, as well as for events.
If you want to find our more about any of the archives mentioned in this blog, please contact: Archives@lsbu.ac.uk
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