Wednesday, 22 January 2025
LGBTQIA+ History Month raises awareness of the community's history, celebrates our successes and people, and progresses towards a more equitable future.
LGBTQIA+ History Month is celebrated every February and the theme for 2025 is 'Activism and Social Change'.
Recognition months, such as LGBT History Month, help us direct our attention and learn about the specific challenges encountered by groups with protected characteristics.
At the University of Nottingham, we aim to ensure that our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is celebrated annually. For 2025, we have an exciting and diverse range of events, activities, and celebrations our university community can get involved in. These include film screenings, talks and workshops, as well as opportunities to get hands-on and creative as well as to ask questions and learn about LGBTQIA+ identities.
Get involved on social media with hashtags #SocialActivism #LGBTplusHM.
Week 1
- LGBT and Neurodivergency - LGBTQIA+ History Month Talk
Monday 03 February 2025, 5.30pm
A29, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, Sutton Bonington
No booking required, drop in
Final year student shares her personal experience on being neurodivergent and LGBT. Come along and listen to how both ND and LGBT experiences can go together and impact each other.
- Ask Me My Pronouns (QMC)
Wednesday 05 February 2025, Midday-2pm
Queens Medical Centre Campus Foyer, QMC
No booking required, just drop in
We're hosting drop-in stands across four locations to celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month 2025 and encourage more people to wear pronoun badges.
Week 2
- Nottingham Lions vs. Homophobia Football Tournament
Saturday 8 February 2024, 2pm-6pm
Gresham Park
Show up and cheer, or contact Nick Choudhury to join the team
A competitive but friendly tournament, all abilities/genders are welcome as the main aim is to raise awareness and take a stand against Homophobia in football! Teams from all over the country and local community unite to promote togetherness.
- LGBT Experience in Practice - LGBTQIA+ History Month Talk
Monday 10 February 2025, 5.30pm
A29, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, Sutton Bonington Campus
No booking required, just drop in
Former School of Veterinary Medicine and Science student shares their experience as LGBT in practice Come and listen to Felix’s story about life beyond the university.
- Ask Me My Pronouns (Jubilee Campus)
Tuesday 11 February 2025, Midday-2pm
Advanced Manufacturing Building Foyer, Jubilee Campus
No booking required, just drop in
We're hosting drop-in stands across four locations to celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month 2025 and encourage more people to wear pronoun badges.
- LGBTQIA+ Community Pride Event
Tuesday 11 February 2025, 5-7pm
Social Space, Psychology Building, University Park
Everyone is welcome - just drop-in
Join us for our LGBTQIA+ Community Pride Event, which includes a talk and discussion around this year's theme of 'activism', followed by a quiz night with prizes. We'll have free pizza and nibbles.
- Ask Me My Pronouns (University Park)
Wednesday 12 February 2025, Midday-2pm
Coates Building Reception, University Park
No booking required, just drop in
We're hosting drop-in stands across four locations to celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month 2025 and encourage more people to wear pronoun badges.
- LGBTQIA+ and Allies Cafe Drop In (Sutton Bonington)
Wednesday 12 February 2025, Midday-2pm
Bonington Cafe, Sutton Bonington Campus
No booking requited, just drop in
Come any time between 12pm-2pm. We're open to all members of the LGBTQIA+ community, their allies and those who'd like to learn more.
- LGBTIQ+ Asylum and Religion: Individual Faith, Community Belonging, and Divine Asylum Advocacy
Wednesday 12 February 2025, Midday
B55, Law and Social Science Building, University Park
No booking is required, just drop in
ICEMiC (Identities, Citizenship, Equalities and Migration Centre) and School Sociology and Social Policy
- Fiction, History, Activism: A Conversation with Juliet Jacques
Wednesday 12 February, 4pm
Senate Chamber, Trent Building, University Park
No booking required, just drop in
For more information, please contact Dr Joel Evans
A Q&A with Juliet Jacques, author of, among other works, Trans: A Memoir (2015), Variations (2021), and The Woman in the Portrait (2024).
- Queer and Ally SB Quiz
Thursday 13 February 2025, 5.30pm
The Hive, Sutton Bonnington Campus
Sign up
Hosted in The Hive at our Sutton Bonnington Campus our Queer and Ally SB quiz is open to all LGBTQIA+ and ally staff and students. A fun social event we're hosting with prizes for the winning team.
Week 3
- Fab-Lab-ulous Show and Activities
Saturday 15 February2025, Drop-in activities Midday-4pm; Show1pm-3pm
Broadway Cinema, 14-18 Broad St, Nottingham NG1 3AL
Booking TBC
Families are welcomed to attend this Fab-LAB-ulous history of science show, highlighting queer figures from science and their work in different science fields. Alongside the show you will find hands on interactive stands run by staff and students at the University of Nottingham.
- Punching Above its Weight - Nottingham in the Context of Britain's Queer History
Tuesday 18 February 2025, 11am-1pm
B46, Trent Building, University Park
Register online
This public lecture, delivered by guest speaker David Edgley from Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage, will offer a brief survey of the UK’s queer history, heritage and activism, with a focus on those relevant to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. It will start with the 1885 Labouchere amendment and include the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, the banning of The Well of Loneliness, the 1948 Kinsey report, the arrest of Alan Turing, the outing of April Ashley and the 1967 Sexual Offences Act and its deficiencies leading up to Section 28. It will then move on to the positive legislation from 2000 onwards. This workshop type of public lecture may include interactive ‘thought exercises’ about what constitutes homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and how to deal with them.
Speaker: David Edgley (Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage) | Chair: Dr Hongwei Bao (Associate Professor in Media Studies)
Accessibility information: The venue is wheelchair friendly
Speaker’s Bio: David Edgley was born in 1945. He did a postgraduate course at the University of Nottingham in 1966. He was involved with gay rights group CHE between 1971 and 1982. He helped start Notts LGBT+ Network (formerly Switchboard) in 1975 and acted as treasurer and fundraiser for that group for 35 years. He launched Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage LGBT+ history project in 2008 and provided LGBT+ awareness training for over 100 organisations/groups. David produced newsletters for several organisations: Chimaera (1972-82) for CHE; I'm Free for Outhouse/Switchboard (2003-5); QB for GAI project/Switchboard (1998-2003) and for Switchboard/Network (2005-2024); Notts Rainbow Review for Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage (2024 onward).
- Queer Histories of Eastern Europe
Tuesday 18 February 2025, 5.30pm
A18, Lenton Grove, University Park
Everyone welcome, no booking required
For queries contact Kate Law
Join members of the history department and external speaker Dr Siobhán Hearne (Manchester) to examine queer histories of Poland and Russia. The event will include short presentations from Dr Hearne, Dr Abigail Karas and Dr Sam Knapton as well as a roundtable discussion on the state of LGBTQ+ rights in Central and Eastern Europe today.
- LGBTQIA+ and Allies Cafe Drop In (University Park)
Wednesday 19 February 2025, Midday-2pm
Cafe Oasis, University Park
No booking required, just drop in
Come any time between 12pm-2pm. We're open to all members of the LGBTQIA+ community, their allies and those who'd like to learn more.
- LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in STEM with LEGO Serious Play
Wednesday 19 February 2025, 1.30pm-3pm
C30 Physics, University Park Campus
Register online
What does it mean to feel included within STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths). Through this session we will explore the challenges in STEM, past and present, facing LGBTQIA+ people and examples of building inclusion within STEM.
The session with included two Lego serious play activities and the opportunity to hear from internal and external speakers on how they have built inclusion or found LGBT+ community within STEM spaces.
- LGBT History Month Walking Tour
Wednesday 19 February 2025, 2pm
In the City Market square starting point.
Sign up
Join the School of Education on a walking tour of Nottingham City LGBT landmarks and learn about these locations' role in the history of Nottingham's LGBT community.
- Queer Pizza and Paint Night
Thursday 20 February 2025, 5-7pm
CLAS Common Room, B10 Trent Building
Book online - places limited
Join us to celebrate LGBTQIA+ art and activism in a relaxed, friendly environment. Plus, there’s pizza! Led by Assistant Professor in Art History, Dr. Isobel Esltob, and a local artist (TBC), attendees will have the opportunity to explore queer identity, culture, and activism through art.
Enjoy an evening where you can make connections and create your paintings inspired by the Nottingham queer art scene. You'll also have the chance to showcase your work in a post-session exhibition and on the CLAS Instagram. Everyone is welcome, so we hope to see you there!
Week 4
- LGBTQIA+ and Allies Cafe Drop In (Sutton Bonington)
Wednesday 27 February 2025, Midday-2pm
Bonington Cafe, Sutton Bonington Campus
No booking required, just drop in
Come any time between 12pm-2pm. We're open to all members of the LGBTQIA+ community, their allies and those who'd like to learn more.
- Everyday activism over coffee
Thursday 27 February 2025, 1-3.30pm
B8, Arts Centre - Department of Music , University Park
Our event will create a welcoming and ordinary atmosphere to celebrate the small-scale, local-level, and familiar as potentially radical. Space, prompts, and materials will encourage participants to reflect on LGBTQIA+ activism and social change in their immediate surroundings.
The session is inspired by Agnes Heller’s philosophy of everyday life. Heller believed that it is in our day-to-day surroundings that we learn the skills to become ourselves. The everyday can however be invisible in its ordinariness. It is by consciously reflecting on the commonplace that self-expression and collective freedom can be pursued.
Inviting participants to reflect on what they do or could do in their immediate surroundings to foster social change will share the idea that social activism is accessible. We all have familiar routines, relationships, and surroundings that can be reappreciated and reimagined.
Using everyday items such as recipe cards, coasters, paper plates, and art materials to adapt these, ideas for everyday activism will be co-created. Participant’s suggestions for micro-level initiatives that can be easily incorporated into familiar routines, to positively change mindsets or behaviours, will be stimulated, collated, and shared.
All month
- LGBTQIA+ at UoN Libraries
- Pop by the games zones in most of our libraries to make your own flag from 3 February.
- Join our in-person crafting session at George Green Library on Wednesday 19 February from 10am – 12 noon
- Find your next great read with our in library displays and online reading list of your recommended titles by LGBTQIA+ writers or that explore LGBTQIA+ culture and history
- Help us to diversify our leisure reading collection by sharing your suggestions for titles from underrepresented voices.
- Queer STEM Trail
03-28 February 2025
- University Park (science area) – start in the ESLC
- Jubilee Campus – start in The Exchange
- Sutton Bonnington – start in the Barn
Sign up
Take a break and discover fascinating stories of LGBTQIA+ people, history and science. You can start the trail at UP (science area), SB or JC campus.
Answer the questions linked to the trail posters to claim your prize from one of the supporting school receptions.
Collection of prizes on a first come first served basis from supporting receptions (revealed on completion) between 9-4pm.
- Celebrating Lesbian Activism: Researching the history of Nottingham's Lesbian Centre
Look out for the Nottingham Feminist Archive Group who will have a presence at relevant events during LGBTQIA+ History Month and beyond, recruiting interviewees for their research into the history of Nottingham’s Lesbian Centre, the Black Lesbian Group, and Lesbian activism in the East Midlands in the 1970s-1990s. The interviews, along with photos, ephemera, magazines and other materials collected, will be added to the East Midlands Feminist Archive at Manuscripts and Special Collections.
Learn more on our website
- LGBTQIA+ History Month Mini-Exhibition
Throughout February
Atrium, Dearing Building, Jubilee Campus
Open to visit - no booking needed.
Mini exhibition and campaign within the School of Education including on screens across the building, postings on Moodle, announcements for staff via SharePoint and promotion on newsletters.
TBC
- Chinese Film Screening and Q&A of Love Bound
Wednesday 19 February, 5-7pm (TBC)
Location TBC
A film screening and director Q&A session for the recently released Chinese independent documentary film Love Bound.
This film follows the story of LGBTQ+ activist Qiuyan Chen, who gained fame in the 2010s for her legal fight against homophobic university textbooks. However, this led to her being outed, subjected to conversion therapy, and monitored by the Chinese government. Fleeing to the UK, she met her partner Bling but faced further struggles. Shanshan Chen’s documentary, Love Bound, explores Qiuyan’s activism, focusing on her efforts to create a supportive community for queer East Asians in the UK, highlighting themes of love, resilience, and activism.
- Ask Me My Pronouns (Sutton Bonington)
Thursday 13 February and Wednesday 26 February
Midday-2pm (TBC)
The Barn, Sutton Bonington
No booking required, just drop in
We're hosting drop-in stands across four locations to celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month 2025 and encourage more people to wear pronoun badges.
- Let's Talk - Pride in Sport
Wednesday 26 February 2025, Midday-2pm (TBC)
The Barn, Sutton Bonington
No booking required, just drop in