LGBT HISTORY MONTH

LGBT HERITAGE PROJECT // LGBT HISTORY MONTH

History in the making during LGBT History month

The launch of Northern Ireland’s LGBT Heritage Project on 27th February was a spectacle as project co-ordinator Dr Richard O’Leary donned his 1980s leather ‘gay clone’ outfit for the occasion.

Richard told the audience gathered at the Ulster Museum that “The LGBT community has a history which for too long has been hidden. Our aim is to interview older LGBT persons to preserve their stories for future generations and to share them with the wider community. We have also begun to collect artefacts – objects of historical significance for our community - which it is intended to eventually put on public display”

He unveiled the first artefact that has been donated to the project – one of the original telephones used by Cara-Friend – the LGBT support group which was set up in Belfast in 1974. The audience at the launch at the Ulster Museum also enjoyed a story told by Heather Fleming about life as a lesbian in Belfast in the 1970s.

Jim McGreevy of The National Lottery Heritage Fund who are funding the two year project added: “This is the first largescale LGBT+ project to be funded by us in Northern Ireland and I am delighted to attend the project launch in what is LGBT History Month. Without this project the heritage of the local LGBT+ community is in real danger of being lost”.

The project is led by HEReNI working in partnership with the Rainbow Project and Cara-Friend. The launch event brought together members of the LGBT community and some of the cultural institutions who are already engaging with the Project – notably National National Museums NI, the Linen Hall Library, PRONI and Queen’s University Belfast.

If you are an LGBT person aged 40+ and are available to be interviewed for this Project or would like to donate artefacts or if you have any other interest in the Project please contact the