Continued from Part 1 –

http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?p=4650 (accessed 23 February 2015)

Women – LGBT History Festival

Jo Stanley with face painter & artist Samina Bukhari at LGBT festival 2015

The 1990s: against violence against women

Obviously Linda Belos’ work segued into the 1990s and to today too. The 1990s were the focus of sessions including Dr Kate Cook‘s session Lesbians and Feminism. Kate spoke about ‘her involvement in the 1990s struggles to end rape and about the involvement of lesbian feminists in the movement against violence against women and girls.’

The 2000s to today: ‘usualising’, educating, exploring

And the legacy is these activist pasts is having an impact, of course, today. This was evidenced by such race-aware sessions as:

Laila El-Metoui joins LGBT themes to ESOl education

• Laila El-Metoui gave a wry, witty and lively presentation about Embedding LGBT Lives and Issues in Further Education. Using many jokes she explained why LGBT and diversity should be a part Further Education in general and the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) curriculum in particular. She shared with her audience her experience of managing LGBT projects and initiatives within the Further Education sector. They include co-ordinating Morley College’s Educate Out Prejudice (2014): (‘a project which offered practical solutions to support the inclusion of LGBT themes into the adult ESOL curriculum’, see www.equalitiestoolkit.com/content/educate–out–prejudice.)  This year she is managing The humane selfie: ‘Life gets better together’ at Working Men’s College, London, a project which aims to bring students and staff together in purposeful, mutually beneficial activities, to promote greater understanding and respect between various protected characteristics’. http://www.ccu.ac.uk/goodpracticefund/funded-projects/working-men’s-college. Laila also hosts a bi-monthly raido programme on Reel Rebel Radio. ‘OUTtakes, the tracks of my life, raises positive  awareness of the LGBTiQ population in the UK. It aims to “usualise” this often invisible community through an interview, music and chats’. 

• Lagos-born Razia Aziz, with her Muslim heritage, spoke of Spiritual Journeys. Razia explained that in her youth she was a Marxist, feminist, BME, lesbian Muslim and her politics formed her. But in a very personal, moving account she explained how her life experiences and relationships showed her the path to spirituality. Over 50 years ‘ I have often pondered upon the meaning and significance of my gender identity and sexuality in pursuit of an answer to the question we all ask at some point in our life: “What’s it all for?”   The world continues to turn, and attitudes towards gender, sex and sexuality have undergone a sea change since my own adolescence in the race and class conscious south London of the 1970s. My personal thread of a journey has woven itself both because, and in spirte of these epoch-making changes. All the while, Spirit remains luminous and unchanging, though my unfolding relationship to It is the constant and compelling source and destination of my life quest.’

Early 20C and earlier again: relationships and impersonation

But women of earlier periods were also in focus.

• In All the Nice Girls Behind The Lines theatre company gave audiences ‘an entertaining glimpse at the lives of Gwen Farrar and Norah Blaney through the eyes of male impersonator Ella Shields. Starting out in Lena Ashwell’s concert parties for the troops in WW1 the young Farrar and Blaney quickly adapted their classical ‘cello/piano act into a ‘turn’ full of repartee and physical humour. Household names in the early 1920s, Farrar and Blaney had an on and offstage partnership, singing popular love songs of the day to each other in West End Revues and living together openly. At the same time Ella Shields’ Music Hall act was in decline. All the Nice Girls imagines her fictitious reaction to the younger pair as they live the starry life of Bright Young Things. Will their relationship survive the pressures of the age and the conflicting urges to marry and conform or to party wildly into oblivion?

 All the Nice Girls: new looks at WW1 women entertainers

• “Sappho was right” :The formidable relationship of Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper, was Sonja Tiernan‘s title for her talk. She outlined the very cross-class and life-changing relationship of the daughter of big Anglo-Irish landlord and the working-class Esther Roper from 1897. Eva ‘rejected her aristocratic lifestyle, moving from an opulent mansion in the beautiful countryside of Sligo to a mid-terrace property in the smog-bound quarters of industrial Manchester’. They were together for 30 years. ‘Once labelled as a pair of oddities, it is now clear that the women were open about their relationship, mixing with an eclectic group of radical gay and lesbian activists. The couple became  formidable political advocates in England often organising successful and radical campaigns for social justice. Usiing recently uncovered letters, diaries and manuscripts, this story is a fascinating account of two women who refused to comply with the norms of society at the turn of the twentieth century.’

Sonja Tiernan: Irish women’s history

• Author Helena Whitbread went back even further, to around 1820s, tracing Anne’s Lister’s lesbian identity through her coded journal. In the last five minutes or so the ex-teacher spoke off-piste about giving up her weekends to translate the diaries. ‘This was in a sense more revealing because we realised what an incredibly time-consuming commitment and a mission it was for her,’ comments Tony Fenwick, co-chair of LGBT History Month and Schools OUT.

After this stirring week I found myself deeply impressed, yet again, by how active and successful women are in making useful progressive change happen. And through these women’s revelations about their backgrounds and social context it’s clear that much is achieved despite enormous personal and social difficulties. How many of us deserve honour!

Jo Stanley (c) February 2015

Dr Jo Stanley is a writer and historian specialising in gender and the sea. Among the seafarers she’s explored are cross-dressing women ‘cabin boys’ and GBTQI males. Her next book is From Cabin ‘Boys’ to Captains: 250 years of women at sea, History Press, 2016.

With thanks to the LGBT History Festival for the pictures –by  Nicolas Chinardet –  and press releases, from which these details were extracted, and the Joyce Layland LGBT Centre for her picture.