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Sweet sixteen and out on the razz

Hi folks, Ourstory got a nice surprise last Autumn when we heard we'd finally become an official charity. Although it was a long, hard haul to get there, the Charity Commission were obviously on our side in the end because they registered us on International Coming Out Day! Now we join a select list of LGBT charities in Brighton that consists of us, Pride and Switchboard. Our Charity Number is 1106242 and we will soon have the bank account for it up and running. This is great cause for celebration as we turn our sixteenth birthday and look forward to the day when we can open our lesbian and gay history centre. In the meantime, anyone who can help keep the Greedy Rent Wolf from the door by putting a few quid our way will save us a deal of anxiety and make sure more of our energy goes on fabulous projects.

Barely Legal
Towards the end of last year, we premiered Barely Legal a short video compilation of photographs and memories spanning the time when male homosexuality was still illegal and the start of the Liberation movements.

We had hoped to have it ready for Brighton Pride 2004 but the time commitments of our hardworking volunteers meant it wasn't to be. However, the LGBT History Conference at the London Metropolitan Archive in December provided a great opportunity for others to hear all about Brighton in the Sixties and Seventies.

Barely Legal includes a lively band of ladies from the Minorities Research Group, camping on the Downs; memories of the Variety Club; 42 Club shows; the Unicorn Bookshop; a truly extraordinary Women's Sexuality conference at the University of Sussex and much more besides - as we loosened our clothes and the Law struggled to tighten its grip. Our grateful thanks go to all of you who gave us your memories and who gave or lent additional visual material for the show and particularly to Kim, who burnt a lot of midnight oil putting it all together for us. It went down a treat in London and we hope to screen a fuller version at the Spectrum conference in Rottingdean this April.

LGBT History Month
Inspired by the success of Black History Month as a tool for teaching about racism, a pioneering group of activists in London designated February 2005 the first ever LGBT History Month. The LGBT Workers Forum at the Council asked us to help them with a poster campaign, which we were delighted to do.

Although it all had to be done at breakneck speed, we put together a series of nine photographs and short texts which started with the 1955 publication of Against The Law, an account of the notorious 'Montagu Case' and ended with a happy couple waiting to sign up to Brighton & Hove City Council's Civil Partnership Register last year. The posters reflect fifty years of protest, determination, liberation and backlash. We liked it and hope you did too if you saw it in any of the council buildings and secondary schools to which the Council Forum sent it.

Nick and Roy of Brighton & Hove City Council's LGBT
Workers Forum with the poster display at Brighton Town Hall

Please take a look at our fabulous website, as well as back numbers of this newsletter, you'll find a wealth of information about us, some of the queer comings and goings in Brighton during the last two hundred years and news about our latest projects.

Please keep in touch!

Benedict & Linda
Trustees, Brighton Ourstory
(A registered Charity!)