Oxford Brookes University is proud to be part of the annual celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month, joining universities, schools, local authorities, voluntary organisations and employers, with a programme of events and activities to highlight the history and achievements of LGBTQ+ communities and perspectives on LGBTQ+ inclusion.
LGBTQ+ History Month
The LGBTQ+ Staff Forum, Brookes Union and the LGBTQ+ Society have planned a range of events for February 2023 and the University will be raising Progress Pride flags on each campus and lighting up Lloyd Building in rainbow colours to celebrate the month.
You can also find an LGBTQ+ resources list created by Special Collections for LGBTQ+ History Month.
Community, healing and connection: finding a place to belong
22 February 2023, 6.00pm - 7.00pm, John Henry Brookes Lecture Theatre, Headington Campus
Join us for this year's LGBTQ+ History Month lecture, delivered by Reeta Loi. All are welcome.
Reeta Loi is a Storyteller and the Forbes 100 Founder & CEO of Gaysians. You may have seen their VICE documentary, TED talks, heard their latest track 'Remedy' or read their work in Gay Times. Now see them live, sharing some special insights into their journey. A truly inspirational artist, Reeta encapsulates creativity and compassion at their core and brings with them a wealth of personal and comprehensively researched stories of LGBTQ+ South Asian lives and history.
Flag Raising and Light-Up
1 February 2023, 5.00pm, outside Headington Hill Hall
Join us to raise the Progress Pride flag and light up Headington Hill Hall to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month. Brookes students and staff are welcome to join us outside Headington Hill Hall. Please email lgbtqplus@brookes.ac.uk if you have any accessibility requirements.
Brookes Union LGBTQ+ History Month Quiz
1 February 2023, 6.00pm, Union Bar
An open-to-all quiz focusing on LGBTQ+ History Month, run by Brookes Union.
LGBTQ+ & Trans Student Network Meeting
2 February 2023, 1.00pm - 2.30pm, Brookes Union Boardroom
Join Brookes Union’s LGBTQ+ and Trans Students’ Officers for pizza at this network meeting.
LGBTQ+ Walking Tour
7 February 2023, 3.00pm, location to be confirmed
Join Brookes Union’s LGBTQ+ Officer for a walking tour of Oxford, visiting LGBTQ+ historical and social landmarks.
Valentine’s Day
14 February 2023
Are you a single student wanting some company, or in a relationship but at a loose end? Brookes Union’s community team will be hosting a day of activities followed by a pamper evening this Valentine’s Day.
LGBTQ+ History Month Quiz
16 February 2023, 7.00pm, Sports Bar, Brookes Sport Headington
Join the Brookes LGBTQ+ Staff Forum, Brookes Sport, and Amnesty Oxford City Group for this year's LGBTQ+ themed fundraising quiz. All welcome. Up to six people per team no booking required. Food will be available from the café until 7.30pm so please arrive before the quiz starts to place your order.
Pancake Day
21 February 2023
Brookes Union’s community team will be hosting a pancake art session to celebrate Pancake Day.
Drag Workshop
28 February 2023
Want to explore your inner drag identity? Join Brookes Union and the Brookes LGBTQ+ Network for a drag workshop and showcase your drag alter ego.
LGBTQ+ Allies Workshop (Brookes staff only)
15 March, 9.30am (rescheduled from 23 February due to strike action), Clerici G.30, Headington Campus
LGBTQ+ Allies Workshop to support awareness and confidence as a proactive ally for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion. This event is for Oxford Brookes staff only.
- Now fully booked!
LGBTQ+ Research and Practice Showcase
28 March 2023, 11.30am (rescheduled from 21 February due to strike action), Online
Oxford Brookes staff and PhD students showcase their research on LGBTQ+ topics at this LGBTQ+ History Month event. All Brookes staff and students are welcome to attend.
LGBTQ+ History Month 2022
Sara Ahmed: Complaint as a Queer Method
16 February 2022, 6.00pm, online
Join us in conversation with Sara Ahmed, feminist writer and independent scholar. In her recent book Complaint! She draws on testimonies shared by academics and students who have made complaints about abuses of power or unequal working conditions in universities.
This lecture will explore how complaints about hostile environments (such as transphobia and racism) are often made in hostile environments, which means that to complain is often to experience an intensification of the problems being complained about. Sara reflects on individual and collective complaint activism and making complaint a queer method.
Flag Raising and Light-Up
1 February 2022, 5.00pm, outside Headington Hill Hall
Join us to raise the Progress Pride flag and light up Headington Hill Hall to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month. Brookes students and staff are welcome to join us outside Headington Hill Hall. Please wear a face covering.
Brookes Together: LGBTQ+ History Month Quiz
1 February 2022, 6.00pm, Union Bar
An open-to-all quiz focusing on LGBTQ+ History month, run by Brookes LGBTQ+ Society and Brookes Union.
LGBTQ+ History Month Film Screening: Pride
2 February 2022, 5.30pm, JHB 208
Realising that they share common foes in Margaret Thatcher, the police and the conservative press, London-based gay and lesbian activists lend their support to striking miners in 1984 Wales.
LGBTQ+ History Month Film Screening: Moonlight
9 February 2022, 5.30pm, JHB 208
A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality alongside the struggles of childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
LGBTQ+ BAME Careers Talk with Mayur Gupta
10 February 2022, 4.00pm, online
In celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month, Brookes Union presents a digital careers talk with speaker Mayur Gupta: founder and CEO of Career Accelerator, an education business that aims to help young people from a diverse range of backgrounds as they enter into the professional workplace.
DragProv Revue: LGBTQ+ History Month
18 February 2022, 7.30pm, Union Hall
Brookes Union welcomes...DragProv Revue, as part of our LGBT History Month celebrations.
Lovable soft-boy 'Christian Adore’ and sassy queen 'Eaton Messe' are a drag double act, who, using the audience’s suggestions, create dazzling songs, sketches, and spontaneous raps. RuPaul's glamour meets ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ style improvised comedy. Serving you wit as sharp as their contour; jinks as high as their brows; memories that will stick with you longer than last night’s glitter, we present to you 'The Dragprov Revue’. The event will feature special guests, including Brookes’ very own DJ D’vey, as well as a colourful after party with exclusive deals at Plush.
LGBTQ+ History Month Film Screening: Rafiki
23 February 2022, 5.30pm, JHB 208
The story of a romance that grows between two young women, Kena and Ziki, amidst family and political pressures around LGBT rights in Kenya.
LGBTQ+ History Month Quiz
24 February 2022, 7.00pm, Sports Bar, Brookes Sport Headington
Join the Brookes LGBTQ+ Staff Forum and Amnesty Oxford City Group for this year's LGBTQ+ themed fundraising quiz. All welcome. Up to six people per team. We need to limit numbers attending this year's quiz and it is now fully booked. Apologies if you've been unable to register a team. We hope to see you at a future event.
LGBTQ+ Allies Workshop (Brookes staff only)
25 February 2022, 10.00am, online
LGBTQ+ Allies Workshop to support awareness and confidence as a proactive ally for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion (two hour online workshop). This event is for Brookes staff only.
LGBTQ+ History Month 2021
9 and 16 February 2021, 12.30-2.00pm
LGBTQ+ Lunchtime Showcase
Oxford Brookes staff and PhD students showcase their research on LGBTQ+ topics at this LGBTQ+ History Month event.
10 February 2021, 6.00pm
Liv Little: A little more conversation? Takeovers and untold stories in the media industry
Liv Little is a journalist, author and curator who founded gal-dem, a media company committed to spotlighting the creative talents of women and non-binary people of colour, whilst at university, due to frustrations with the lack of stories being told from marginalised voices in the media and publishing industries.
For our LGBTQ+ History Month Lecture 2021, Liv will share her experiences and offer insights on storytelling and community building.
15 February 2021, 7.00pm
No Box For Me. An Intersex Story
The Oxford Brookes University Documentary Club will be screening No Box For Me. An Intersex Story for LGBTQ+ History Month.
M and Deborah, like an estimated 1.7 percent of people, were born Intersex - with sex characteristics that are different from the binary understandings of male or female. Like many, M and Deborah were forced into unnecessary medical surgeries to “normalize” their body as a child—before they could understand what was going on.
18 February 2021, 1.00-2.30pm
Bi and Pansexual Allies workshop
The Bi and Pansexual Allies workshops are run by the LGBTQ+ Staff Forum and provide an introduction to Bi and Pansexual identities, the challenges Bi and Pansexual people face, and how to be an ally.
18 February 2021, 7.00pm
Queering the campus: Harcourt Hill, the architects behind the buildings
Seely and Paget’s story contributes to the architectural history of Harcourt Hill Campus. Always known as ‘the partners’, their relationship went beyond a business arrangement: as Paget put it, ‘we became virtually one person’. Yet, in a time when sexual activity between men was a serious criminal offence, it is impossible to know how intimate their relationship really was.
History Society talk.
22 February 2021, 7.00pm
A Secret Love
The Oxford Brookes University Documentary Club will be hosting a Netflix watch party screening of A Secret Love for LGBTQ+ History Month.
A former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player and her partner, Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, ran a successful interior decorating business, while keeping their lesbian relationship a secret from their families for almost seven decades. But coming out later in life brings its own set of challenges.
25 February 2021, 7.00pm
LGBTQ+ History Month Quiz
Join the Brookes LGBTQ+ Staff Forum and Amnesty Oxford City Group for this year's LGBTQ+ themed fundraising quiz.
LGBTQ+ History Month 2020
LGBTQ+ History Month 2019
LGBTQ+ History Month 2018
LGBTQ+ History Month 2017
LGBTQ+ History Month 2016
Information and resources for LGBT History Month and beyond.
Wallchart produced by the Forum for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality in Further and Higher Education and a group of trade unions in association with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) History Month.
A look back at UNISON's LGBT history.