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 Network, Brookes Union and the LGBTQ+ Students' Network have planned a range of events for February and the University will be raising the Progress Pride flag and lighting up Lloyd Building in rainbow colours to celebrate the month.
You can also find an LGBTQ+ Resources list created by Learning Resources Special Collections and LGBTQ+ Reading List.
Trans Punk Pedagogy: Ruth Pearce
Thursday 29 January 2026, 12:00 to 1:00pm CLC 1.12 Learning Studio
Dr Ruth Pearce is Senior Lecturer in Community Development in the School of Education at University of Glasgow. Ruth is a healthcare activist, punk musician, and feminist researcher, specialising in transgender studies and community development.
We live in dangerous times. Amid the rise of fascist movements, destruction of cultural institutions, war and genocide, what is the point of scholarship?
In this short talk, Ruth will draw on the history of social movements, trans studies, and punk rock to argue that we can and should be using creative DIY skills to build knowledge and change our worlds.
Trans experiences show the power of genre-crossing, which can be applied to knowledge exchange within and beyond the university. From gigs to zines to academic talks, from self-archiving to institutional funding bids, trans punk pedagogy can help us work through our complicity, and build solidarity across difference.
Joint event with Brookes Union, LGBTQ+ Students’ Network and LGBTQ+ Staff Network
Monday 23 February 2026, 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Online
This online roundtable brings together scholars of trans celebrity Ellie Homant (Cornell), Dr Martin Ponti (Washington College) and Dr Alon Lischinsky (Oxford Brookes University) to discuss the ambivalent value of trans visibility. It looks at the difficulties that trans celebrities experience in the tension between public prominence and privilege, on the one hand, and trans stigma on the other.
Tuesday 3 February 2026, 5.00pm Old Headington Hill Hall, entrance door
Dress warm and join us to raise the Progress Pride flag and light up Headington Hill Hall to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month. Students and staff are invited to gather outside Headington Hill Hall for a short informal meet up to welcome in the month.
Please email lgbtqplus@brookes.ac.uk with any accessibility requirements.
Thursday 26 February 2026
A joint panel of students and staff will share their experiences of queer joy.
Wednesday 25 February 2026, 6:00 to 8:00pm Sports Bar Conservatory, Headington Sports Centre
Organised by Brookes Sport and Wellness in partnership with the LGBTQ+ Staff Network.
All welcome. Up to six people per team no booking required.
Make sure to arrive early to grab a table and a drink before the quiz starts at 6pm.
More events from Brookes Sport including Queer Climb
Monday 16 February, 5:00 - 7:00pm, Sports Bar Conservatory
Tuesday 10 February, 5:15pm - 6pm, Dojo Room, Fuller Building (route to Dojo)
Free fitness class. Book via the BrookesSport app on Android or iOS, or via our web Book Online portal.
Free fitness class. Book via the BrookesSport app on Android or iOS, or via our web Book Online portal.
Tuesday 17 February, 7.05pm - 8pm, Strenght and Conditioning Suite (Headington, Sports Centre)
Free fitness class. Book via the BrookesSport app on Android or iOS, or via our web Book Online portal.
Brookes Union events page hosts details of events organised by Brookes Union and student groups.
Crafternoon Tea
Wednesdays 1:00-3:00pm, Garden Room, Buckley Building
Crafternoon Tea is a space for students and staff to get together and share craft skills over a chat. You may come for the whole session, or drop in as you wish. You are welcome to bring a craft, or just come for a chat.
Trans+ Support Group
A welcoming group for any trans or gender non-conforming student who would like to meet others having the same experience. The group runs fortnightly during semester-time.
For more information, please email transsupport@brookes.ac.uk
LGBTQ+ History Month 2025
Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism with Dr Daniel Fountain
Wednesday 12 February 2025, 6.00pm to 7.30pm Online
This talk explores how LGBTQ+ communities have utilised craft processes to explore identities, bring communities together, and encourage social and political change.
From handmade clothing and protest banners to radical self-published zines and manifestos, there is a long history of using craft and DIY processes to explore identities, bring communities together, and encourage social and political change. Yet, many of these histories remain undocumented and are insufficiently researched. From histories of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt to the Museum of Transology, this talk will introduce a range of handmade objects and explore the range of connections between craft and queerness, particularly in a British context.
Dr Daniel Fountain is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter. Daniel is an artist, curator, and historian of modern and contemporary art with specialisms in gender, sexuality, LGBTQ+ culture, and visual activism. They are editor of Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain (University of Chicago Press and Intellect Books, 2023), and author of the forthcoming monograph Queer Crafts: Material Practices and the Making of Identity (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).
Flag-raising and Light-Up
Tuesday 4 February 2025, 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 gather outside Headington Hill Hall. Please email lgbtqplus@brookes.ac.uk with any accessibility requirements.
LGBTQ+ Research Showcase and Networking Event
Wednesday 19 February 2025, 12:30-2:00pm Hybrid Clerici 2.18 and online
Oxford Brookes staff and students will showcase their research and share work in progress on LGBTQ+ topics at this lunchtime hybrid event. Researchers will introduce their projects and then open up the event for discussion, questions, and networking. This event is hosted by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Research and Knowledge Exchange Network and is open to all staff and students.
Everyone is welcome to join us.
Disabled Dykes: Activism and Anarchy
Thursday 27 February 2025, 12:15pm to 1:00pm online
Informal lunch & learn in collaboration between the Staff Disability Network and LGBTQ+ Staff Forum as part of celebrations for LGBTQ+ History Month 2025.
Anti-harassment and EDI Advisor Al Rhodes (she/they) will present their MA research on disabled/crip lesbian/dyke community organising in London 1978-89. Utilising archival poetry and artwork to demonstrate the continuities and complexities of dismantling ableism.
The Rebel Dykes were 'a bunch of kick ass post punk dykes who shook up London, UK in the 1980s'. Take a look at their documentary to find out more about them.
Everyone is welcome and the session will be followed by a Q&A.
Content note: please be aware this session will touch on historical and contemporary examples of ableism, homophobia and transphobia.
Queer Joy: Student and Staff Discussion Panel
Thursday 27 February 2025, 5:00pm to 7:30pm in Chakrabarti Room (JHB208) and online
A joint panel of students and staff will share their experiences of how queer joy can drive and support our activisms and help to change the world.
Queer activism: protest sign-making workshop with Mister K
Monday 24 February, 12:30pm to 2:30pm in Union Hall (John Henry Brookes Building) or 4:00pm to 6:00pm, the Garden Room (Buckley Building)
Queer people have been organising and leading social change for decades. Through campaigning, direct action, street demonstrations and other forms of activism, communities have been deeply involved in exploring, explaining and communicating the needs, issues and challenges that face LGBTQ+ lives.
This workshop focuses on helping participants develop tools that can make this activism both effective and sustainable. Protest signs are a powerful tool that can persuasively and emotionally bring to life our desire for change.
We will work together learning the principles to design eye-catching cardboard placards and master the art of stencilling. The goal is to help advocates for the queer community find new ways to come together to reflect, connect and inspire social change.
Workshop facilitator
Mister K is a visual artist whose typographical protest work melds humour and righteous indignation to speak the unvarnished truth to power.
As an outspoken member of the LGBTQ+ and Trans* communities and a trade unionist, Mister K uses his artistic practice in tandem with grassroots activism to spread awareness of political, ideological, and economic exploitation wherever it can be found.
Brookes Union events
Brookes Union events page hosts details of events organised by Brookes Union and student groups.
Regular events to support wellbeing and community over the month that connect to the LGBTQ+ theme
Wednesdays 1:00-3:00pm, Garden Room, Buckley Building
Crafternoon Tea is a space for students and staff to get together and share craft skills over a chat. You may come for the whole session, or drop in as you wish. You are welcome to bring a craft, or just come for a chat.
LGBTQ+ History Month 2024
Whole embodied humans: a conversation for LGBTQ History Month
Wednesday 28 February 2024, 6.00pm to 7.00pm, John Henry Brookes Lecture Theatre, Headington Campus and Online.
Join us for this year’s LGBTQ+ History Month Lecture in collaboration with our Multifaith Chaplaincy, delivered by Rev Peta Evans.
All are welcome.
This talk will explore reclaiming the spirituality of trans and nonbinary people and reclaiming our sacred space in faith traditions, not as disembodied spirits, but as whole embodied humans.
The discussion will cover how our trans and nonbinary bodies can be loci of the divine as much as any other, and have particular truths to express about what it means to be spiritual and human, and about the interactions of faith and gender and their impact on social justice.
Rev Peta Evans is Senior Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of North London and Trans Awareness Trainer for Enfield LGBT Network, and has been a member of MCC since 2003.
Flag Raising and Light-Up
Wednesday 31 January, 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.
LGBTQ Research Showcase and Networking Event
Tuesday 27 February, 1.00pm to 3pm, JHB 406, Headington Campus and Online.
Oxford Brookes staff and students will showcase their research and share work in progress on LGBTQ+ topics at this event. A collaboration between the EDI Research Network, LGBTQ+ Staff Forum and Brookes Union.
Everyone is welcome to join us.
Public Lecture: 'The Dream City Porn Cinema Fire: Reconsidering Legal and Cultural Narratives
Monday, 26 February, 5.00pm - 7.00pm, Room JHB 308 (Kennedy Lecture Theatre), Headington Campus and Online.
Chris Ashford, Professor of Law and Society at Northumbria University, and Gareth Longstaff, Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Theory at Newcastle University.
Exploring a landmark legal and cultural moment that speaks to the contours and legacies of how we situate queer and gay desire, loss, (in)visibility and shame.
This event will be the second in a speaker series entitled 'Critical Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Society' hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University.
Brookes Union Events
7 February, 3.00pm, location to be confirmed
Join Brookes Union’s LGBTQ+ Officer for a walking tour of Oxford, visiting LGBTQ+ historical and social landmarks.
Brookes Union Valentines Quiz for LGBTQ+ History Month
Tuesday 13 February from 6.30pm, Quiz starts at 7.00pm in Brookes Bar, JHB Headington Campus.
Oxford Pride Planning Workshop
Thursday 29 February, 1.00pm to 3.00pm. Location to be confirmed (email su.president@brookes.ac.uk for more details).
LGBTQ+ History Month 2023
Community, healing and connection: finding a place to belong
22 February, 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, 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.
Brookes Union LGBTQ+ History Month Quiz
1 February, 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, 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, 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
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, 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
Brookes Union’s community team will be hosting a pancake art session to celebrate Pancake Day.
Drag Workshop
28 February
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.
LGBTQ+ Research and Practice Showcase
28 March 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.