UWS Library Celebrates LGBTQ+ History Month
Author: Heather Hudson, University of the West of Scotland (UWS) Library.
LGBTQ+ History Month takes place from the 1st to the 28th of February 2025 and aims to increase the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Check out our blog written by Heather Hudson, who works in the UWS Library. Heather provides a look at how UWS Library is celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month. Enjoy!
Throughout February, UWS staff and students will be celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month. This is a time to commemorate the queer people, communities, and activists who came before us, shaping the world we live in today.
Over the years, queerness has been painted as inherently disruptive, rebellious, and even dangerous to society. We can still see examples of this today, in the way that issues of gender and sexuality are weaponised in politics and the media, for the purpose of furthering harmful agendas, profiting from fear and prejudice. When some of the most vocal people in our culture struggle to reconcile the existence of queer people, you could be fooled into thinking that we are something very new, even alien.
Ridiculous as this sounds, this is a very compelling and dangerous line of thought for those who don’t know or understand their history. The reality is that we have always been here. Queer people have always contributed to our culture, living and loving throughout history, but our stories have not always been easy to find.
Through the UWS Library, staff and students have access to hundreds of LGBTQ+ titles and materials through our on-site libraries and our online databases. These materials cover multiple perspectives and experiences, through fiction, research, and much more. The collection covers many decades and schools of thought, on topics of gender, sexuality, history, identity, and beyond.
For LGBT History Month, I would like to highlight two titles which are short, sweet, and accessible.
The first is “A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World,” by R. B. Parkinson.
This tiny book covers forty artifacts held in the British Museum in London, relating to queer histories from across the world, from ancient archaeology to modern art, acting as a stitched and bound museum exhibition.
As the title suggests, the collection is predominantly concerned with gay and bisexual men – however, the book does also feature sapphic artifacts, and objects concerned with gender non-conformity and transness. The collection offers a truly global view of queerness throughout history, encouraging us to question hetero and cis-normative preconceptions about the past, ultimately asking “How easily can we recognise love in history?”
The second title is “The Queens' English: the LGBTQIA+ dictionary of lingo and colloquial phrases,” by Chloe O. Davis.
This colourful illustrated dictionary is a guide to both slang and academic queer theory terms, demystifying and decoding what sometimes feels like a totally separate language.
The Queen’s English, whilst focusing on North American terms, recognises that the genesis of queer terminology is global, crediting the cultures which created the terms, and explaining their etymology in a concise, straightforward way. In collecting this vast breadth language together in one place, this book offers “documentation of [queer] lives, experiences, and the languages we have chosen, created, and even reclaimed.”
Check out the titles
To explore the UWS Library’s catalogue of queer material further, please visit our LGBT+ Lib Guide.
- The Queens' English : the LGBTQIA+ dictionary of lingo and colloquial phrases / Chloe O. Davis ; foreword by Paula Akpan.
Davis, Chloe O.
Dublin, Ireland : Square Peg, 2021.
306.76 DAV - A little gay history : desire and diversity across the world / R.B. Parkinson ; with contributions by Kate Smith and Max Carocci.
Parkinson, R. B.; Smith, Kate.;Carocci, Max.
London : British Museum Press, 2013.
306.76609 PAR
Blog written by Heather Hudson, UWS Library | February 2025
Last updated: 03/02/2025