OTP 2020 Hub - People's History Museum, Manchester

LGBT+ badge collection © People's History Museum

Here at People’s History Museum (PHM), we don’t call ourselves the home of ideas worth fighting for for nothing.  PHM is the national museum of democracy, telling the story of its development in Britain: past, present and future.  The museum provides opportunities for all people to learn about, be inspired by and get involved in ideas worth fighting for; ideas such as equality, social justice, co-operation, and a fair world for all.

In 2017 our Never Going Underground: The Fight for LGBT+ Rights programme of exhibitions, events and learning sessions marked the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.  The programme explored and celebrated those who campaigned and continue to campaign for equality for LGBT+ people.  For the year’s headline exhibition it was important that we gave the LGBT+ community a platform to tell the world their story in their own way.  In order to do this we recruited an amazingly talented team of Community Curators from the local LGBT+ community, made up of artists, film-makers and campaigners to curate an exhibition which explored the wonderfully intersectional nature of the struggle for LGBT+ rights.

Equality displays, Citizens section, Main Gallery Two © People's History Museum

Our promotion of equality does not end there though.  We first took part in the annual OUTing the Past, The Festival of LGBT+ History in 2016 during which we hosted talks, drama performances and discussions concerning lived histories, LGBT+ footballers, gender and sexuality in the armed forces.  This was enormously successful and as such we were delighted to be asked to be involved with the festival again in the years that followed.

2020 will see us take part in the festival for a fifth consecutive year.  We will host a series of presentations including one by Carl Austin-Behan who became the youngest and first openly gay Lord Mayor of Manchester in 2016.  There will be an opportunity to attend a tour of the museum’s main galleries, exploring our collections reflecting the past, present and future of LGBT+ activism.  Visitors will also have the chance to delve into our Archive & Study Centre’s LGBT+ collections which cover papers of key individuals and campaign groups such as Peter Tatchell and Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM).  So, if you’re as passionate as us about LGBT+ rights and want to learn more on the subject, put Sunday 8 February 2020 in your diaries!

People’s History Museum is open seven days a week, from 10.00am to 5.00pm, Radical Lates are on the second Thursday each month, open until 8.00pm.  The museum and its exhibitions are free to enter with a suggested donation of £5.  To find out about visiting the museum, its full exhibition and events programme visit phm.org.uk.

Find out more about their OUTing The Past event HERE.

People's History Museum, Manchester