OTP 2021 Hub Programme - Bishopsgate Institute
Mark LGBT+ History Month 2021 with Bishopsgate Institute and OUTing the Past.
Join us online to hear from speakers on a range of LGBTQ+ subjects, including the contested history of the Gay Liberation Front, and an oral testimony about being transgender.
Find out more about our speakers below…
Lisa Power
A self-proclaimed, "queer old dyke", Lisa Power came out in the 70s and has been interfering in things ever since.
She spent 14 years on Switchboard, 17 years with Terrence Higgins Trust, and is currently a Trustee of Queer Britain. She is also on the London Mayor’s Advisory Committee on EDI.
Lisa was one of the Stonewall founders, Secretary General of ILGA and the author of No Bath But Plenty of Bubble: Stories from the London Gay Liberation Front.
Katie Robinson
Katie lives in Leeds, West Yorkshire, but was born and raised in Doncaster.
She’s married to a wonderful wife, who Katie says deserves far better than her. They have two amazing daughters, and five of the most awe-inspiring grandchildren anyone could wish for.
Road running is how she keeps fit, taking part in her local weekly Parkrun, and competing in four races each year.
Katie is transgender, male to female, and working her way through transition while living full time in role, as well as being an active member of three LGBT+ support groups. She is also a trustee of an Older LGBT+ charity in Leeds called Friends of Dorothy.
Dr Ju Gosling FRSA
Dr Ju Gosling FRSA is an artist, writer, and campaigner. As Chair of the NUJ’s Equality Council in the 80s and 90s, she led on changes to the way in which HIV/Aids was reported, and later founded their Disabled Members’ Council.
When Ju retired from the trade union movement after 25 years, she had spent the previous two as Co-Chair of the Trade Union Disability Alliance with the late Caroline Gooding, who was head of legal policy at the Disability Rights Commission throughout their existence.
A Co-Chair of Regard since the early noughties, Ju has led on work around social care and hate crime.
Ju’s work interests include being a founder and Artistic Director of the Disability Arts organisations Together! 2012 CIC and Folk in Motion CIC; her publishing company Bettany Press; and her own international art practice.
Ju has been shielding with her partner Julie Newman since March 2020, without leaving the house or having visitors, and with no PPE for social care workers to enter.
Bethan Rees
While 20-year-old Bethan is best known for her disability activism and comics about her experiences as an autistic person, she is also openly asexual and aromantic, and has delved a lot into the LGBT+ history scene.
Bethan has had a long history in museums - she basically grew up around them! She started at a history club run by Ancient House Museum of Thetford Life at the age of 8, and stayed before ageing and moving into the Teenage History Club.
As she grew, the size of the projects did too, including making training videos used nationally, and going to Japan. In 2018 the club curated the exhibition “Pride Of The People: Helping History Out of the Closet”, and since held tours and other events surrounding it, and made a film to advise other curators how to include LGBT+ stories in their work. This project fuelled her interest in LGBT+ history.
Bethan was vocal about including asexual identities from the start, and even contributed a comic explaining what being asexual and aromantic meant.
Find out more information and book HERE