The footprints made by the queer community throughout history are undeniable. From King James VI of Scotland, who made it clear that his romantic feelings for men should not be blindsided by historians, to Roberta Cowell – the first transgender woman to undergo a sex reassignment surgery whilst being a British racing driver and a WW2 fighter pilot. We have spread a trail of breadcrumbs through the Roman Empire, the World Wars, the aristocracy, the Regency Society. And yet, we are the historical figures who are hidden between the lines of missing chapters, and dismissed from academic lectures. This is why LGBT+ History Month has been celebrated every February across the UK since 2004.
Brighton has proudly held the title of the UK’s LGBTQ+ capital for over 200 years, and this is not an unfounded reputation. The LGBTQ+ community in Brighton is one of the largest in the UK, and Brighton’s statistics have consistently reminded us of the warm sanctuary that the city provides the LGBTQ+ community since the 18th century. 2004 saw us have the largest percentage of same-sex households in the UK. 2013 brought us the largest number of civil partnership registrations outside London.
By 2014 it was found that 11-15% of adults in Brighton identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Our abundance of unapologetic authenticity not only has attracted the residents of Brighton, but has seeped into the UK in total – with the annual Pride attracting as many as 450,000 people. That is 2% of the city’s annual visitors in one day, and an estimated £18 million into the city’s economy.
In honour of LGBT+ History Month, let’s take a roadtrip through Brighton’s winding (mostly uphill) roads until we find ourselves in the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Soldiers flooded onto Brighton’s shores, and with the aid of London’s transport links, Brighton started to develop a reputation. Hidden love stories can be found nestled in the comfort of our city’s cracks and corners. In August 1822, a servant from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne by the name of George Wilson met a guardsman at the Duke of Wellington public house in Pool Valley.
This guardsman must have caught George’s eye, as he offered him a sovereign and two shillings to go with him to the beach to commit an “unnatural crime” (little did he know this would start a trend of romantic Brighton beach dates that has continued to this very day). It’s not just the beach that offered candlelit romantic endeavours for the queer community – the Royal Albion Hotel offered a safe haven for Philanthropist Angela Burdett Coutts (1814-1906). Angela took her partner, Hannah Brown, to the Royal Albion Hotel each year.
The two were utterly in love, and were known to send joint Christmas cards (a peak of romance that every queer couple aspires to). Unfortunately, the women’s love story did not have a Cinderella ending. When Hannah died in 1878, Baroness Burdett Coutts was devastated, calling it the loss of “my poor darling… the sunshine of my life for 52 years”.
After the influx of soldiers to Brighton, gay and lesbian bars and pubs began to pop up throughout our city’s hotspots in the 1920s and 1930s. Twenty years later, Brighton was the top destination for any LGBTQ+ romantic getaway. This is not to say that Brighton was an impenetrable bubble from the homophonic and heteronormative rhetoric running rife around the world due to regular police raids – with officers treating the inhabitants with dehumanising violence. They often would publish their personal details in the local paper, forcing people to lose friends, families, and even their income.
However, with the age of flower power in the 1960s, homosexuality was decriminalised in England in 1967. Extravagant parties and abundances of queer affection in Brighton didn’t mean an absence of anger. The LGBTQ+ community had not forgiven nor forgotten the years of violence and terror inflicted upon them. The Sussex Gay Liberation Front launched in February 1971, founding the town’s first Pride march in July 1973. The Lavender Line closely followed, and just in time for the first reported cases of HIV and AIDS in Brighton in 1982. This led to a wave of questions and frantic worries cramming into their switchboard. To tackle this, the Sussex Aids Trust and the Open Door were launched as support groups.
You might think that the new age of protest and bravery would subside the pile of ageing rocks in the House Of Commons, but unfortunately you would be incorrect. Section 28 poisoned the streets, with Thatcher pulling strings to try and silence our community. We ripped off the mouth tape, and Brighton Area Action Against Section 28 organised a march every May from Hove Town Hall to Brighton Town Hall. It’s a pleasant thought to imagine Thatcher’s reaction when the city elected its first gay MP in 1997 – Ivor Caplin went on to represent Hove until 2005.
After 18 years, Brighton & Hove Pride made a return in 1991, coinciding with the launch of Brighton’s first gay hotspot, Revenge, which has since remained Brighton’s go-to fun night. Queer love was finally able to earn itself a legal certificate, with its origins being right here in the Brighton registry office – where Debbie Gaston and Elaine Cook tied the knot on the first civil partnership in 2001.
This is just a brief history of how the LGBTQ+ community has kissed, danced, and laughed down our city’s beaches and roads. Brighton still celebrates this today by flying rainbow flags from Hove Town Hall, Brighton Town Hall, and Jubilee Library. If you want to get involved, the Socially Engaged Art Salon has curated a mixed media exhibition called The Queer Beach which is ongoing from 29 January – 11 February at Jubilee Library Foyer Gallery. The exhibition explores the connection between the queer community and the seaside with painting, collage, photography and film exhibitions.
From 5 February – 2 March, the Jubilee Library Window Gallery presents We’re Here – a portfolio of artwork, poetry and photography produced by many talented members of the LGBTQ+ community. On the 25 February, take a visit to Brighton’s LGBTQ+ History Club at the Jubilee Library, where Neil Bartlett and Nathan Evans take us through a journey of queer literature and history. For our younger audiences, Love Makes A Family is being hosted at Hove Library in the children’s area on Monday morning on the 12 February in order to celebrate the diversity of all different kinds of families.
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