Queer Care: A London History
Care is a vital but sometimes overlooked part of queer history. Queers have often had limited access to the family, healthcare, jobs or housing. Instead they have often had to learn how to look after themselves and each other.
You’ll be introduced to organizations such as the South London Gay Community Centre, London’s first gay centre, and the Gay Liberation Front, who developed forms of community care and mutual aid that endure to this day. We will look at the central place that squatting played in London in the 70s and 80s, where young queer radicals tried to develop new ways of living and working together (although not always successfully!).
Ultimately we will ask what factors allowed joyful and radical forms of care to emerge, what their legacies are today, and what the future might hold for queer imaginings of human relationships and communities.
Do I need any previous skills or knowledge?
This course is for anyone with an interest in LGBTQ+ history and queer British culture. Drawing on archive materials hosted at Bishopsgate itself as well as broader historical knowledge, this workshop will be interesting for anyone regardless of previous knowledge.
Image: London Lighthouse pamphlet, Gay Liberation Front manifesto
Need to Know
Meet the Tutors
Dr Peter Ely
Dr Peter Ely is a lecturer and researcher in English literature with an emphasis on Black and Asian British writing, contemporary fiction and the history of London. He has published a number of articles and chapters, and is the editor of ‘Community in Contemporary British Fiction: From Blair to Brexit’.
Dr Isabell Dahms
Dr Isabell Dahms is a lecturer in Queer History at Goldsmiths University and researches the intersection of the histories of philosophy, gynaecology and feminist health movements. She completed a PhD at Kingston University London on notions of speculation and performativity in philosophy and gender studies.
Dates and Times
Queer Care: A London History
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