LGBTQ+ History

Project 93, the Spode Museum, and local artist Olivia Azzopardi, have been collaborating with LGBTQ+ people in Stoke-on-Trent to create a new mosaic, which is due to be unveiled at Spode Museum this Sunday (15th February 2026).

Culture Leicestershire presents a new virtual exhibition, ‘Villiers Revealed’; designed to explore LGBTQ+ stories within the county’s museum collection.

A new LGBTQ+ arts and heritage trail has been launched on the Staffordshire Moorlands, celebrating stories, creativity, history and connection from the community

LGBTQ+ veterans have been given a first look at a new memorial that is due to be installed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire this August.

Sally Ryan was an American artist & sculptor, queer icon & co-founder of the Garman-Ryan Collection housed at The New Art Galley, Walsall

LGBTQ+ History Month: Tom Wakefield. Learn about the life of gay author, teacher & 'house mother' who opened his home to bisexual & gay men

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who was often dubbed “The Queen of Hollywood".

British figure skater and Olympic Champion, John Curry OBE was born on 9th September 1949 in Birmingham

Bessie Bonehill, born in West Bromwich in the West Midlands 1855, was an English vaudeville singer, comic entertainer and male impersonator

Born 27th September 1907 in Wolverhampton, William (Billy) Chappell was a British dancer, ballet designer and director.

Lettice Floyd (1865) was a British Suffragette remembered for her openly lesbian relationship with fellow Suffragette, Annie Williams

In celebration of Lunar New Year, Midlands Rainbow exploring the connection shared between Chinatown and the Gay Village in Birmingham.

A new statue, to be installed at the National Memorial Arboretum,Staffordshire, will remember the experiences of LGBTQ+ veterans

Geoff Hardy was an educator and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights much of whom's life was spent living in Shropshire.

Staffordshire County Council Archives and Heritage Service introduced their new ‘Pride in Our Past’ LGBTQ+ Community History Project

As well as being known as one of the oldest surviving people living with HIV in the UK, Jonathan Blake is often talked about due to his role

Activist Jonathan Blake, born in Birmingham, was diagnosed with HIV in 1982. He's one of the UK’s oldest surviving people living with HIV

Jonathan Blake is a British gay rights activist from Birmingham, perhaps best known for his role in Lesbians and Gays support the Miners.

After the LGBTQ+ community lost Aunty's in Walsall during the 1960s, another Black Country venue came along to cater for LGBTQ+ people across the region. Flamingo Club, Wolverhampton was opened in 1965 by George Smith, and it soon became a popular haunt for the LGBTQ+ community not just in Wolverhampton but also further afield, much as Aunty’s had been before it.

Despite the fact that homosexuality was still illegal until 1967 (and even then the laws were not equal with heterosexual counterparts), clubs and pubs were open as safe spaces for the community during the 1960s, and The Fountain Inn, AKA Aunty’s Bar in Walsall was one of those safe spaces.