About

Dominant discourses of contemporary British LGBTQ history present a narrative of increasing rights and equality. This public narrative of linear progression is largely due to a focus on top-down party political, policy, and legislative histories. However, a holistic view considering the social and cultural realities and lived experiences of LGBTQ people reveals a more complicated picture. This project will elucidate this story via a history of Galop, the UK's anti-abuse LGBTQ charity. Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2022, Galop has played a crucial role in fighting violence against LGBTQ people and supporting LGBTQ survivors of violence. Despite its role in the landscape of British queer history, there has been little to no historiographical attention paid to Galop.

Collaborating with the Bishopsgate Institute (BI), one of the leading queer history archives in the UK, this project will employ the prism of Galop's history to track the changing ways in which LGBTQ people have been subjected to forms of violence and how LGBTQ communities and organisations have responded.