Conspiracist, opportunist, liar and potential murderer – the sensational and tawdry life of Titus Oates (1649-1705) is a demonstration that many historic gays were anything but role models.
Tag: History
The Sodomite Inn
11th July 1826. Twelve men sat in the Jury benches at the Lincolnshire Assizes. They were about to hear a case which the prosecution believed “could not be stated without disgracing our nature, violating the feelings of decency, and even in some measure injuring the cause of morality”.
Cleaning up The Kingston Arms, 1977
Cambridge’s first LGBT+ venues and “gay nights” started to appear in the 1970s, when across the UK there was growing awareness and politicisation of homosexuality as an identity. However, discrimination remained widespread.
In January 1977 the Cambridge News reported on a dispute at The Kingston Arms, Kingston Street…
Poets of Cambridge
Thom Gunn and Siegfried Sassoon were both celebrated queer Cambridge-educated twentieth century poets: Sassoon writing on the horror of war, and Gunn on the horror of AIDS.
Saint Æthelthryth, the Virgin Queen of Ely
Æthelthryth, also known as Saint Etheldreda: Anglo-Saxon princess, Queen of Northumbria, founder of Ely Cathedral, and patron saint of sore throats.
Cambridge Activists
Kim Friele, Antony Grey and and George Cecil Ives: all pioneers in fighting for the right to live and love as they pleased.
Burgess and Maclean: The Missing Diplomats
It was almost midnight on Friday 25th May, 1951. Two men stood at the dock in Southampton as the steamship to St Malo loomed into view. Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean had met at Cambridge University more than twenty years before; they had been friends, at one time lovers, but their paths had diverged. Maclean was serious and moralistic, an efficient diplomat with a young family. Burgess was charming and charismatic, but unreliable and infamous for his partying. This evening they were united with a single purpose: getting out of the country before Maclean was exposed as a spy.
Tula: From 80s pin-up to the European Court of Human Rights
Former “page 3” model, Bond girl, and notable trans rights activist with two published autobiographies and a film deal for her life story: Caroline Cossey, also known as “Tula”, has come a long way from her roots in rural Norfolk.
A Queer Pub History of Cambridge
Cambridge’s annual beer festival is a staple part of the City’s social scene. This year most of the events took place online, with one event on “A Queer Pub History of Cambridge”, with George Severs and Emma Inch. Their fascinating conversation takes the audience through Cambridge’s gay-friendly and gay-run drinking spots from the 1970s to the present, and the importance of social spaces in queer culture.
Scientists of Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire has been home to countless scientists who have changed the world; here are three – Sir Francis Bacon, Alan Turing and Dr Sophie Wilson – who also happen to be queer.
A Queer History of Cambridgeshire 