Shining a Light on Plymouth's LGBT Life Past and Present
At the time of the Enlightenment, science sought to explain and categorise things and so a medical discourse grew around a “normal” sexuality which was required for procreation. As a result. anything else came to be seen as abnormal or even deviant. These deviant acts were named and outlawed, as can be seen in the […]
In May 1936, the Western Morning news reported the story of Mark Weston, a thirty year old Oreston resident who, having always been raised as a woman, was now “in his true element” after two operations to correct his gender to male. In the words of Mr. L. R. Broster, the Harley Street surgeon who […]
Although the church already banned all male sexual relationships, the first known criminal law against sexual relations between men occurred with the introduction of the Buggery Act 1553. Punishable by death, the last execution for the offence took place in Great Britain in 1836. During the 30 years before this, 404 men were sentenced to death with 56 of them […]
In the summer of 1931 Bobbie Shaw, the son of Lady Nancy Astor, ex Guardsman, champion steeplechaser and heavy drinker was arrested for ‘a homosexual act’. The arrest came just a week before Lady Nancy and Lord Waldorf Astor were due to take a diplomatic trip to Russia with George Bernard Shaw. It is reputed that the police told the Astors […]
Plymouth-Borough-Prison-Greenbank, a photo by Pride in Our Past on Flickr. Via Flickr: Many of the convictions for homosexual offences we have discovered led to a stint in the Plymouth Borough Prison at Greenbank. It was completed in April 1849 and designed in the style of the famous Pentonville Prison. It had 60 cells, with a […]
cathrine-st-plymouth, a photo by Pride in Our Past on Flickr. Via Flickr: 24 year old Henry who was brought to trial over Christmas 1925 for ‘importuning and soliciting men for immoral purposes’ and whose New Year brought with it six months hard labour! ‘Cruising’ streets, parks or urinals was criminalised as the offence of ‘importuning’ […]
In Other Words is a Vital Sparks funded project seeking to provide new and more established LGBT+ writers for the stage in Plymouth with a crucial creative resource. In Other Words is working in partnership with Plymouth’s LGBT community, Pride in Plymouth,Plymouth LGBT Archive, We’ll Meet In Moscow, Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, Dreadnought … [Read More...]
This May (2015) has been an exciting month for Pride in Plymouth CIC . . . and the Plymouth LGBT Archive project, which it continues to support. On the 20th May, as part of Plymouth’s History Festival month, Alan Butler took a group of intrepid explorers on walk around the city centre to experience a little of the LGBT history which … [Read More...]
Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
