LGBTQ+
An overview of our recent work with LGBTQ+ communities.
Exhibitions
Queer the Pier
This exhibition is part of Be Bold, a series of collaborative exhibitions and events programmed with Brighton & Hove’s LGBTIQ+ communities. Queer the Pier explores Brighton & Hove’s LGBTIQ+ history.
We also have a number of posts on our blog relating to this exhibition written by members of the community who worked on it.
A number of fantastic zines were produced for this exhibition which have been made available as downloadable PDFs below.
Queer the Pier zines
Museum of Transology
This bold, brave and profound collection of artefacts and photographic portraiture is now the largest collection representing trans people in the UK – if not the world — and was exhibited in Brighton Museum’s Spotlight Gallery for over two years. This was the first exhibition from our Be Bold community programme.
The Museum of Transology is a physical collection of 280 artefacts, 155 brown cardboard swing tags and 213 digital files (including film, photography and music ) donated by trans, non-binary and intersex people. The 155 swing tags have a handwritten message that explains the significance of the object to the donor’s gender identity. The collection is as materially diverse as the trans experiences it reflects, ranging from objects used to medically confirm the individual’s gender identity (such as oestrogen and testosterone patches); to items of dress including fashion, uniforms, underwear and accessories; beauty ephemera, such as makeup; through to children’s toys, objects for self-harm and self-protection, religious headgear and human remains.
The Museum of Transology is now archived at the Bishopsgate Institute and all the objects are available to see on request when you visit – go to their website for more information.
Read more about this groundbreaking exhibition at Disegno: The Quarterly Journal of Design, the Wellcome Collection website and Viva Brighton.
Queer Looks
This fascinating display of outfits and oral histories from LGBTQ individuals from Sussex, from the 1960s to the present day, looks at how individuals construct identities, both personal and collective, through dress. Find out more about the exhibition and its associated Wear It Out project.
Learn more on the Queer Looks Voices project website.
LGBTQ+ trail
Brighton Museum’s LGBTQ+ trail was released in 2013 and was a feature in the museum for a number of years. Only a selection of the objects featured are still on display in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery but you can view videos discussing the full trail below.