Oxford LibGuides: LGBTQ+ History Resources: Relationships & Community

Key Resources

Erie County Public Library - Erie Gay News
"This collection of newsletters and newspapers includes activities, events, meetings, and news for Erie's LGBTQ community from 1992-present. This publication included titles such as: Erie Gay Community Newsletter, Erie Gay Community News, Erie Gay News, and Womynspace/Womanspace Newsletter."
The Lavender Letter
This webpage contains digitised copies of The Lavender Letter, "a short run newspaper, edited by Francesqua Landsdottir-Janssen, that ran for three issues at the end of 1982. Although published in Brighton, it includes news on national gay politics and adverts for clubs, businesses and support organisations around the UK. It also included regular features such as the agony aunt column 'Dear Vera' and 'The Gay Gourmet'."
LGBT+ Royal Histories
This article looks at various British monarchs throughout history, as well as figures closely affiliated with royalty, exploring the possibility that they may have been involved in gay relationships
LGBTQ+ lives through the census
This article, published by The National Archives, explores "what census records can tell us about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people a hundred years ago, focusing particularly on the newly released 1921 Census records."
Male Same-Sex Relations in Socialist China
This journal article explores the experiences of gay men in socialist China since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries
"My Dear Boy is an anthology of gay love letters documenting the heartbreak and joy of love between men for almost two thousand years. Emperor Marcus Arelius, Bo Juyi, Saint Anselm, Erasmus, Michelangelo ... are just a few of the correspondents included, who range from kings and aristocrats, musicians and artists, military men and monks, to farm labourers and herring merchants, political activists and aesthetes, black poets and Japanese actors, drag queens and hustlers."
Out of the Archives: Classified adverts at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern
This article, published by The National Archives, reports on an event at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London that explored LGBTQ+ relationships in the UK before the decriminalisation of homosexuality. It looked at what archival material can tell us about this topic.
Queer Feelings: Love and Loss in the Letters of Horace Walpole
"This essay looks at the letters of Horace Walpole through the lens of the contemporary performance theory of José Muñoz in order to suggest the ways in which Walpole’s feelings in the past reach us with a hope for the future. By looking at touchstones in Horace Walpole’s life, I look for a model of queer relationality that is centuries ahead of its time."
Queering family history and the lives of Irish men before gay liberation
This journal article uses a case study of a gay man in Ireland in the 1910s to demonstrate a new approach to queer family history.
Queer Oxford
This blog looks at the long and rich history of the LGBTQ+ community in Oxford. It is run by Ross Brooks, a PhD student researching queer history at Oxford Brookes University.

LGBTQ+ History Resources: Relationships & Community

Introduction

Key Resources

Videos

Topics