LGBTQ+ History
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The ‘beautiful boy’ of the Commons: Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916) and sexual identity in Parliament at the time of the Second Reform Act
In the third of his article series on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), Dr Martin Spychal explores Gower’s parliamentary reputation as the ‘beautiful boy’ of the Commons, and his increasing disaffection with conventional aristocratic society during the 1868 parliamentary session. In…
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Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916): the social life of a queer MP at the time of the Second Reform Act
In the second article in his series on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), Dr Martin Spychal explores Gower’s London social life during his first year in Parliament, including a brief summer romance with the son of the commissioner of the Metropolitan…
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Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916): the life of a queer MP at the time of the Second Reform Act
Dr Martin Spychal introduces his series of articles on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), who was elected as MP for Sutherland in 1867. This is the first of five articles originally published on the Victorian Commons website between February 2020 and…
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HIV and Parliament: memories from our Oral History Project
For LGBT+ History Month, Dr Emma Peplow, Head of Contemporary History, uses the History of Parliament’s Oral History archive to reflect on the debates and experiences of HIV in Parliament during the 1980s. When the HIV/AIDs epidemic arrived in the UK…
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History of Parliament and Excavating Early Queer History
To mark LGBTQ+ History Month 2023, guest blogger Charles Upchurch, Professor of British history at Florida State University, explains how he used the History of Parliament project as a resource when researching his newest book, “Beyond the Law”: The Politics…
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Commemorating same-sex desire in early modern England
To mark LGBT History Month 2022, Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 project considers a paradox in perceptions of same-sex relationships four hundred years ago… Very few declarations of same-sex love survive from early-17th-century England, and generally they occur…
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New Podcast for LGBT+ History Month: Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916)
Based on his recent blog series on The Victorian Commons, this LGBT+ History Month Dr Martin Spychal sat down (virtually) with our public engagement team to discuss his research on the queer MP Lord Ronald Gower. We’ve made our 30…
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A Highland canvass in a ‘pocket county’: Ronald Gower (1845-1916) and the 1867 Sutherland by-election
Continuing our series on Scotland and his series on Lord Ronald Gower (1845-1916), Dr Martin Spychal, research fellow for the House of Commons 1832-1868 project, uses Gower’s diaries to provide some rare insights into mid-Victorian electioneering in the ‘pocket county’…
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Exploring parliamentary history through art
Today’s blog contains details of the Art UK online exhibitions that our researchers have curated during lockdown… The History of Parliament’s researchers have been trying out the Curations tool recently launched by Art UK, which enables anyone to create a…
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Lesbians and the law: the Wolfenden Report and same-sex desire between women
Our final blog for LGBTQ+ History Month comes from Dr Caroline Derry, who has recently published a book on lesbianism and the criminal law. Here, Caroline will explore the significance of the report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and…
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Archbishop Laud’s secret ‘misfortunes’: decoding sexual identity in the seventeenth century
Continuing the theme of LGBTQ+ History Month, Dr Paul Hunneyball, assistant editor of the Lords 1558-1603 section, explores the problem of interpreting evidence from the early modern period… ‘I dreamed that K.B. sent to me in Westminster church, that he…
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Maureen Colquhoun: “an open lesbian-feminist woman” in the House of Commons
In our second blog for LGBTQ+ History Month our Public Engagement Manager, Sammy Sturgess, explores the parliamentary career of Maureen Colquhoun who was the first openly lesbian MP, as well as the first openly LGBTQ+ MP… Maureen Colquhoun was elected…