LGBT+ History Month – Box of Broadcasts

February is LGBT+ History Month. Across all three of our libraries, there are displays of books on queer history and lives. We also have an online collection and all these books are part of our collection year round for any one to check out, you can explore our resources via LibrarySearch

Beyond the physical, our online resources and databases are also excellent mines of LGBT+ History. One such resource is Box of Broadcasts (BoB), an on demand TV and radio service for education. BoB allows staff and students to record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels, and search an extensive archive. It has a number of queer documentaries, dramas, and tv shows in its archives, such as:

• Gentleman Jack – This BBC drama follows Anne Lister, a lesbian living in the 1800s whose coded diaries record her multiple love affairs with women, and her meeting and marriage to Ann Walker.
• Coming Oot! A fabulous history of Gay Scotland – This documentary features a mix of eyewitness testimony, archive and historical research that tracks the changing attitudes towards Scotland’s Gay Community
• The Watermelon Woman – A channel 4 comedy film following a young Black lesbian filmmaker uncovering the untold stories of Black actresses in early Hollywood
• Into My Name - Storyville - A documentary film that follows four friends sharing the important turning points as they come of age transitioning to a new gender
• It’s Not Unusual: A Lesbian and Gay History – This documentary shares how attitudes towards homosexuality changed over the 20^th century in the fight for legal reform, touching on Section 28, The Well of Loneliness, and the AIDS epidemic.

This is just a short list of the many resources available on Box of Broadcasts this LGBT+ History Month.