The Quilt

Northern Ireland’s intriguing queer history draws Tash to Belfast. In exploring stories that are often kept out of view, Tash hears tales of jailed men, a pioneering community helpline, and intersex experience. They speak to Michael Lawrence, a historian looking into the prison records of men who were convicted of buggery, and digs into the archive of charity Cara-Friend looking back over the letters people sent across its long and heartwarming history with Community Development Manager Adam Murray. The final patches added to our quilt in this episode are stitched by Hannah who shares her life experience, and why it’s important not to hide intersex people, and we end as Tash and Hannah march together at Belfast Trans Pride.Queer history is often harder to find because it’s been hidden, but everyone in this episode helps to change that.For this episode we’d like to thank Adam Murray at Cara Friend, Belfast Trans Pride, Grianne Starrs, Here NI and the staff at Ulster Museum.  The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here

People have moved to The Midlands from all over the world — so how has this migration shaped the region’s queer community?In this episode, Adam meets Ranjit Khutan who tells the story of his parents moving to England from India, and how they raised him with a community spirit. This led him to run the first support group for South Asian men who have sex with men in Birmingham in the 1990s, and do pioneering work in sexual health. Bursting out into Birmingham’s Gay Village at the same time was the drag queen Seema Butt, aka Naz Qureshi, in their extravagant and colourful looks. Naz tells Adam the story of how Seema came to be, and all the important queer South Asian nightlife from back in the day. The patch that they all stitch together through these stories is a picture of queer community.For this episode we’d like to thank Saima Razzaq and Birmingham Pride, Laurence Butler at Birmingham Museums, Linda Spurdle at Birmingham Museums Trust, and Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here

If the world has made it hard for your community to keep going, how do you still find the pride?In this episode, Tash travels to the northeast of England, to the old mining town of Stanley in County Durham. They hear about the history of mining and shipbuilding, and what the wake of those industries has meant for queer people living there. There are stories from Sharon McIlvaney, who reflects on her own upbringing as a bisexual woman who now runs a local queer community youth group called Freedom Zone. Tash meets two of the groups young members, Grey and Matt, who talk about the importance of Freedom Zone and the impact the group has had on their lives. Sharon’s son Jake and his partner Charlie also sit down for a chat, to talk about their experience of growing up trans in the North East. Lastly we hear from Glenn Wigham, who moved to London as a fashion student but is now returning to County Durham to train as a firefighter (one of the first gay male ones in the area!).As Glen, Sharon and others speak movingly about their connection to their community and its history, we’re reminded what it’s like to have pride in a place.For this episode we’d like to thank Sharon McIlvaney at Freedom Zone, PACT House in Stanley, Durham Pride and the staff at Beamish: the living museum of the north.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here

Scottish history is laden with the sense of loss, from the Highland clearances to... Glasgow’s lesbian bars that closed down in the 1990s!In this episode, Adam takes a tour of those voided queer spaces with one of their old disco dykes, Natalie Wilson. He also hears from archivist Mel Reeve about the missing queer and bisexual elders from our collective past, and Rob Crawford, who reflects on the decades he lost due to gay shame. Finally he heard the story of Reach Out Highland, a trans-inclusive sexual health organisation from the 1990s, from Julia Gordon.It’s a moving set of stories covering several locations in Scotland, adding more patches to our quilt of queer Britain!The Digital Transgender Archive can be found here. For this episode we’d like to thank Mel Reeve from the Bi History Project, Hannah Justad, Ellie Muniandy and colleagues at the National Library of Scotland in Glasgow, Dagny, Carrie Marshall, and the staff at Musselburgh Sports Centre.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here

The northwest of England is famous for progressive thinking, from women’s liberation to power for the working classes. In this episode, Tash meets some of the folks who are bringing this forward-thinking towards faith and spirituality. From Adelaide Harris and the pioneering church of St James and Emmanuel in Didsbury Village, to Saha (Surabhi Kandaswamy), a trans woman who moved to the UK from Southern India and feels connected to her ancestry and queerness through the birds, butterflies and old ruins found in Williamson Park, Preston.Their powerful ways of thinking about the history of faith and spirituality offer a way to explore the queer future.For this episode we’d like to say thanks to Didier Muller from Lancs LGBT, Vicci McCann at Lancashire Archives, Scott Schiavone from Preston City Council, Rev Nick Bundock from St James & Emmanuel, and the Butterfly House at Williamson Park.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here

The city of Norwich, in East Anglia, has a history of welcoming strangers and people who are a bit different.In this episode, Adam meets some of Norfolk’s wonderful misfits. From Serena James, an older trans woman who discovered a remarkable photograph from the 1960s, to Steve Peck, who bought a shirt 40 years ago on a memorable holiday. Finally there’s Beau Brannick and Alice Bigsby-Bye, who brought together a whole community to make a gorgeous (and now famous) quilt. He’s also given a local history tour by Adam Baker from Queer Norfolk.As their stories all unravel, we hear the threads of East Anglia’s queer past... and future.For this episode we’d like to say thanks to Adam Baker from Queer Norfolk, Joanne Foster-Murdoch at Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, and Bethan Holdridge at Norfolk Museums Service.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here