LGBT History Month may be over for 2012, but some of our event hosts have kindly agreed to discuss their experiences this year. To kick us off, here’s Paul Challinor from Blitz in Glasgow:
This year during LGBT History Month we decided that we wanted to do something special with our club night and raise some money for charity. We had heard about the wonderful work that LGBT Youth Scotland was doing for young LGBT people in the community and knew straight away that was where we were going to give the money we raised to. Our queer club night, Blitz, was still fairly new by the time February came round, but we wanted to celebrate LGBT History Month in a unique way, always keeping in mind the history of our community and how far we had come.
We decided to do something a bit special by turning the nightclub into gay polling day! Upon arriving, each person had to vote for who their gay musical icon was. The bar was covered in images of gay icons through the ages, from Shirley Temple to Diana Ross and from James Dean to Boy George, everyone’s face was there. The eventual crowned King was none other than Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie!
What was most special for me though was delivering the money we had raised to the LGBT Youth Scotland offices afterwards. We were able to sit in on one of the youth groups and meet the young people who our money would be going to. Luckily for us, it was a special meeting about the history of LGBT people.
It was an amazing experience to talk to young people who were finding themselves and their identity, just the way I had when I was their age. It is easy to forget the things you went through as a young LGBT person, when you were in university and had to grow up quicker than you would like!
Being involved in LGBT History Month with LGBT Youth Scotland was such a rewarding experience, and one that I definitely would want to be a part of again. It is a time when the community can really come together and celebrate how far we have come, and how far we are going to go in the future.
Thanks very much to Paul for this great account. If you’d like to get involved in writing a blog for us, we’d love to hear from you: email us at historymonthvolunteers@lgbtyouth.org.uk.
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