UK Announces Launch of Trans+ History Week
November 24, 2023QueerAF and Trans+ creative Marty Davies have today announced the launch of the UK’s first Trans+ History Week, scheduled to take place between 6-12 May 2024. Coming just before Pride month, Trans+ History Week will provide an opportunity to reflect and learn from history and apply its learnings to our present. The week aims to be a reflective period to learn and celebrate the momentous and millennia-old history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and intersex people with content, events and exhibitions.
Authentic and positive Trans+ representation in the media is under attack, with anti-trans sentiment on the rise across the UK in media, politics and communities. Hate crimes continue to rise as a result. That’s why the time to do this has never been more urgent, according to Davies. As Trans Awareness Week draws to a close, and a week after the 20-year anniversary of the repeal of Section 28, this is a chance to remind your audiences about the power of history. It’s a way to shut down lies about Trans+ people as well as show commitment to continue share stories even as Trans Awareness month draws to a close.
A fundamental characteristic of any community or minority that’s struggled for visibility is that it has a history. “It also goes without saying that, in many cases, that history will have been mistold, obscured or simply buried by the dominant powers in society – whether by malignant design or unthinking cultural illiteracy,” commented Christine Burns MBE, Editor of Trans Britain author. “Many members of a minority will have known the struggle of trying to make sense of their place in the world without any role models or evidence of others like themselves. That’s certainly the story for gay and lesbian people, folks with disabilities, minority ethnic populations and even women as a whole. It is also very evidently the case for trans people too. We cannot progress without knowing how our ancestors lived and struggled to survive – often on their own.”
We can trace queerness and gender-diverse communities through millennia, and though this rich history is getting more time in museums, archives, and dedicated history spaces it’s broader knowledge at home is still small, according to the organizers. That's what Trans+ History Week aims to change. It will be a week-long reflective period to learn and celebrate the momentous and millennia-old history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and Intersex people.
Trans+ History Week will begin on May 6, 2024, currently known as Trans+ History Day, and will coincide with the 91st anniversary of the Nazi raid on the world’s first trans clinic – the week they tried to erase the trans community. Crucially, it was also the site of perhaps the most infamous and well-documented book burnings. An image many will remember thanks to the Holocaust becoming a compulsory subject in State-maintained schools from September 199. But thanks to queerphobic laws, including Section 28, the full context of this horrifying part of history –part of an erasure of transgender and queer people’s lives – was never taught.
“The entirety of my schooling took place under Section 28. Earlier this year, I found out I’d been robbed of important history about myself and my community. Learning that one of the most famous Nazi book burnings was at a trans clinic was a huge surprise to me. But it made me wonder why; it’s an image we all saw in school, why didn’t we get the full context? Like myself, most people didn’t get the chance to learn about the complex history of the world’s first trans clinic,” stated Marty Davies, Founder of Trans+ History Week. “Learning about it set me on a path of wanting to learn more and go deeper. If we rob people of their history, we deny them their humanity. I want to create space for us to stand joyfully in our present with our hands wrapped around our past. Using this knowledge to steel us as we carve out a better future.”
After lots of behind-the-scenes consultation with some of the UK's most prominent LGBTQ+ organisations, trans+ creatives, community elders and trailblazers, “we're humbled to be launching Trans+ History Week,” added Jamie Wareham, Founder of non-profit publisher QueerAF, a launchpad for the project. “It sometimes feels a bit trite to say, but stories really do move people. They do change the world. It’s a great shame there aren’t more Trans+ history stories more readily available. It’s time to fix that by building on, and celebrating the work that the incredible Trans+ archivers, historians and content creators are already doing in this space.”
The initiative is supported by some of the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ and Trans+ organisations and media at launch, including myGwork, Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, LGBT Foundation, Switchboard LGBTQ+ Helpline, Not A Phase, DIVA, Queer Britain, Just Like Us, Gendered Intelligence, Hidayah LGBTQI, Trans Actual, PinkNews, Trans Pride Manchester, and many more expected to join in the coming weeks.
