Hearing our Stories: LGBTQ+ Lives and the BBC

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While the Channel 4 drama It's A Sin has demonstrated profound awarenss in the generation of LGBTQ+ people affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there's a need to situate momentous periods likes this from the LGBTQ+ timeline within the wider context of how LGBTQ+ lives have been reflected and represented for successive generations from the 1970s (as the watershed period after the partial decriminalisation of gay male sex in 1967) to the 2000s.Hearing our Stories: LGBTQ+ Lives and the BBC is a public engagement project which enables us to learn how BBC coverage of LGBTQ+ people and issues has been viewed and understood by the LGBTQ+ audience, and what impact the BBC has had in representing queer lives and framing debates. In partnership with the BBC, the PI will conduct research in the BBC archives to identify materials which illustrate and illuminate our understanding of the way BBC output (primarily drawn from news and current affairs) that foregrounds personal stories and experiences of ordinary LGBTQ+ people, for two demographic generations: those whose formative years covered the 1970s - early 1990s, and those who have grown up since the Millennium. For the generation age 55 years and above, research will focus on key events from the LGBTQ+ timeline such as the emergence of the Gay Liberation Movement (1970s); Section 28 (1980s); and the HIV/AIDS pandemic (1980s-90s). The themes that are likely to emerge from this period will include visibility and marginalisation, community participation and activism, the formation of identity and tensions between sexual liberation and continuing legislative inequality.The narrative from the generation born and growing up during the Millennial years will focus on events such as the equalisation of the age of consent, the introduction of civil partnership and same sex marriage and trans visibility. The emerging themes will highlight tensions around heteronormativity and assimilation, the broadening of sexual and sexuality identities as reflected by the LGBTQ+ acronym and the visibility of trans rights within these communities. The BBC archive materials are used to create an audio/visual presentation, spotlighting LGBTQ+ interviewees and contributors, to illustrate the narrative arc that frames these two periods in LGBTQ+ history and extrapolate the key themes. This presentation becomes the focus and stimulus for public engagement with two partners who work with LGBTQ+ communities. These partnerships will enable engagement with participants drawn from the two demographic groups who have experienced wide ranging changes in LGBTQ+ society: 55 years old and above, and those in their 20s. These groups will be facilitated in discussion, to enable reflection, dialogue, reminiscence, and disagreement. In addition, members of both community groups will be brought together to facilitate a further, intergenerational dialogue. These participant group conversations will be recorded and form the basis for a short series of podcasts. These will be published on relevant platforms and disseminated on BBC 100 Voices, alongside promotional work on social media channels, using short clips. This will bring the conversation into contact with the wider LGBTQ+ community, and also non-LGTBQ+ audiences, as part of ongoing public engagement. Other outputs will be a journal article and the ongoing availability of the presentation for future community and educational use. As part of the legacy of the project, the community groups will benefit from podcast-making workshops run by the project, to enable them to produce and publish further conversations with their members.The goal for both sets of participants is to allow them to share their experiences and be heard, and to learn from each other. This will create a cross-generational connection, and an opportunity for participants to learn from each other, and reflect on the impact of BBC coverage and representation through key moments in their lives.