Since 2019, the Out On An Island project has been delving into the hidden history of the Isle of Wight’s LGBTQ+ community, which has now culminated in the publication of a new book.
Developed by StoneCrabs Theatre and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project’s team of dedicated volunteers has uncovered a rich history that has been largely erased or ignored.
This new book features excerpts from 18 interviews with LGBTQ+ people, carried out over 2 years. The interviewees shared honest, intimate accounts of what it’s like to be ‘out’ on the Isle of Wight, an isolated island with a long and abiding conservative history. Some settled there happily; others were born there but couldn’t wait to escape.
Project Manager Caroline Diamond says:
“Russell T Davies chose the Isle of Wight as an old fashioned, isolated destination for his hit Channel 4 programme ‘It’s A Sin’, which looked at the impact of AIDS on the LGBTQ+ community in the late 1980’s. This book features the island’s own HIV campaign with its Captain Condom mascot and the introduction of the Isle of Wight Gay Men’s Health Project.”
Essays, poems and images contributed by local people and volunteers build a picture of the social and political life of LGBTQ+ people on the Island. This includes research into the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community in the local media, as well as the reactions to the launch of the first ever Isle of Wight Pride in 2017. It is a candid, emotional record of human behaviour and the hurdles that can be faced in seeking to be your authentic self.
‘Out On An Island – The Isle of Wight’s Hidden LGBTQ+ History’ will be launched on 19th February 2022 at 15:30 with a special event at Carisbrooke Castle Museum. From February 2022 to August 2022, the museum will also be hosting an exhibition of the project’s research and memorabilia, in concert with educational talks and visits with schools around the Isle of Wight.
Pre-orders for the book are now available at https://medinabookshop.com/product/out-on-an-island-edited-by-franko-figueiredo-stow-and-caroline-diamond.
LGBT i could keep up with but LGBTQ+ conveys no meaning to me.
Why do some people wish to corral people with diverse predilictions in one box?
We are all one community with the same rights and subject to the same laws.
exactly..the very existence of groups that exclude heterosexuals are not inclusive..those in these groups that demand inclusivity, undermine their own arguments by excluding heterosexual.
Q is for queer or questioning. Some people add an I for intersex and an A for asexual as well, but not all intersex or asexual people identify with the LGBTQ community. Sometimes a + is added instead to include those asexuals and intersex people who do want to be included. The + also encompasses labels which don’t fall under L, G, B, T or Q, and acknowledges that some people don’t wish to label themselves but do consider themselves part of the community that LGBTQ refers to. The book explains these labels as well.
Sounds a bit like an algebra lesson to me.
But, each to there own, live and let live etc.
I am myself am a, W.A.S.P.
White Anglo Saxon Protestant.
Is this allowed ?
I come from a family of WASPs myself. I also belong to the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not one or the other. But my WASP family members who are straight haven’t faced the kind of discrimination that I do simply because I’m not straight. Just as some of them face discrimination – due to things such as disability, for example – that I don’t face. We have experienced life differently. I’d never want them to stop talking about their hardships. I just ask the same in return.
Good for you girl/boy/trans person of non-colour+.
But we don’t have the same rights. Trans people who transition while married can only do so if their spouse gives consent. Intersex people are still subject to surgery as babies to “normalise” their genitals – an unnecessary surgery that often causes deep distress later in life. Conversion therapy is still legal in the UK. LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately affected by barriers to IVF treatment. LGBTQ+ people experience hate crime and discrimination due to their sexuality and/or gender. It’d be nice if we were all equal, but that’s just not the case. By talking about the reality, we can get closer to equality.
Come on IE, what’s wrong with my comment ?
Read the Title: it is a HISTORY book, not designed to “exclude heterosexuals” or give LGBGT different “rights” to anyone else.
Exactly! The book also lets Islanders tell their own stories and leave a record of their lives here for future generations. It talks about past and present issues in a way that is accessible to everyone and hopefully educates as well.
Growing up here, I didn’t think there were any LGBTQ+ people besides me and my friends. I couldn’t wait to leave so that I could meet people who were facing the same issues as me. Now I know that there were LGBTQ+ people here and there always has been. We always complain about people leaving us for the mainland. I hope that LGBTQ+ people who feel isolated here – young, old and inbetween – feel less alone after reading the book. I hope they see the Island less as somewhere to escape and as somewhere they can thrive instead.
When I grew up LGBTQ+ people had not been invented.
No, that is because they were all In hiding from bigots like you.