LGBTQI+ maritime events Feb 2021

Despite lockdown, online events are happening in February, LGBTQI+ History Month. And long term plans are also underway too. See here for listing, and do tell me if you think something else should be here.

FEBRUARY

 9 (Tues):Live events, cost free, hosted by Maritime UK website, 12.00 -14.00. Free. 

12.00. Come to my 20 minute illustrated online talk: LGBT+ maritime history: a whirlwind tour of a jigsaw, 1800-today

12.30. Zoom talk by Charlotte Paddock of the National Maritime Museum on its LGBTQI+ history events and more

To book click on https://www.maritimeuk.org/priorities/people/diversity-maritime/events/pride-maritime-lgbt-history-month-webinar-9-february/

10 (Wed). 6.30-20.00. National Maritime Museum /OUTing the Past . Focusing on non western LGBT+ experiences. https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/LGBT 

20 (Sat): 14.00 to 17.30.   Transgender Awareness & Understanding training course  Fact- based video presentation is delivered by two trans people and is a fully accredited CPD course. Normally, places are £45.00 plus VAT, but for LGBT+ history month there's £5.00 off. Quote MARITIME-UK. This event is not only for people in maritime. Michelle Clarke (co-presenter) is  a former captain so has special maritime knowledge. They will also be offering the course on many future occasions. Book at nationalgendertraining@gmail.com. 

From 24 (Wed) and then online:The Mother Mirror, directed by Anju Kasturiraj, National Maritime Museum. A video and moving image experiment exploring the ideas of 'fish out of water', chosen families, and migration. https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/LGBT

TO BE ARRANGED 

Various regional hosts with Outing the Past offer all sorts of speakers to various regional hosts for online events. For list of available talks, Feb to Sept, see https://www.outingthepast.com/otp-2021-festival-gazette. 

For a timetable of events see https://www.outingthepast.com/otp-2021-festival-gazette.

From March films of all talks will be available on YouTube. Later see https://lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk/ 

The only maritime talk so far is my presentation on Mick Belsten, a seafarer, Gay Liberation Front activist, and gay media worker. (Pictured below, far right). Venue TBA. 

HAPPENING AFTER LOCKDOWN, BUT GET IN TOUCH NOW

TRANS PLAQUE. Plans are afoot to put up a blue plaque to Michael Dillon, one of the first FTM trans people. He became a Merchant Navy doctor in the 1950s. (See blog at  http://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-first-ships-doctor-to-transition.html). Contact me if you wish to be part of the team working on the plaque.  

RESEARCH GROUP. The National Maritime Museum is organising  a community history project inviting LGBTQI+ maritime people to research its archives. Contact Charlotte Paddock cpaddock@rmg.co.uk.

MEMORIES WANTED. In 1994 there was an LGBT+ group for the Merchant Navy, called Shore Leave, and with an address at Stonewall. Would anyone who remembers Shore Leave get in touch with Nautilus official Danny McGowan, chair of the Maritime UK Pride in Maritime Network: dmcgowan@nautilusint.org. See https://www.nautilusint.org/en/news-insight/news/wanted-memories-of-maritime-lgbt-group-shore-leave/

MEDWAY HISTORY EVENTS. Not only Chatham sailors and marines and dockyard workers but people of Medway communities In Kent. If you are interested in sharing your story, or
researching others', contact the LGBTQIA+ History of the Medway Towns Project via the organiser, Rob Flood, at 07776 170751 or rob@feetontheground.co.uk.

VIRTUAL TOURS PROJECT. I'm planning a memory project linking veteran seafarers and current workers in maritime, called Mapping Our Rainbows Seas. The aim is to create a  guided virtual tour of places of significance to seafarers LGBT+ history, including  popular pubs in ports, places where courts-martialed sailors were hanged, and 'virtual pink plaque sites' where significant maritime workers lived or worked.