LGBT HISTORY MONTH
QUEER AND NOW Amy Murphy, project coordinator of LGBT History Month, tells Lauren Mayberry about this year’s cultural programme, which is bigger and more varied than ever
L GBT History Month returns in February with a packed programme of events. The festival, which began in Scotland in 2003, aims to get people engaged with LGBT issues through art, music, theatre, film and literature, encouraging people of all orientations to express themselves and challenge prejudice.
‘History Month began as very much a community project, with events run by small organisations and individuals, and we really want to keep hold of that community ethos,’ says Amy Murphy, the festival’s project coordinator. ‘This year, we’re really pleased to have secured money from Creative Scotland which allowed us to award 12 different organisations money to set up their events.’
The festival awarded cultural commissions to artist Sandra Alland, who will be making a documentary film about LGBTI people in Scotland who also identify as disabled or deaf, and Lucy Holmes-Elliott of the multi-arts collective Lock Up Your Daughters, who will be creating illustrations and photos to be exhibited in various venues throughout Glasgow. Festival regulars OurStory Scotland return in association with Edinburgh University Feminist Society, with Love Out Of Bounds (Wed 6 Feb), a storytelling project where people share experiences of times their relationships have been ignored or rejected by family, community or culture. Glasgay! venue Rose & Grants will host Park Bum and Other Poems, a one-man show from Derek McLuckie (Fri 22 & Sat 23 Feb),
while queer cabaret event Cachin Cachan Cachunga hits Mono on Fri 21 Feb and the ever-active LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing in Edinburgh will be running a film project on real life coming out stories throughout February.
‘We really want to keep the community ethos’ The List’s own Allan Radcliffe is involved in a special new writing project for History Month entitled Kin, for which he commissioned eight writers based in Scotland to create short stories on the theme of ‘family’. Two pieces will be published on the History Month website each week from the beginning of February, with two live performance events at Edinburgh’s Summerhall on 9 & 16 Feb. An extract from one of the stories appears below.
LGBT History Month takes place across Scotland throughout February. Check the history month website for details of events in your area: lgbthistorymonth.org.uk
EXTRACT FROM BILL & COO BY RONALD FRAME
with her first ever squeeze Toni in Brisbane, who did the rest. They stocked greetings cards,
and wrapping paper, and every novelty you might want for a party (within reason, that is, and legally permissible). The shop was at the quiet, windy end of Briggait – let’s face it, they told each other, Bill & Coo was made for covered malls – but people were always coming in nevertheless, and they made a decent-ish living.
‘Hi,’ Kerry would say to pals, ‘I’m
Bill.’ ‘And sometimes,’ Hayley would chime in on cue, ‘I‘m a right coo.’
Shit awful name. Bill & Coo. But that’s what came with the franchise, in twirly lettering on the shop front. Bill & Coo ™, to be accurate.
Kerry, being Australian, had Kerry was embarrassed about
known about the company. She also knew they were looking to expand their UK operations to Scotland, so she got in touch the trading name, and it took a lot to embarrass the worldly Kerry. Hayley, whom their friends presumed was the femme of the
pair, told Kerry in the privacy of their home, never mind, whenever we refer to the shop, we’ll call it not ‘Bill & Coo’ but . . . What? ‘Slap and Tickle!’ they both called out at the very same instant: as if they’d always been of one mind, telepathic, as if they’d been born joined at the hip, etc. In fact they had met at
someone’s 40th in Edinburgh. Four years later, here they were, not so much Darby as ‘Debbie and Joan’, Kerry with her Bondi Beach permatan (courtesy of the stand- up halogen booths at Rae’s-Rays) and Hayley, at Kerry’s prompting, with new blonde highlights in her hair. Some of their friends came up from Edinburgh to Carnbeg to visit: gay to a man, woman or trannie. Nothing too outrageous, to spook
the horses. After all, Carnbeg had needed time to me to get used to them: Rome, or Carnbeg Babylon, wasn’t built in a day. ‘Festina lente,’ said Hayley, remembering school Latin, while Kerry thought it must be a Greek ouzo she was talking about, or possibly that gay cruise ship she’d read about, which she was trying to get Hayley to agree they should sample for themselves. ■ Ronald Frame received a Stonewall award (Barbara Gittings Prize) from the American Library Association for his Scottish-set and Booker long-listed novel, The Lantern Bearers. He is the author of sixteen books – novels, short story collections, and a prize-winning TV play. His latest publication, a novel called Havisham, was published by Faber in November 2012. 24 Jan–21 Feb 2013 THE LIST 25
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