Brighton Ourstory Project - Lesbian and Gay History Group

Welcome to Winter 2000. We're keeping warm this year by working hard on our latest venture, the Queer About Campus exhibition which we're producing in collaboration with students from Sussex University's LGBT Group. We've been thrilled with the response to our requests for memories. Existing and former students and staff and those who've run businesses on campus have been in touch.

Travel with us along a time tunnel - from the dungareed feminists who ran PULSE vegetarian restaurant or the big hair of Sussex Gay Liberation Front, via a very narrow campus bed and the women's football team, to Faggots Fighting Fees and today's Away With the Fairies weekends; from the days when word of mouth was the only way to find out where to meet others, to websites galore - it's all there. The exhibition will be opened on the evening of Saturday, February 10th and everyone who receives a BOP newsletter is invited to attend. It will then run from 12th to 23rd February, at the Debating Chamber in Falmer House, Sussex University, open 12-5pm (Mon-Sat).

Exhibition

Brighton and Sussex Universities have often been in the forefront of political actions that have embraced the concerns of the town and have provided safe places for town lesbians and gay men to meet, socialise and perform. The Poly Basement discos are legendary for a whole generation of lesbians and the first meeting of Sussex Gay Liberation Front took place out at Falmer exactly thirty years ago. This latter event will also be celebrated on February 10th with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque, in the common room where the historic meeting took place. The plaque-maker is hard at work even as we speak.

To complete the feast of events on February 10th we are holding a reunion for all those in our queer communities, past and present (and their friends) whose lives have touched, or been touched by, the two universities. We also hope to open Queer About Campus in the town as part of the Fringe Festival in May, along with tantalising tasters from our permanent collections of old photographs, magazines and ephemera. Bringing into focus the lives of lesbians and gay men in Brighton from the 1940s to the present, this display heralds our move later this year to premises where we can open to the public. Details aren't yet finalised for the May event, so keep your ear to the ground - or ring Tom or Linda for an update.

Finally, all the best to former BOP member Margaret, and Joyce, for their stylish stationery shop, Pen to Paper, recently opened at 4 Sydney Street.

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