London’s dedicated LGBTQ+ museum is back – and it’s queerer than ever

Fabrics are used to a more sombre, reflective effect, opposite the sparkling attire of Club Kali attendees, as AIDS Quilt 23 commemorates the lives of Michelle Cross, Rudolph Nureyev, Alan Tiller, Michael Blicq, Scott MacDonald, Nigel Dickens and an anonymous victim of what quickly became known as the ‘gay disease’ as the pandemic alienated an already marginalised community. “You can see just how much love has been poured into the making of this quilt – and this is just part of it”, says Jennifer Shearman, Queer Britain’s head of programme and collection.

Jennifer highlights the Northern Women’s Liberation Rock Band poster as one of her favourite new exhibits – “I think it’s really fun because it takes activism and protest and has a kind of playful slant on all of that through music making”, she remarks.

One display honours Justin Fashanu, one of the first professional footballers to come out as gay

RAHIL AHMAD

The display highlights the legacy of queer culture and LGBTQ+ groups in the creative industries, from art and literature to fashion and performance. An introduction to women’s liberation music documents how the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) and Gay Liberation Front (GLF) intersected and clashed throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Many queer women found a haven within the WLM, having felt misunderstood or ostracised by the male-dominated GLF, and the resulting creative output blossomed into a flowering of feminist culture across the arts.

Queer songsheets adorn the museum’s cabinets, feminist and politically charged ditties occasionally sung to the tune of existing music. ”So what if Mary wants to live with Jane and Sue, / While Peter lives with Paul. / And Marilyn is going to be a lesbian mum – / We’re only human after all”, one sheet encourages readers to sing to the tune of Oliver!’s ‘Consider Yourself’. Songs titled I Enjoy Being a Dyke, Women are a Girl’s Best Friend and Women of the World Unite – featuring the lyrics “Women of the world get pissed / Sisters, sisters / We could all be feminists / If somebody gets the beer in” – lie among the pages.