Picturing Nonconformity: LGBT Humanist Heritage

In July 2024, Humanist Heritage staged a first-of-its-kind exhibition marking 45 years of LGBT Humanists, and an even longer history of existence and resistance. In this article, Heritage Project Officer Cas Bradbeer gives a glimpse into the exhibition’s making, opening, and impact. Photography by Alavari Jeevathol.

In July 2024, we opened our landmark exhibition celebrating LGBT Humanists, revealing their rich archival holdings from Bishopsgate and Conway Hall. This printed ephemera was complemented by LGBT artists’ illustrations of figures from further back in history whose religious, gender, and sexual nonconformity might speak to LGBT humanists today.

Click on the image above to explore the virtual tour of our exhibition!
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This specially curated collection, ranging from textiles to illustrations to photographs, featured works of art by EM Parry, SL Grange, River Manning, Alice Gabb, and Claire Mead. Through the oral histories that volunteers gathered for the exhibition, we also had the pleasure of hearing directly from veteran LGBT artists and activists such as Adèle Anderson and Peter Tatchell.

Through photographs, news media, and ephemera of all kinds, the LGBT Humanists archive tells a story of political struggles and community building since 1979. Amid campaigns on topics such as equal marriage, the Mary Whitehouse blasphemy trial, and conversion therapy, inclusive spaces emerged for social activities and creative expression.

This exhibition was organised as part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project Humanist Heritage: Doers, Dreamers, Place Makers, coordinated by Humanists UK in partnership with Conway Hall.

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Our exhibition opened with speeches by LGBT Humanists coordinator Nick Baldwin, who gleefully showed attendees the zine he co-created with other volunteers working on this exhibition. We then welcomed a surprise appearance from Peter Tatchell, who expressed his gratitude for decades of collaboration between Outrage! and LGBT Humanists.

Tony Challis, a member of LGBT Humanists since its early days, powerfully read his poetry in his Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners t-shirt. Themes ranged from lying with another man under moonlight to memories of his friend who underwent conversion therapy (the banning of which has been an LGBT Humanists campaign since its founding, and is LGBT Humanists’ campaign focus of 2024).

Closing the show was the marvellous Claire Mead, who performed as their drag persona Eugène Delacroissant. They spoke to the long history of homophobia and hypocrisy within religious establishments, focusing on the tale of John Atherton. Claire then performed to It’s a Sin by the Pet Shop Boys as they embodied this 17th century bishop who was prosecuted under the same homophobic legislation in Ireland that he instituted.

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At the entrance to our exhibition, we featured our new LGBT Humanists banner, co-created by participants in our workshop with activist and artist Alice Gabb. In the workshop, Alice shared a short history of activist banners, before working with the participants to design a banner, based on symbols and slogans from the LGBT Humanists archive. The banner was marched by LGBT Humanists at Pride 2024, before taking its place in Conway Hall’s window display.

Contact cas@humanists.uk if you are interested in staging this exhibition at your organisation.