Olly Alexander at Glastonbury, Divine’s octopus dress, Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack, statues of Christine Burns and Lady Phyll and the hijabs of Imaan. Photograph: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage; BBC/HBO; Antonio Olmos/The Guardian Museums From Gentleman Jack’s hat to Olly Alexander’s cape: 10 objects that tell Britain’s queer history With drag queens’ dresses, erotic drawings, even a prison door, Queer Britain’s new exhibition distills centuries of LGBTQ+ life. Here are the highlights

You are immediately greeted in the exhibition by the door of the prison cell that confined Oscar Wilde in 1895. The celebrated Irish writer was imprisoned on the charge of gross indecency after his relationship with another man was discovered. He died three years after his release, destitute and outcast. He left behind a complicated legacy of flamboyance, fear, inspiration and injustice. Wilde’s experience of being villainised by the media and persecuted by the state has made him an icon for many LGBTQ+ people and, as curator Dawn Hoskin says, the piece is also symbolic of the doors he opened for later generations.

At Queer Britain, the cell door is displayed alongside a cover of the Gay Liberation Front magazine Come Together, which ran from 1970 to 1973. It reads “Oscar power to Oscar people”, reflecting Wilde’s enduring significance in queer British history. “In the museum space, the door literally casts a shadow,” Hoskin says. “It’s representative of how Wilde’s legacy and the homophobia of that time created a shadow, too.” Also displayed is a 1909 edition of Wilde’s De Profundis, written during his imprisonment and published after his death. It belongs to Queer Britain co-founder Joseph Galliano-Doig. “I found this copy of De Profundis when I was 14 and anxious about being gay. It saved my life,” he says. “It made me feel seen, comforted and angry.”

In 2020, more than 400 erotic drawings by Grant were found under a bed. “Everybody thought they had been destroyed,” said Dr Darren Clarke, head of collections at Charleston, the Sussex farmhouse where Grant lived and worked. The 422 works were created in the 1940s and 50s, a time when male homosexuality was still illegal, and depict “every conceivable act of couples”, as Clarke put it in 2020. “It’s quite a kama sutra of Duncan Grant’s sexual imagination.” The collection was secretly passed from lover to lover, and from friend to friend. Due to the vulnerability of old watercolours to excessive light, Queer Britain will showcase three of Grant’s drawings on rotation; the choices will become gradually racier over time.

Anne Lister was a Yorkshire-born industrialist, writer and landowner who is considered to be “the first modern lesbian”. Lister’s diaries recorded her daily life and, in code, her many relationships with women, which started during her school days. Her appearance was considered masculine and she dressed only in black, which is why she came to be known (generally unkindly) as “Gentleman Jack”. Her final relationship was with Ann Walker, to whom she was symbolically married in Holy Trinity church in York, which is now celebrated as the birthplace of lesbian marriage in Britain. Lister’s diaries, a rare first-person account of life as a pre-20th-century lesbian, were recently brought to life in the TV drama Gentleman Jack. This black hat, which was worn by Suranne Jones in the BBC/HBO series, is based around the signature look Lister wore every day. “I love and only love the fairer sex … my heart revolts from any love but theirs,” she once wrote.

Switchboard, a helpline for anyone who wants to talk about gender identity and sexuality, has been taking calls since 1974. In the days when being in the closet was the norm and any semblance of equality felt like a pipe dream, Switchboard provided a lifeline – and it still does today. Displayed at Queer Britain is the volunteers’ logbook, which offers insight into the range of issues facing LGBTQ+ people in Britain, with stories of curiosity, fear, friendship and loss. This exhibit, from 1987, records a time when Switchboard was the leading source of information on HIV/Aids.

Divine’s work was particularly pioneering because, at the time, drag was preoccupied with prettiness and pageantry. Instead, they explored beauty in dark, sexy and confusing forms. Hoskin says this feels closely connected to British drag, despite Divine’s US roots. “Divine was about revelling in the weird and the unusual. There was always a challenging element of: am I going to be made to laugh, or be a bit scared? That is what I really like about British drag, which has a similar basis in humour and observation.”

In 2005, representatives from LGBTQ+ Muslim charity Imaan marched at London Pride. Faizan Faiz, the organisation’s co-founder, wore a rainbow hijab to make a statement about the erasure and marginalisation queer Muslims have faced, from outside and also from within the LGBTQ+ community. “On the 2005 Pride march, we were jeered by gay Islamophobes and in defiance we gave a speech to 10,000 people at Trafalgar Square,” they say in the notes accompanying the exhibit. Just as the Pride flag symbolises different people coming together, the rainbow hijab represents the union of queer and Muslim identities. “If my mum had known her handiwork would end up in an art gallery, would she have viewed me being LGBTQ+ differently?” Faiz adds.

At the start of 2018, there were 925 public statues in the UK – just 158 of which depicted women, and only 25 of which depicted non-mythical or non-royal women. (By contrast, there were more statues of men named John.) The Put Her Forward project set out to change this by making 25 three-dimensional printed statues of inspirational women. Activists Christine Burns and Phyll Opoku-Gyimah (known more widely as Lady Phyll) were among the 25 women selected. Burns, whose statue previously stood in Manchester, was a key negotiator in the creation of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, while working with trans equality organisation Press for Change. She has since written the book Trans Britain: Our Long Journey from the Shadows. Opoku-Gyimah, whose statue was unveiled in Lambeth, is a trade unionist who co-founded UK Black Pride and is the executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust. In 2016, she rejected an MBE to protest against persecution of LGBTQ+ people under homophobic laws put in place by the British empire.

Part of the story of the UK’s LGBTQ+ movement is new leaders coming to the fore within the art and culture worlds, as well as activism and politics. Years & Years frontman and It’s a Sin star Olly Alexander has become an advocate for queer people, speaking out on a range of topics, from mental health to sexual health and bullying. Performing at Glastonbury festival in 2016, Alexander wore a vibrant rainbow cape and delivered a rousing speech on LGBTQ+ rights, where he called for the elimination of racism, ableism and misogyny. “Sometimes I’m afraid but I’m never ashamed. I am proud of who I am,” he said, wrapped in the colours of the Pride flag. “Say ‘No thank you, fear!’”

Source: The Guardian

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