Our History Reps Alabama H-F, Mairi G, Katie L, Ruby M and Sakeena S, together with Debating Club and LGBT+ Club have been busy putting together a fantastic schedule of events for our first LGBTQ+ History Week at NHEHS which will take place in the week commencing 21st February as part of the national LGBT+ 2022 History Month!

Full details are to be confirmed but there will be daily events celebrating LGBTQ+ history including a historical LGBTQ+ debate, the creation of a board in the atrium featuring notable LGBTQ+ figures from history, a student-led politics lecture about Stonewall, a History Masterclass on LGBTQ+ before ending on a high with Horrible Histories Club which will create a timeline of the LGBTQ+ movement throughout the 20th and 21st centuries using Smarties in the shape of a rainbow. Watch this space!

In more LGBT news, we got to meet our new Diversity Reps from Year 12, Lara and Ash, at a colourful assembly last week featuring LGBT+ history. The assembly, led by Dr Swallow and the Reps, focused on the history of the LGBT+ movement and the contribution LGBT+ community has made to our shared history. He also spoke about the history and meaning behind flags (for countries, movements, teams) and how they help create a community and act as a visible representation of what is important to that community. The assembly then looked at the thinking behind the design of the original Rainbow flag by Gilbert Baker in 1978, the Lesbian flag, the Trans Flag and the design by non-binary artist Daniel Quasar of the Progress Pride flag in 2018.

Lara then highlighted the story behind Stormé DeLarverie – a singer, drag king, bodyguard, bouncer, and potential instigator of the Stonewall Riots in the United States. She was born in 1920 to a white father and a black mother, and because interracial marriage was illegal in Louisiana at the time, she was never given a birth certificate and had no idea what day she was born. DeLarverie was bullied and sometimes violently beaten as a mixed-race child, to the point where she was sent to a private school for her safety. When she was 18, she came to Chicago after realizing she was a lesbian. She worked as a bodyguard for the mob and began singing with bands , in the 1950s, She began appearing in drag as M.C. in the famed Jewel Box Revue, North America’s first racially integrated drag revue. In 1969, she was also at the Stonewall Inn when the riots began. According to some accounts, the riots were started by a butch lesbian who fought with the cops to avoid being arrested. DeLarverie was later identified as that woman by others, and she confirmed it later in life. For decades, she would fight for the rights of the LGBTQ community. After her partner of 25-years, a dancer named Diane, died, she worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City and held a number of leadership positions in the Stonewall Veterans Association. DeLarverie also served the community as a volunteer street patrol worker, and as a result, was called the “guardian of lesbians in the Village.” Beyond her LGBTQ activism, DeLarverie also organised and performed at fundraisers for women who suffered from domestic violence and their children.

LGBT+ Club meets every Thursday lunchtime with Year 8s and 10s coming along on alternating weeks and would love to welcome new members!