LGBTQ culture in Brighton and Hove

Brighton has recorded LGBT history in the city since the 19th century. Many men were initially drawn to Brighton by the enormous numbers of soldiers garrisoned in the town during the Napoleonic Wars. Evidence suggests that a floating population and good transport links with London helped its reputation as a place for the LGBT community. By the 1930s, Brighton started to flourish as a gay destination and many gay and lesbian pubs started to establish themselves. During the Second World War, Brighton was filled with soldiers. Women and men in the forces who were away from home meeting other lesbians and gay people for the first time in their lives also heard about Brighton and its special pleasures and helped turn it into a gay destination in the post-war years.

Students at the University of Sussex formed the Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) in February 1971.{{Cite web |title=Brighton Ourstory :: A History of Lesbian & Gay Brighton Chapter 3: Out of the Closet, 1967-87 |url=https://brightonourstory.co.uk/brighton-s-history/a-history-of-lesbian-and-gay-brighton-chapter-3-out-of-the-closet-1967-87/ |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=brightonourstory.co.uk}} The SGLF organized Brighton's first gay rights demonstration - Brighton Gay Day - in October 1972.{{Cite news |date=2022-06-28 |title=Brighton Pride: Pioneers recall early marches 50 years on |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-61968730 |access-date=2025-01-13 |language=en-GB}} Gay News described it, "...even if only 30 gays did come out with their banners for the rerouted march along the seafront and into a shopping precinct." Images of the march in Gay News' 14 November 1972 edition show marchers along Kings Road and at the Churchill Square Shopping Centre.{{Cite web |last=Project |first=Gay News Archive |date=1972-11-14 |title=Issue 11 |url=https://gaynewsarchive.co.uk/issue-11/ |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=Gay News Archive Project |language=en-GB}}

The following year, SGLF combined protest with celebration, launching Brighton's first Gay Pride Week from Friday, July 6th, 1973 to Sunday, July 8th, 1973.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-19 |title=Vintage Photo’s from Brighton Pride 1973 |url=https://www.gscene.com/news/pride/vintage-photos-from-brighton-pride-1973/ |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=Scene Magazine - From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life |language=en-US}} The event included a public gay wedding, one of Britain's first, between John Roman Baker and his boyfriend Graham Charles Wilkinson, later founder of the Sussex AIDS Helpline.{{Cite web |title=Graham Charles Wilkinson {{!}} Queer Heritage South |url=https://queerheritagesouth.co.uk/s/queer-heritage-south/item/968 |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=queerheritagesouth.co.uk}} Saturday's Gay Pride March began at Norfolk Square before heading south to the waterfront and along Kings Road to The Ship Hotel. The march would be Brighton's last until 1988. That evening, 200 people attended the dance at The Royal Albion Hotel.{{Cite news |date=2021-08-04 |title=Brighton Pride: Unseen images of 1973 gay march discovered |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-58083493 |access-date=2025-01-13 |language=en-GB}} The weekend concluded with a Gay Picnic on the beach across from the present-day Queens Hotel.

In 1988, Brighton Area Action Against Section 28 formed out of a meeting of Brighton Lesbian Action.{{Cite web |title=Brighton Ourstory :: A History of Lesbian & Gay Brighton Chapter 4: A Community Comes of Age, 1988-2001 |url=https://brightonourstory.co.uk/brighton-s-history/a-history-of-lesbian-and-gay-brighton-chapter-4-a-community-comes-of-age-1988-2001/index.html |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=brightonourstory.co.uk}} BAAAS28 held a march each May from 1988 to 1991, beginning at Hove's Town Hall and ending at Brighton's Town Hall. These marches evolved into 1991's Brighton Pride Weekend which concluded with a picnic in Preston Park.

In a 2014 estimate, 11-15% of the city's population aged 16 or over is thought to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. The 2001 census revealed that Brighton and Hove had the highest proportion of same-sex households in the UK at 1.29%: 2,544 persons said that they lived with a person of the same sex.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3456635.stm|title=Brighton 'has most gay couples'|publisher=BBC News|date=2004-02-03|access-date=2009-08-30}} The 2011 census did not measure same-sex households specifically but showed that Brighton and Hove had the highest number of civil partnerships in the UK, at 2,346 individuals or 3.1% of all legal relationships within the unitary authority area.{{cite web|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/index.html|title=ONS 2011 Census Data Release|access-date=2012-12-12}} The city also had the largest number of civil partnership registrations outside London in 2013. The 2021 census showed that the largest percentage of LGBTQ+ reside in the Kemptown area, where 20.11% of respondents said they were LGBO (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Other).{{Cite web |title=Sexual orientation - Census Maps, ONS |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps/choropleth/identity/sexual-orientation/sexual-orientation-4a/lesbian-gay-bisexual-or-other-lgb |access-date=2023-01-06 |website=www.ons.gov.uk |language=en}}

Brighton Pride is an event, and wider organization, which promotes equality and diversity, and advances education to eliminate discrimination against the LGBT community. The major event is an annual summer festival held in the first week of August,{{cite web|title=All About Pride|url=http://www.brightonpride.org/all-about-pride|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050804235520/http://www.brightonpride.org/all-about-pride/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2005-08-04}} which usually consists of a parade through the city centre, a festival event in Preston Park, the Pride Village Party and other club parties. Since 2013, it has also included an Arts and Film Festival and a Pride Dog Show.

The parade has attracted as many as 450,000 attendees and 50,000 people attend the park festival in 2018.{{cite news|url=http://brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/brighton-pride-just-celebration/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912180854/http://brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/brighton-pride-just-celebration/|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 September 2014|title=Pride: More than a celebration|newspaper=Brighton & Hove Independent|last1=Kemp|first1=Paul|date=2014-06-26|access-date=2015-08-05}} The event brings 2% of the city's annual visitors in one day and in 2018 introduced an estimated £18 million to the city's economy. It is credited as one of the main ways Brighton has boosted its economy from tourism.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2013/sep/10/seaside-town-brighton-boosted-tourism|title=How Brighton has boosted tourism with Pride, marathons, rugby and Turner|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2013-09-10|access-date=2015-08-05|last1=Bowden|first1=Geoffrey}}

Trans Pride has taken place every July since 2013 with a parade and a weekend of events.{{cite news |last1=Wakefield |first1=Lily |title=20,000 people march for trans rights and liberation at Trans Pride Brighton |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/07/16/trans-pride-brighton-gra-sport-conversion-therapy/ |access-date=17 July 2022 |work=PinkNews |date=16 July 2022}}

Eyes Wide Open is a queer film strand, regularly showcasing sexual and gender minorities on screens across the city.{{cite web|url=http://www.eyeswideopencinema.co.uk|title=Eyes Wide Open|website=eyeswideopencinema.co.uk}}

The Brighton & Hove LGBT Switchboard is a telephone helpline that describes itself as 'providing a service to the lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans communities since April 1975' and is one of the oldest in the UK.

The Clare Project is a local support group which provides a safe and confidential meeting place for anyone exploring issues around their gender identity, besides organising other events such as monthly meals.

MindOut is a mental health service run by and for LGBT people, based in Brighton and Hove.

The city also has the Allsorts Youth Project which aims to meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and unsure youth in Brighton & Hove and the wider East Sussex area.

Both Brighton and Sussex universities have active LGBT organizations and they often work together to cater to the needs of LGBT students. Sussex LGBTQ is for students at the University of Sussex and LGBrighTon is for students at Brighton University.

The Brighton Ourstory Project was set up to collect and preserve lesbian and gay community history in the area.{{cite web|title=Brighton Ourstory homepage|url=http://www.brightonourstory.co.uk|publisher=Brighton Ourstory|access-date=2015-08-05|date=2014-04-01}}

In 2000 the large-scale LGBT community survey, Count Me In, led to the development of an LGBT Community Strategy 2001-06 for Brighton & Hove. Spectrum developed from this process to work with local services and planners in implementing the strategy and to provide infrastructure and community development support for the LGBT community. Its aim was to act as an independent voice, negotiating the rights of LGBT people locally with a specific focus on the needs of marginalised sections of the LGBT community. A second study, Count Me in Too!, published its 'Initial findings Reports' in 2007, in partnership between the University of Brighton and Spectrum. The second study aimed to identify gaps in the original research and update the strategy.

A free magazine is distributed in the city: Gscene, which describes itself as "the gay and lesbian lifestyle, listings and community magazine for Brighton and Hove".

Brighton has a gay and lesbian sports society called BLAGSS which offers a range of 17 sports or activities to its 600+ members. The city also has LGBTQ+ sports clubs such as Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents RFC,{{Cite news|url=http://www.englandrugby.com/fixtures-and-results/teams/brighton-and-hove-sea-serpents/|title=Brighton and Hove Sea Serpents|work=RFU|access-date=2017-11-15|language=en}} a branch of the international Frontrunners, Brighton & Hove Frontrunners,{{Cite web |date=2023-03-20 |title=Home |url=https://www.bhfrontrunners.org.uk/ |access-date=2023-09-05 |language=en-GB}} formed in 2018, which holds an annual Rainbow Run 5k the day before Brighton Pride{{URL|www.brightonrainbowrun.co.uk}} and a branch of the LGBTQ+ aquatics Out to swim (Out To Swim Brighton), plus many more. There are also two congregations of the Metropolitan Community Church.

An early recording of the LGBT community in Brighton was in August 1822, when George Wilson, a servant from Newcastle upon Tyne, was accused by a guardsman he had met in the Duke of Wellington public house in Pool Valley of having offered him a sovereign and two shillings to go with him onto the beach to "commit an unnatural crime".{{cite web|url=http://www.brightonourstory.co.uk/brighton-s-history/|title=Brighton's history|publisher=Brighton Ourstory|access-date=2015-08-05}}

Another early story of the LGBT community in the area is that of philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814–1906), a friend of both Charles Dickens and the Duke of Wellington, who spent part of each year at the Royal Albion Hotel with her companion Hannah. The couple were devoted to each other, socially recognised as a pair, and even sent joint Christmas cards. When Hannah died in 1878, Baroness Burdett-Coutts said she was utterly crushed by the loss of "my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years".

A walking tour 'Piers & Queers' explores the historical sites and characters of LGBT interest.{{cite web|url=https://www.onlyinbrighton.co.uk/piers-queers-tour/|title=Piers & Queers - tour of LGBTQ Brighton|website=www.onlyinbrighton.co.uk|access-date=15 February 2017|archive-date=15 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215122039/https://www.onlyinbrighton.co.uk/piers-queers-tour/|url-status=dead}}

• Trans Pride Brighton

{{reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.blagss.org BLAGSS - Brighton Lesbian and Gay Sports Society]
• [http://www.mindout.org.uk/ MindOut - LGBT mental health project]
• [http://www.clareproject.org.uk/ Clare Project] - a self-supporting group open to anyone wishing to explore issues around gender identity
• [http://allsortsyouth.org.uk Allsorts Youth Project]
• [http://sussexlgbtq.weebly.com/ Sussex University LGBTQ Society]
• [http://www.countmeintoo.co.uk/ Count Me In Too!]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20220524061539/http://thevillagemcc.org/ Home] LGBT Church

{{Brighton and Hove}}

{{LGBT topics in the United Kingdom}}

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Category:Brighton and Hove

Category:Gay villages in England