About this Event
Portable closets: Secrets and lives in queer Britain since gay liberation
The double life and the closet tend to be associated with a time before the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 and the Gay Liberation Front call to ‘come out’ in the early 1970s. Though the social and cultural terrain in Britain has certainly shifted, this lecture shows how and why various kinds of secret have continued to matter to many gay men and have helped to make their lives liveable. Based partly on research and interviews for the AHRC-funded ‘Queer Beyond London’ project, it looks at how people’s backgrounds, families, and the places they live have made a portable closet a necessary, comforting and even enjoyable place to retreat to in the years since gay liberation.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
University of Edinburgh, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
