Vicky Iglikowski-Broad

This episode looks at the extraordinary collection of love letters, spanning centuries, that you might not expect to find in a government archive.

In an era when the law criminalised your love, how was it possible to meet members of the same sex and communicate?

Though surveillance documents, we can learn about vibrant gatherings in the 1920s, the people involved and the passionate, intimate letters that survive.

Including stories from the Middle Ages to the 1960s, this episode examines women’s jobs, their conditions, their struggles, and their resilience through time.

How did our records inspire and inform a recent theatre performance celebrating LGBTQ+ campaigns for change?

Until 2021, the census did not ask for information about sexuality. One letter in our collection gives a personal perspective on why this data was needed.

Did you know that the word ‘camp’ was used by members of the LGBTQ+ community as early as 1868?

Lady Malcolm’s elaborate Servants’ Balls allowed queer, working-class staff to forge a unique space for themselves. But these events became plagued by scandal.

LGBT+ Switchboard is one of the oldest telephone helplines supporting queer communities in the UK. Its journey to register as a charity was not easy.

What was the everyday reality for LGBTQ+ people in the 80s and 90s living under the infamous Section 28, and how was it eventually repealed?

Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act negatively affected LGBTQ+ lives for decades. How did such a seismic piece of legislation come about?