Just For The Record: Filling in the gaps of local LGBT history

We recently attended a debate & discussion about LGBT history, culture and community, in Cornwall and the South West. This took place at the Royal Cornwall Museum & was organized & hosted by Cornwall Record Office.

It was an interesting & thought-provoking evening & what we noticed was the very little amount of information displayed about Cornwall’s LGBT history, culture & community prior to last year’s Pride event. What we took away from this evening was that the only way for our history to be remembered, is for each of us to take responsibility to archive, with the County Record Office, what was important & significant, or let it be forgotten forever. As a result of our views, Gay Cornwall have suggested a separate section about LGBT History & have invited us to kick it off!

We have lived in Cornwall more years than we care to remember & have been together 20 years. There are lots of places & events that we do remember, but also lots of things we’ve either forgotten, or didn’t attend. There may also be information that we’ve got wrong. So, we will start the ball rolling & hope that other people will join in to reminisce, share memories, add more detail & fill in the gaps of our knowledge. Our hope is that this discussion may also form a document that can be archived, so that Cornwall’s rich LGBT history will be shared, remembered & available to those who might be interested in future generations.