Project will preserve history of Colchester’s LGBTQ+ community

Researchers at the University of Essex are helping one of the UK’s oldest charities supporting LGBTQ+ communities record and preserve its 45-year history.

The historians, who have already collected memories about The OutHouse in Colchester at the launch of its 45th anniversary celebrations, will be at Colchester Pride on 16 August asking members of the LGBTQ+ community to get involved.

It is part of The OutHouse’s 45 Voices campaign which aims to capture stories from the community to celebrate the charity’s rich history and recognise the many individuals who helped pave the way.

It is also part of a wider initiative, led by Dr Alix Green, which aims to help north-east Essex-based voluntary organisations preserve their histories and contribute to a local community archive. This work has benefitted from collaboration with colleagues from long-standing partner, Essex Record Office (ERO).

The ERO’s Open the Box, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is seeking to engage a wider range of people with the archives, including the LGBTQ+ community.

The OutHouse, originally founded as the Colchester Gay Switchboard in 1979 is one of the UK’s oldest-surviving support organisations for the queer community. During its history, attitudes towards LGTBQ+ individuals and laws relating to their personal and professional lives have been transformed.

Dr Green believes it’s vital we record and preserve the history of The OutHouse for future generations.

“Histories of LGBTQ+ communities are not generally well represented in mainstream archives and museums and representation has often focused on urban centres like London and Manchester. So, there’s a gap in the records about queer lives in ordinary towns and cities where people have seen huge changes during their lives. The current climate is worrying and unsettling for many queer people, lending the task a new urgency and importance.”

Working with fellow researcher Dr Samantha Woodward, PhD students Catherine Renny and Lily Davis, and Essex History alumna Rebecca Alloway, the team will be at Colchester Pride recording oral histories and collecting memories on postcards.

Similar work at The OutHouse anniversary launch revealed how vital the service is.

One respondent said: “In times when queer identities and stories are suppressed and under threat, it helps each generation see that people like them have survived and thrived before.”

Another interviewee, said: “When we're looking ahead to the future, sometimes we can find strength in our past… being able to preserve history, it is so very important because it just reminds you that even though it can feel lonely sometimes, especially if you're new to coming out and you're new to this world, it's such a rich community and we've always been here.”

As well as collecting testimonies, the research team have provided The OutHouse team with training on archiving their collection, which includes photos, newsletters and advice materials.

Thomas Empson, CEO of The OutHouse, said: “Last year we celebrated our 45th birthday, which is no mean feat. While planning what we want to achieve over the next five years, building up to our 50th anniversary, we were thinking about our legacy. We felt it was really important to tell people where we have come from, who has shaped the LGBTQAI+ history here in Essex and to try and tell our history in a way that will engage past and future generations.

“So much change has happened over the last four and a half decades in UK law and at a grass roots level, and we are collaborating to find a way to bring this to life so that out local queer history is better understood, researched and cited.”

Speaking about the wider project to establish a community archive, Dr Green added: “So much of what makes our communities tick is done by grass-roots organisations, the small charities and groups that support and advocate for the people who need them. But the essential work they do day to day is often hidden from view and rarely captured – so it’s also easily lost.

“We can change that. We can help collect, keep and share the experiences of community organisations, an invaluable resource for research and public engagement, but also for the organisations themselves, which they can use to inform their offering and ways of working, to bid for funding, to call for policy change and so on.”