Stella Caldwell - Pride: An Inspirational History of the LGBTQ+ Movement

I was so excited to read this book as I feel its an important subject for young people. Some may not experience the sort of struggles our community once faced.

Here I was thinking I knew all about LGBTQ+ history... clearly not! The book is SO educational, I keep finding myself googling all the amazing people I have read about. Its really fascinating. If Id had the opportunity to have all this knowledge at a young age, I wouldve had a greater appreciation for the queer heroes that paved the way for us.

It made me think: What more could I do in my life to make a difference? Ive worked with charities such as Stonewall and Diversity Role Models, leading workshops and talks in schools, and this has got me itching to get back into the classrooms to hopefully inspire more kids.

This is an inspiring read that gives me hope for the future. We still have a long way to go until LGBTQ+ people are accepted around the world, but this book highlights just how far weve come.

Take pride in who you truly are, love who you want to love, and respect those who dare to live fabulously free.

You have in your hands a very important book for young people. For too long now the existence and contributions of LGBTQ+ people have been made invisible. This book introduces you to some of the history of our community.

For over forty years I have, in various roles, been trying to make our history accessible to everyone, particularly schools. As chair of Schools OUT UK, I have worked with a dedicated group of volunteers to produce resources for teachers to educate out prejudice and enable LGBTQ+ people in all their diversity to be visible, proud, and safe. It is not an easy task, as you will learn. There have beenand are stillmany attempts to discriminate against and silence us.

In 2004 we launched LGBT History Month in an attempt to give schoolsand everyone else for that matterthe chance to celebrate and research the achievements of our community. Over the years we have seen a proliferation of events by many different institutions, from libraries to universities and museums, recognizing they have a responsibility to make their collections and work inclusive. For too long LGBTQ+ people have been presumed heterosexual, thus ignoring a really important part of our identities and denying the fact that we have always been here and have played a vital part in so many areas of history.

This book is an introduction. It cant cover everything, so please use it as a jumping-off point to discover more. There are now so many places where you can find information, and the internet offers myriad possibilities. I hope you will enjoy the journey that this book takes you on and begin to discover hidden stories so that you may play your part to make them more visible and usual.

Over the years, as language has evolved, what our community is called has changed. We have developed the language that is used to be more inclusive: Some of us use LGBT+, and this book chooses LGBTQ+, standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transand the Q can be for questioning or queer. The plus is an attempt to include all identities such as (but not limited to) nonbinary, gender queer, intersex, pansexual, asexual, etc. The use of queer is problematic to some people, against whom it was historically used as a term of abuse. It is an action of oppressed groups to reclaim a term of abuse and turn it into an affirmation, though not everyone is comfortable with such an action. It is always wise to ask people how they want to be described and what their pronouns are.