Celebrating LGBTQ+ scientists and innovators this LGBTQ+ History Month
February is LGBTQ+ History Month in the UK.
To celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ+) lives in their full diversity, we’ll be flying the inclusive rainbow flags from Hove Town Hall, Brighton Town Hall and Jubilee Library.
LGBTQ+ History Month provides education and insight into the issues that the LGBTQ+ community face by highlighting specific histories, important events and milestones, alongside the people that have made change possible.
Science and innovation
This year’s theme celebrates science and innovation, recognising how these fields shape our lives, from technology and healthcare to tackling global challenges like climate change, highlighting the contributions of LGBTQ+ people to science past and present.
It also aims to address the harm that LGBTQ+ people have faced as a result of the ways in which science has been explored and misapplied in the past, such as through the medicalisation and pathologisation of LGBTQ+ identities.
Each year, the campaign choses to celebrate the accomplishments of 5 LGBTQ+ historical figures.
That’s why this year the campaign highlights the careers and contributions of:
- Barbara Burford, a medical researcher who established NHS equality and diversity guidelines
- Charles Beyer, a locomotive engineer and a founding member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers
- Elke Mackenzie, a botanist who researched lichens in Antarctica
- Jemma Redmond, a biotechnologist who developed 3D bioprinters to create tissues and organs
- Robert Boyle, a founder of modern chemistry and of the modern scientific method
A history of courage and resilience
Councillor Mitchie Alexander, Cabinet member for Communities, Equalities, Public Health and Adult Social Care, said: “We are very proud to be celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month in our city, where LGBTQ+ history is created every day.
“This year the focus is on science and innovation. Throughout history, LGBTQ+ amazing minds have contributed so much to our lives, proving how necessary it is to have diverse teams for the development of solutions that will benefit each and every one of us today.
“Some of us may struggle to name LGBTQ+ scientists and innovators and this campaign is an incentive to learn more about the brilliant minds behind groundbreaking discoveries and explore the fascinating stories of the historical and modern scientists highlighted by the campaign.
“There is a fantastic choice of exhibitions and events on in our city throughout the month that both showcase and celebrate LGBTQ+ histories and I encourage everyone to join in.”
Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month in Brighton & Hove
Gender Stories/Exhibition
Saturday 31 January to Sunday 12 April 2026
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Step into a thought-provoking journey with ’Gender Stories’, an exhibition that sensitively begins to examine the fluid, multifaceted world of gender across cultures, eras, and personal experiences. It asks: What is gender? How do we experience it? Who defines it? What could its future look like?
Challenging rigid definitions and binary narratives, the exhibition dives deep into the intricate connections between sex, gender, sexuality and identity. Discover how these ideas have been mythologised, stereotyped, expressed – and sometimes concealed – through art, history, politics, and daily life over time.
Learn more about the exhibition on the Brighton & Hove Museums’ website.
The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers/Exhibition
Saturday 31 January to Sunday 12 April 2026
Prints & Drawings Gallery, Brighton Museum
This display traces a story beginning in the early 1960s, when 2 tailors opened Filk’n Casuals on Bond Street, producing bold and unconventional menswear. It follows this spirit of defiance into the Sussex Lancers Motor Sports Club, active from 1980 to 2001 across Brighton’s nightlife and the Sussex countryside.
Through leather, fetish gear, clubs, motorbikes and the open road, the Lancers formed a community which navigated prejudice, HIV, and AIDS. New photographs by Antony Edwards present a contemporary view of the Sussex leather scene and its lasting cultural legacy.
Queer Scrapbooks and Archival Fragments
2pm to 4pm, Wednesday 4 February
The Keep, Woollards way, Brighton BN1 9BP
Come learn more about queer ephemera in the archive, make your own scrapbook and hear more about The Keep’s LGBTQ+ History Month open call.
A Queer Night at the Museum
7.30pm to 11pm, Friday 6 February
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Join us for an unmissable museum late to celebrate the opening of ground-breaking new exhibitions Gender Stories and The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers – with a night of performances, DJs, dancing, fashion, and art!
Learn more and book your ticket on the Brighton & Hove Museums’ website.
Project Uncut/Exhibition
Monday 9 February to Sunday 8 March
The Seafront Gallery, 54 Kings Rd, Brighton BN1 2HJ
Project Uncut presents new collaborative work by award-winning photographer Chris Jepson, and features portraits and first-person accounts from members of the LGBTQ+ community who share moments of queer joy from their own lives. With a broad sweep of experiences, voices and identities, each portrait connects you to a lived reality that often goes unheard.
Where are all the Lesbians? Researching the museums’ collection for representation
10.30 am to 12.30 pm, Sunday 22 February
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Join Lisa Hinkins, collaborative PhD researcher with Brighton & Hove Museums, for an introductory workshop inviting local cis, trans and non-binary lesbian women to explore how lesbian lives are represented in Brighton & Hove Museums’ collections. Future workshops will be held twice a month on Sundays, leading to a small exhibition at Brighton Museum in Summer 2026.
Learn more and book your free ticket on the Brighton & Hove Museums’ website.
Brewing Identities (A Queer Tea Party)
2pm to 4pm, Sunday 22 February
Museum Lab, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
As part of the Gender Stories Exhibition in Brighton, artist Tom Marshman invites LGBTQIA+ people to a very special tea party exploring what it means to live as our most authentic selves. The gathering centres on sharing experiences, celebrating identity, and creating a space where everyone is welcome exactly as they are.
Learn more about the free event on the museum’s website.
Reading for LGBTQ+ History Month
Visit your local library during February to discover specially curated LGBTQ+ History Month stock collections and displays.
You can also browse the online Brighton & Hove Library catalogue and choose a book to borrow, or an eBook to download with BorrowBox, there’s something for all ages.