LGBT History Month Events in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Clubs

No better way to stick it to the hetero man than by cloobing the night away in spaces and places designed for a night egalitarian hedonism. The Wee Red's got you sorted Shake Your Tits (17 Feb, 11pm) and Hey QT (24 Feb, 10.30pm). If you're seeking a good dose of drag, Electric Circus's Such A Drag is where it's at.

If you're after something mega-sexy yet inclusive, beg/borrow/steal your way into the sold out Torture Garden at The Caves (25 Feb, 9pm) or travel across to Glasgow's SWG3 for Club Noir (11 Feb, 9pm). Failing that, Philanthrobeat are throwing a Love Trumps Hate party at Broadcast on the same night at 11.30pm.

Torture Garden

Theatre

It’s over 18 months since our sweet beloved, The Arches was forced to close – and the effects are still being felt across Scotland. It’s not all bad news though. Multi-venue contemporary arts festival Take Me Somewhere (22 Feb-12 Mar) has sprung from the ashes, aiming to build upon the legacy of The Arches’ programming. We've cherry-picked four shows you don't want to miss if you're on the look-out for norm-twisting, queer-focused performance.

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko's #negrophobia

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko visits Tramway on 26 Feb with #negrophobia, a 'performance lecture' examining the erotic fear of black bodies, engaging with topics of grief, misogyny, trans identity and black patriarchal constructs of masculinity (8pm).

Moving beyond LGBT History Month and into March, we'd also suggest trying Nando Messias's new show Shoot The Sissy, a piece investigating the fear of death experienced vastly across queer people (The Art School, Glasgow, 7 Mar, 7.30pm). If a queer performance party sounds more like your cup of tea, try Take Me Somewhere Sticky (The Glue Factory, Glasgow, 11 Mar, 9pm). Part cabaret, part installation, part rally cry, it's a call to queer people to take up the space they deserve but are denied.

Musical geeks, this is your official heads up that a 20th anniversary production of Rent is on at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre between 14-18 Feb. Click here for times, prices and tickets.

Film

Glasgow

February also sees a whole bunch of celluloid treats both ends of the M8 specifically relevant to LGBTQ+ people. In glasgow, Glasgow Film Festival brings in the goodies – there's John Butler's Handsome Devil, a 'coming-of-age, coming-out charmer' (GFT, 16 Feb, 1pm); CCA's screenings of Remembering the Man, a dramitisation of Timothy Conigrave’s acclaimed queer memoir (CCA, 24 Feb, 3.45pm & 25 Feb, 3.30pm); Weirdos, a moving hitchhiking flick by Canadian veteran director Bruce McDonald (GFT, 16 Feb, 6.15pm & 17 Feb, 10.45am).

Also keep an eye out for April Mullen's entirely female-produced drama Below Her Mouth (GFT, 18 Feb, 8.45pm & 19 Feb, 11am), All This Panic Jenny Gage's Brooklyn-based portrait of seven teenage girls enduring their 'panic years' (CCA, 19 Feb, 6.30pm & 20 Feb, 1pm). Last but not least, there's Check It, Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer’s documentary 'gritty and intimate portrait of marginalisation and gang violence in the United States' (CCA, 24 Feb, 6.15pm). Outside of the festival, GFT will also host a preview screening of Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, a celebrated exploration of identity and sexuality in 1980s Miami.


Barry Jenkins' Moonlight

Edinburgh

No such film festival in Edinburgh this month, but the capital's keeping up with Glasgow all the same, screening all sorts of films relevant to LGBTQ+ people. Edinburgh's FemSoc host a showing of Paris is Burning in Teviot followed by a discussion (5 Feb, 6.15pm); LGBT Health on 9 Howe Street screen Pink Flamingos as part of an anti-Valentine's event for gay, bi and trans men (inclusive of non binary people) on 16 Feb at 7pm, and Barnardo’s Scotland mark Purple Friday with a showing of The Imitation Game (Vue Edinburgh Ocean Terminal, 24 Feb, 7pm).

Workshops, publishing and poetry

You can't celebrate the history of LGBT struggles and victories without surveying the rich backcatalogue of publishing that's taken place along the way. Glasgow Women's Library's your go-to for that one. It's open to everyone, and absolutely rammed with intersectional feminist treasures (along with some, er, slightly more 'historical' feminist archives), from zines to protest banners, magazines to literature.

They also regularly host LGBTQ+ events, and this month's no different with Art and Activism workshops for people for LGBTQ people who have experienced hate crime; In Her Shoes: Lesbian Lives (a series of workshops unpacking lesbian identity, history and culture); an Activists Make Archives workshop which delves into GWL's LGBT troves and debates whether radical archiving is relevant to modern activists; and a launch party for the eighth edition of GWL's queer feminist zine Hens. 

Glasgow Women's Library's zine collection

CCA's also getting involved in the papery action with an event entitled Cruising the 1970s: Between the Sheets: Radical print cultures before the queer bookshop, a chatty event featuring contributions from artists, activists, writers, and academics unravelling the historical marriage of queerness and publishing (23-24 Feb, times vary).

Poetry-wise, PublishED will host an LGBTQ+ open mic night, giving you the opportunity to turn up and absorb a load of relatable poetry and performance, or even get some stuff off your chest and showcase your wordy wares (Teviot, Edinburgh, 15 Feb, 8pm). Glasgow-side, go celebrate the works of LGBTQ+ authors past and present Dare to Speak: A night of Spoken Word and Poetry at Kelvin Hall (Glasgow, 8 Feb, 6pm).

Hosting an LGBTQ+ event? We want to know about it – send all the vital details to kate@theskinny.co.uk