LGBTHM is held in February each year. The library is currently highlighting its diverse collections in a display at the front of the library, just inside the main turnstiles. Here, we’re displaying seminal texts, both literary and academic, and films. Examples include ‘The Bell’ by Iris Murdoch and ‘Orlando’ by Virginia Woolf, as well as ‘Mysterious Skin’, directed by Gregg Araki and ‘Happy Together’, directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Each item can be borrowed and we will be frequently updating the selection of resources on display.

The library has an extensive number of academic titles on LGBT themes on the first floor – 306.76 would be a good starting point. Documentary films on similar themes would be held at a similar classmark in the second floor audiovisual area.

We’ve also created an online reading list of important titles, including novels, non-fiction books, children and young adult titles, articles, documentaries and movies. Click on a title you’re interested in and see live availability.

Through our streaming platforms, Film Platform and Kanopy, we also have access to a number of documentary films on LGBT themes.

Film Platform

Films on Film Platform that cover LGBT themes can be accessed here. Documentaries include ‘Before Stonewall’ (1984), which explores the homosexual experience in the US from the 1920s onwards, to the Academy Award-winning documentary ‘The Life and Times of Harvey Milk’ (1984), a portrait of the changing social and political climate in 1970s San Francisco.

Kanopy

There are over 200 documentaries and feature films on Kanopy in its LGBT collection. Feature films include Jean Genet’s ‘Un Chant D’Amour’ (1950) and Cheryl Dunye’s ‘The Watermelon Woman’, originally produced in 1996, but restored in high definition in 2016. Documentaries are listed by sub-theme, such as LGBT History, LGBT Issues and Religion, Transgender Studies, LGBT Media Representation and more.

Films on both streaming platforms can be accessed in full, for free – you just to sign in with your Goldsmiths username and password.

For more information on LGBT History Month, visit their website or their Twitter page, or for more local interest, Spread the Word are celebrating London’s LGBT Writers and Writing.