In February we celebrate LGBT+ History Month 2025 in the UK and this year the theme is ‘Activism and Social Change’. Throughout history and across the globe LGBT+ activists have fueled social change, advancing society for the benefit of all.
To help you discover more we’ve pulled together just a small selection of Library resources that will allow you to start to find out more about activism and social change in LGBT+ history, herstory, theirstory.
1) Books (we are a library after all!)
2) Digital archives and primary sources
3) LGBT collections at Lothian Health Services Archive
4) Dissertation & Thesis Festival Discovery Day : Exploring LGBTQ+ History
Books (we are a library after all!)
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) was founded in 1990 as the first NGO devoted to advancing LGBT human rights worldwide. Transnational LGBT Activism : Working for Sexual Rights Worldwide asks how is that mission translated into practice? And what do transnational LGBT human rights advocates do on a day-to-day basis and for whom? Arguing that the idea of LGBT human rights is not predetermined but instead is defined by international activists who establish what and who qualifies for protection.
Exploring the alleged uniqueness of the European experience, LGBT Activism and the Making of Europe : A Rainbow Europe? investigates its ties to a long history of LGBT and queer movements in the region. While Coming Out of Communism : The Emergence of LGBT Activism in Eastern Europe looks at how homophobic backlash unexpectedly strengthened mobilisation for LGBT political rights in post-communist Europe.
Travelling further than Europe, Out in Africa : LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa examines how Namibian and South African LGBT organisations have cultivated visibility and invisibility as strategies over time. Flaming Souls : Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Social Change in Barbados illustrates the influence of both Euro-American and regional gender and sexual politics on sexual diversity in Barbados. And for a compelling look at how Orthodox Jewish LGBT persons in Israel became more accepted in their communities, there is Queer Judaism : LGBT Activism and the Remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel.
Translating the Queer : body politics and transnational conversations focuses on the dissemination of queer knowledge, concepts, and representations throughout Latin America, a migration that has been accompanied by concomitant processes of translation, adaptation, and epistemological resistance.
This is just a very small selection of what is available in the Library’s collections to find more books (or other writings) on this subject area then search DiscoverEd.
And don’t forget our new Leisure Reading Collection (Libby) also has books (e-books and audiobooks) on this subject area. It includes The LGBTQ+ History Book that allows you to discover the rich and complex history of LGBTQ+ people around the world – their struggles, triumphs, and cultural contributions. In Revolutionary Acts the author, Jason Okundaye, meets an elder generation of black gay men and finds a spirited community full of courage, charisma and good humour, hungry to tell its past – of nightlife, resistance, political fights, loss, gossip, sex, romance and vulgarity.
If you want to discover inspiring voices hat have changed our world then Great LGBTQ+ Speeches, is a collection of over 40 empowering and influential speeches that chart the history of the LGBTQ+ movement. And Queer, There, And Everywhere lets you delve deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. Including high-profile figures as well as many you may never have heard of.
You can access these and more via our Leisure Reading Collection (Libby). Note that books in this collection do not appear in DiscoverEd.
Digital archives and primary sources
The Library has access to a large range of digital archives and primary source databases that allow you to search for and view digitised primary source material from libraries, archives and museums across the world. Some of these databases are specifically about LGBT+ history, such as:

LGBT Thought and Culture
- LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community and the collection contains 150,000 pages of rare archival content, including seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.
- Archives of Sexuality & Gender provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, you can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing digital archive offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history. The Library has access to 4 collections, 3 of these (LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I and II and International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture) cover the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. They help to highlight cultural and social histories, struggles for rights and freedoms, explorations of sexuality, and organisations and key figures in LGBTQ history.
- Politics, Social Activism and Community Support: Selected Gay and Lesbian Periodicals and Newsletters is a collection of periodicals focusing on newsletters issued by gay and lesbian political and social activist organisations throughout the United States and on periodicals devoted to gay and lesbian political and social activist agendas—the “public” face of gay and lesbian activism.
Whereas there are other databases where LGBT+ history is not the focus but they do contain useful material from this subject area e.g. The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974, Mass Observation Project, 1981-2009, etc.
To explore these and more take a look at our Digital Primary Source and Archive Collections guide. Or you can also trace LGBT+ history through our archival newspapers and magazines.
LGBT collections at Lothian Health Services Archive

Take Care campaign promotional postcard. GD22/ TAKE CARE CAMPAIGN, 1968 – 2000 (LHSA)
Some of the LGBT-related resources held by Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) include the archive of Lothian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, the UK’s first gay helpline and Scotland’s first gay charity, and unrivaled collections that document Edinburgh’s response to HIV from 1983 to the 21st century, spanning voluntary groups, charities, local authorities, the NHS, and health promotion campaigns.
The source list on the LHSA website provides a detailed list of LGBT resources in LHSA.
LHSA is part of the University’s Heritage Collections and holds the historically important local records of NHS hospitals and other health-related material. For information about visiting please read the information on Services and Access.
Dissertation & Thesis Festival Discovery Day : Exploring LGBTQ+ History
If you want to find out more about some of these resources, come to our Dissertation & Thesis Festival Discovery Day in the Main Library on Wednesday 26 February! We’re celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month with a day of themed events in the Main Library, featuring :
Exploring LGBTQ+ Resources: Navigating ProQuest and Alexander Street Platforms
10.00-10.50, Main Library, ML1.07
In this session, we will focus on the historical challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community and the evolution of laws impacting their rights in the UK. We will explore a range of primary and secondary sources available on ProQuest and Alexander Street platforms, and will demonstrate effective strategies for searching and locating relevant documents to support your learning and research process. Databases include LGBT Thought and Culture, LGBT Magazine Archive, The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974, Men’s Magazine Archive, Women’s Magazine Archive, amongst others.
“The barman was quite cute, and could never resist a dare…”: gender and sexuality in the archives
11.10-12.00, Main Library, ML1.07
At University of Edinburgh, you have access to archival material digitised from around the world to explore centuries of stories and voices on sex and sexuality, community organisation, protest and the fight for equal rights.
In this session, Dr Laura Blomvall from AM [Adam Matthew] will present on two collections of digitised archival material – Gender, Identity and Social Change and Sex & Sexuality – to show material from diaries of Anne ‘Gentleman Jack’ Lister to photographs of a Victorian fetishist, from the fight for gay rights and the rights to legal sex change in post-war California to British coming out stories from the 1990s.
Insights into LGBTQ History with Gale Primary Sources
12.10-13.00, Main Library, ML1.07
In this presentation Gale will illustrate the histories and stories contained within the Gale Primary Sources digital archives, as well as covering techniques for finding and interpreting LGBTQ primary sources. Given the unique collections that are contained within these archives, this session can benefit students from a variety of disciplines when it comes to their dissertation and thesis research. Databases include Archives of Sexuality & Gender, Politics, Social Activism and Community Support: Selected Gay and Lesbian Periodicals and Newsletters, amongst others.
Exploring LGBT+ Resources in Lothian Health Services Archive
16.10-17.00, Main Library, CRC Teaching Room 2, 6th floor
Are you interested in finding out more about support services for LGBT+ people in the mid-twentieth century? In this session, you will discover how these services were initiated and developed, and how they supported the LGBT+ community, especially during periods of change and crisis. We will focus mostly on the archive of the Lothian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard (LGLS), but will also highlight sources on LGBT+ activism during the HIV crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.
LGLS was the UK’s first gay helpline and Scotland’s first gay charity, and it was a key source of support to LGBT+ people across Scotland and the UK. They campaigned and advised on sexual health, mental health, and equality issues, as well as providing listening and befriending services to people about issues or difficulties relating to their sexuality, as well as passing on details of gay-friendly organisations, counselling professionals, and sexual health advice.
This session will introduce you to items from this fascinating collection, and let you know how LHSA sources on LGBT+ activism can help with research towards your dissertation. We will also cover how to access archive collections for yourself, and share some hints and tips for first-time archive researchers. You can find out more about the Lothian Health Services Archive collections from our website.
That’s all folks…
We hope this is enough to get you started in exploring LGBT+ history this month and beyond.
Note that all online resources mentioned in this blog post are only available to current students and staff at the University of Edinburgh.