On Friday 7th March 2025, from 10.00 to 16.00, Durham University’s Department of Sociology will be hosting an LGBT History Month event to celebrate the history of the LGBT+ domestic abuse sector. The event will be held in a hybrid format, allowing both in-person and online access.

 

This may be of interest to members of the CTSG, please click here to order tickets.

 

Domestic abuse is a significant concern which affects LGBT+ people. Over the last twenty years, alongside wider change in societal attitudes towards LGBT+ people, LGBT+ domestic has increasingly been recognised. For example, the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 included same sex couples in DA legislation in England and Wales for the first time. In the same year, the first UK-wide specialist LGBT+ domestic abuse organisation – Broken Rainbow – was founded. Despite closing in 2016, Broken Rainbow paved the way for the development of other LGBT+ specialist services and helped raise the profile of LGBT+ domestic abuse.

Coinciding with LGBT+ History Month and its theme of ‘Activism and Social Change’, this hybrid event will:

  • Explore and celebrate the history of the LGBT+ domestic abuse movement
  • Raise awareness about responses to LGBT+ domestic abuse in the present
  • Develop a vision for the next 20 years.

Speakers to be confirmed but to include Dr James Rowlands, Professor Catherine Donovan, as well as three pioneers in the history of the UK LGBT+ domestic abuse sector.

This hybrid event will be open to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on LGBT+ domestic abuse, members of the Durham University community, as well as the local and wider community.