At Kids in Museums, we stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities. Museums have a responsibility to welcome and represent everyone in society, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. They must be safe places free from harassment and discrimination for LGBTQ+ people. Museums also have an important role in advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ communities and tackling the prejudice that they face.

Stories about same-sex attraction and gender non-conformity have been historically excluded from or hidden in museums. In recent years there has been a shift towards exploring the experiences of LGBTQ+ communities in museum collections, exhibitions, and events, as this article written by Margaret Middleton explores. The fact that we are now seeing more queer representation in museums is progress, but we need to make sure this is accessible to all audiences, and not just those with a special interest in queer culture.

This resource is intended as a starting point to help museums engage children, young people and families with LGBTQ+ heritage. We have also included some guidance for LGBTQ+ inclusion in museums. In the following sections, we will share some tips and examples from other museums that are leading on this work in the sector.

Context

For the first time, the Census 2021 for England and Wales included a voluntary question about sexuality and gender identity for anyone over 16. About 3.2% of English and Welsh citizens identified as LGB+ with breakdowns of the estimated number of people who identify with different gender sexual orientations, with the actual proportion likely to be higher due to the number who did not answer the question.

Younger people were more likely to identify as a sexuality other than straight. This Barnardo’s research report builds a picture of what it was like being a young LGBT+ person aged 13-19 living in England in 2021-2022. There is also a report on life in Scotland for LGBT young people, as well as a Welsh Government LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales.

According to the Office for National Statistics in 2019, the number of same-sex couple families has grown by more than 50% since 2015, making it one of the fastest growing family types in the UK.

Why inclusion in museums matters

Firstly, museums and galleries that are publicly funded or provide public services are legally required under the Public Sector Equality Duty (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010) to play their part in making society fairer by tackling discrimination and providing equality of opportunity for all.

Most importantly, although progress has been made in advancing equality, Stonewall statistics show LGBTQ+ communities still face disproportionate discrimination and hate crime in their daily lives. In 2022, a YouGov survey showed that LGBT+ people in Britain were more likely to experience or be diagnosed with a mental health condition than the general population.

By including perspectives and histories from queer communities, museums can challenge stereotypes and prejudice, and assert that these stories belong in our cultural institutions. The Audience Agency’s Cultural Participation Monitor shows that taking a visible stance on social issues is important to particularly young and family audiences.

1. Make your site welcoming for members of LGBTQ+ communities

Barriers still exist that may make people feel uncomfortable or unsafe in museums. There are some steps you can take to make your site welcoming for members of LGBTQ+ communities.

Language

When thinking about LGBTQ+ visitors, it can be useful to have a framework of language that is most appropriate and respectful to use in your communications with staff and visitors. Appropriate language is really important to help people to feel welcome and seen.

This family inclusive language chart created by Margaret Middleton is useful in signposting some inclusive words and phrases to use when referring to families and children. This is also helpful to bear in mind when collecting data or asking people to fill in forms; it doesn’t need to be compulsory for visitors to state their gender on feedback forms.

Including pronouns on email signatures, in meeting introductions or on staff name badges can make people feel more welcome in museum spaces and more comfortable talking about their gender identify.

The charity Stonewall has a useful glossary for common terms relating to LGBTQ+ identity, which can help when writing interpretation for an exhibition or programme on LGBTQ+ communities.

While content about sexuality and gender identity isn’t inappropriate in and of itself, it’s still important to consider how this content can be explained in age-appropriate language and using age-appropriate images. The Proud Trust has some paid resources for primary age children with examples about how to approach the topic for a younger age group.

If you are covering topics relating to mental health, hate crime or discrimination in an exhibition, permanent interpretation or an event, you may find it useful to consult our resource on how to engage children, young people and families with sensitive topics.

Facilities and signage

It is important to make sure everyone in your museum is catered for and feels comfortable using your facilities, this applies to staff, volunteers, project participants and visitors. Concern about using facilities in a museum such as toilets can be a big barrier for certain audiences.

Toilet provision has attracted a lot of debate. If possible, it’s advisable to have both all gender toilets and baby changing areas available. It’s important to remember that accessible and Changing Places toilets should be accessible to people with additional needs at all times and ideally should not be designated to double as the only all gender toilets. The best all-gender toilets signage puts focus on the facility, not the user. Read more about gender inclusive signage on Margaret Middleton’s blog.

If you have gendered toilets, make sure there are baby changing facilities and period products in both the male and female toilets. Ensure there is agreed guidance for front of house staff on how to respond if you receive a complaint about someone using the toilet of their choice.

The Museums Association has an article outlining best practice for safe and accessible museum toilets, whether they are gendered or not (please note that this article is behind a paywall, so you may need an MA membership to view it).

You could consider becoming part of the Safe Place network. A Safe Place offers help if someone is anxious, scared or at risk while they are out and about and need support. Quiet spaces can also be useful for all visitors and staff.

Staff

It is important for your staff and volunteers to be aware of your museum’s equality, diversity, and inclusion policies and to have regular diversity training. If your museum doesn’t have a policy, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has a simple equality policy template to help you get started and Arts Council England (ACE) have some guidance about reflecting inclusivity at your organisation.

Here are some examples of museum equality protocols:

The Museum of London have uploaded their six-part inclusion training to YouTube so it is free to access. LGBT+ support organisation The Proud Trust offer bespoke training and online resources for organisations that work with children and young people. Curious Arts also offer LGBTQ+ awareness training for arts organisations.

It is also important to create an inclusive and supportive environment for LGBTQ+ staff members. Some museums have supported staff in creating LGBTQ+ working groups to share resources and create a safe space for networking and promoting inclusion.

The National Portrait Gallery introduced a new all gender uniform developed in a collaboration between the gallery’s visitor experience team and design studio, HemingwayDesign.

You should also ensure support for staff wellbeing is built into your general HR activities. This is particularly important for any staff who are dealing with sensitive subject matter or who may face abusive comments or hate speech in person or online, such as social media managers or front of house staff. This Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) resource brings together a range of ideas, opportunities and networks focused on practitioner support and wellbeing.

Make your support clear

Make it visible that your museum stands with LGBTQ+ communities all year round. LGBT History Month and Pride are great times to connect with LGBTQ+ history and culture, but these should be used as starting points to embed further work into your permanent programming and exhibitions. Asserting your support for LGBTQ+ people and having a public no tolerance policy for homophobia and transphobia is another fundamental action you can take.

Think about the promotional material you use and whether you could include any images of non-heteronormative families. If you have children’s books in your museum, you could include some that celebrate LGBTQ+ families; the Book Trust have a useful list of LGBT+ picture books for families with under 5s, while Allsorts has a list of LGBT+ books for different age groups.

Remember that LGBTQ+ communities are diverse

People who identify as LGBTQ+ can come from all different cultures, religions, and economic backgrounds. When programming exhibitions or events, make sure you are aware of the range of voices that deserve to be represented.

2. Consult and collaborate

Work with members of the public when planning content with LGBTQ+ themes. Consult with the communities you are aiming to represent to make sure your work is sensitive and accurate. In the ‘Beyond the Binary’ exhibition, the Pitt Rivers Museum worked directly with LGBTQ+ communities to give them control of their own representations. Hastings Museum and Art Gallery have a Queer History Collective made up of local LGBTQ+ people who meet and contribute objects and stories to the museum.

If you have a Youth Group at your museum, they may want to work on a project about queer history. At Ancient House Museum of Thetford Life, the Teenage History Club have worked on a project exploring local LGBTQ+ history, which they then shared with the public through exhibitions, conferences and more.

While being LGBTQ+ is not a safeguarding issue in itself, LGBTQ+ young people are at additional risk of some types of abuse, such as discrimination or hate crimes, so it is important to be aware of this in your safeguarding practice and policies. Be mindful that a child may not want to share their sexuality or gender identity, and this should not be shared without their permission, unless it is a safeguarding issue. Staff and volunteers should be trained on how to respond to safeguarding concerns, maintain healthy boundaries with participants and signpost young people to relevant support, such as Childline. The NSPCC has a useful online guide with further information on Safeguarding LGBTQ+ children and young people.

It is also helpful to consult with your own staff who are LGBTQ+. The V&A have an LGBTQ+ working group who look into themes of gender and sexuality in the museum’s collections.

3. Reinterpret your collections

Many museum collections already contain objects that have stories relating to gender and sexuality. A good way to draw attention to these stories is through creating a trail or tour. The National Museum of Scotland worked with young people on their LGBTQIA+ trail. It highlights objects that have a previously unexplored connection to LGBTQ+ history. Similarly, the British Museum run a museum tour that explores the LGBTQ+ connections in their collection. Out and About: Queering the Museum was a two-year project from RAMM and the University of Exeter (2020-2022) that aimed to reveal and celebrate the rich LGBTQ+ heritage embedded in the collections at RAMM, working with young people from X-Plore Youth and Exeter College.

You can also reinterpret your collections through a digital medium, like the Queer as Folklore video series at the Museum of London.

If you have undertaken work to reinterpret objects in your collections, why not add this interpretation to the permanent displays in your museum? This way all your visitors can benefit from learning about the queer history your collections have to offer. Following their Beyond the Binary exhibition, Pitt Rivers Museum added labels to their permanent collections to reflect the new perspectives from the exhibition.

If you are doing contemporary collecting around LGBTQ+ lives, work in partnership with LGBTQ+ communities at each stage of the process to ensure objects are properly represented and explained.

4. Host events and workshops

Utilising your public programming is a great way to engage children, young people and families with LGBTQ+ heritage. Many museums already offer family craft activities, and these can tie in with Pride and LGBTQ+ Heritage Month. National Museums Liverpool and Royal Museums Greenwich have planned activities for younger audiences which make use of the rainbow symbol for LGBTQ+ inclusion and pride. Drag Queen Storytime is a popular event for children; Birmingham Museums, among others, have hosted their own versions.

The Museum of Liverpool held a Trans Youth Event, including the opportunity to hear from local trans people and organisations promoting trans inclusion, along with a poster and banner making workshop. Over in the USA, Boston Children’s Museum held an art exhibition exhibiting portraits designed with trans children and celebrating their dreams.

You can also host a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ families in your museum like the Royal Museums Greenwich LGBTQ+ Family Network. This bi-monthly network provides a space for LGBTQ+ families to meet and participate in activities together. You can read more about their work in our blog from the National Maritime Museum.

There are some existing annual events that your museum can get involved with. The OUTing the Past Festival celebrates LGBTQ+ history and activism and runs every year. Museums frequently join as festival hubs and host their own activities and presentations. Many LGBTQ+ awareness days are also marked across the year – this can be a good starting point for your queer heritage programming. Remember to embed this into your permanent programming too, so that your engagement with LGBTQ+ stories is not temporary. Here are some examples from different museums:

5. Engage digitally

Many museums have used digital media to engage children and young people with LGBTQ+ themes. Tate created a short video for children to explore LGBTQ+ artists. The People’s History Museum in Manchester have some online drawing activities to use at home which link to social themes, including LGBTQ+ Pride.

If you have created any digital resources relating to LGBTQ+ themes, you could highlight these with their own landing page on your website. Both the Museum of London and National Museums Liverpool have dedicated pages on their websites for all their work around LGBTQ+ history.

There have been a number of incidents where museums have been publicly criticised for reinterpreting their collections, running events such as Drag Queen Story time and posting digital content about LGBTQ+ events and content.

Make sure you develop a strategy for dealing with negative responses, as well as having wellbeing support in place for communications staff who are on the frontline of dealing with toxic and hateful comments, as set out in this blog from Charity Comms. Charity Digital outlines some top tips for supporting content creators and Charity Comms has a useful Wellbeing Guide for Comms Professionals.

6. Useful links / Further reading

  • Museum of Transology
    The UK’s most significant collection of objects representing trans, non-binary and intersex people’s lives.
  • Queer Britain
    A charity working to establish the UK’s first national LGBTQ+ museum.
  • The AAM’s LGBTQ+ Welcoming Guidelines for Museums
    American Alliance of Museums guidance for best practice in welcoming LGBTQ+ professionals and communities.
  • Guidance on advancing trans inclusion for museums, galleries, archives
    A guide from the University of Leicester University of Leicester’s Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) on creating a trans-inclusive culture at your museum or heritage site.
  • LGBT Hero
    A national health and wellbeing charity supporting over 100,000 LGBTQ+ people a month by providing trusted information, advice and various types of support including one-to-one, group and peer-support.
  • Stonewall
    The largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe.
  • Switchboard
    LGBTQ+ information and support helpline.
  • The Proud Trust
    An LGBT+ organisation that supports LGBT+ young people through youth groups, peer support, mentoring programs and the Proud Connections chat service.
  • Just Like Us
    LGBT+ young people’s charity with a mission is to empower young people to champion LGBT+ equality.
  • UmbrellaCymru
    A charity offering a range of support around sexuality and gender identity in Wales.
  • LGBT Youth Scotland
    Scotland’s national charity supporting LGBTQ+ young people aged 13-25.
  • Rainbow Project
    The leading LGBTQIA+ charity in Northern Ireland, supporting the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of the Northern Irish LGBTQIA+ community.
  • Gendered Intelligence
    A charity dedicated to improving the understanding of gender diversity and the lives of trans people.

With thanks to Margaret Middleton for their support in writing this resource.

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