Coming Out Stories (2014 – 2016)

“Coming Out Stories” was a Heritage Lottery Funded project, developed by young LGBT people across Birmingham and the wider area, delivered by Birmingham LGBT in association with OutCentral.

“Coming Out Stories” was an 18 month programme of creative research, heritage training and community collecting. The question young people asked amongst many things was “What is your coming out story?” and this triggered a wide range of memories and responses from all the participants involved. ‘Coming Out’ has been explored with generations of the LGBT community within Birmingham and the surrounding area. In this project diverse stories intersected with race, gender, disability, religion and age which brought to life the complex notion of “coming out”.

“Coming Out” has represented a process of self-discovery and acceptance which has been necessary in order to be able to have grown as an individual. Therefore the decision to ‘come out’, whilst historically having been a perilous journey, has marked a rite of passage between emancipation and our liberation.

This project has represented a significant milestone in our history and has supported young people to better understand our past and our present with a view to shaping their futures. Young people were trained in leadership, archival research, oral history interviewing, filmmaking, marketing and social media to capture, preserve and disseminate the untold stories. This was told through the production of a short film with help from Tiger Features which has created a resource which represents a major thread in the tapestry of Birmingham’s diverse history.

Listen to a radio show, made by young people supported by Gaydio Radio

Coming Out Stories was funded by the Heritage Lottery’s ‘Young Roots’ Programme