Five minutes with⦠Darren Smyth, EIP
23-02-2021
19-08-2020
This month marks LGBT+ History Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary history, including the history of LGBT+ rights and related civil rights movements.
Darren, partner at the London office at EIP, tells
WIPR about being a proud member of the LGBT+ community and what more needs to be done to promote diversity and inclusion (D&I) within IP.
What does LGBT history month mean to you?
Throughout history, LGBT+ people have had to hide their identities due to legal or social sanctions. So much of our history has been hidden. The contributions of LGBT+ people are often unrecognised. And even recent history that was not concealed such as the progress and setbacks of the civil rights movements for LGBT+ people over the last few decades is unknown by many people who were not around at the time, and even some who were.
LGBT+ History Month - Grindr 1920 Style
The title which started life as
Cupid s Messenger in 1915 became
The Link in 1917.
In 1920 the publication had come to the attention of the Metropolitan Police, and the surviving police file can be found in the collections of The National Archives.
Seemingly, against the original intentions a certain type of personal advertisement was increasing to be found, loaded with coded and suggestive language; these featured men looking for other men and women looking for other women.
The majority of these type of adverts were written between men, which was extremely risky in 1920s Britain when homosexual acts between men were criminalised. To express your intentions in a written form was an even greater danger; as it could be used as evidence against you, hence the use of coded language.
This month marks LGBT+ History Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary history, including the history of LGBT+ rights and related civil rights movements.