Library and Learning Services are celebrating Northampton Pride 2025. The Pride Parade will take place on Saturday 12th July, starting at 11am from Market Square.
You can also check out the library's Pride book displays and bookmarks on the 2nd floor of the Learning Hub.
Have a look at some of the resources we have put together that looks at the challenges and triumphs, supporting LGBTQIA+ folks in UON, interesting LGBTQIA+ historical figures, media representation, rights issues, and more below! We have also made an LGBTQIA+ Reading List full of books, films and articles so have a look at some of the resources that UON have.
Activism and Social Change
The 2025 theme celebrates LGBTQIA+ activists who have shaped and driven social change.
The five highlighted historical figures this year:
Octavia Hill (1838 - 1912)
- Octavia was one of the founders of the National Trust
- Helped start the Social Housing Movement and campaigned for more open spaces in inner-city London
- Had a relationship with Sophia-Jex Blake, one of the first women doctors in Britain
- Never married, lived with and loved Harriot York
- Life of Octavia Hill : As Told in her Letters - eBook available through NELSON.
Ivor Cummings (1913 - 1992)
- Ivor is considered the 'Gay Father of the Windrush Generation'
- Greeted passengers of the Empire Windrush as a Colonial Office representative
- First Black person to hold a position in the Colonial Office
- Received an OBE in 1948.
Annie Kenney (1879 - 1953)
- Annie was an active suffragette alongside Christabel Pankhurst
- Arrested 13 times total, and was the first woman released under the 'Cat and Mouse Act' due to her hunger strikes
- Rumoured to have had several sapphic relationships, including with Mary Blathwayt and Christabel Pankhurst
- Annie Kenney and the Politics of Class in the Women's Social and Political Union - article available through NELSON.
Charlie Kiss (1965 - 2022)
- Charlie was the first trans man to run for Parliament in the UK in 2015
- One of the 44 who danced on top of missile silos at Greenham Common in 1983
- Brought more members of the Green Party onto Islington council, and helped support more NHS funding for trans people.
Olaudah Equiano (1745 - 1797)
- Olaudah was an abolitionist and former slave who purchased his freedom in 1766
- His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (available through NELSON as an eBook), became the first internationally popular slave narrative
- Thought to be bisexual, having had numerous relationships with men before marrying his wife.
