CAMRA’s Learn & Discover platform is marking Pride Month with a new three-part audio series exploring the centrality of pubs to LGBTQ+ lives.

The audio series Passion, Pride & Protest has been curated and hosted by award-winning writer and audio maker Emma Inch (pictured). Emma will speak to key figures, including LGBTQ+ historians, activists and publicans, to tell their important stories. 

From the first gay pubs that sprang up at a time when homosexuality was still illegal, through to the era of HIV/AIDS, Section 28, the growth of Pride, right up to the modern day, with the struggles many of the community’s venues are currently going through simply to survive, this series will explore the vital role the pub has played for LGBTQ+ communities over the years.

Guests include:

• Amy Lamé, London’s Night Czar
• Kathy Caton, founder of Brighton Gin and radio maker
• Jill Gardiner, author of From the Closet to the Screen: Women at The Gateways Club 1945-1985
• Oluwatayo Adewole, writer, critic and poet
• Catherine Tonry, CAMRA’s technical director and GBBF organiser
• Alf Le Flohic, writer and queer historian
• Linda Riley, publisher of DIVA magazine & founder of Lesbian Visibility Week
• Ben Campkin, professor of history and theory of architecture and urbanism at UCL

Learn & Discover manager Alex Metcalfe said: “It is always wonderful to have Emma Inch on board, creating content for the platform, and this is another fantastic addition to the collection. The participants joining Emma on the audio guide each bring their important stories of passion, pride and protest, as we look back on the role the pub has played in the community over the years. This is a historical series, with a great deal of excellent research and thought behind it, and we are very excited to be sharing it with our audience. I hope listeners enjoy getting stuck into Passion, Pride & Protest as much as we all did.

“Although the guide is launching during June – recognised internationally as Pride Month – Pride is not just for June. Our commitment to honouring and sharing these stories and perspectives extends the whole year round, not just for a month.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for us to raise awareness of the history of all LGBTQ+ people but it’s particularly poignant to be able to honour our LGBTQ+ members in this way. I would like to say a huge thank you to Emma and the contributors for their hard work and sharing their research and narratives.”

All three episodes of Passion, Pride & Protest are available on the CAMRA Learn & Discover platform:

Pt.1 https://camra.org.uk/learn-discover/discover/passion-pride-and-protest-pt-1/ 

Pt.2 https://camra.org.uk/learn-discover/discover/passion-pride-and-protest-pt-2/  

Pt.3 https://camra.org.uk/learn-discover/discover/passion-pride-and-protest-pt-3/