Ahead of his talk exploring the lives of LGBTQ+ people in eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain on Monday 2 June, we asked Dr Tim Moore of the National Trust to respond to some questions on the topic.

What evidence do we have for the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the Georgian era? 

Lots! Although people didn’t really identify as LGBTQ+ in the same way that we do today, there’s lots of evidence of queer and/or non-heteronormative relationships in Georgian Britain. Although most of these existed off the record, there’s plenty of evidence that remains in material culture of the time, like newspapers, literature, court records, journals, and much more. 

Do you think Bath offered a welcoming environment for queer people at this time? 

Yes – or at least, yes comparatively, as in reality there were very few places in Georgian Britain where queer people were fully, wholeheartedly welcomed. But Bath is distinct in that it was one of the most socially inclusive places in the country, and certainly hosted a very lively sub-culture of queer and non-conforming lifestyles and relationships. 

There have been some high-profile films about gay life in this period, e.g. Gentleman Jack, The Favourite and (in French) Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Would you like to see greater representation of this in contemporary culture? 

I think any affirming representation of queer life on screen is a positive thing! But given that non-heteronormative relationships did happen in Georgian Britain I do think it’s right that they’re acknowledged and represented. I’m also fine with writers and directors taking artistic liberties with this, as long as they’re upfront about where they deviate from a faithful representation of history. Artistic license is taken in historical fiction all the time with heteronormative relationships, so why not with non-heteronormative ones?  

William Beckford (author of Vathek) and Horace Walpole (Castle of Otranto) are thought to have had same sex relationships. Do you think there is a connection between the Gothic aesthetic and queer literature at this time? 

Absolutely. Gothic literature of the period gloried in deviance of all kinds and was often famously homoerotic. But queer literature existed outside the Gothic form too. Some works (like the controversial poem Don Leon) explicitly defended gay rights; others (like the erotic novel Fanny Hill) explicitly described queer sexual encounters. 

The law was highly punitive of homosexuality in the 18thC. What risks did people run in conducting gay/lesbian relationships? 

The ultimate risk was death (by hanging), but in practice this was rare. Thousands of people were accused or prosecuted for sodomy or other non-heteronormative sexual acts, but the vast majority were let off or had their sentences commuted. Blackmail was another risk, so naturally most same-sex encounters/relationships remained discreet. Despite these risks however, there are still many instances of people in Georgian Britain being open about the queer aspects of their lives.