Speaking Out: Cataloguing advocacy, support and empowerment in the Lothian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard archives (360G-Wellcome-220130_Z_20_Z)

Speaking Out aims to catalogue, rehouse and selectively digitise archives created by the Lothian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard (LGLS), an activist-run mental and physical health service for LGBT people in the Lothians and beyond. The project will disseminate its findings to academics and the wider public, and address key ethical, visibility and sensitivity issues through collaborative engagement with scholarly and stakeholder communities. Opening on 2 March 1974, LGLS was the UK’s first gay helpline and Scotland's first gay charity. Despite this pioneering history, LGLS archives remain largely invisible to researchers in their current, uncatalogued state. This project aims to open up this collection to researchers through: cataloguing and indexing compliant with archival standards, at levels ensuring maximum general research access; identifying sensitivities/ethical issues and applying appropriate closure periods; using anonymised transcription to provide a way in to selected otherwise-confidential records (encouraging academic researchers to apply for access through established procedures); rehousing records in archival-quality storage; digitising selected material (such as locally-specific newsletters unavailable elsewhere in physical or digital form) to aid no-cost, remote research; promoting the collection to research audiences through targeted activities; recording a small number of oral histories (3 – 5), adding context for researchers.