‘We’ve been at the centre of defining Black culture in the UK’: Moments that shaped queer Black Britain
metro.co.ukGina Yashere, and produced and directed by Topher.The film aired exclusively on My5 in the UK from June 1, to mark the beginning of Pride Month.‘Black British history in the UK always involves Windrush, it involves the uprisings in the 1980s, it involves all the kinds of campaigning that has been done, the great advances and some of the celebrities and faces we are used to seeing,’ Topher tells Metro.co.uk. ‘But it never really involves Black LGBTQ+ people.
And we’ve been at the center of defining what Black culture is in the UK.’Topher is determined to spotlight the Black British LGBTQ+ pioneers in sport, politics, film and TV and politics, and right the injustices that lead to their omission from the history books. ‘I am part of a generation who came into maturity in the 90s, and back then it was thought to be improbable, or unlikely, and very, very unwelcome to be Black and LGBTQ+. ‘I think a lot of people were not really receptive in the Black communities, but also in wider communities, to the idea that Blackness has more than one identity.’Topher says that these attitudes made it very difficult to have a voice and to be taken seriously. ‘We have been silenced by the Black community and also silenced by the wider gay community, too.
What I love about this film is that it is all by us and about us. What we are doing is reinstating some of that narrative into the center of British culture.’Moments That Shaped: Queer Black Britain celebrates the community’s move from underground and hidden to out and proud, touching on the struggles that Britain’s Black queer community have faced along the way.
