LGBT people about their experiences of homophobia and transphobia either in care homes, a retirement community and when receiving ‘care’ in their own home. The piece will be presented as a script-in-hand performance by members of Clare’s theatre company, Artemis, followed by a Q&A between with the writer, the cast, informed panellists and the audience.

Although some of the content of this play makes for upsetting and uncomfortable listening, this work is intended to raise awareness of forms of discrimination that LGBTQ+ people fear and have experienced in real life. At best, carers can be affirming and supportive towards LGBT people, but at worse they can be ignorant, bigoted, or even punitive. There is a very real fear among the older LGBT population that when they are at their most vulnerable, the care they will need might be second rate, if not actually harmful to them and that after being out for most of their lives, they will be faced with the choice of having to go ‘back into the closet’. The play also seeks to engage with the social care sector and encourage dialogue to develop learning, skills and confidence to address these challenges so that LGBTQ+ people can feel safe and able to be themselves in whatever place they live in and wherever they receive care.

Clare Summerskill is the author of Creating Verbatim Theatre from Oral Histories (Routledge, 2022). Her many verbatim plays include Gateway to Heaven (created from interviews with older lesbians and gay men), Rights of Passage (scripted from interviews with LGBT asylum seekers in the UK), and Hearing Voices (based on interviews with patients who met on a secure psychiatric ward). Her PhD thesis addressed the role of a contributor to verbatim theatre processes and she is the co-editor of New Directions in Queer Oral History: Archives of Disruption (Routledge). Clare also co-founded The Oral History Society’s LGBTQ Special Interest Group and she is the artistic director of Artemis Theatre Company: www.artemistheatre.co.uk
Clare is also a comedian and a singer-songwriter, who regularly tours the UK and the US with her LGBT-themed one-woman shows: www.claresummerskill.co.uk