Hello, I'm Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

You're listening to our podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.

These talks are a collection of some of our best live events.

I really hope you enjoy listening.

On the anniversary of the Sexual Offenses Act 1967, we're exploring historical views on

homosexuality and same-sex relationships. We're going to consider how we present same-sex

relationships in a historical context and ask how far the language and rhetoric of the past

influences our views on the present.

We are joined by three guests today. We have Matthew Story, who's the curator of collections

at Historic Royal Palace is. A specialist in fine and decorative arts, Matthew has also worked

for the VNA, and his research has ranged from Renaissance ceramics all the way through to the representation of LGBT communities in art.

Also, we will be hearing from Bernard Donahue, who is the director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions,

and a founder-trustee of the Collideroscope Trust, which works to uphold the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people internationally.

And finally, we're joined by Dr. Claire Hayward, public historian and educator,

whose PhD investigated same-sex love in public history,

and she now works in further education as lecturer in history at Farnborough College of Technology in Hampshire.

We're going to be all talking together in just a little while,

but first we'll be hearing from each of our guests in turn, starting with Matthew Story.

So looking at this issue, I think language is at the centre of trying to understand different

historical concepts of same-sex desire and gender identities, and also in the way we talk about them today, because it's in language very often that we find clues to what people were feeling, what people were experiencing.

And we also, in language, find huge limitations, actually,

in our understanding of these human experiences. When you look back through human history,

...