The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell'
LGBT servicemen and women in the US armed forces had to keep their sexuality secret until the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy was repealed in 2011. Lieutenant Colonel Heather Mack served under the poli...
25 Jun 20219min
China's LGBT 'cooperative marriages'
LGBT people in China sometimes arrange fake marriages to hide their sexuality. Homosexuality is not illegal in China but there is discrimination against LGBT people. In 2005 Lin Hai set up a website t...
24 Jun 20218min
The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'
The discovery of the diaries of 19th-century Englishwoman Anne Lister, who wrote in secret code about her love affairs with women and has been called the first modern lesbian. A landowner and a busine...
23 Jun 20218min
Woubis, yossis and travestis: LGBT activism in Côte d’Ivoire
Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire has a buzzing LGBT scene and the country is regarded as one of the more tolerant nations in West Africa. In this Witness History, Josephine Casserly speaks to Barbara, a tran...
22 Jun 20219min
The Stonewall Inn
In June 1969, the gay community in New York responded to police brutality and harassment by rioting outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. For several days there were battles with the police....
21 Jun 20219min
China's 'Economic Miracle'
Since the 1980s China has witnessed massive economic growth. It’s become known as the 'world’s factory'. The driving force behind much of it has been a vast migrant workforce of millions of people, ...
18 Jun 202111min
The Trabant
The iconic East German car dominated the roads of communist Central Europe for decades. The Trabant was made out of resin and cotton waste, had a two-stroke engine and its design remained virtually un...
17 Jun 20218min
The police rape interview that shocked Britain
When the BBC broadcast a documentary called 'A Complaint of Rape' in 1982 the public was shocked. It was part of a fly-on-the-wall series about the police in which officers were filmed aggressively ...
16 Jun 20218min
