Will Beharrell

@willbeharrell.bsky.social

3564 Followers 931 Following

📚 Librarian at the Linnean Society, the world’s oldest learned society devoted to natural history. 🌿 Secretary of the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH). 🏳️‍🌈

A newspaper-style graphic with a photo of man in the top right. The text reads: My name’s Will, I’m Newbury Pride’s Secretary, and I’m so happy to be celebrating LGBT+ History Month here in my hometown. The landscape for LGBT+ people has changed beyond recognition in my lifetime. Not just the well-publicised victories along the road to legal equality in the age of consent, civil partnerships, adoption, and most recently marriage, but also the widespread acceptance among the general public that LGBT+ people deserve equal treatment and respect (a 2019 poll suggested nearly 86% of Britons believe homosexuality should be accepted by society, about as unanimous a figure as you can hope to achieve on any topic in a free country). The change, even from my childhood, could not be more profound. I was educated in Newbury, and I’m sorry to say my secondary school environment was virulently homophobic. Sexuality and gender-based bullying was commonplace, and the existence of Section 28—a de facto ban on all discussions of LGBT+ relationships in the classroom—hobbled teachers’ ability to properly support their LGBT+ students. Many people seem surprised when told this piece of legislation—far from being a relic of the 1980s and 90s—remained on the statute books until 2003 in England. I was 15 when it was finally consigned to the dustbin of history, its damage already done. It wasn’t until university that I felt free to tell the truth about my sexuality; I came out at the relatively late age of 19. I still maintain that coming out was one of the few unambiguously good and sensible decisions I ever made, and the day I came out was one of the happiest of my life. My hope is that every LGBT+ person gets to experience that happiness, at least once. One of my main motivations for joining Newbury Pride was to create a safe environment for others to experience the happiness and relief I once felt. LGBT+ History Month is a great time to be thankful for the progress we’ve made, and…
A man sat at a desk piled high with books
A screen grab of the Society for the History of Natural History’s Bluesky account.
An early printed book with half of it’s front cover/board missing
A book called “Tomorrow’s Potato”. The front cover features a photograph of a potato field.
A selfie of a man in a grand library.
The album cover for 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields
A young man sat at a desk, with a laptop, in grand library.
Three people smiling in a grand library with white columns and gilt-framed portraits.
A beautiful 19th century illustration of a blue and yellow macaw parrot, perched on a branch.