Rainbow plaque honouring Halifax's Anne Lister to feature the word 'lesbian' after backlash
The original plaque which was unveiled at Holy Trinity Church in York earlier this year but organisers have now agreed to change the wording three months later.
READ MOE: The fascinating life of Halifax's first modern lesbian Anne ListerThe diarist was originally described her as "gender non-conforming" but its wording drew criticism that it had "erased" her sexuality.
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Hide AdThe church gave a blessing in 1834 for Lister to marry her partner Ann Walker.
Organisers York Civic Trust, The Churches Conservation Trust, York LGBT Forum and York LGBT History Month will now display the word 'lesbian'.
In a statement they said: "The steering group met on 3 December to review the November public consultation and found that 95% of responders endorsed the alternative wording.
"Based on this review, the four key groups (York Civic Trust, The Churches Conservation Trust, York LGBT Forum and York LGBT History Month) agreed to share the cost of a new plaque and an order has now been placed.
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Hide Ad"The aim is to replace the plaque at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate to mark the end of York LGBT History Month on Thursday 28th February 2019 (time to be confirmed)."
Celebrated as “the first modern lesbian” - though that was a word not in her extensive vocabulary - Anne Lister's story has been dramatised and documented on television no fewer than three times in 25 years.
The four million-word diary she began recording on scraps of paper in 1806 is a remarkable social document of late Georgian and early Victorian Yorkshire, and of a love that dared not speak its name for a century to come.
Using an arcane combination of zodiac signs, punctuation and mathematical symbols, Miss Lister describes in erotic detail that would not be out of place à la mode in Fifty Shades of Grey, her love affairs and her methods of seduction.
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Hide AdFrom her privileged perspective as a landowner, mountaineer and traveller, she also includes her thoughts on social and national events.
Her code was deciphered after her death, at just 49, from a fever while travelling in Eastern Europe with a woman who in today’s terms would be her civil partner, by one of her relatives