Burnley LGBT Heritage project receives £50,000
A project to research Lancashire's gay and transgender communities has been awarded £50,000 of lottery funding.
The Burnley LGBT Heritage project will be carried out in the run up to Burnley's first Pride event, which is expected to be held in the summer.
Lancashire Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Group is collecting stories from local men and women about their lives in the county.
They are also working with Mid Pennine Arts on some collaborative artwork.
Kathryn Rooke, from the Lancashire Archives which is supporting the project, said it was "a community that gets very easily hidden within the archives and within the county's history".
"Years ago it would have been dangerous to talk about it," she said.
"We have stories in the archives of men that have been hanged at Lancaster Castle in the early 19th Century. Right into the 1960s men have been persecuted and prosecuted for their sexuality."
She said the money would provide "a fantastic opportunity to work with local people to gather and celebrate Lancashire's rich and diverse heritage".