Messages to the future? Lesbian subversion of official categories in the 1921 UK census

This article considers how Britain's 1921 census can be a source for histories of lesbian activism. It explores evidence that the census returns were a site of lesbian resistance and considers the implications for our own histories and understandings of activism. It asks whether these official forms can be considered as messages from our forebears to the future, and what that means for our activism today: The 1921 census form required everyone present in a household on the night of 19 June to be recorded, and their relationship to its 'head' to be stated: a process of categorization which reified patriarchal family relations. However, a small number of women - some known to have been in committed relationships with each other - rejected the official directions in favor of their own relationship categories including 'joint head' or 'joint occupier'. They did so in a context where their relationships were legally unspeakable, hierarchies of gender were intimately entwined with those of sexuality and race, and the heteronormative family was positioned as central to the survival of the nation.

Their rebellions are both a form of activism and an archive within an archive, allowing historians to capture experiences which might otherwise be unrecorded. In a time where patriarchal hierarchies are being reasserted, listening to these messages from the past has taken on new urgency.