Consensual same-sex sexual activity wasn’t legal in Scotland until 1981, 14 years after it was legalized in England and Wales. Yet there are stories of Scottish LGBTQ+ life going back to the 16th century—particularly among the royals.
And since 1981, the Scots have been making up for lost time, with Edinburgh recently being named one of the world’s top LGBTQ+ destinations by the Lonely Planet. A city of roughly half a million, Edinburgh has a lively gay village known as the Pink Triangle and its famed performing arts festival, Edinburgh Fringe (August 1 to 25, 2025) usually features an abundance of rainbow-inflected acts.
Fraser Horn knows his way around the Scottish capital. He worked with a tour guide company for six years before he decided to strike out on his own. He did his first tour under the brand Edinburgh Street Historians in 2024, offering Old Town tours and Harry Potter tours (which we’ll address shortly; in June 2025, the Harry Potter tours have been replaced by additional LGBTQ+ tours) of the city. “It’s pretty much a seat-of-the-pants operation, but I like the punk ethos,” says Horn.
Pink Ticket Travel asked Horn for a superquick tour around his city and a history of Edinburgh’s LGBTQ+ history tour.
First off, how do you research your LGBTQ+ tours?
The research is all stuff I’ve done myself from a variety of conversations I’ve had with people who are more intelligent about this stuff than I am. I’ve delved into the Lavender Menace Queer Book Archive, so I use a lot of primary sources. I’m planning on interviewing more people because it’s a continuously expanding thing. I know that my interpretations of the city are not going to be full because I can approach it from being a white bisexual, but it’s a very different place for different people. Sometimes guests ask me questions that lead me on a different path to find the answers.
How far back does Edinburgh’s LGBTQ+ history go? What’s the most ancient stop on the tour?
Something that I think is quite salacious is James VI. [James I in England and Ireland.] He had a horrible life back in the 16th and 17th centuries. He was only 13 months old when he became king because his mum, Mary, Queen of Scots, was taken prisoner. He grew up with a succession of terrible teachers and horrible regents who were destroying the country, really. He seems to have been more bisexual than anything because he’s said to have had favourites of both genders, including multiple men. They did some excavations of one of his old houses in the last couple of decades and discovered what was essentially a secret chamber between his room and the room of his alleged boyfriend. There are a lot of people who would say it’s hard to tell his orientation because there’s presumed straightness and the fact that he had three kids with a woman.
What’s the most distressing stop on your tour?
We’ve got some pretty grim bits in our history. Edinburg was “the AIDS capital of Europe” for a while in the 1980s. It had a huge profound impact. I talk about it close to the city council building where Nelson Mandela’s prison number, 46664, is on the ground, which is connected to a benefit concert for the AIDS crisis back in the 1990s. The number 46664 is now connected to HIV/AIDS awareness and social justice. Also, there was a hospice working to make sure that people in their final days could be loved and cared for and could do creative work themselves.
One of the most affecting tours I ever did was when I had a German fellow who started talking about his own experiences. He was among the last people to get HIV/AIDS when it was still a death sentence, but then, a few months later, they made major breakthroughs with antiretrovirals and here he is, you know, 30 years later.
Another distressing chapter involved a police commissioner back in the 1970s, who I talk about at the city council building because there’s a little plaque there, to the constables of Scotland. He used to dress up in disguise as “a homosexual” and try to attract attention at bathhouses and all kinds of spots. He would actually brag later about beating people up. That resonates strongly with people, someone who has all this societal power who is actively attacking you and getting away with it.
Right next to that plaque, by the way, is J.K. Rowling’s handprints on the ground because she won the Edinburgh Award in 2008 for writing the Harry Potter series. That’s often vandalized.
J.K. Rowling has become as well known as an opponent of trans rights as she is author of the Harry Potter series.
None of the money from the Harry Potter tour goes to J.K. Rowling, who is a bit of a persona non grata around here. It doesn’t come up on the Harry Potter tours as much as you might think. People for whom she’s destroyed the love of the series don’t come on the tour. Part of the proceeds of the LGBTQ+ tours go to the charity LGBTQ Health and Wellbeing as a way of making it carbon neutral.
What’s the most joyous stop on the LGBTQ+ tour?
I talk about Augustine United Church, which was completed in 1861 and was eventually absorbed into the Metropolitan Community Church, which is led by Rev. Maxwell Reay. I talk about it when we’re on the George IV Bridge, where you can see these rainbow posters they have outside that say “God loves all.” It’s quite nice. Basically, they’ve been a queer church, an accepting church, for 30 years, all the way back to 1995, which is also, coincidentally, the same year we held a Pride celebration for the first time.
We were quite late to the party compared to a lot of places. Culturally, the late ’90s were a huge time for being gay and being Scottish—and being gay and Scottish.
Some people get pretty joyous when I give them various recommendations for all the stuff to do, the bars to visit, in the bit of town called the Pink Triangle, which is a dark joke. [“Pink Triangle” is a reference to badges gay men were required to wear in Nazi Germany; meant to be shameful, the expression is now often used to show pride and LGBTQ+ solidarity.] The Pink Triangle is where you’ll find most of the gay activity, the clubs and stuff, which is also actually where a lot of early queer activism was happening.
For a pint in the Pink Triangle, try The Regent Bar (2 Montrose Terrace, Edinburgh). It’s like an old-man pub in a sense, but it’s a queer old-man pub. It’s a low-key place to appreciate the city.
What’s the most surprising stop on the tour?
It’s almost our first stop, when we go to the University of Edinburgh’s chaplaincy. As I mentioned, Scotland waited until 1981 to legalize homosexuality. A lot of the early activism was happening in the chaplaincy. They started doing gay discos there in 1969. They had, like, dancing, people meeting up. It’s pretty wild that this was happening in an ostensibly religious bit of the city. The first-ever International Gay Rights Congress was held there in 1974. [The conference led to the establishment of what became known as the International Lesbian and Gay Association.] It’s currently under renovations, so sadly nobody can go inside.
The Street Historians’ LGBTQ+ tours are currently offered weekly, Fridays at 6 p.m., except in June when the tour is offered several days a week.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
