Why? Because it is seen as being “inclusive”, although it smacks to me as trying too hard. I could understand if some LGBTQ+ people felt patronised and offended at some of the text the museum has included. What utter tosh.
I am staggered. Unfortunately, I think they are making the mistake of seeing life at the time through the lens of the 21st century. Henry VIII persecuted homosexuality between men and passed the Buggerie Act. Although they claim a “long history” of queer people marrying or viewing themselves as married there is no evidence put forwards to support this claim. I’d say that if, this was the case, it really was in the minority because of a) the law at the time and b) I doubt that it would have even entered their heads that people of the same sex might marry. Although there would have been plenty of opportunity for homosexual relations since it was common for people to share beds with members of the same sex, openly being gay or bi-sexual was I would suggest quite rare as gay and bi-sexual men were persecuted, by the church, the law and society.
In my view, instead of trying to put forwards some utterly facile nonsense in an attempt to tick the LGBTQ+ box, they could have been a bit more candid and explained the reality of the situation. Educating people or making them *think* about how it was extremely difficult for the ordinary man in the street to be openly homosexual makes far more sense than pontificating on how people may have an emotional response when looking in a mirror. If I go to a museum, I generally want to learn things rather than become jaded at box-ticking amateur psycho-babble which has absolutely no relevance to artefacts found on a Tudor warship.