Notes From the Queer Ghetto

Across the world, "Gay Villages" provide a safe-space for LGBT people who have struggled for many centuries (thanks colonialism)! From San Francisco's Castro District (arguably the first "out" LGBT Quarter) to New York's Christopher Street, these are important historical areas. They should be recognised as such (what's the step down from a UNESCO heritage site?)

I live in Manchester, and grew up in its suburbs. Our Gay Village - Canal Street and its surrounding areas - brought me up and out. By today's standards, I was a late queer bloomer. I came out a little bit, at age 17, and fully by age 20. I came out fully thanks to the safety and support of my university LGBT society (Edge Hill 2002-2005). I was a self-labelled banner waving dyke. My first trip to Manchester's Gay Village was in 2003. I had, of course, seen the marvels and mystery of this magic street on television in the '90s. But actually visiting for the first time, my eyes were opened. I'd never seen so many LGBT people in my life! Later that year, I attended EuroPride and my love for the area was cemented.

Canal Street looking West from Minshull Street
By Parrot of Doom - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6587437

I have learned about its history and significance to the LGBT community. It was the scene of the Aids massacre in the '80s, it was the hope of the community at a time when you would be gay bashed if you went anywhere else; and it was home to many protests against discrimination and hatred (and still is). In the winding back streets of the Gay Village (known to those in the know as simply "The Village"), you'll find the remnants of this once booming community - support services, a local football team, the Gay Gordons, all coming together.

Recently I have seen so much outrage and horror about the developments within the boundaries of Whitworth Street, Portland Street, Princess Street and Minshull Street. There has been talk of residential property for - shock horror - families set to destabilise the status quo. But I have to ask a question of the LGBT community - what is it that you want? A non-viable ghetto where business people can’t keep their businesses open? Because that’s what we have now (it would appear). The number of businesses that have shut down in the past 10-15 years is reaching double figures - Bar Risa (standing empty for over 10 years), Essential (empty for 4 years), Villaggio, Eden (now Delicatezzi), two short lived restaurants in the space next to Richmond Tea Rooms, Sackville Lounge, Bandit (now replaced with the fantastic No.1 Canal Street), Coyotes.

 

Canal Street looking West from Chorlton Street 
By David Newton, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14083792

I would love to see the area become more like the Castro district in San Francisco - with shopping, living, and entertainment - maybe even a bakery! Right now it is only clubs, bars and hotels, along with LGBT charities. I support The Village as much as I can - I run a monthly karaoke night, I sometimes work on the doors, I occasionally go out drinking, I frequent the restaurants for Sunday Lunch. But I very rarely go 'out out'. Let’s be honest, the current village is catering for a demographic that is on the decline. It's on the decline for good reasons. The kids don’t want to be ghettoised. They want to be out, proud and fierce in the NQ, Deansgate, the suburbs. They don’t have the reverence for the safety of our village because they’ve never needed it - and please remember, this is a good thing!

Everything changes. Gentrification is fucking awful - but so is a 15 year stagnation and decline. Every year it gets harder for the bar owners and business owners to keep running. Overheads are high, custom is spotty. Queer people don’t want to pay to get in anywhere (not even £1). They want their drinks cheap, and their entertainment high quality. They complain if drink prices reflect the prices across Manchester (I pray they never drink in London!)

So what am I trying to say?

Things need to change. Those changes can be positive. But if you really want the Village to stay as it is - then you’re going to have to start using it! Not just once in a while, not just at Pride, not just once a month. You need to spend your money there every week and not elsewhere.

 

You have a choice of where to spend your money, and if you choose to spend it outside of the Village, then you can't really complain when the city decides that something needs to change, nor when you look around and find are no LGBT people there.

I will end with a conversation I’ve had many times over the years.

 

“Canal Street is getting too straight” someone will say...

“Babe, if the place was full of Queers right now, there would be no room for other straight people now would there?” I reply.

But it's not.

 

Section 28 and why it must NEVER return

I thought that growing up in the shadow of Section 28 didn't affect me until I was all grown up. When I was at school, I didn't hear the word lesbian until I was well into my high school years, and when I did, it was almost always being thrown around as an insult.

I didn't know whether being gay was "ok" and this casual banter even infected my own lexicon. I became homophobic, without really even realising what that word meant. It seemed easier to turn a blind ear or worse still, join in, than it was to admit that I might be gay.

We didn't have any gay teachers, just suspected ones and we didn't have a single pupil in the whole school who was brave enough to come out (although between 6 and 10 from my year alone did once they left!)

Section 28 was something I had never heard of. I wasn't interested in politics or education policy and I didn't know any gay people anyway, so it just wasn't a thing that I ever needed to encounter.

Watching Ellen Degeneres come out in 1997 changed all that. I didn't come to terms with my sexuality until 2001 when I was 17 years old. But '97 was a crucial year for me. I suddenly understood what gay actually meant. I had an actual lesbian upon whom to anchor my thoughts.

I was still in the closet, even to myself, for the next four years and my sexuality expressed itself, unfortunately, as internalised homophobia. I watched Queer as Folk and thought it was incredible and exciting, but at school I said it was disgusting, because that was what all my friends said. I speculated about the sexuality of various teachers with my friends as I wrestled with my own sexual orientation.

What I feared most was somebody asking me directly, I don't think I could have lied. Four years later when I left high school, I came out and never looked back... Yeah right! I didn't have anybody telling my "It gets better" or "It's good to be gay". The backlash against Ellen had been brutal and in the UK, it was really no easier to come out as gay at 17 than it had been ten years earlier.

Once I was out, however, I never went back in. I came out to my Mum, she told my Dad, somehow my Nana found out and once I went off to university, I was a fledgling dyke waiting to spread my little gay wings.

University was a revelation. I suddenly had gay friends, got to experience gay clubs and the "gay lifestyle" (which is very much like the "straight lifestyle" but with more rainbows). It was then, at my first Pride in Manchester, that I heard about Section 28 for the first time. It was August 2003 and I was 19 and my feeling was one of abject horror. Shortly after that, Section 28 was finally repealed. But for me, that wasn't the end of the story.

Section 28 caused me harm. There I said it. Not insignificant harm - real harm. Because my teachers didn't step in when people used the word "Gay" as in insult, I never realised it was bad. Because my teachers were too afraid to come out, I never had a role model. Because there were no role models, I didn't come out.

So it was with sadness that I read Shaun Dellenty's TES article which said that gay teachers are still being told to "keep quiet" about their sexuality. This Section 28 by the back door MUST stop. Perhaps if I'd had one teacher who was out and proud, I would have had an easier ride in my teens.

Some kids and teachers are gay - get over it.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6373296 - Shaun Dellenty's beautifully written article for TES.

A Proud Mancunian

A little bit more positive, my pal Emma Garside, currently residing in Gorse Hill, Manchester - the proudest mancunian you'll ever meet penned this poem which just about says it all and has very kindly let me post it...


I am Manchester by Emma Garside

I am Manchester,

I am the friendliest people on earth,

I am red and blue,

I am afflecks and corn exchange memories of old,

I am the triangle and printworks of new,

I am the Arndale shops and market,

I am piccadilly gardens,

I am the northern quarter,

I am still going strong no matter what you throw at me,

I am manchester full of pride,

I am manchester gay straight and bi,

I am the mancs coming together,

I am cleaning up the riots no matter the weather.

I am manchester through and through.

Manchester i'm so proud of you!

Out of the fear comes greatness... Please share this!

Why You Should Volunteer

Yawn… Today is a long day, I’m not really feeling the late shift. Late isn’t all that late here, just 11:00-19:00, but it’s enough. Once I’m home and fed, it’s 9 and I’m wondering what has happened to my homelife with my missus.  Maybe I should use this whole “right to a private family life” defence to get rid of my late shifts, I mean, no, I have no children, but I do have a family. I am disgustingly happy at the moment, positively gleeful over my current situation, even if it is slowly killing me!


I work 37 hours per week for an unnamed supermarket, in their offices, not on the shop floor. I don’t say that because there’s anything wrong with working on the shop floor. I only mention it because the work I do is fairly far removed from your everyday till girl. It’s all computer based which makes my eyes square, and my arse massive. I don’t mind my job, it pays my bills, very well.


Outside my ordinary job, I work three voluntary roles. I always thought volunteering meant shaking a bucket, “chugging” or going door to door, but in the past three years I’ve discovered that you can use volunteering to better your CV, gain experience and have tonnes of fun.


1)     I have a weekly radio show on a community station called “Gaydio”. It is the first of its kind, dedicated to the Gay community in Manchester and also around the world. We get listeners from as far afield as Gran Canaria and America. My show is the MOBO show (The Groove) on Tuesdays, 9PM -11PM GMT and can be heard outside Manchester online at www.gaydio.co.uk. Although it is the Music of Black Origin show, that really just relates to the music and my chat can be about anything – usually stuff I read in the paper that amuses me.


2)     I’m an adhoc volunteer for Manchester Pride, the UK’s biggest LGBT festival (more info at www.manchesterpride.com) I would love to volunteer regularly and work in the office, but due to my main job, this is impossible so instead I organise events and promote Manchester Pride through my online community and on my radio show. Last year I led the Pride Parade through Manchester as my Drag King alter ego, and came 2nd in the HRH Drag King competition, and this year, I am organising the competition and helping to host. I’m also performing on the community stage on Saturday 27th August at 10pm. I’m going to be incredibly busy, but it should be a great weekend, as always. A few other bits about Pride this year, if you didn’t already know, it is Manchester Pride’s 21st birthday, and in honour of this historic birthday, the Lowry in conjunction with Manchester Pride has an exhibition with memorabilia, photos and videos from the past 21 years as well as event information for 2011. I’m a real nostalgic type and so I got a real thrill from watching the “It’s a Knockout” video from 1991 and from all the flyers, programmes and posters they have in the glass cases. On that note, if you have any memorabilia you’d like to donate, contact Lance at info@manchesterpride.com, or the Lowry.


3)     My most recent venture is a position on the board of the Lesbian Community Project in Manchester. We are the only full time organisation for Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans-Women and Trans-Men in the UK. We have been running for 15 years, and I’m trying desperately to catch up with all that history. Until I worked with the LCP for a fantastic event back in February (Grrrl Meets Boi), I’ll admit, I’d never really used the LCP, mostly because I was living outside Manchester, but it has been a terrific resource since I moved first to Salford, then to Cheetham Hill. Apart from excellent events and fundraisers, the LCP offers support and help to anyone calling, emailing or dropping in. Tonight is SOFA (Support or Fun Activities) and we’re planning new groups all the time.  The new board which met for the first time in May has wasted no time in planning for the coming financial year, and we intend to make the LCP great again, as well as recruiting as many new members as we can! (for more info or to receive an LCP Newsletter by email contact enquiries@lesbiancommunityproject.co.uk) This my newest voluntary role has already led me to a Slutwalk (http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1423405_hundreds-join-slut-walk-protest-through-manchester - That’s me in the pink scarf!) and to a rather special club which shall remain nameless! ;-)


In short, I love my life, I’m doing activities which are efficacious  to the community. I have the perfect girlfriend and a lovely home life and to top it all off, I’m packing my CV with experience which will help me move onto the next step! Volunteering doesn’t need to be a drag, it doesn’t need to take up all of your time  and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a hard slog. For example… why not volunteer at Manchester Pride this summer? It’s fun and you get to see some fab performers, plus there’s a wicked free Volunteer’s party at the end. Contact info@manchesterpride.com or go to the website for more information!