Some wise words: Two metres – is that OK? A hundred metres – two hundred metres – still see me? And keep in mind, when you are close to someone, really close, you cannot see them clearly, but when apart you cannot see anything else.

Some of the biggest names in Manchester’s drag scene have collaborated with drag performers from around the world to raise money for Age UK.

The 26 drag queens from five different countries join forces to perform a cover of “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn.

Manchester’s Anna Phylactic, Liquorice Black, Misty Chance and Julie Noted appear in the video, alongside RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and USA stars Courtney Act, Crystal, and Blu Hydrangea.

Other names from around the world include Hollow Eve, Pangina Heals, Peaches Christ, Yshee Black and Meth.

“Older people are some of the most isolated and at risk in this crisis and as the recent revelations about care homes have shown they are all too easy to brush under the chintzy carpet,” Cheddar Gorgeous, who organised the project, said.

“It’s always been a drag tradition to draw attention to things that matter with a bit of glitter and hairspray. We want to make sure our elders know that we love them, miss them and that we will meet again.”

Cheddar says it took her just two weeks to get videos from performers and edit it together, and says it’s been just as helpful to her as she hopes it is to the older generation.

“It’s been good for us drag queens too,” she says.

“We’ve been missing each other and performing for others.”

The video hopes to inspire people to donate funds to Age UK, providing older people with care and support.

“Older people can be so easily ignored, but they’re usually the ones who are struggling the most,” Cheddar adds.

“While we’re all able to stay connected with each other online, that’s something that many of them can’t do or struggle with. I hope that when people watch it they will stop to think about our elders and how they’re feeling right now. But, ultimately, I also hope the video is something older people can watch and enjoy too. I think drag is an incredible, special thing and it has always had the ability to connect people together.”

You can donate to the Drag Queens in Quarantine fundraiser here

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The LGBT Foundation is carrying out a survey on how LGBT communities are being affected by corona virus. Sparing 10 minutes to answer will improve their understanding of how our communities are being impacted and will ensure that the right support is being provided:

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/covid19impactlgbt

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We have received the following message from Benji Taylor:

Good morning,

I am community development worker from the Integrating Care for Trans Adults Project at Yorkshire MESMAC and I am contacting you about our work.

For more info on the project please see: http://business-school.open.ac.uk/research/projects/icta/description

We are asking for your support as we keep up the momentum we’ve built up during these difficult times. We recognise that it is a scary and confusing time at the moment for everyone and we are all having to rethink how we go about daily life. This is why we think it is important to continue spreading word of the project because it is such a positive step for the transgender including non-binary communities.

From this project we plan to take our responses to the NHS and convey to them where their patients stand on the quality of care they are given. This is a brilliant opportunity for trans people to help create change within the care systems they are a part of.

We want to have as complete a picture as possible, this can only be achieved by having responses from all over the trans community, this includes the older members. Not only have they had more experiences but they’ve also been able to see how the NHS has changed over the years which is something we are very interested in hearing. Older people are also more likely to have more varied or complex medical needs, which means they have more interactions with the NHS, we want to know if being trans has affected their care.

This is also a trans/non-binary led project, which we believe is a vital and integral aspect of what makes the project important. This is the biggest project of its kind and it is unlikely to be repeated especially with such a strong trans presence behind it. We are a collaboration between community and academia; Yorkshire MESMAC, the Open University and the LGBT Foundation have come together to create this space for members of our community to evidence the ways health care needs to change but also to show where good practise is and how to emulate that.

It is so important not only to listen to trans people but also to have trans people as the listeners. There is so much empathy within this project because of the shared and similar life experiences. So often trans people have been used as psychological study rats, which creates no tangible outcomes. The Museum of Transology agrees that as trans people we have “research fatigue” from these cisgender/clinical lead studies. They also agreed that this is the most important project which British trans people can benefit from in this life time. We are very much of the mind that there is ‘nothing about us without us’.

What we would love you to do is forward this information and our survey through your channels.

For the survey http://www.thissurvey.com/ICTAWebsite

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any queries:

Email: b.taylor@mesmac.co.uk

I also have a twitter (@benji_mesmac), we would be grateful if you could retweet some of the project tweets.