1853 Restaurant

The 1853 Restaurant is a new 40-seat training restaurant, part of the Manchester College. We were the first large group – there were 28 of us – to enjoy the high quality food in a relaxed atmosphere.

The restaurant is run by students, and is just a few minutes walk from Victoria Train Station, next door to the AO Arena.

The lunch time menu was excellent and will be always changing and innovating to reflect local seasonable produce.

They are open for lunch on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 12.00 noon to 2.00pm and Thursday evenings from 6.00pm to 9.00pm. There will be an online booking system, but in the meantime you can book your table via email: 1853@tmc.ac.uk

We will certainly be coming back. Look at the photos here.

Library creates brilliant map of LGBT+ authors to help you to find your next read

LGBT+ bookworms, rejoice: the Barbican Library has created a map of the world’s best LGBT+ authors, making it easier for people to source new books to read.

The map includes more than 100 LGBT+ authors with work across the literary field, and was originally published on Twitter in February, LGBT+ History Month.

It’s colour-coded and designed similarly to the London Underground map, segmenting the authors into general fiction, plays, essays, memoir, science fiction and poetry.

On the fiction line are authors including Heartstopper’s Alice Oseman and Andrew Sean Greer, writer of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Less.

Leaning into the tube line aesthetic, the map highlights which writers cross the boundaries between two genres.

Trans author Juno Dawson and Real Life writer Brandon Taylor, for example, are noted as writing both non-fiction and essays, while writers including Virginia Woolf and Roxane Gay are categorised under memoirs, essays, and fiction.

Mother’s Boy writer Patrick Gale shared his joy at being included on the map, writing on Twitter: “So happy to be a stop between Sarah Waters and Alice Oseman! I hope it’s a stretch with daylight and garden views.”

Emily Noble’s Disgrace author Mary Paulson-Ellis responded to the map with: “Wow, this is a brilliant map! Feel honoured to be in such splendid company.”

The Barbican celebrating LGBT+ authors comes as sales of LGBT+ books soar. However, there is a growing right-wing movement against the dissemination of LGBT+ literature, particularly in the US where books are being banned from schools and public libraries.

Ugandan MPs pass bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality

MPs in Uganda have passed a controversial anti-LGBT+ bill, which would make homosexual acts punishable by death, attracting strong condemnation from rights campaigners.

One MP in the chamber, John Musila, wore a gown reading: “Say No To Homosexual, Lesbianism, Gay.”

All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on 21 March for the hardline anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”. According to Human Rights Watch, the proposed law is the first to make identifying as LGBTQ+ a crime. One legislator claimed that the penalties imposed by the bill did not go far enough, proposing an amendment that would make homosexuality punishable by castration.

“A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” reads the bill presented by Robina Rwakoojo, the chairperson for legal and parliamentary affairs.

Human Rights Watch notes “any person who ‘holds out as a lesbian, gay, transgender, a queer, or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female’” would face up to 10 years in prison.

Just two MPs from the ruling party, Fox Odoi-Oywelowo and Paul Kwizera Bucyana, opposed the new legislation.

“The bill is ill-conceived, it contains provisions that are unconstitutional, reverses the gains registered in the fight against gender-based violence and criminalises individuals instead of conduct that contravenes all known legal norms,” said Odoi-Oywelowo.

“The bill doesn’t introduce any value addition to the statute book and available legislative framework,” he said.

An earlier version of the bill prompted widespread international criticism and was later nullified by Uganda’s constitutional court on procedural grounds. The bill will now go to President Yoweri Museveni, who can veto or sign it into law. In a recent speech he appeared to express support for the bill.

The bill marks the latest in a string of setbacks for LGBT+ rights in Africa, where homosexuality is illegal in most countries. In Uganda, a largely conservative Christian country, homosexual sex was already punishable by life imprisonment.

Human rights campaigners have condemned the new move to enact the harsh law, describing it as “hate legislation”.

“Today marks a tragic day in Uganda’s history. @Parliament_Ug has passed legislation that promotes hatred and seeks to strip LGBTIQ individuals of their fundamental rights!” tweeted Sarah Kasande, a Kampala-based lawyer and human rights activist.

“The provisions of the anti-homosexuality bill are barbaric, discriminatory and unconstitutional,” she said.

She added: “To the LGBTIQ community, I know this is a difficult day, but please don’t lose hope. The battle is not over; this repugnant bill will ultimately be struck down.”

Gay activist Eric Ndawula tweeted: “Today’s events in parliament are not just immoral, but a complete assault on humanity. It’s frightening that our MPs’ judgment is clouded by hate & homophobia. Who benefits from this draconian law?”

Uganda is one of 30 African countries in which homosexuality is criminalised. More than 110 LGBT+ people in Uganda reported incidents including arrests, sexual violence, evictions and public undressing to advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) in February alone. Transgender people were disproportionately affected, said the group.

Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a lesbian activist in Kampala, said efforts to overturn the legislation would continue.

“We shall continue to fight this injustice. This lesbian woman is Ugandan even this piece of paper will [not] stop me from enjoying my country. Struggle just begun,” said Nabagesera in a tweet.

Kasande said: “We will fight until all individuals in Uganda can enjoy the rights guaranteed to them by the constitution.”

President Museveni last month said Uganda will not embrace homosexuality, claiming that the west was seeking to compel other countries to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.

“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” said Museveni in a televised address to parliament on 16 March.

“Homosexuals are deviations from the normal. Why? Is it by nature or by nurture? We need to answer those questions. We need a medical opinion on that,” he said.

“It’s disappointing that parliament would, once again, pass a bill that is clearly in contravention of several basic human rights,” said Oryem Nyeko, a researcher in the Africa division at Human Rights Watch.

“This just opens the door for more regressive laws and for people’s rights to be violated across the board. President Museveni shouldn’t assent to it,” he said.