2025 is a Special Year – It’s a Year of Anniversaries:

60 years ago – Round The Horne

Writers Marty Feldman and Barry Took use gay slang Polari in the innuendo-laced Julian and Sandy sketches in Round the Horne, with literal straight-man Kenneth Horne.

Millions listen at Sunday lunchtimes to the highly gay stereotyped characters played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams.

Polari has origins in the Roma communities, Italian, slang and other sources. Its aim is to confuse outsiders, especially ‘Betty Bracelets’. (Polari for the police!)

50 years ago – LGBT Foundation Helpline

Fifty years ago, on 2 January 1975 a telephone rang for the first time. It was a helpline – the Manchester Gay Switchboard – and was situated on the stairway in a rented Longsight flat.

There have been name changes and relocations over the years, but to date it’s estimated that more than 250,000 people have rung up, registering more than 3.7 million minutes worth of advice and support.

40 years ago – George House Trust

This year is a big milestone for George House Trust as they mark their 40th year of providing advice, support and information for people living with, and those affected by, HIV.

The symbol for a 40th anniversary is ruby and they will be painting everything red this year, so please join in and show your support by wearing your red ribbon whenever and wherever you can.

30 years ago – Gaytime TV begins

Gaytime TV was a late night gay-themed comedy and lifestyle magazine programme broadcast on BBC 2. It was presented by Rhona Cameron and Bert Tyler-Moore and later Richard Fairbrass. The programme ran until 1999.

20 years ago – Out In The City

Out In The City is a social and support group for members of the LGBT+ communities over the age of 50. It started in 2005 as part of the Ageing Well service provided by Age UK Manchester, but has been a self-organised group since 2018.

20 years ago – Schools OUT

Over the past 20 years, since the first LGBT+ History Month in 2005, Schools OUT have highlighted the incredible things LGBT+ people in all our diversity have achieved throughout history in all areas of life.

20 years ago – Sparkle

The Sparkle Weekend is the original celebration of gender diversity – featuring live entertainment, workshops, wellbeing activities, family and youth provision, sober spaces, market traders, food, drink, and much more! There have been 20 years of celebration, advocacy, and education.

10 years – Stand By Your Trans

On Saturday, 25 July 2015 Trans Pride was held in Dorset Gardens, Brighton. It was hosted by Kate O’Donnell, singing “Stand By Your Trans” with the Rainbow Chorus.

Celebrate International Women’s Day

Manchester is set to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 with a dynamic and inclusive programme of events aimed at celebrating, empowering, and advocating for women across the city.

It is International Women’s Day on 8 March, the annual event that celebrates women’s achievements and focuses attention on the continuing fight for gender equality.

Manchester is the home of strong influential women. The fight for women’s rights was forged for many here in Manchester – not only the city’s radical past contributing towards greater political power in the form of the Representation of the People Act 1918 – but here the Suffragette movement was also founded.

The event has particular resonance in Manchester where suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was born and later rallied the troops from her home on Nelson Street.

In October 1903, the first meeting of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was held at 62 Nelson Street – not too far from what is now The University of Manchester – then home to the defiant political activist Emmeline Pankhurst who was named the greatest northerner of all time.

Now it is the base of the Pankhurst Centre, a museum you can still visit today. A statue of Emmeline was unveiled on St Peter’s Square in 2018.

Suffragette activity emerged out of The WSPU – with marching rallies through the city centre and public speeches from the Pankhurst family.

Specific Manchester buildings have their share of women’s history here, too. For example, the Free Trade Hall is not only the place where Emmeline’s daughter Christabel and friend Annie Kenney interrupted a Liberal Party conference by demanding greater rights for women and were arrested, but the first public meeting on the issue of women’s rights was held here even earlier in 1868; itself led by a woman – Lydia Becker.

And the history of strong women here has continued.

International Women’s Day in Manchester

Accelerate Action at Manchester Central Library

Taking place at Manchester Central Library on Saturday, 8 March, the council’s celebrations promise to be an intriguing gathering of women, allies, and community organisations working towards gender equality.

With the theme ‘Accelerate Action,’ IWD 2025 calls on supporters to challenge the systemic barriers that women from all backgrounds continue to face in their personal and professional lives.

Instead of its traditional ‘Walk for Women,’ Manchester City Council has collaborated with various women-led community organisations to design a fresh approach that better reflects the city’s diverse female voices.

Thanks to funding from the annual IWD grants programme, multiple community organisations will host events citywide, culminating in a special programme at Manchester Central Library under the banner of ‘HER: Heal, Encourage, Revive.’

Here’s the full line up:

Heal (Performance Space)

Flourish Together: Mindfulness and relaxation session, 11.00am – 1.00pm

Equal Education Chances: Letter writing and positive affirmations, 11.20am – 12.15pm

Encourage (Performance Space 2 and 3)

Community Thriving Together: Personal storytelling and overcoming challenges, 11.00am – 11.50am

Trailblazers: Creative activity session including bookmark-making and stitching

Young Identity with Shirley May: Poetry performances, 11.55am – 12.15pm

Flourish Together: Fireside chat with Nickala Torkington on women changemakers, 12.20pm – 12.50pm

Revive (Performance Space 2 and 3)

Bollyfit: A multicultural dance-inspired exercise class, 1.00pm – 1.30pm

Closing speech from Councillor Erinma Bell, 1.35pm – 1.45pm

Uplifting DJ set to conclude the celebrations.

Additionally, a pop-up spa in the Glass Room / Sensory Space will offer 20-minute Indian Head Massage treatments from 11.00am – 2.00pm, providing a well-being retreat for attendees.

Throughout the day, key organisations such as Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH), Manchester Rape Crisis, Fikawele African and Caribbean Mental Health, Walksafe, and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre will be present to promote their services and raise awareness of important issues affecting women in Manchester.

Councillor Erinma Bell, Lead Member for Women, expressed enthusiasm for this year’s programme: “Manchester has long been a city that champions gender equality, and this year’s International Women’s Day celebrations highlight the creativity and innovation of women’s voices in our community. This event is an opportunity to drive further action in ensuring that women can thrive in all areas of life. I encourage women from all backgrounds and generations to get involved and advocate for greater allyship.”

For more information or to book a place at the Women’s Community Festival, visit the event’s official website by clicking here.

The Ladybarn Community are celebrating International Women’s Day on Friday, 7 March! Come along for loads of stalls, activities and free food from their wonderful cook Emily!

If you’re observing Ramadan, you don’t need to miss out – they’ve got takeaway containers so you can eat your food later.

Art Workshop Call Out – Call Out to LGBTQ+ Folks (60+ years) Living in Manchester

Friday, 28 March from 12.00 noon to 5.00pm at Castlefield Gallery, 2 Hewitt Street, Manchester M15 4GB.

Come and join this exploratory workshop which brings Manchester-based early career artists and LGBTQ+ elders together to explore the theme of urban connections and self-making.

Focusing on LGBTQ+ urban life, the workshop will draw on art-based methods to explore questions including: How do we connect in an urban environment? Where do these connections happen? What kinds of spaces are needed to allow connections to flourish? How could we create these spaces? And how do these experiences influence our individual identity and sense of community belonging?

Through pairing artists (who may or may not be elders) with elders (who may or may not be artists), the workshop will result in a collaborative piece that reflects both urban connections as they are, and as they could be.

This workshop will be hosted by Madeleine Vietmeier and Dr Emma Spruce. As a dyke artist and queer theorist respectively, we are interested in facilitating socially engaged work that amplifies the creative knowledge already present in our communities. It is our hope that this workshop marks the start of a longer collaborative project that will unfold over the coming year(s).

If you would like to participate or find out more about this or future projects, please contact: selfinspace@gmail.com by 17 March.

Please see attached poster for more details.

Detention at The Lowry – Wednesday, 14 May – 8.00pm

Gary Clarke Company proudly presents its highly anticipated new dance theatre show, DETENTION, sequel to the multi award-winning COAL and critically acclaimed WASTELAND.

DETENTION explores the impact of Section 28: a piece of largely hidden legislation from Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government in 1988, which ‘prohibited the promotion of homosexuality’, forcing people from the LGBT+ community into a place of secrecy, fear and shame at a time when the country was in industrial turmoil and the gay community was being ravaged by the onslaught of AIDS.

Gary Clarke’s powerful and personal working-class storytelling draws on public and private stories and testimonies, including a rare insight into the LGBT+ Switchboard Logbooks, combined with vivid choreography performed by a company of exceptional dancers, an evocative narrator, a local cast of LGBT+ people, striking designs in film, sound, light and costume and music tracks by the iconic band Test Dept.

DETENTION is a bold and moving exploration of the violence, loneliness, protests, debates, unlikely allies and the remarkable individuals and organisations of the time.