Games afternoon

We met at Via on Canal Street for lunch, before taking the tram to New Islington. We were heading for the Community Room in Mayes Gardens.

Mayes Gardens is an estate of 48 one and two bed bungalows and apartments in the New Islington area of Ancoats. It’s an almshouse charity founded in 1635 to provide modern, safe and independent homes.

We had great fun playing Chess, Connect Four, Scrabble and more!

Important Lessons From LGBTQ+ History – Podcast

In this podcast for LGBTQ+ History Month, the guests will be discussing best moments from Manchester’s queer history, how to take care of ourselves and each other in the current political climate and what lessons we should take with us when thinking about our future.

Please be aware, this video contains frank discussion about experiences of transphobia and homophobia, including mention of slurs and violence.

Chair: Aisha Akram, Wellbeing and Liberation Officer, University of Manchester

Guests: Monica Pearl, English and American Studies Professor and ACT UP activist; and

Dominic Bilton, Curator and Programme Developer, Queer the Whitworth.

Listen here:

ACT-UP

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed on 12 March 1987, at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City.

ACT UP Manchester was formed in 1990. We punched above our weight as we were all about lying in the road, telephone-blocking, fax-zapping, letter-writing, informing, condom-dropping, researching, lobbying, talking, shouting, screaming, stickering, misbehaving, lying-in, dying-in, painting, retaliating, creating and having fun.

Action = Life – Silence = Death

Exist – Resist – Persist

Wake Up – Rise Up – Act Up

Queer Treasures of the Manchester Central Library – 3

‘Die Transvestiten’ by Magnus Hirschfeld

This is the third of a short series of articles about queer treasures that are currently to be found in the Archives held at Manchester Central Library.

The Archives holds an early copy of Magnus Hirschfeld’s groundbreaking work on what we would now call ‘trans’ people.  ‘Die Transvestiten’ (The Transvestites), subtitled as ‘Eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb’ (An investigation into the erotic drive to disguise) was the first systematic, modern and scientific look at the variety of people who chose to cross-dress throughout history and in the present day, and to understand their reasons for doing so.

In Hirschfeld’s study, anecdotes of the past ‘transvestites’ were used, as well as contemporary ‘case histories’, (including the first-person narratives of cross-dressers themselves), to attempt to obtain a wholistic perspective on the subject. Sadly, Manchester Library’s copy does not contain the supplemental volume of pictures.

Hirschfeld himself was gay, but could never come out without finding himself being investigated under Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code which forbad sexual relations between males. Nonetheless since the 1890s onwards he was publicly involved in organising petitions in support of law reform and, subsequently, in establishing the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft). With the collapse of cinema censorship after the First World War, in 1919, Hirschfeld worked on, (and appeared in), the first serious full-length film ever made about male homosexuality, called ‘Anders als die Andern’ (Different from the Others).

Whilst a critical contemporary audience would find much to disagree with in Hirschfeld’s handling of his project, and some of his conclusions, nonetheless ‘Die Transvestiten’ was groundbreaking, as the Digital Transgender Archive records –

‘Moving away from the methods of other sexological research at the time that lumped all types of sexual and gender diversity into more all-encompassing groupings, Dr. Hirschfeld theorized a distinction between sexual desires and gender expressions. With this distinction came a whole new category of interpreting and understanding gender non-conformity – the “transvestite.” And with a new identity marker came new opportunities for community building, more social awareness, and even a more scientific and less stigmatizing way of encountering gender difference.’

Hirschfeld’s truly pioneering works and social activism paved the way for all who do not conform to gender and/or sexual stereotyping norms in societies to be better understood and publicly accepted.

Queer Poetry Lovers! – Friday, 14 March from 6.00pm to 7.30pm – Free

Queer Lit, Social Refuge, 27 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester M4 5AJ

Are you passionate about poetry? Come along to our new poetry workshop. Join Jide Macaulay for an evening of poetry and community on the following dates:

14 March, 4 April, 9 May, 13 June, 11 July and 8 August.

This workshop is open to all – whether you’re a seasoned poet or just starting out. Come along, connect with a supportive community, and let your words take flight. Scan the QR code to register and secure your spot!

Alternatively, book here.