Landmark LGBT+ Homes

Before 1967, homosexuality was illegal and loving someone of the same sex was a criminal offence.

Although the law did not apply to lesbians, the privacy of the home provided safety and security for many LGBT+ people when same-sex intimacy was condemned by society.

Here are five artists’ homes that have become landmarks in LGBT+ history:

1. The Cabin, Bucks Mills, Devon

Once a fisherman’s store, this mid-19th century cabin became the studio retreat of artists Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards in 1924.

The women met as students in London and fell in love. Together they travelled the country, painting and selling their work. They lived and worked in the cliff edge summer house for sustained periods over 50 years until Judith died in 1971. Mary Stella closed the Cabin and did not return.

It has been left unchanged in the care of the National Trust and is still used as an artist’s residence.

2. Chantry House, West Sussex

Artist Hannah Gluckstein adopted the name Gluck in 1918 and began to dress in traditionally masculine clothes.

Gender subversion, non-conformity and queer sexualities played an important role in Gluck’s art. One of their most famous paintings, ‘Medallion (You We)’, 1937, a dual portrait of their love, socialite Nesta Obermer, later became the cover image for Radclyffe Hall’s novel ‘The Well of Loneliness’, 1928, about a lesbian relationship.

After Nesta broke off their relationship in 1944, Gluck began a relationship with Edith Shackleton Heald, the first female reporter in the House of Lords. They lived together in Heald’s home of Chantry House in Sussex until she died in 1978.

3. Priest’s House, Kent

Successful theatre producer, director, and costumier Edith (Edy) Craig lived at Priest’s House with her female partners, the writer and translator Chris St John (Christabel Marshall) from 1899, with artist Tony (Clare) Atwood joining in 1916.

They lived together for the rest of their lives and were visited by queer artists and writers, including Virginia Woolf and Radclyffe Hall.

Their timber-framed house is on the grounds of Smallhythe Place, home to Edy’s mother, Victorian actress Ellen Terry.

When Ellen died in 1928, Edy transformed the house into a memorial museum to her mother’s life. She converted the 17^th century thatched barn into a theatre and held an annual drama festival from 1929, attracting luminaries of the theatre world, including queer actor John Gielgud.

4. Ham Spray House, Wiltshire

Artist Dora Carrington and the writer’s Ralph Partridge and Lytton Strachey made Ham Spray House their home in 1924.

The ménage a trois was associated with ‘The Bloomsbury Set’ of artists and intellectuals who had open relationships, often with same-sex partners.

Strachey wrote his books ‘Elizabeth and Essex’, 1928, ‘Portraits in Miniature’, 1931, and ‘Characters and Commentaries’, 1933, in the first-floor library of the house.

The library was designed by Carrington, featuring tiles with Strachey’s monogram and a false bookcase with humorously titled book spines. Strachey died in 1932, and grief-stricken Carrington died of suicide shortly after.

5. Sissinghurst Castle, Kent

Purchased in 1930, the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West lived at Sissinghurst with her husband, Harold Nicolson. They both had numerous same-sex affairs throughout their happy and unconventional married life.

The most well-known of Vita’s love affairs was that with the novelist Virginia Woolf. Woolf is said to have modelled her successful book ‘Orlando’, 1928 and its gender-shifting hero on Vita.

Both Vita and Harold were discreet about their same-sex affairs. Their home at Sissinghurst allowed them to share a happy, queer marriage.

Mary Frith (1584 – 26 July 1659)

She swaggered through the streets of London in breeches and boots, a pipe clenched between her teeth, daring anyone to question her right to exist on her own terms. In an age when women were expected to be silent, submissive, and tucked behind a veil of obedience, Mary Frith – better known as Moll Cutpurse – stood as a living scandal, a walking disruption of every rule that kept women in their place.

Born around 1584, Mary didn’t just push boundaries – she torched them. From a young age, she refused to conform to the rigid expectations of femininity. She dressed like a man not to entertain or deceive, but to live freely, unchained by corsets or customs. Her male attire, often complete with a sword, was an audacious statement: I will not be what you say I must be.

Moll wasn’t just notorious for her wardrobe. She made her living on the streets as a pickpocket, a fence, and eventually, a business-savvy operator who helped return stolen goods – for a fee, of course. She mingled with thieves and actors, outlaws and drunkards, becoming both a local legend and a feared figure in London’s underworld. Her reputation grew so vast that plays were written about her while she was still alive.

But Moll didn’t stop at crime. She also broke into the all-male world of public performance. She took to the stage at a time when women weren’t even allowed to act, performing in drag, smoking openly, and mocking the very society that tried to erase her. Even when arrested and forced to publicly repent, she did it in style – reportedly throwing in a song or two just to irritate the authorities.

Mary Frith lived a life that makes the phrase “ahead of her time” feel almost inadequate. She defied gender expectations not as a private act of rebellion, but as a public spectacle. In a world that punished women for stepping out of line, she danced, drank, and laughed right across it.

Her story isn’t just one of defiance – it’s a reminder of the power that comes from refusing to apologise for being exactly who you are.

Good News From America:

Rainbow Road is the longest LGBTQ+ mural in history

Driving along 15th Street Northwest in Washington DC, you may notice a stretch with multicoloured bike lanes and other street paintings. That “Rainbow Road” is now the longest LGBTQ+ mural in history.

“DC has the largest LGBTQ per capita population in the country, and you know, it’s just important to not shy away from our colours,” said Lisa Marie Thalhammer, the lead artist on the project.

Stretching over half a mile between O and V streets, the mural features all the colours from the pride flag, as well as plenty of spots with three stars representing the DC flag.

There are also additions by eight other artists from the DC area.

“We also have this really cool piece by Maps Glover called “Watermelon Kisses”, and it’s just this really sweet depiction of two figures, you know, embracing in a sweet kiss surrounded by green and black in a pink heart,” Thalhammer said.

The artists and more than a hundred volunteers spent weeks designing and painting the project in time for last month’s World Pride Festival.

“It would not have happened without the help of, you know, these 120 volunteers all coming together to make this city more colourful and more beautiful,” Thalhammer said.

While planned for Pride month, the 0.63-mile long mural is expected to stick around for years to come as “a visual reminder that pride is actually 365 days of the year.”

“This painting is really for our community, in the Shaw and Dupont Circle neighbourhoods, and it just really brought so much light and joy to people’s faces,” Thalhammer said.

“In Plain Sight” Sculpture

Philadelphia is committed to collaborate with the LGBTQ+ community and pursue dialogues about how to best show marginalised people visible support and allyship.

What emerged was a sculpture called “In Plain Sight”, a ten-foot tall sculpture that features colours from a variety of Pride flags to display the letters T and Q with a plus sign, meant to be a representation of both visibility and hospitality to those members of the community facing especially painful challenges in the current political climate.

This sculpture is an opportunity to share – really with the world – that Philadelphia is committed to LGBTQ+ equality and visibility.

Going to the Match

“Going to the Match”, painted in 1953, is probably L S Lowry’s best-known and most popular picture. Twenty five members of Out In The City visited The Lowry to enjoy the immersive experience of “Going to the Match”.

It has become an enduring representation of what match day means to fans. Typically, Lowry’s focus is not on the players or the game but on the crowds streaming towards the ground. It depicts Burnden Park, the home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club at the time.

My earliest memory is watching the 1958 FA Cup final on 3 May 1958 (I was three years old) by Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United. The match was played at Wembley Stadium, but I was sat cross legged in front of a 9-inch television in our living room, filled with guys. Bolton won 2–0, with a double by Nat Lofthouse, who scored the goals in the 3rd and 55th minutes.

In the early 1960’s my dad used to take me to Burnden Park. In the meantime my mum would visit Alma Lofthouse Hairdressers (Nat’s wife) to have her hair done.  

In 2022 a new record was set for Lowry’s original oil paintings when “Going to the Match” raised just over £7.8 million.

After eating in The Harvester we explored the Salford Quays and the historic Manchester Ship Canal on a 60-minute round trip river cruise.  

Angel has written this up, so I will hand over to Angel:

Today the “seniors” came for a boat ride on the canals of Manchester. The channels connect Manchester’s ports with Liverpool and the Irish Sea. The canal was finished at the end of the 19th century and inaugurated by Queen Victoria. It is more than 55 kilometres long. Only the Panama Canal is longer.

The railway wasn’t enough, and the canal was built to allow large-drawn boats to enter, at a time when the factories in Manchester produced almost 80% of all the cotton clothing used in the world. The canal takes advantage of the Irwell River waters and goes under numerous bridges.

We left Media City UK, towards BBC studios and other TV channels. Passed under Trafford bridge towards Manchester city centre. The walk took us to Salford, Trafford and Manchester to return to Media City in Salford.

The channel is a bit of the history of Manchester and the Industrial Revolution. Many of the canal-side neighbourhoods, now missing, housed workers living in miserable conditions. There are a few buildings left that remember the past history. However, Manchester is now a modern city, where so many skyscrapers are erected, that The Guardian newspaper called it “Manc-hattan”.

More photos can be seen here.

Queer Treasures at the Central Library – 8

‘Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey’ – (Printed in 1742 by John Applebee)

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

Applebee’s book, printed in four volumes, gathered together a range of accounts of Old Bailey trials relating to ‘Murder, Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining, Frauds, Bigamy and other Offences’, primarily from the 1720s. Of particular interest are the records it provides of 14 trials for ‘Sodomitical offences’, including a number that relate to Margaret (Mother) Clap and her Molly House.

The Suppression of Vice

In 1691 the Society for Reformation of Manners was founded in the Tower Hamlets area of London with the specific aim of ‘the suppression of profanity, immorality and other lewd activities in general, and of brothels and prostitution in particular’. Sodomites, (men who loved other men), were quickly targeted and at the instigation of some of the Society’s members many Molly Houses were raided and their clientele arrested and prosecuted – leading many of those accused to be imprisoned, pilloried and executed. Soon local groups with the zealous mission of the extirpation of Vice were established across Britain, including locally in Warrington and Wigan. These groups of ‘concerned citizens’ quickly set about collecting evidence on what they saw as the immoral activities that were flourishing in their own local areas and pressurised local magistrates to prosecute those whose ‘vices’ they did not approve of.  

For those convicted of ‘sodomitical practices’, sentences included imprisonment, fines, floggings, being placed in the pillory and execution. To secure the death penalty, the prosecuting authority had to prove that both penetration of, and ejaculation into, the body of another had occurred – which in practice was a high threshold to achieve. For example, Applebee’s book relates the case of George Duffus who was charged with ‘committing in and upon the body of Nicholas Leader, the unnatural Sin of Sodomy’ (1 105). Leader testified that he had allowed Duffus to share his bed for a night and was surprised when Duffus took hold of his penis. Endeavouring to escape this assault, he said, he turned over onto his back, whereupon Duffus ‘kept me down and thrust his Yard [penis] betwixt my Thighs, and emitted’.  Luckily for Duffus, ejaculation outside of a body did not constitute an act of sodomy which required proof of penetration. Hence, ‘The Spermatic Injection not being prov’d, the Court directed the Jury to bring in their Verdict special’ (1 107), that is, to find Duffus not guilty of sodomy. The court however felt that he ought ‘not escape the Hands of Justice intirely’ and so a Bill of Indictment against him for ‘attempting to commit Sodomy’ was brought forward, leading to his second trial where –

‘The Jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to pay a Fine of twenty Marks, to suffer two Months Imprisonment, and to stand upon the Pillory near Old Gravel-Lane’ (1 108).

Standing upon the pillory was a perilous sentence which sometimes did lead to the death of the accused, especially if the crowd hated that person and sent sufficient projectiles to cause fatal injuries.  

Then, as now, courts were not always as free from bias as they ought to be. Accused persons were often brought to trial quite quickly, with not enough time to marshal evidence of their innocence, and frequently without the funds to pay for a defence lawyer.

Blackmail a perennial Mischief

The cases also demonstrate the persistence of blackmail through the ages as would-be informants were happy to remain silent for a regular fee. In the case against Thomas Rodin for ‘attempted sodomy’, Thomas Clayton accused Rodin of being a ‘Molly and a Sodomite’ and when Rodin complained to the local magistrate about this slander, Clayton double-downed on his accusations and testified that he had seen ‘the Prisoner [Rodin] lying with [another man] in the Nature of Carnal Copulation, as a Man lies with a Woman’ (1 280). Rodin was lucky in that was able to prove his good character and was acquitted, other cases recorded in Applebee’s book, were not so fortunate.

Trial records contain lurid accounts of Molly Houses, such as that in the trial of Thomas Wright for sodomy in 1726. Thomas Newton, the alleged victim in the case, and other witnesses testified that Wright –

‘kept rooms for the Entertainment of the Molly-Culls … [where] a Company of Men … In a large room there we found one a fiddling, and eight more a dancing Country Dances, making vile Motions, and singing, Come let us —– finely. Then they sat in one another’s Lap, talked Bawdy, and practised many Indecencies. There was a Door in the great Room, which opened into a little Room, where there was a bed, and into this little Room several of the Company went; sometimes they shut the Door after them, but sometimes they left it open, and then we could see part of their Actions.’ (2 368)

Despite three witnesses testifying to his being ‘a sober Man and … a very good Churchman’ and Wright himself claiming that his accusers were liars, he was convicted and ‘hang’d at Tyburn, on Monday, May 9, 1726’ (2 369).

George Whitle – It’s not a Molly House, your honour, but a Surgery

Likewise, George Whitle was indicted for allegedly committing Sodomy with Edward Courtney. Whitle kept an alehouse and Courtney alleged it had rooms for ‘Mollies’ (gay men) and testified in court that there was also a middle room next to the kitchen, which had a bed in it –

‘… for the Use of the Company when they have a Mind to go there in Couples, and be married; and for that Reason they call that Room, The Chappel.’

Courtney added that Whitle ‘had help’d me to two or three Husbands there’.

Another witness, Drake Stoneman, testified –

‘I have seen Men in his back Room behave themselves sodomitically, by exposing to each other’s Sight, what they ought to have conceal’d. I have heard some say, Mine is best. Yours has been Battersea’d’ [*] (1 370)

A Mr Rigs also gave evidence against Whitle, who, undeterred, was able to mount a strong defence. Whitle showed that Courtney had thrice been in the local prison and so was an unreliable witness, and that the accusations of his being a Sodomite were purely spiteful. As for Drake Stoneman’s testimony regarding unnatural activities in the middle room, there was an unblameworthy reason, as Whitle explained to the court

‘I was acquainted with several young Surgeons who used to leave their Injection, and Syringes at my House, and to bring their Patients, who were clapp’d, [**] in order to examine their Distempers, and apply proper Remedies. I have them there on that Account eight or ten Times a Week.’ (1 371)

Whitle also had a number of witnesses to his good character and was acquitted by the jury.

Many of the trials recorded in the book concern Margaret (Mother) Clap and her associates and much detail is given regarding her Molly House, too much detail for this article but which has been amply provided by Rictor Norton in his book on her, Mother Clap’s Molly House.

An unsung hero – ‘I think there is no Crime in making what Use I please of my own Body.’

William Brown was the victim of an agent provocateur, Thomas Newton, aided by two constables, Willis and Stevenson. The three of them went to an alehouse in Moorfields and agreed that Newton would go to a nearby walk that was ‘frequented by Sodomites’. As Newton was loitering in the walk, Brown passed and after exchanging a few looks, he allegedly pretended he was going to urinate and took out his penis. The two started to talk about it being ‘a very fine Night’ and Newton alleged that Brown took his hand and placed his penis in it. Immediately Newton took ‘fast hold’ of the member and called the constables over to help him arrest Brown. At his trial Brown said that Newton had approached him and freely took hold of him. He didn’t resist, he said, as ‘I did it because I thought I knew him and I think there is no Crime in making what Use I please of my own Body’ (3 40).

Several witnesses ‘of both Sexes’ gave evidence on his behalf that ‘he had been married 12 or 13 Years’, moreover that he ‘bore the Character of an honest, sober Man, a kind Husband, and one who loved the Conversation of Women better than that of his own Sex’.

Unfortunately, as many gay men have found after him, courts nearly always believe police testimony, even when it was full of lies. Brown had little chance of proving his innocence and so –

‘The Jury found him guilty. His Sentence was, To stand in the Pillory in Moorfields; to pay a Fine of Ten Marks, and to suffer 12 Months Imprisonment.’ (3 40)

Sadly these historical accounts from the 1720s have had their echoes throughout the centuries that followed. In fairly recent times, we see gay people targeted by religious groups with a hate agenda, Police who act as agent provocateurs and who lie in court; spiteful accusers, blackmailers, people who want to impose a negative persona on others, people who want to tell others what they should do with their own bodies and courts that are all-too-ready to convict those from marginalised groups. Hopefully the following centuries will allow the conditions for a more positive gay history to be written, at least in Europe, if not elsewhere.

Notes

[*] Battersea’d – Battersea at this time was known for its colourful enamel metalware and the comment implies that the member observed was brightly coloured (?possibly through syphilis).

[**] ‘clapp’d’ – ie suffering from a venereal disease.

Arthur Martland © Pride Month 2025

LGBT Foundation Awards

On 4 June 2025 the LGBT Foundation Volunteer Awards were held at Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road, Manchester. Hope you enjoy this selection of photos from the evening:

Birthdays

Golden Age Big Band

Twenty of us travelled to the John Alker Club, near Flixton, for an afternoon of Golden Age Big Band music plus Bingo and Afternoon Tea.

The term “Golden Age Big Band” refers to the period in American music history, roughly from the early 1930s to the late 1940s, when big band swing music was at its most popular. This era is characterised by the rise of large ensembles, often featuring prominent bandleaders like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Duke Ellington, whose music dominated radio airwaves and dance floors.

There were 17 musicians in the band and the conductor doubled as singer. There were some standards such as Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” as well as more obscure tunes, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

More photos can be seen here.

Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake (born 21 July 1949) is a British gay rights activist. In 1982, he was told that he had just months left to live – now 76 today – he shares his groundbreaking story about his HIV diagnosis.

Jonathan Blake was just 33 years old when he became one of the first people in the UK to be diagnosed with HIV. Little did he know that after receiving what was then considered to be a “death sentence”, he would still be living a happy and healthy life at 76.

His experiences in the 1980s, along with the LGBTQ+ community which he was a part of, have since inspired both film and TV projects, including the 2014 film Pride. The film sees British actor Dominic West play Jonathan in a retelling of his work as a member of the group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.

Jonathan reflects on the moment he first received the harrowing news that he had contracted what was, in 1982, an unknown virus. He shared: “I was told I had a virus. There is no cure. You have between three and nine months to live … I was winded and just kind of numbed by it.”

He recalled the days leading up to his diagnosis and how he felt as though every single lymph node in his body had started to grow. After silently struggling with his mobility, Jonathan booked himself in with a GP. It was then that he was sent to hospital, where they did a biopsy and he was left waiting for a few long days.

He shared: “Two days later they came back, having done the biopsy, and they’d given me this news, that I had this virus, with three to nine months to live, and palliative care was available when the time comes. And then, after having been completely floored, they said that I could go home.”

“I mean, it was really frightening”, he continued. “And I just decided that what was in front of me was actually so horrendous that I was going to take my own life, but I didn’t know quite how I was going to do it”.

The tragic diagnosis sent him, at just 33, into isolation. The lack of information around HIV at the time meant he feared passing the virus on to others through the air. “I would forever go to the gay bars in the East End because I needed to be with people,” he said.

“But I would stand in the darkest corner and send out all the vibes to say ‘don’t come near me people’ because what are you going to say? I felt like a modern-day leper because I just assumed that it was airborne. You know, it was never explained that the only way you can pass it on is by blood and fluids, none of that.”

It was when he was at his very rock bottom that Jonathan found hope in a group of like-minded people where “everyone was welcome”. With an interest in activism and politics he spotted a tiny advert in a magazine called Capital Gay in 1983 calling on people to join the Gays For a Nuclear-Free Future in a CND campaign.

He said: “I just thought, this is going to be my re-entry into society. I’m going to join that because what the little advert said was ‘everybody welcome’, and I just thought, ‘well, that includes me’.”

This small decision changed the trajectory of Jonathan’s life as it was here that he met late partner Nigel Young. Not only that but his work with LGSM created a legacy away from his diagnosis, for his work helping under-represented groups, which in this case was a Welsh mining town.

Written by Stephen Beresford and directed by Matthew Warchus, the film Pride features a character based on Jonathan, played by Dominic West. The creation of the project helped him to reconnect with old friends and relive those spectacular years of activism while he was secretly fighting for his life.

He recalls meeting the actor who would play him in the movie. It was the day before that he got the call asking him to meet the mystery actor and classic Jonathan, welcoming everyone he comes into contact with, thought “it’s just enough time to make a lemon drizzle cake.”

Jonathan said: “So the next day arrives, the doorbell goes, I open the door, and this man thrusts out his hand and introduces himself as Matthew Weiler, the director. And over his shoulder I see McNulty from The Wire. And at that point I realised that it was Dom West. I was aware of him because I’ve watched The Wire and loved it.”

Growing up in Birmingham before making the move to London later in his life, Jonathan knew from an early age he was gay. “I already knew that I was attracted to men,” he explained. “And I had already sussed out that that wasn’t acceptable.

“You know, this wasn’t something that you could just rush home and shout about as such. At an early age if I couldn’t be found the headteacher would say ‘if you go and look where Bert is, you’ll find John’. He was the caretaker and I just followed him around. You know, pheromones, infatuation, what have you.”

The stigma that came along with HIV in the 1980s was something that didn’t help the problems he already faced as a homosexual man. During the first appearance of the virus, there was a widespread misconception that HIV and AIDS were solely diseases that affected gay men and it was this that fuelled fear and discrimination that still lives on to this day.

“People sort of carried this blame,” Jonathan said. “They were blamed for their own illness. You’ve decided to explore this thing. You’ve decided to go out and have sex. You’ve done this to yourself. And the chief constable of Manchester, James Anderton, talked about gay men who were ‘swirling in a human cesspit of their own making’.

“And what is really interesting is the way that suddenly there’s been this huge focus on trans people. And the way that people talk about and dismiss the trans community is exactly the same language that was being used to attack gay men in the 60s and 70s. It’s almost word for word.”

It wasn’t until 10 years ago that Jonathan finally started to feel a sense of freedom, at 65. He said: “What was amazing was the turning point for me was 2015, because in 2015 they announced that on effective medication, you cannot pass the virus.” It was a powerful sentence to hear after years of questioning his own health and that of others.

“And with it came the phrase, U = U. Undetectable equals untransmittable. And psychologically it was incredible.”

Back in the 1980s, however, Jonathan famously refused to take part in the drug trials for HIV. He said: “I was asked if I would be a part of a trial called the Convoy Trial. And they were basically trialling the very first drug that was used around HIV, which was called AZT. What nobody ever told us was that AZT was a failed chemotherapy drug.

“And so it would leave you open to opportunistic infections. That is exactly how the HIV virus works. I think one of the reasons that I’m here today is that I never touched AZT because all the people who touched AZT, if they didn’t withdraw from that trial because they were so nauseous, basically died.”

Thinking back to how far we’d come since the early days of this initially unknown virus, Jonathan recalled a time where two communities were forced to join together. He said: “What was really fascinating was that in the late 80s, there was suddenly this influx of Black African women who came to drop-in centres.

“And it was really extraordinary because they were having to deal with the fact that they were mainly surrounded by white gay men. And mainly they came from Christian communities, where homosexuality was just forbidden. So suddenly they’re having to deal with the fact that they’ve got this disease which basically ‘homosexuals have’. And that, to me, is what stigma is all about.”

Now he believes the way forward is through “raising awareness and sharing information”. He said: “I think the difficulty is that there are still parts of the population that still believe that it can’t affect them. And what is amazing now is that we have this arsenal of medication.”

The Terrence Higgins Trust works to support those with HIV, providing helpful resources and information for those interested in learning more about the virus or who are living with it themselves. The charity’s mission is to end any new cases of HIV by 2030 and with the help of people like Jonathan Blake sharing their incredible stories, there’s hope that this could be a reality.

Living with HIV has opened up so many doors for Jonathan in a world that once felt so isolating to him. Alongside his part in Pride, he has been able to share insight for other documentary films, theatre performances, and written works, as well as attending talks. With endless amounts of stories to share, he is always keen to embrace, educate and connect with people through the virus that he was once told would be the end of it all.

Aleshia Brevard

Aleshia Brevard was a pioneer transgender woman and has been described as ‘one of the early medical transitions’ in America. She transitioned not only before there was a trans community in San Francisco, but before the word ‘transgender’ had even been coined.

Aleshia underwent gender-affirming surgery in Los Angeles in 1962, which was one of the first such operations in the USA. 

Brevard eventually wrote two biographies, the first one entitled ‘The Woman I was not born to be: A Transsexual Journey’.

Aleshia was born in 1937 and was brought up on a tobacco and cattle farm in Central Tennessee. Most of her early summers were spent hauling hay.

Aleshia was conscious of her desire to live as a woman and identified from an early age as a girl. However, she kept this inner gender identity to herself. Nevertheless, friends around her were able to sense this identity. She was described as “effeminate and artistic”. In fact, she was often mistaken for a girl, which made her teenage years awkward.

At the age of 15, having spent her youth dreaming of glamorous film stars and having left school, she took the Greyhound bus to California. Aleshia had been inspired by the iconic Christine Jorgensen, a pioneer transgender woman who made history after her gender-affirming surgery, becoming Christine and returning to the USA.

Aleshia began her transition in the late 1950s. She was one of the first transgender women working as a ‘female impersonator’ to take female hormones to aid her transitioning. She said, “Within a year of that life changing surgery I was balancing a showgirl’s headdress at the Dunes Hotel”. However, Aleshia’s dream was to be more than just a showgirl, but a Hollywood Star.

Aleshia was a multi-talented woman and worked throughout her career in many different roles: from model, entertainer/performer, showgirl, playboy bunny girl, director, professor of theatre and eventually with the publication of her memoirs, an author. She started her career as a female impersonator, as a Marilyn Monroe persona, at Finocchio’s in San Francisco in the early 1960s. From this point in her life, Aleshia travelled between Appalachia, the Eastern US and California. Having studied art at Tennessee State University, eventually attended Middle Tennessee State University, graduating with a degree in theatre.

Later, Aleshia reflecting on her transition, stated: “I did not go through gender reassignment to be labelled as transexual. I look at that as an awkward phase that I went through, sort of like a really, painful adolescence.” 

After her life changing procedure, she sought the help of her family in Hartsville to recover from her surgery. Fortunately, her family were loving and supportive of her transition. However, when an opportunity to go to California with a friend came her way, she took it.

Aleshia’s regular performance as a Monroe impersonator won such renown that Marilyn Monroe herself went to the San Francisco nightclub, which was famous for it’s drag female impersonators, to see Brevard’s performance. As the act came to an end and the lights went up, Aleshia realised that Monroe was in the audience, having been discovered Monroe blew her a kiss. Monroe later recounted in her diary that seeing Aleshia’s act was like seeing herself in a film.

When Aleshia returned to Middle Tennessee State University, after retiring as a performer, she studied and earned a master’s degree in Theatre Arts. She was then able to work as a drama teacher. Aleshia also married for the first time whilst in Tennessee, eventually she married four times. In the late 1990s Aleshia returned to California and settled outside of Santa Cruz with a friend, she also worked as a substitute teacher in community theatre.

Aleshia died at the age of 79 on 1 July 2017, at her home in Scotts Valley California.

Salford Museum & Art Gallery

This week we viewed the Colour exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery.

Throughout history colours have been connected to human emotions and behaviours. The meaning and influence of certain colours might have individual and cultural significance, but the acceptance that colour can have an effect is universal. It is believed that surrounding yourself with the right colours can improve your wellbeing and colour is used by designers and artists to influence behaviour or mood.

Red

Ochre, a natural clay earth pigment, was one of the first colours used in prehistoric art due to it being readily available. In Central and South America, the Aztecs ground down cochineal insects to make red pigment. They gathered the bugs from the prickly pear cactus. The bugs were so small 70,000 of them were needed to make 1lb of dye!

Orange

Spanish and Portuguese merchants brought orange trees to Europe from Asia in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and the name of the fruit was adopted for the colour. Before this it was called saffron or yellow red.

Yellow

Yellow is a sacred colour in many religions derived from worshipping the sun, with sun gods often depicted wearing yellow.

Green

Green is the colour of chlorophyll, a pigment found in plants, so it is often associated with freshness and renewal. The word green comes from the Latin viridis, which means growth and life. It’s been used in art since the Egyptians who used the mineral malachite and green earth to make the pigment.

Blue

Blue was a common colour in Ancient Egyptian clothing and language. They produced the first blue pigment using minerals, limestone, copper and sand. They also valued blue semi-precious stones like lapis lazuli.

Purple

Purple signifies power and wealth. This may be because it is a very expensive dye to create and in the past ordinary people were forbidden to wear it.

Black

Black and white are not classed as colours in one sense, they are an expression of light. Black is the absence of light and absorbs all wavelengths, whereas white reflects all wavelengths of light equally. Black has associations with death and evil.

White

In the Western world the colour white can be seen as a positive clean colour, with a religious and pure quality. But in many Asian countries, white can be the colour of death and mourning.

More photos can be seen here.

The evolution of the Pride flag – where it came from and what it looks like today

With June marking Pride Month globally, the UK has events and marches occurring across the length and breadth of the country all month long (and beyond).

Pride Month honours the legacy of the Stonewall uprising while also shining a light on the ongoing activism and achievements of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) community.

Evoking a sense of belonging, representation and community, the Pride flag is a symbol of unity and empowerment.

But what exactly are the origins of this world-renowned flag? Here’s a brief breakdown of the history of the Pride flag and its evolution over the decades.

Pride flag: A brief history

The 8-stripe flag was first designed by an activist from San Francisco called Gilbert Baker, whose aim was to represent the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community through the flag. Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, commissioned Gilbert to create a visual of pride for the gay community. With flags often being recognised as key pillars of self-identity, Gilbert’s design was then printed onto a flag.

The first iteration of the Pride flag was revealed during the Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco in 1978. Due to colour shortages however, the turquoise and pink stripes had to be removed from the flag, and the blue stripe was changed to a different shade. This is the version of the Pride flag which is world-renowned and has since served as an iconic representation and symbol of unity, freedom and equality for the community.

The Gilbert Baker Design

Inspired by the lyrics of Judy Garland’s Over the Rainbow and the visual language of other civil rights movements from the 1960s by black civil rights groups, Gilbert Baker designed the Rainbow Flag. Hand-dyed and hand-sewn by him, the flag was first flown at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day in June 1978

Each coloured stripe of Gilbert’s flag represents a different aspect of the LGBTQIA+ community, namely: Hot Pink for Sex, Red for Life, Orange for Healing, Yellow for Sunlight, Green for Nature and Serenity, Turquoise for Art, Indigo for Harmony and Violet for Spirit.

Pride Flag History from 1978 to 1999

After Harvey Milk’s assassination in 1978, several individuals and organisations chose to adopt the Pride flag introduced to the community upon his insistence. The flag was flown across San Francisco and was ordered for mass production by Gilbert, the original designer of the flag, with the help of local business Paramount Flag Co, in an effort to commemorate Harvey’s accomplishments and continue the community’s fight for equality and diversity.

Demand for the rainbow-striped flag rose so high, it became impossible for the 8-stripe design to be produced in such large quantities. Gilbert and Paramount both struggled with sourcing the hot pink fabric and so a 7-stripe version of the flag was borne and manufactured.

The Traditional Gay Pride Flag

1979 once again saw the Pride flag’s design amended – this time to a six-stripe version – after several complications arose over the odd number of stripes featured on the flag, as well as the conundrum of people wanting to split the flag in order to decorate Pride parades.

The indigo and turquoise stripes of the flag were combined to create a vivid royal blue stripe instead, and it was agreed that the flag would typically be flown horizontally, with the red stripe at the top, forming a natural rainbow. Finally landing upon a six colour version, this is the iteration of the flag the world is most familiar with.

This version of the Pride flag’s design became extremely popular globally, making it the focal point of landmark decisions like John Stout fighting for his right to fly the Pride flag from his apartment’s balcony in 1989.

The 2017 Philadelphia Design

In 2017, the city of Philadelphia recognised that people of colour often face discrimination within the LGBTQIA+ community itself, and thus added an additional 2 stripes – black and brown – to the Pride flag, in an effort to represent the regular prejudices and struggles faced by queer people of colour.

While some organisations and activists criticised the new design citing unnecessary division and boundary creation within the community, Pride festivals world-over, including in Manchester, decided to adopt the design in a bid to promote inclusion, especially within the community.

This came especially after a 2018 study’s finding showed that 51 per cent of black LGBTQIA+ individuals have faced racism within the queer community.

The Progress Pride Flag

June 2018 saw Daniel Quasar, an activist and designer, release another version of the Pride flag, which combined the new elements of the Philadelphia design with the Transgender flag in an effort to promote further progress and inclusion.

This new iteration of the flag saw a chevron added to the hoist of the traditional 6-stripe flag. The chevron represented those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost, trans and non-binary persons, as well as marginalised LGBTQIA+ communities of colour.

The new design went viral and was fervently adopted by pride parades and people all over the globe. The chevron’s arrow purposefully points to the right in a means to represent forward movement and progress.

Intersex Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

In 2021, the Pride flag was once again reinvented, with Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK adapting the previous Pride Progress flag to now incorporate the intersex flag as well, thus creating the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag of 2021.

Purple and yellow are colours used by the intersex community as an intentional counterpoint against the gender defining blue and pink that have traditionally been used for years around the world. The circle further represents the idea of being whole and unbroken, denoting the right of Intersex people to make independent decisions with regards to their own bodies.

Birthdays

Ten Buildings with an LGBT+ Past

There are many untold LGBT+ histories of buildings and places that people have lived alongside for generations.

From the private houses of trailblazing individuals to the much loved local gay bar, the first venue in town to host equal marriage and everything in between. Here, are ten places:

1. Shibden Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire

Shibden Hall in Yorkshire was once home to the famed lesbian diarist Anne Lister, born in 1791. Her masculine appearance and sometimes eccentric behaviour earned her the nickname of “Gentleman Jack.”

Anne kept a diary throughout her life where she devised a code to record her innermost thoughts without fear of discovery, including her intimate feelings towards women.

2. Millthorpe, Derbyshire

Edward Carpenter was the founding father of gay rights in Britain, living openly with his partner George Merrill at a time when hundreds of men were prosecuted for homosexuality.

Millthorpe was a place of pilgrimage for many, including the writers E M Forster and Siegfried Sassoon, and other less well-known women and men questioning their sexuality, including soldiers during the First World War.

3. Smallhythe Place, Tenterden, Kent

Smallhythe Place was bought by the renowned Victorian actress Ellen Terry. After her death, her daughter Edy Craig, an early pioneer of the women’s suffrage movement and theatre director, continued to live there.

Craig lived at Smallhythe in a ménage à trois with the dramatist Chris St John (Christabel Marshall) and the artist Tony (Clare) Atwood until her death in 1947.

4. Reading Gaol, Berkshire

Reading Gaol is where the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde spent eighteen months of his two-year sentence of hard labour for ‘gross indecency’.

Wilde later immortalised the institution, and his experiences, in his poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” (1897).

In 2017 Wilde, along with tens of thousands of other men, was posthumously pardoned for acts no longer considered a crime, under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (also known as Alan Turing law).

5. Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London

Completed in 1776, Strawberry Hill was extensively remodelled by its most famous owner, writer Horace Walpole.

Walpole was one a group of four male friends who called themselves the ‘Committee of Taste’ and advised each other on architecture and interiors. There is no evidence Walpole had any sexual relationships with men, but he had a number of close friendships with other bachelors. He was described as an effeminate man by contemporaries and the decorative style of Strawberry Hill is often described as ‘queer gothic’.

On his death in 1797, Walpole left Strawberry Hill House to his niece, the lesbian sculptor Anne Damer, who lived there until 1811.

6. Carlton House, St James’, London

Although demolished in 1825, Carlton House is best known as the London residence of the Prince Regent (later George IV) and location of a noted fencing match in 1787 between the gender-crossing Chevalier d’Eon and the Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Having lost a French pension with the onset of the French Revolution, d’Eon’s prowess at fencing and appearance in women’s clothing proved a lucrative spectacle at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and other locations across the country.

7. Temperance Hall, Hulme, Manchester

The Temperance Hall in Manchester was the site of an infamous cross-dressing ball in 1880, raided by police.

Police secured entry by giving the password ‘sister’ to the ‘nun’ guarding the door. Detective Sergeant Caminada reported seeing 47 men in ‘most fantastic fashion’, including 22 in ladies’ wear. Detective Caminada and his officers rounded up the men and took them to Manchester Town Hall for questioning. Several cab-loads of clothing were taken as evidence.

All were arrested and charged the following day with having ‘solicited and incited each other to commit an unnameable offence’.

8. The Gateways, Chelsea, London

Opened in the 1930s by a retired colonel, the Gateways club was the longest-running lesbian nightclub of the 20th century.

Lesbian-friendly since the 1940s, in the 1950s and 1960s the Gateways became an almost exclusively lesbian club, under the management of Gina Ware, and an American ex-airforce woman, Smithy, who was herself a lesbian.

The club became internationally famous and celebrated after it featured in the film “The Killing of Sister George in 1968 – the extras in the club scenes were genuine Gateways members. It closed in 1985.

9. The Jacaranda Ladies Club, Hove, East Sussex

The Jacaranda Ladies Club was set up in the early 1960s by Kay Morley.

According to an entry in ‘Daring Hearts: Lesbian and Gay Lives of 1950s and 1960s Brighton’ the club was shut down soon after a police raid. Today, very little is known about the club.

10. Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Bedford

In 2013 Alan Turing was granted a posthumous pardon and Gordon Brown, who was Prime Minister at the time, gave an official apology for the “appalling way” he was treated.

During the Second World War, Alan Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s code-breaking centre. Turing was instrumental in cracking intercepted coded messages that helped the Allies to defeat the Nazis.

In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts. Rather than serving a prison sentence, he was chemically castrated, and just two years later died of cyanide poisoning, suspected to be suicide.

Daddy’s First Gay Date

The Robert Bolt Theatre, 1 Waterside Plaza, Sale, Trafford M33 7ZF

Thursday, 17 July – Friday 18 July, 8.00pm

Is it selfish to leave someone you love in order to find yourself? An uncomfortable restaurant break-up becomes a pressure-cooker first date in this new comedy by Sam Danson, directed by the award-winning Rikki Beadle-Blair.

Ben’s hoping his first date with a man can provide him with some much-needed answers, but is he expecting too much?

Set in their local pub – The Halfway House – a place full of memories; birthdays, christenings, funerals, and now this first date. All the regulars are in, watching as Ben desperately tries not to crumble under the weight of his new life.

The show candidly explores identity and self-acceptance, whilst stewing in the awkwardness of ‘first dates’.

Buy tickets here. Price £16 Standard / £14 Concession

Rainbow Lottery

With summer in full swing, we’re thrilled to bring back an old favourite for our July Super Draw: an amazing £1,000 Sainsbury’s eGift Card!

On Saturday 26 July, one lucky supporter will win this fantastic summer prize (or of course, £1,000 cash alternative prize, as well as our all-new, all-green option – planting 1,000 trees!)   For existing ticket holders there’s no need to buy separate tickets, you will be automatically entered into this prize draw. Of course, you are welcome to buy additional tickets. Every ticket you buy is an extra chance to win, and an extra fundraising boost for Out In The City. All this for just £1 a week. Thank you and good luck! Buy tickets here.

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