From 1 July 2021 unless you opt out you will no longer control your NHS records and you only have until 23 June 2021 to opt out. This is the biggest data grab in the history of the health service. (Since writing the article, the deadline has been changed to 1 September 2021).

Health data is both hugely sensitive and immensely valuable.

The UK’s NHS data alone has been valued at £10 billion, and our GP data is the most detailed, valuable and sensitive of all.

The government wants to extract the general practice history of every patient in England by 1 July. Haven’t you heard? Ministers are not exactly shouting about this momentous news. NHS Digital, the body proposing the new scheme, has described it as a way to “improve” the collection of patient information that would allow better planning of healthcare services and use of data in medical research.

The records being stored contain the most private details of a person’s life. The proposals suggest mass collection of every English patient’s history, including mental health episodes, their smoking and drinking habits, and diagnoses of diseases such as cancer. But it will also include dated instances of domestic violence, abortions, sexual histories and criminal offences. Given the proposed scope of such a database, it is reasonable to ask who will be given this data, and for what purpose.

While medical bodies have been consulted, they have hardly given the plans a ringing endorsement. GPs may be reluctant, as they will be accountable for the data transfer. The audit trails of much less detailed hospital data which has been transferred to the private sector hardly inspires confidence in this government’s willingness to hold to account institutions that ignore safeguards. Campaigners point to shocking failures to enforce patient privacy, with little comeback for transgressors.

England’s 55 million patients have until 23 June to opt out of the scheme, but without a debate about the pros and cons, the public will have good reason to be wary. A perceived lack of transparency risks losing the trust of the public at a time when the health service needs to preserve it.

This scheme is not to do with the pandemic. “Control of patient information” notices currently allow for access, and data-wrangling rights, to health records in connection with fighting Covid-19. Allowing access to NHS data has led to some groundbreaking research, notably helping to identify dexamethasone as an effective Covid therapy. However, this experience was born of acute need. The return of normal life is not an excuse to suspend the safeguards that protect patient privacy or allow third parties access to GP records, which cannot be rendered anonymous even by scrubbing some personal information.

How to opt out

None of the choices below will affect your medical care, or the data that is available for your care. 

If you live in England and want to stop your GP data leaving your GP practice for purposes other than your direct care, you can do so by filling in and giving or posting the form in step 1 to your GP:

1) Protect your GP data: fill in and give this ‘Type 1’ form to your GP practice – this form allows you to include details for your children and dependants as well. This is the most urgent step; the deadline to get your form to your GP practice is 23 June 2021, according to NHS Digital.

2) If you want to stop your non-GP data, such as hospital or clinic treatments, being used or sold for purposes other than your direct care (eg for “research and planning“) you must use this process:

If it’s just for yourself, use NHS Digital’s online National Data Opt-out process – this process only works for individuals aged 13 and over.

If you have an adult dependant for whom you have legal responsibility, you must use this form and send it back to NHS Digital on their behalf.

There is no deadline for step 2, the National Data Opt-out (ie your non-GP data), but the sooner you do it, the sooner it takes effect.  If you don’t have access to a working printer, you can ask the NHS Digital Contact Centre to post you the forms you need. Their phone number is 0300 303 5678 and they are open Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm (excluding bank holidays).

Philadelphia’s Heritage of LGBT+ Activism

Philadelphia’s history of protest and activism is exceptional. From American colonists declaring independence from Great Britain, to abolitionists fighting against slavery, to women’s suffragists demanding voting rights, to civil rights activists calling for equality, the city has a deep history of social and political conflict and engagement.

The Philadelphia LGBT+ Heritage Initiative are recording this rich tradition of protest and action including:

Reminder Days
These were held annually at Independence Hall on 4 July from 1965 to 1969. Protesters gathered in front of Independence Hall to demand the public take notice of the discrimination that gay and lesbian American citizens endured – that not all Americans enjoyed the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

These protests were organised by an alliance of homophile organisations, including the New York City and Washington DC Mattachine Societies, the Janus Society of Philadelphia, and New York City’s Daughters of Bilitis. As a collective, they were known as the East Coast Homophile Organisations (ECHO).

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Organisers insisted on a strict dress code for participants, including jackets and ties for men and dresses for women; the goal was to present gays and lesbians as both “presentable” and “employable.” Veteran activists at the first Annual Reminder included Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, and Kay Tobin.

The Annual Reminders helped move gay and lesbian civil rights into the public consciousness and helped provide structure and organisation for the ongoing LGBT+ Civil Rights movement. After the Stonewall Uprising in June of 1969, the organisers of the Annual Reminders discontinued the annual pickets. Instead, they focused their attention to the Christopher Street Liberation Day held on 28 June 1970 to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Since then, June is traditionally the month of LGBT+ Pride celebrations.

The Pursuit is a reflection on the fight for LGBT rights, more than 50 years since protesters gathered in front of Independence Hall and called for an end to discrimination against homosexuals. Contrasting stories from LGBT experiences, past and present, a complex and vibrant picture emerges that demonstrates both how far the community has come and how far there is left to go.

Watch video (57 mins)

How Gay Culture Blossomed During the Roaring Twenties

During Prohibition, gay nightlife and culture reached new heights -at least temporarily.

On a Friday night in February 1926, a crowd of some 1,500 packed the Renaissance Casino in New York’s Harlem neighbourhood for the 58th masquerade and civil ball of Hamilton Lodge.

Nearly half of those attending appeared to be “men of the class generally known as ‘fairies’ and many Bohemians from the Greenwich Village section who … in their gorgeous evening gowns, wigs and powdered faces were hard to distinguish from many of the women.”

The tradition of masquerade and civil balls, more commonly known as drag balls, had begun back in 1869 within Hamilton Lodge, a black fraternal organisation in Harlem. By the mid-1920s, at the height of the Prohibition era, they were attracting as many as 7,000 people of various races and social classes – gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight alike.

Stonewall (1969) is often considered the beginning of forward progress in the gay rights movement. But more than 50 years earlier, Harlem’s famous drag balls were part of a flourishing, highly visible LGBT+ nightlife and culture that would be integrated into mainstream American life in a way that became unthinkable in later decades.

The Beginnings of a New Gay World

“In the late 19th century, there was an increasingly visible presence of gender-non-conforming men who were engaged in sexual relationships with other men in major American cities,” says Chad Heap, a professor of American Studies at George Washington University and the author of Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940.

In addition to these groups, whom social reformers in the early 1900s would call “male sex perverts,” a number of nightclubs and theatres were featuring stage performances by female impersonators; these spots were mainly located in the Levee District on Chicago’s South Side, the Bowery in New York City and other largely working-class neighbourhoods in American cities.

By the 1920s, gay men had established a presence in Harlem and the bohemian mecca of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Times Square), and the city’s first lesbian enclaves had appeared in Harlem and the Village. Each gay enclave, wrote George Chauncey in his book Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputation.

Gay Life in the Jazz Age

As the United States entered an era of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the years after World War I, cultural mores loosened and a new spirit of sexual freedom reigned. The flapper, with her short hair, figure-skimming dresses and ever-present cigarette and cocktail, would become the most recognisable symbol of the Roaring Twenties, her fame spreading via the new mass media born during that decade. But the ’20s also saw the flourishing of LGBT+ nightlife and culture that reached beyond the cities, across the country, and into ordinary American homes.

Though New York City may have been the epicentre of the so-called “Pansy Craze,” gay, lesbian and transgender performers graced the stages of nightspots in cities all over the country. Their audiences included many straight men and women eager to experience the culture themselves (and enjoy a good party) as well as ordinary LGBT+ Americans seeking to expand their social networks or find romantic or sexual partners.

“It gave them many more possible places they could go to meet other people like themselves,” Heap says of the Pansy Craze and accompanying lesbian or Sapphic craze, of the ’20s and early to mid-’30s. “At its height, when many ordinary heterosexual men and women were going to venues that featured queer entertainment, it probably also provided useful cover for queer men and women to go to the same venues.”

At the same time, lesbian and gay characters were being featured in a slew of popular “pulp” novels, in songs and on Broadway stages (including the controversial 1926 play The Captive) and in Hollywood—at least prior to 1934, when the motion picture industry began enforcing censorship guidelines, known as the Hays Code. Heap cites Clara Bow’s 1932 film Call Her Savage, in which a short scene features a pair of “campy male entertainers” in a Greenwich Village-like nightspot. On the radio, songs including “Masculine Women, Feminine Men” and “Let’s All Be Fairies” were popular.

The fame of LGBT+ nightlife and culture during this period was certainly not limited to urban populations. Stories about drag balls or other performances were sometimes picked up by wire services, or even broadcast over local radio. “You can find them in certain newspaper coverage in unexpected places,” Heap says.

“Pansy Craze” Comes to an End

With the end of Prohibition, the onset of the Depression and the coming of World War II, LGBT+ culture and community began to fall out of favour. As Chauncey writes, a backlash began in the 1930s, as “part of a wider Depression-era condemnation of the cultural experimentation of the ’20s, which many blamed for the economic collapse.”

The sale of liquor was legal again, but newly enforced laws and regulations prohibited restaurants and bars from hiring gay employees or even serving gay patrons. In the mid- to late ’30s, Heap points out, a wave of sensationalised sex crimes “provoked hysteria about sex criminals, who were often – in the mind of the public and in the mind of authorities – equated with gay men.” 

This not only discouraged gay men from participating in public life, but also “made homosexuality seem more dangerous to the average American.”

By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban living, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexuality crusades championed by Joseph McCarthy would help push the flowering of gay culture represented by the Pansy Craze firmly into the nation’s rear-view mirror.  Drag balls, and the spirit of freedom and exuberance they represented, never went away entirely – but it would be decades before LGBT+ life would flourish so publicly again.

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The Captive by Edouard Bourdet (1926)

The following review from The New York Times presents a picture of a play premiered on Broadway in 1926, which simultaneously garnered acclaim and controversy. Some of the details are certainly not politically correct for the modern audience. Today, we would not think of the relationship between the women as “twisted,” “revolting” or “loathsome.”

“The Captive” played to packed houses for 17 weeks before police shut it down. It was closed after its cast (including Basil Rathbone) were arrested by New York City police for being immoral. Years later, Rathbone was still angered by the play’s closing, referring to it in his autobiography as a “cold-blooded unscrupulous sabotage of an important contemporary work of art”.

The play was also banned in London, but enjoyed successful runs in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, Holland and Switzerland.

Review in The New York Times, 30 September 1926

“Expertly written and admirably played, M. Bourdet’s tragedy, “The Captive,” put on at the Empire last evening, may be set down as a genuine achievement in dramatic producing – a long, engrossing, haunting play. Most of the theatrical news from Europe for several months has hung about this drama, known in Paris as “La Prisonniere.” Vastly popular, sensational in its theme, and recriminations. But whatever emotions the Parisian performance may be conveying, Mr Hornblow’s adaptation, staged perfectly by Mr Miller, emerges as a hard, brittle chronicle, horrible in its implications, terrible to contemplate at times, but sincere and cleanly finished. Seldom has a play been so intelligently cast; nor do we often see a performance so thoroughly disciplined in every detail. For the American version of “La Prisonniere,” does not truckle no smirk. It tells its unpleasant story in a straightforward manner, without evasion or sordid emphasis. And the splendid spirit of the production may protect it from being misunderstood.

Like a practiced dramatist, schooled in the familiar models of playwriting, M. Bourdet casts his play in the “well made” mold familiar to theatre-goers everywhere. Given a theme and the characters to unfold it, he writes a compact drama with a beginning, a climax and a firm conclusion. And writing for the stage, he occasionally tells his story most pungently by use of the symbol of the stage – a bunch of flowers, a closing door offstage, or a trivial command to a servant which conveys prodigious information. As most theatre enthusiasts know by this time, “The Captive” writes the tragedy of a young woman, well-bred and of good family, who falls into a twisted relationship with another woman. For nearly half the play this loathsome possibility, never mentioned, scarcely hinted at, hangs over the drama like a black pall, a prescience of impending doom. A member of the Foreign Office, ordered to Rome, cannot understand why his eldest daughter refuses to accompany him. Thoroughly distraught, she puts him off with an evasion. Her old friend, Jacques Vierieu, she pleads, is in love with her, and may propose to her if properly manoeuvred. When her father departs Irene summons Jacques and tries to persuade him to play the part of fiancé, a part agreeable to him, but not on these false terms. For Irene refuses to confide in him, nor in anyone else, the full truth of her frightful misery.

During the remaining two acts M. Bourdet directs his story expertly at high speed, facing the issue boldly and sounding the note of doom with increasing frequency. Fully conscious of his responsibilities, Jacques marries Irene immediately to save her from herself and to release her from the tyranny of her warped infatuation. For a year spent in travel they get on amicably and return to Paris where they set up their home. But Irene does not escape for long; nor does Jacques. In self-defence he resumes a liaison with his former sweetheart. And just before the final curtain Irene succumbs. The sound of a closing door offstage completes this sombre story.

Relentless in his presentation of this theme, M. Bourdet occasionally sets it off against the simple innocence of a little sister or the refreshing normality of Jacques and the charming Francoise Meillant. Without this illuminating relief “The Captive” might degenerate into commercial exploitation of a revolting theme. But again, the brilliant acting in every role redeems it from mere excitation. In the minor roles Miss Trevor and Miss Andrews pour tenderness and softness into the performance. Mr Trevor, as the father, expertly sets the serious tone of the play in the early scenes. But the brunt of the performance falls upon Miss Menken as the wretched girl, Mr Rathbone as Jacques and Mr Wontner as a friend of both. Mr Wontner’s appearance is a brief one, but his function in the drama is highly responsible. His crisp performance last evening was appreciatively applauded. And Mr Rathbone acts with rare dignity and understanding; without a single histrionic flourish, his Jacques Virieu indicates profound emotion and the torture of conflicting emotions.

Well liked though Miss Menken may be, little in her past stage experience had prepared the audience for her stirring performance as the miserable young lady. She communicates the full tragic quality of her part, not only in its relation to the play but also in its relation to life itself. And for the few moments in which this girl believes herself released from an inane captivity, Miss Menken makes the contrast an indescribably tranquil interlude. She was enthusiastically applauded after very act. And once Mr Miller acknowledged the applause with his principle actors. For whatever the theme may be, “The Captive” is to be enjoyed as an expert dramatic production.”

WorkPride: Global 5-Day Virtual Pride Conference – 14 to 18 June 2021

This 5-day series of events is free for professionals, graduates, inclusive employers and anyone who believes in workplace equality.

Each year, WorkPride welcomes thousands of virtual attendees from around the globe to network, share best practices, and learn strategies to help create workspaces that are inclusive of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions.

Last year Workpride attracted 18,000 delegates over 5 days and they are looking to replicate its success this year. See the programme here.

There are 50 sessions over five days including “Ageing with Grace and Dignity – a closer look at the older LGBTQ+ Population and their needs” on Wednesday, 16 June from 6.30pm – 7.30pm.

Number of over-65s identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual rises for first time

The figures are based on data from the Annual Population Survey, which gathers information exclusively on sexual orientation.

A new question on gender identification was added to the 2021 census, with results from this expected to follow in 2022.

The number of people aged 65-years-old and over who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual in England and Scotland has increased for the first time, according to new figures.

Data shared by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that the number of people identifying as either lesbian, gay or bisexual has risen from 0.7 per cent in 2018 to one per cent in 2019.

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Despite the increase, the largest number of people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual remains concentrated in the lower age brackets, with the youngest age group accounting for one third of all lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the UK.

The new analysis reveals that one in 15 people aged between 16 and 24 years old (6.6 per cent) identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual – an increase of 2.2 per cent since 2018.

These figures reflect a wider trend across the UK population, with an estimated 2.7 per cent of people aged 16 and above identifying as either lesbian, gay or bisexual in 2019, up from 2.2 per cent in 2018.

According to the ONS, this may be because “younger people could be more likely to explore their sexuality, combined with more social acceptability of different sexual identities and the expression of these today.”

Among English regions, people in London were most likely to identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, with 3.8 per cent of those in the capital placing themselves in this category.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the East of England is home to the lowest number of people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual at just 2.1 per cent.

Penelope McClure, statistician at the ONS, described the increase in younger people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual as “statistically significant”.

She said: “An estimated 1.4 million people aged 16 and over in the UK identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2019 – a statistically significant increase from 1.2 million in 2018 – continuing the trend we have seen over recent years. People aged 16 to 24 continue to be the most likely to identify as LGB, however, the proportion of older adults identifying as LGB, while much smaller, is also increasing.”

Paul Sinha-ha-ha

Standup comedy night Laugh Riot made an appearance at the Waterside Arts Centre on 21 May as part of the week-long Pride in Trafford festival which explores and celebrates identity and LGBT+ life locally and beyond.

Comedian Paul Sinha was born in the UK to Bengali parents. Whilst studying medicine in the 1990s, Paul took his first steps on the stand-up comedy circuit.

He pursued both careers and at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he earned a nomination for the highest accolade in live comedy, the Edinburgh Comedy Award.

Shortly after his nomination, Paul became a full-time comedian.

He is a familiar voice on radio and television including programmes such as QI and Would I Lie to You? and was a competitor on Taskmaster.

Paul is also one of the UK’s finest quizzers and this has led to another concurrent career as a general knowledge expert on the award-winning ITV quiz show, The Chase.

Paul is currently the fourth-best quizzer in the UK and his husband, Oliver, is the eleventh. Out of all the chasers, he has the worst nickname – the Sinha-man – but he is definitely the best at reciting the periodic table whilst hula-hooping!

The review

This was my first night out in over a year – the event was live but there was also an at-home live stream recording.

There were robust measures in place to reassure people regarding Covid safety, including mandatory use of face masks (unless exempt), staggered arrival times, a one-way system, and reduced audience capacity.

The MC was Kerry Leigh and she introduced the best in alternative comedy – Josh Jones (one to watch out for), Jessica Fostekew, and Paul.

It was also the first night out for the performers for over a year and there were some nerves. Most of the performers had notes written on the backs of their hands. It was a fun night of LGBT+ humour, but it was also just great to be out and about and was an all-around fantastic experience!

Manchester Pride volunteers wanted

Manchester Pride are excited to announce that volunteer applications for the 2021 Pride Festival will be opening next week! 

National Volunteers Week takes place every year between 1 – 7 June and Manchester Pride will be celebrating the wonderful people who make the festival possible. 

This year they have loads of great opportunities to get involved and help them make 2021 better than ever. 

If interested please see the flyer and go to the Volunteers hub on their website: www.manchesterpride.com/volunteers 

You can also meet members of the team, other potential volunteers, learn about the opportunities and ask any questions at a Meet and Greet zoom meeting on Thursday, 3 June, 5.00pm – 6.00pm.

Tickets are free and can be booked here. 

Back in the Closet

Join Pride in Ageing on 10 June (12.30pm – 2.00pm) for a one-off webinar to celebrate the launch of the Back in the Closet project.

The artworks were made as part of a series of artist residencies exploring the experiences of Greater Manchester’s LGBT+ communities living in retirement housing. 

The Back in the Closet project saw four artists paired with four older persons’ housing schemes across Greater Manchester. They worked with both staff and residents to open a discussion on LGBT+ identities and to find both small and significant changes to make these environments more inclusive.

You’ll hear about how this project was developed, what they have learnt about adapting and delivering artist residencies during the pandemic and how creative approaches have shed light on LGBT+ visibility in housing for older people.

The link to register for this free online event is here, but if you can’t make it we will be sharing a link to view the artworks when they are online.

A fascinating new exhibition proves that LGBT life in the pre-Stonewall era wasn’t always conducted in the shadows. These incredible photos show what gay life was like in a 1950s LGBT resort.

While it’s true that much of the LGBT experience in the age before decriminalisation consisted of furtive glances and clandestine meetings, a fascinating new exhibition in New York reminds us that, in some areas at least, gay life was able to flourish out in the open.

The New York Historical Society museum is hosting a rare collection of photographs and images documenting life in 1950s and ’60s Cherry Grove on New York’s Fire Island – an area which has remained a popular LGBT retreat ever since.

Cherry Grove’s isolated location off Long Island – accessible in the mid-20th century only by ferry or seaplane – led to it becoming an LGBT safe haven from the 1930s onwards as writers, artists, dancers, theatre people and Hollywood celebrities were attracted to its sandy shores.

By the 1950s and ’60s, the small hamlet was home to one of the world’s most vibrant gay scenes, with gay men and women able to socialise openly on its beaches or at local hotspots such as Duffy’s Hotel Bar, where they could enjoy same-sex dancing late at night.

Flamboyant costume parties which would have otherwise violated strict New York laws prohibiting ‘risqué’ attire and cross-dressing became a regular part of Cherry Grove’s social calendar.

Images on display at New York Historical Society’s exhibition “Safe / Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove” give a fascinating and heart warming insight into the lives of gay men and women who were able to experience love, friendship and unselfconscious self-expression at a time where they found their very identity criminalised.

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Sadly, and perhaps inevitably for the time, Cherry Grove’s growing renown as an LGBT haven during the 1950s led to a growing pushback from the area’s longstanding heterosexual residents, and police raids began to become common throughout the 1960s, with men in particular being vulnerable to arrest and subsequent exposure in local newspapers.

As the 1969 Stonewall uprising in nearby New York City sparked a growing wave of LGBT politicisation and emancipation, Cherry Grove was able to preserve its status as one of the USA’s most popular gay resorts.

In 2013, the Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre was listed on the USA’s National Register of Historic Places – one of only a few sites included to date for their role in LGBT history. 

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Photographs from the exhibition will be on display at the New York Historical Society giving a new generation of LGBT people the chance to step back in time to an era that is now on the cusp of leaving living memory. The exhibition includes 70 photographs and additional ephemera including recorded accounts from notable residents.

“Cherry Grove on Fire Island became a weekend and summer destination for gay men and women in the pre-Stonewall era of the 1950s and 1960s,” said Dr Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of New York Historical Society.

“At a time when they faced homophobia and persecution, the residents of Cherry Grove found a sanctuary where they could socialise and express themselves freely. We are proud to partner with the Cherry Grove Archives Collection to display these joyful images.”

Susan Kravitz from the Cherry Grove Archives Collection adds: “The Cherry Grove Archives Collection is honoured to exhibit our 1950s Cherry Grove photographs and ephemera at the New York Historical Society.

As you walk around this exhibition, we hope you will become aware of the joyous freedom of expression that LGBT people demonstrate in so many of these photographs, remembering that pre-Stonewall 1950s was a time when persecution and prosecution ruled the lives of homosexuals in mainland America.

Yet the 1950s was a richly creative historical period in Cherry Grove when gay and straight people worked and played together, whether in theatrical productions, costumed cocktail parties, annual balls or a range of community-sponsored events.”

In the summer of 1953, Audrey Hartmann was 23 years old and on vacation with friends. She was staying in Ocean Bay Park, a small beach town on Fire Island, sixty miles from New York City.

She’d heard whispers about a place down the beach called Cherry Grove. A few miles away, it was said to be a welcoming community of gay people. She’d heard there were lesbians there. 

Hartmann walked down, and what she saw is on display at the exhibition, as well as chronicled in the 1993 book “Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town” by Esther Newton. Hartmann encountered “charming little houses” lit by gas lamps, and wherever she walked were canopies of trees. She caught a glimpse into some of the homes and said, “I remember seeing women by candlelight sitting there,” and wished she were one of them.

Her wish came true. She would go on to live in Cherry Grove and became a beloved member of the community. She and her long time partner were some of the first women to buy a home on the island. Hartmann, now 90, was interviewed for the exhibition: “It was an escape for everyone to be able to come out here on the weekend and be yourself. It was a safe haven. I could say to someone, ‘I’m Audrey Hartmann … and I’m gay.’” That, at the time, was unheard of.

Cherry Grove was one of the first gay beach towns in the United States, joining a handful of LGBT vacation spots and resorts that became popular in the pre-Stonewall era, along with places like Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan. 

The striking images in the collection are special because of their rarity, as well as the joy and intimacy displayed in them. There is a relaxed nature to the photos, of couples with their arms around each other, friends out at parties or spending time together on the beach. 

“Most people didn’t share themselves in that way because they couldn’t be documented. It could be held against them legally,” said Parker Sargent, 46, one of the curators of the exhibit and a representative of the Cherry Grove Archives Collection. In Cherry Grove, gay residents were able to form a community, have a voice in how things were run and be out. “And that’s revolutionary in a really quiet way,” Sergeant said.

“Because it’s isolated, people are not judging you, like you’d be afraid of in the real world,” said Susan Kravitz, 77, who curated the exhibit with Sargent. “The women in the ‘50s had to wear skirts and dresses … but when they came to Cherry Grove, they could wear trousers – and that was a big deal. Not just pants, but trousers … It’s always about freeing oneself to be who you want to be, and where else can you do that?” 

Cherry Grove did have its share of raids and arrests, but the last boat left the island at midnight, meaning there was no police presence once the boat left the dock. That contributed to a vibrant nightlife, so integral to the community, that a section of the exhibit is devoted to theatre, performance and the social scene. Theatre is a lasting legacy of Cherry Grove, as it was theatre people who began to vacation there as early as the 1930s, laying a foundation of creativity and openness that has had a lasting draw for the LGBT community.

Cherry Grove was different from the city, where the gay bars were run by the mob, according to Sargent, who described these urban watering holes as “dark and seedy clubs” where “you always had to be careful that the lights would come on,” signalling a police raid.

“In Cherry Grove, you were suddenly out in nature and sitting on people’s front porches and going to house parties,” Sargent said. “There was a levity and a freedom of not being caught.” 

Cherry Grove continued to evolve after the 1950s, moving from a sanctuary for mostly white and affluent gay men and women to a more inclusive place with the advent of the 1960s, as the civil rights movement gained traction and more commercial real estate in the area led to affordable housing options for greater swaths of the community. As the decades move forward, photographs begin to show black and working class LGBT people.

“You will see such joy in these photographs, you will see happiness, you will see laughter, and you would never think that would be the case given the times in which these people lived,” Kravitz said.

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Part of the mission behind “Safe / Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove” is to create an archive where there has been none. 

“It’s more than just the photos or the old videos,” Sargent said. “It’s getting that material out there for people to see and to rewrite our history in a way that has been very blank because we tend to think that gay life started at Stonewall. People have a look at gay history before Stonewall. We’ve always been here.” 

Today, Cherry Grove remains a beloved summer destination for LGBT beachgoers, particularly lesbians, as has the adjoining community of the Fire Island Pines, which has traditionally catered to gay men. Though the world has become more accepting over the decades, these two Fire Island enclaves remain important to the community, and just as vibrant as ever, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors to its boardwalks every season.

The New York Historical Society presents “Safe / Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove” from 14 May – 11 October 2021, but you can watch the exhibition here

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Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope

Waterside Arts Centre,1 Waterside Plaza, Sale, Trafford, M33 7ZF

Friday 25 June 2021, 8.00pm (Ticket Price about £16.00)

Event information

From a conventional upbringing to global notoriety via The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin Crisp was one of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. Openly gay as early as the 1930s, Quentin spent decades being beaten up on London’s streets for his refusal to be anything less than himself. His courage, and the philosophy that evolved from those experiences, inspire to the present day.

Naked Hope depicts Quentin at two phases of his extraordinary life: alone in his Chelsea flat in the 1960s, certain that life has passed him by, and thirty years later, giving a performance of his one man show An Evening with Quentin Crisp in New York.

Packed with witty gems on everything from cleaning (“Don’t bother – after the first four years the dirt won’t get any worse”) to marriage (“Is there life after marriage? The answer is no”), Naked Hope is a glorious, uplifting celebration of the urgent necessity to be your true self.

Covid-19 information

The venue capacities have been reduced to allow for social distancing and to ensure your visit is safe. There are staggered audience arrival times.

Please note that all staff and visitors over the age of 11 will be required to wear a face covering at all times whilst in the venue, including for the duration of the performance, except when consuming food or drink. If you’re exempt from wearing a face covering, please let one of the team know when you arrive so they can make sure not to disturb you during the show.

Additional Covid-19 safety measures may be put in place, such as temperature checks and changes to arrival times and are subject to change at short notice. Please look out for your pre-show email which you will receive with the latest information about the event.

If Government guidance changes and they are unable to proceed with the performance you have booked for, please be assured that you will be offered an exchange or refund on your tickets.

Level access seating, wheelchair spaces + essential companion tickets are available from the box office directly on 0161 912 5616 or hello@watersidearts.org

Running time

75 minutes, no interval

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Stormé DeLarverie

On 28 June 1969 an uprising began at the Stonewall Inn, New York City, which went on to impact the future of LGBT rights around the world.

Today marks seven years since Stormé DeLarverie died, and it seems like a good time to honour her as she was often overlooked when Stonewall was featured in the media.

Stormé DeLarverie (24 December 1920 – 24 May 2014) was an American woman known as the butch lesbian whose scuffle with police was, according to Stormé and many eye witnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall rebellion, spurring the crowd to action.

She was born in New Orleans, and is remembered as a gay civil rights icon and entertainer, who performed and hosted at the Apollo Theatre and Radio City Music Hall. She worked for much of her life as an MC, singer, bouncer, bodyguard and volunteer street patrol worker – the “guardian of lesbians in the Village” (Greenwich Village, New York City).

Before Stonewall

DeLarverie’s father was white; her mother was African American, and worked as a servant for his family. According to DeLarverie, she was never given a birth certificate and was not certain of her actual date of birth. She celebrated her birthday on 24 December.

As a child, DeLarverie faced bullying and harassment. She rode jumping horses with the Ringling Brothers Circus when she was a teenager, but stopped after being injured in a fall. She realised she was lesbian near the age of eighteen.

Her partner, a dancer named Diana, lived with her for about 25 years until Diana died in the 1970s. According to friend Lisa Cannistraci, DeLarverie carried a photograph of Diana with her at all times.

Stonewall uprising

The events of 28 June 1969 have been called “the Stonewall riots”.

However, DeLarverie was very clear that “riot” is a misleading description: “It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience – it wasn’t no damn riot.”

At the Stonewall rebellion, a scuffle broke out when a woman in handcuffs, who may have been Stormé, was roughly escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon. Police brought her through the crowd several times, as she escaped repeatedly. She fought with at least four of the police, swearing and shouting, for about ten minutes. Described by a witness as “a typical New York City butch” and “a dyke-stone butch,” she had been hit on the head by an officer with a baton for, as one witness stated, announcing that her handcuffs were too tight. She was bleeding from a head wound as she fought back. Bystanders recalled that the woman, whose identity remains uncertain (Stormé has been identified by some, including herself, as the woman), sparked the crowd to fight when she looked at bystanders and shouted, “Why don’t you guys do something?” After an officer picked her up and heaved her into the back of the wagon, the crowd became a mob and went “berserk”: “It was at that moment that the scene became explosive.” Some have referred to that woman as “the gay community’s Rosa Parks”.

“‘Nobody knows who threw the first punch, but it’s rumoured that she did,” said Lisa Cannistraci, owner of the Village lesbian bar Henrietta Hudson. “She told me she did.”

Whether or not DeLarverie was the woman who fought her way out of the police wagon, all accounts agree that she was one of several lesbians who fought back against the police during the uprising.

The Jewel Box Revue

From 1955 to 1969 DeLarverie toured the black theatre circuit as the MC (and only drag king) of the Jewel Box Revue, North America’s first racially integrated drag revue. The revue regularly played the Apollo Theatre in Harlem as well as to mixed-race audiences, something that was still rare during the era of racial segregation in the United States. She performed as a baritone.

During shows audience members would try to guess who the “one girl” was, among the revue performers, and at the end Stormé would reveal herself as a woman during a musical number called, “A Surprise with a Song,” often wearing tailored suits and sometimes a moustache that made her “unidentifiable” to audience members. As a singer, she drew inspiration from Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday (both of whom she knew in person). During this era when there were very few drag kings performing, her unique drag style and subversive performances became celebrated, influential, and are now known to have set a historic precedent.

The movie, Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box, about DeLarverie and her time with the revue was released in 1987.

Influence on fashion

With her theatrical experience in costuming, performance and makeup, DeLarverie could pass as either a man or a woman, black or white. Offstage, she cut a striking, handsome, androgynous presence, and inspired other lesbians to adopt what had formerly been considered “men’s” clothing as street wear. She was photographed by renowned artist Diane Arbus, as well as other friends and lovers in the arts community, in three-piece suits and “men’s” hats. She is now considered to have been an influence on gender-nonconforming women’s fashion decades before unisex styles became accepted. 

Life after Stonewall

DeLarverie’s role in the Gay Liberation movement lasted long after the uprisings of 1969.

In the 1980s and 1990s she worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City. She was a member of the Stonewall Veterans’ Association, holding the offices of Chief of Security, Ambassador and, in 1998 to 2000, Vice President. She was a regular at the gay pride parade. For decades Delarverie served the community as a volunteer street patrol worker, the “guardian of lesbians in the Village.”

Tall, androgynous and armed – she held a state gun permit – Ms DeLarverie roamed lower Seventh and Eighth Avenues and points between into her 80s, patrolling the sidewalks and checking in at lesbian bars. She was on the lookout for what she called “ugliness”: any form of intolerance, bullying or abuse of her “baby girls.” … “She literally walked the streets of downtown Manhattan like a gay superhero. … She was not to be messed with by any stretch of the imagination.”

— DeLarverie’s obituary in The New York Times

In addition to her work for the LGBT community, she also organised and performed at benefits for battered women and children. When asked about why she chose to do this work, she replied, “Somebody has to care. People say, ‘Why do you still do that?’ I said, ‘It’s very simple. If people didn’t care about me when I was growing up, with my mother being black, raised in the south.’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t be here.'”

For several decades, DeLarverie lived at New York City’s famous Hotel Chelsea, where she “thrived on the atmosphere created by the many writers, musicians, artists, and actors.” Cannistraci says that DeLarverie continued working as a bouncer until age 85.

In June 2019, DeLarvarie was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first US national monument dedicated to LGBT rights and history and the wall’s unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Illness and death

DeLarverie suffered from dementia in her later years. From 2010 to 2014, she lived in a nursing home in Brooklyn. Though she seemingly did not recognise she was in a nursing home, her memories of her childhood and the Stonewall uprisings remained strong. She died in her sleep on 24 May 2014, in Brooklyn. No immediate family members were alive at her time of death. Lisa Cannistraci, who became one of DeLarverie’s legal guardians, stated that the cause of death was a heart attack. She remembers DeLarverie as “a very serious woman when it came to protecting people she loved.” A funeral was held on 29 May 2014, at the Greenwich Village Funeral Home.

Everyone Is Awesome: Lego to launch first LGBTQ+ set

Toy company’s designer says he was inspired to support the community with a rainbow-themed creation.

In the “spraying room” at Lego HQ, tiny figurines are layered with bright, glossy paint before being placed on a rainbow arch. The result, a waterfall of colour with 11 brand new mini-figures striding purposefully towards an imagined brighter future, is the Danish toymaker’s inaugural LGBT+ set, titled Everyone Is Awesome.

The colours of the stripes were chosen to reflect the original rainbow flag, along with pale blue, white and pink representing the trans community, and black and brown to acknowledge the diversity of skin tones and backgrounds within the LGBT+ community.

In all but one case no specific gender has been assigned to the figures, who are intended to “express individuality, while remaining ambiguous”.

The exception, a purple mini-figure with a highly stylised beehive wig, “is a clear nod to all the fabulous drag queens out there”, said the designer, Matthew Ashton, who initially created the set for his own desk.

“I’d moved offices, so wanted to make the space feel like home with something that reflected me and the LGBT+ community I’m so proud to be a part of,” Ashton said.

But the set attracted attention and was soon in demand. “Other members of Lego’s LGBT+ community came by to tell me they loved it,” Ashton said. “So I thought, ‘maybe it’s something we should share’.” He also wanted to be more vocal in support of inclusivity.

“Growing up as an LGBT+ kid – being told what I should play with, how I should walk, how I should talk, what I should wear – the message I always got was that somehow I was ‘wrong’,” he said. “Trying to be someone I wasn’t was exhausting. I wish, as a kid, I had looked at the world and thought: ‘This is going to be OK, there’s a place for me’. I wish I’d seen an inclusive statement that said ‘everyone is awesome’.”

Ashton said he was really happy to work for a company that wants to be outspoken over such matters. Jane Burkitt, a fellow LGBT+ employee at Lego who works in supply chain operations, agreed.

“I’ve been at Lego for six years and I’ve never hesitated to be myself here, which isn’t the case everywhere,” Burkitt said. “When I joined Lego, I hoped it would be an inclusive place – but I didn’t know. People like me wonder, ‘will I be welcome here?’ And the answer is yes – but this set means that, now, everyone knows it.”

The set goes on sale on 1 June, the start of Pride month, but a few Afols (adult fans of Lego) and Gayfols have been given a preview.

“This set means a lot,” said Flynn DeMarco, a member of the LGBT+ Afol community and a contestant on the television show Lego Masters US. “Often LGBT+ people don’t feel seen, especially by corporations. There’s a lot of lip service and not a lot of action. So this feels like a big statement.”

Other LGBT+ representations by Lego – including a tiny rainbow flag in a build of Trafalgar Square, and a bride and groom BrickHeadz sold separately, so that fans could put two women or two men together – have been subtler.

“This is much more overt,” said DeMarco, who hopes the set will help broaden people’s minds. “People look to a company such as Lego – a company they love and enjoy – and think, ‘Hey if it’s OK for Lego, maybe it’s OK for me, too.’”

And his own response? “For Lego to do something so inclusive, so full of joy – it made me smile, then cry, then smile a little more.”

Ambition for Ageing podcast

The Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO) has launched its very first podcast, and it’s available now for you to listen to.

Over seven episodes, they bring together different guests to discuss all aspects of ageing, looking at everything from social isolation and loneliness to the benefits of ageing and building age-friendly places.

Join host Kirsty alongside academics and policy makers, researchers, front line delivery staff and of course, older people themselves.

The episode featured here includes stories from older people, including members of Out In The City. 

This podcast was recorded when Pride in Ageing was launched by Sir Ian McKellen in June 2019. Pride in Ageing aims to help ensure that Greater Manchester becomes one of the best places for LGBT people to grow older.

In this episode, we hear life stories from a number of different older people, who share their experiences of growing older as a member of a marginalised community as well as their experiences of discrimination.

We talk to older people from Pride in Ageing LGBT group (Michael Teo, Ian Dyer, Tony Openshaw and Philip Harper-Deakin), the Greater Manchester BAME Network and the Greater Manchester Older People’s Network about the impact of inequality and importance of diversity.

Listen here

Read the transcript here