Thirty Out In The City members travelled from Chorlton Street Bus Station to the Manchester Runway Park with a stop off at The Romper pub for lunch.
Visiting the most iconic aircraft in history was a different and unique experience. We got the chance to experience sitting in the flight deck and saw where Queen Elizabeth II sat.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to wander around the Runway Park and discover the additional aircraft, but there were unrivalled views of planes landing and taking off from Manchester Airport’s runway.
To quote one of our members: “It was a special visit to see British engineering at the forefront of technology.”
Coincidentally, there was a documentary on BBC4 Television last night “Concorde: A Supersonic Story” which told the story of the life of the most glamourous passenger plane that was ever built.
Elisabeth Martinez stars as Adela, a solitary only child from a conservative family. She spends her days between the family antique shop and the catechism classes she teaches, marked by her mother’s protectiveness and the silence surrounding her intersex condition, which she is unaware of but which shapes her life.
An unexpected and beautiful friendship with a newly arrived priest, the return of a close childhood friend, and the arrival of a woman, Isabel, trigger a chain reaction that takes Adela on a journey of self-discovery, from Pamplona to Madrid, where her identity will need the love and support of others in order to be revealed.
This film is a loose adaptation of the 1972 film of the same name, starring José Luis López Vázquez and directed by Jaime de Armiñán, who co-wrote the screenplay with José Luis Borau. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1972.
“My Dearest Senorita” is available on Netflix on 1 May.
Just Wilde About Hair
The evolution of Oscar Wilde’s hair offers insight into how he constructed and revised his public identity.
A quote attributed to Oscar Wilde claims that he told a US customs agent upon his 1882 arrival in the United States that he had nothing to declare but his genius. Actually, he probably never said this, but he might just as well have declared his collar-length hair. Combined with a clean-shaven face, this look was virtually unheard of for an adult male European of the middle- or upper-class. And it was this long hair that took New York by storm, even more than his poetry, wit or conversation.
The photographs of Wilde taken by Napoleon Sarony in New York in January 1882 proved so popular that Sarony had to take his fight to extend copyright protection for his photographs all the way to the Supreme Court. Wilde may have lived another nineteen years, but Sarony’s pictures of the 27-year-old have become the defining images of him, reproduced everywhere from books to the internet, even though that particular length of hair was quickly abandoned. Sarony laid some claim to inventing “Oscar Wilde”; he certainly shaped how we picture him today.
The next time Wilde was photographed by Sarony, on his second trip to New York in August 1883, Wilde had a completely different ‘do. This one was much shorter. These photos are harder to find. In an interview – because yes, his hair continued to be a topic of interest on both sides of the Atlantic – Wilde said his square-cut bangs were inspired by a Roman sculpture in the Louvre. Only after getting his hair cut in this style, Wilde claimed to have discovered that the “bust represented Nero, one of the worst behaved young men in the world, and yet a man of strong artistic passion.”
The 1883 Sarony photographs portray a hairstyle that doesn’t match the usual look for Nero. When Wilde’s enemies, which eventually included the weight of the British establishment, attacked him for his decadence, immorality, sensuality, effeminacy or homosexuality, they often likened him to the shameless Nero.
In light of the prevailing Victorians’ attitude to Nero, Wilde’s seemingly innocuous announcement that he adopted the young emperor’s hairstyle could be considered rash or even brave.
Wilde loved to shock and enjoyed having the public take his frivolities in earnest. He rejected the popular bent for moralising about historical figures. About Nero, Tiberius, and Cesare Borgia, Wilde wrote “they may fill us with terror or horror or wonder, but they do not harm us.” Wilde also used Nero as a goad. “Society must be amazed,” Wilde wrote in a letter to a friend, “and my Neronian coiffure has amazed it.”
In the Louvre the particular statue Wilde was likely inspired by is no longer considered to be of Nero!
Perhaps Wilde made up the Louvre story to deflect the fact that his hair style on returning to America was actually similar to a then-fashionable style among New York City “dudes.” Wilde, who called fashion a “form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months,” never wanted to be associated with anything as mundane as a trendy style.
George House Trust
George House Trust have been nominated at the prestigious National Diversity Awards in the multi-strand category.
They are incredibly grateful to the nominator and those who have voted for them. It means the world to have the support of our community.
Darren Knight, Chief Executive, stated: “We are living in uncertain times, and that makes one thing abundantly clear: regardless of the progress made in HIV prevention, treatment, and rights, we’ve all got to ensure that we continue working for a world where HIV holds no one back.”
We joined the Bury LGBTQI+ Forum for the return of the Rainbow Train, bringing colour, pride and queer joy back to the tracks for another unforgettable journey.
Departing from Bolton Street Station, Bury, our vintage rainbow-themed steam train travelled to Rawtenstall and back again, delivering a two-hour celebration packed with LGBT+ performances, music and pure Pride energy.
This year, the House of Bridget Queens were joined by the brilliant Bury Fire Choir, performing a selection of Pride anthems on the platform at Bolton Street before departure.
At the Rawtenstall stop, we were treated to a live performance of disco classics.
Funds raised at the event will keep Bury Pride and the Bury LGBTQI+ Forum running each year.
Lesbian Visibility Week 2026 runs from Monday, 20 April to Sunday, 26 April, with Lesbian Visibility Day on 26 April. Founded by Linda Riley in 2020, this annual international movement celebrates lesbians, queer women and nonbinary individuals while advocating for increased representation, community safety and health.
The untold story of Manchester’s LGBT pioneers
Together, Angela Cooper and Luchia Fitzgerald transformed the lives of thousands of women – yet no record of their activism existed.
“How could you sit on your arse your whole life and not get on the streets and fight?” declares Luchia Fitzgerald, speaking at the beginning of the documentary Invisible Women.
As the co-founder of the Manchester branch of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), Luchia’s life and work serves as the subject of the aforementioned film, which explores the untold story of two LGBT+ revolutionaries. Together with her former partner Angela Cooper, the pair helped change the face of the city forever, transforming thousands of lives in the process.
After meeting in a pub in 1969, Angela and Luchia would go on to play a pivotal role in Manchester’s women’s liberation movement. They opened the city’s first women’s refuge, started a rock band, and launched a radical queer printing press. But in Manchester Central Library, there is no record of their activism on file.
With Invisible Women, however, their story is finally being written into history. Speaking via email, the pair explain that they agreed to participate in the documentary “to create a true record for future generations, of ‘her-story.’”
In 2017 there was an outpouring of TV exploring LGBT+ lives, in response to the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK. Yet these films focused mostly on white, middle class, London-based gay men. Producer Joe Ingham worked on the BBC’s Prejudice and Pride series, where he briefly met Angela and Luchia, but felt that these documentaries largely ignored women.
“The way broadcasters tried to spin these series was that it was all about the men, when in actual fact the GLF would never have happened if it were not for the involvement of women,” he explains. “They have done a hell of a lot of stuff, but it’s never been recorded.”
“Luchia is a fantastic storyteller. She’s just led this incredible life and I felt that her story needed to be told.”
As a teenager, Luchia ran away from Ireland after being rejected by her family. Upon arriving in Britain, she was arrested and sent for a lobotomy – a form of brain surgery that attempted to ‘cure’ homosexuals – but managed to escape to the streets of Manchester.
Shortly afterwards, she met Angela, a politically active student involved in Manchester’s underground gay community. This initial encounter sparked their romantic relationship, but more importantly, it ignited a political relationship too.
Back then, life was particularly difficult for the LGBT+ community. Queer bashings, blackmail, discrimination, homelessness, mental health issues – as well as the threat of aversion therapy, and lobotomies – made life particularly bleak. When the pair met, Angela was already a member of the women’s movement, but, together with Luchia, she decided to take those ideas of liberation into Manchester’s gay scene.
Responding to the hostility they faced in both general society and from within the LGBT+ community, (“which was a ghetto, and pretty unfriendly to lesbians in particular”) Angela and Luchia set up the Manchester branch of the GLF. “It was saying: ‘Fuck You. We’re here and we’re queer and we’re not going anywhere.’”
At the time, there was little support available for women – no Rape Crisis, no Women’s Line. In response, they set up a phone line for those in need of help, advertising the service with posters across Manchester. Several women responded seeking refuge, so the GLF decided to squat in an unoccupied house. “We had an advice line, did pregnancy testing, and then the police heard about us and started bringing women and children to us who had nowhere else to go.”
Thanks to the kind donation of a local solicitor, the GLF bought the house and turned it into a women’s refuge – only the second to be set up in the country at the time.
While they were working to improve the lives of LGBT+ women in the city, Angela and Luchia were both in their 20s, which meant – in their own words – lots of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Joe initially came across Luchia after reading a blog about queer rock bands in the 70s. The band toured across the country, culminating in a now-infamous show in Glasgow. Luchia took off her top mid-performance, with the 1,700 crowd following suit. It was a defiant statement against their oppressors and, from what Angela and Luchia recall, an electric and inspiring performance.
On top of that, the duo also oversaw the GLF’s operation of a radical queer printing press. They printed pamphlets, leaflets, posters, independently publishing their own material and making their voices heard in the local community. “We wanted to be visible,” they say. “After hiding our sexuality all our lives it was great fun! We felt like outlaws, outside the system, with nothing to lose.”
The couple were in a non-monogamous relationship and expressed their politics in ways that were radical for the time. The GLF first made headlines after painting ‘lesbians are everywhere’ across Manchester. They also organised ‘happenings’, where groups of women would go to straight pubs in groups. “The girls would then start kissing and cuddling to shock the drinkers – and then we ran like hell!”
Eventually, the romantic relationship between Angela and Luchia fell apart. But, after the profound effect they’d had on one another’s lives, they were never out of contact. Luchia was the first lesbian that Angela had ever met which, she explains, allowed her to be herself “for the first time”. Luchia adds that, through meeting Angela, she found a new life. “I was introduced to ideas of liberation and fighting for your rights – and I never looked back.”
Today, they live around the corner from each other in Manchester and speak most days. “We are each other’s chosen family. Like most LGBT+ people, we had to find our own families.”
While researching for the project, director Alice Smith explains that it quickly became obvious that Angela and Luchia’s story wasn’t the only one out there. “We went round some houses at the beginning of the shoot and realised this could be a much larger social history,” says Smith. “There’s just a wealth of amazing stories out there from incredible women and they need to be told.” Inspired by working on Invisible Women, Angela has started an oral history project, which aims to record other invisible women and tell their ‘her-stories’.
Though Invisible Women primarily deals with Angela and Luchia’s activism in the ’70s and ’80s, it also highlights how they are both still fighting for women and LGBT+ people today. Both gave talks at screenings of the film about their past work, as well as “the need for activism now.”
And, by the end of the film, it’s clear that Luchia is just as politically motivated now as she’s ever been. “I believe with every bone in my body that if there’s something that needs doing let’s get it done,” she says, resolutely. “So I’m never done. No, the fight never stops. It really doesn’t. It never stops.”
False LGBT+ asylum claims
We are aware of the BBC’s investigation into individuals allegedly helping people fabricate LGBT+ asylum claims. Any advice to misuse the asylum system should be condemned, but such behaviour by a small number of bad-faith actors does not reflect the reality of LGBT+ people seeking asylum.
Almost 70 countries criminalise same-sex relations, some with the death penalty. The UK government itself recognises that in Pakistan consensual same-sex sexual activity between men is criminalised with penalties ranging from fines to life imprisonment.
LGBT+ people claiming asylum have fled life-threatening situations and are hoping to rebuild their lives in safety here. For many, claiming asylum can be their only way to escape persecution.
The asylum system is hostile and complex, and particularly difficult for LGBT+ people as they are required to “prove” their sexual orientation or gender identity to complete strangers. Many have spent much of their lives hiding or denying who they are to avoid violence. Government cuts to legal aid only exacerbates this issue.
The UK government’s most recent data release shows that only around 2% of all asylum claims included sexual orientation as a reason for needing protection and it is already the case that LGBT+ people must show a well-founded fear of persecution to qualify for refugee protection in the UK.
Sexuality Summer School 2026: On The Biological
The Sexuality Summer School (SSS) is a postgraduate summer school held annually in May at the University of Manchester. It explores current political and intellectual debates about how the ‘biological’ shapes current and historical understandings of sex, gender, sexuality and race.
During the same week the Summer School also hosts a series of public events including lectures, films and performances.
Monday 25 May, 4.30pm – 6.00pm Plenary Lecture: Professor C Riley Snorton: ‘An Ambiguous Heterotopia, Or Some Informal Remarks on “Biology” After Samuel Delany, Judith Butler and Sylvia Wynter’ Venue: Anthony Burgess Centre, M1 5BY No booking required, all welcome.
Tuesday 26 May, 3.00pm – 4.30pm Plenary Lecture: Professor Sarah Richardson: ‘A Sceptical Empiricist’s Guide to Sex Difference Science’ Venue: John Casken Lecture Theatre, Martin Harris Centre, M13 9PL No booking required, all welcome.
Tuesday 26 May, 5.45pm – 8.30pm Film Screenings programmed with Club Des Femmes and introduced by So Mayer: Laws of Love / Gesetze de Liebe (Magnus Hirschfeld, 1927); Sanctus (Barbara Hammer, 1990) Venue: HOME Cinema, M15 4FN Tickets required (booking link coming soon).
Wednesday 27 May, 4.00pm – 5.30pm Plenary Lecture: Professor Kane Race: ‘Hijacking Neuroscience: Psychoactive Performatives’ Venue: C1.18, Ellen Wilkinson Building, M15 6JA No booking required, all welcome.
Wednesday 27 May, 7.00pm – 9.00pm Performance Reading: All the Devils (written by Jonathan Larkin; produced by Jayne Compton, Switchflicker; funded by The National Lottery Community Fund) Venue: Anthony Burgess Centre, M1 5BY No booking required, all welcome.
Thursday 28 May, 5.00pm – 6.30pm Public Plenary: ‘Experimenting with Hormones’: Professor Celia Roberts in conversation with Professor Jackie Stacey Venue: John Rylands Library, M3 3EH No booking required, all welcome.
Thursday 28 May, 8.00pm Performance: Second Trimester by Krishna Istha Venue: Aldridge Studio, The Lowry, M50 3AZ Tickets required. Click here to book.
What an amazing experience! We put on our virtual reality headsets and (figuratively) fastened our seatbelts! With Horizon of Khufu, we travelled thousands of years back to the heart of ancient Egypt. We discovered the secrets of one of the seven wonders of the world through an innovative concept: the immersive expedition.
We explored the Great Pyramid of Giza as it was more than 4500 years ago. We walked through its mysterious corridors, entered the Queen’s Chamber and met the goddess Bastet.
It was absolutely stunning to rediscover the ancient Egyptian marvels that once defined human ingenuity and imagination, exploring the labyrinth of hidden corridors. We even had a ringside seat at the embalming ceremony of the great Pharaoh Khufu!
The experience was designed in collaboration with Harvard’s Egypt expert Peter der Manuelian, and offered a rare opportunity to witness what it was really like in ancient Egypt’s golden age.
We left exhilarated by a new appreciation for the civilization of the past which mystifies and excites to this day!
The law is changing
Over the years, society has become more inclusive for all: equal marriage, inclusive education in schools and anti-discrimination laws.
But when it comes to LGBT+ safety – we still have far to go. Anti LGBT+ hate crime has risen in recent years – online, on our streets and in public.
Latest research from Stonewall reveals LGBT+ people do not feel safe to live their lives freely. Less than half (44%) of LGBT+ people feel safe holding their partner’s hand in public.
Even something as simple as reaching out to hold their partner’s hand now feels unsafe. Everyone deserves to go about their daily lives free from the fear of abuse and harassment, no matter their identities.
The latest statistics from the Home Office show that there were more than 18,000 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and over 2,500 trans related hate crimes in 2024. Behind these numbers are real people who deserve to feel safe to be themselves.
We want the government to ensure the safety of the LGBT+ community,
On 14 April 2026, the Crime & Policing Bill was amended to equalise the punishment of hate crime. The aggravated offence amendment was agreed by the House of Commons. When the law changes, anti-LGBT+ hate crimes will be considered more serious offences in the eyes of the courts – perpetrators will get stronger sentences and victims will have more time to access justice.
This vital change will deliver much needed equality in hate crime legislation.
Our monthly radio show – aimed at older members of the LGBT+ communities – goes out live on the first Tuesday each month from 2.00pm to 3.00pm on ALL FM 96.9.
Don’t worry if you miss it, as it has been uploaded to Mixcloud so you can listen at your leisure.
This month we interviewed El Stannage from the Holocaust Centre North and featured an eclectic choice of music.
You couldn’t escape it. When you fell in love, that was it: you were there for good. Leaving your lover’s side was unthinkable, turning away was impossible. You would do anything for that person you loved – even, as in the new biography, “The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram” by Ethelene Whitmire, you would escape toward danger.
On 28 August 1938, Reed Peggram boarded a ship from Hoboken, New Jersey, hoping to “become a proper gentleman” and fulfill his dreams. A prolific writer and Harvard scholar of comparative literature, he had recently been awarded the Rosenwald Fellowship, which put him in the company of literary stars like W E B Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.
Both Peggram’s mother and grandmother were then domestic workers, and they had big expectations for him. Reed himself was eager to study abroad, for professional and personal reasons; he was “determined to become a French professor and an accomplished linguist” and “he also hoped to find love.”
What better place to do it than in Paris?
Outgoing and confident, Peggram made friends easily and had no trouble moving “through the world of his white male peers.” Where he faltered was in his lack of funds. He relied on the kindness of his many friends – one of whom introduced Peggram to a “man who would become so pivotal in his life,” a Danish man named Arne.
Peggram and Arne had a lot in common, and they began to enmesh their lives and dreams of living in the United States. But there were complications: homosexuality was largely forbidden, World War II was in its early stages, and it quickly became apparent that it was dangerous to stay in Europe. But returning home would be to a repressive, segregated America and a constrained life as a second-class citizen.
Also, Peggram loved Arne. He refused to leave without him and so, while most visiting Black Americans fled the war in Europe, “Reed was trying to stay.”
There’s so much more to the story inside “The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram,” so much to know about Reed himself.
It’s there, but not until nearly halfway through the book, which is when the tale takes a tender, urgent turn – albeit one with determination, rashness, and a dash of faux nonchalance. Also, if you’re expecting an unhappily-ever-after because, after all, it’s a World War II tale, don’t assume anything.
If you’re OK with minuscule details and want a heart-pounder, “The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram” might be a good escape. This is the story of a personal fight for a life of love, freedom, beauty and dignity in a world set against him.
“The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram” By Ethelene Whitmire 2026, Viking Press 308 pages
LEAP Study – Callout for interviews with LGBTQ+ People Receiving Home Care
LEAP Study is a new study by the University of Kent looking into improving LGBTQ+ inclusion in home care. The study is now recruiting for LGBTQ+ interview participants aged over 60 who receive home care to take part in short interviews.
Please see the flyer for those receiving home care and the flyer for home care staff. Please do share with anyone you know who may be interested.
The aim of this study is to better understand how prepared people working in home care are to support older (aged 60+) LGBTQ+ people in England and Wales. The study is hosted by the University of Kent in collaboration with Cardiff University and funded by the NIHR Research for Social Care Programme.
They want to interview older LGBTQ+ people about their experiences of receiving home care. They would like to ask for your help with spreading the word about their study to older people who have relevant experiences. As part of this study, they plan to conduct interviews (in-person or online) with older LGBTQ+ people or their partners / informal carers about their experience receiving home care. They are also inviting older LGBTQ+ people to send in letters about their experiences of receiving home care as an optional way of taking part.
The criteria for participation are:
i) identifying as LGBTQ+ and 60+ years of age ii) experience of receiving home care in England or Wales within the last 10 years iii) currently residing in England or Wales.
All interview participants will receive a £20 high street store voucher as thanks for participation.
They are seeking as much diversity as possible amongst the participants, so sharing the news about this study will help them to achieve this. Please get in touch if you have any questions about this research or would like to discuss the study. If you are happy for them to keep your contact details, they will update you on outputs from the project and a summary of key findings.
Twenty four of us gathered and enjoyed a fantastic meal in the Olympus Fish & Chip Restaurant before visiting the Open Exhibition 2026.
A cultural hotspot of Bolton, the Bolton Central Library and Museum hosts eclectic events, galleries and collections, one of which is its Egyptology collection – the largest of its kind in a local authority museum in the UK. You will also find Greater Manchester’s only public aquarium sitting inside this architecturally impressive, Grade II listed building.
The town’s creative talent was on display in Bolton Museum’s Open Art Exhibition, which was open to anyone aged 16 and over who currently lives, works or studies within Bolton.
Submitted artworks were considered by a panel of independent judges, and this year, the museum received over 240 submissions, giving the judges the hugely difficult task of selecting the final pieces for the exhibition.
The judges also awarded prizes. The Winner’s Prize of £1,000 was awarded to Richard Wood for his artwork Ghost Chimneys:
Fred Dibnah
Although he later became well known for celebrating industrial heritage, Bolton man Fred Dibnah (1938 – 2004) first gained national fame when a documentary showed him demolishing mill chimneys. He is featured in the bronze above and various artworks.
After 1959 more and more mills fell into disuse, and demolition was one solution to derelict buildings. A survey in 2005 found that there were 110 mills still standing in Bolton.
Bolton Wanderers Football Players dancing at a Christmas Party, 1920s
“Cabaret” star Joel Grey played the MC on Broadway and in the classic 1972 film adaptation starring Liza Minnelli.
The actor publicly confirmed that he is gay back in 2015 at the age of 82 – showing it’s never too late to come out.
In an interview with People magazine, he said: “I don’t like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I’m a gay man. All the people close to me have known for years who I am. Yet it took time to embrace that other part of who I always was.”
Romania recognizes man’s gender identity in landmark victory for trans Europeans
Shutterstock
After refusing years earlier to acknowledge the gender of a Romanian citizen who transitioned in another European Union (EU) country, Romanian courts ruled on 2 April 2026 that the government must recognise the man’s identity. Advocates say it’s a landmark victory for transgender Europeans.
The case concerned is Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, a transgender man with Romanian and British citizenship. He was born in Romania and moved to the United Kingdom in 2008, where he began his transition several years later. After obtaining legal documentation in the UK in 2020, the Romanian government declined to recognise Mirzarafie-Ahi’s gender identity, citing a disparity with documents he used earlier in Romania.
“This put him in the position of having two sets of documents with two different identities,” said ACCEPT, the Romanian advocacy group that helped shepherd Mirzarafie-Ahi’s case through the courts. In the UK, he was recognised “as a man, in Romania, as a ‘woman’.”
Mirzarafie-Ahi sued, and the Romanian court that heard his case advanced it to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to settle the interstate argument. That court said in 2024 that the effect of Romania’s refusal to recognise Mirzarafie-Ahi’s gender identity impeded his freedom of movement among member states and was, effectively, a fundamental form of discrimination.
The court ruled, therefore, that all EU member states are obligated to recognise the identity documents of transgender individuals who have earned legal gender recognition in another EU state. (The UK left the EU in 2020.)
However, Romania, one of the most illiberal members in the EU when it comes to LGBT+ rights – it sits at the bottom of ILGA’s EU state rankings – resisted the order, with two different government agencies refusing to recognise Mirzarafie-Ahi’s identity.
Once again, Mirzarafie-Ahi took the Romanian government to court, but this time he won in his home country, with the same Romanian courts that sent his case to the CJEU now bound by its decision.
“Today, March 31, we celebrate Trans Visibility Day, and I am happy to use this opportunity to turn to the people in my community with good news,” Mirzarafie-Ahi said in a statement after his victory. “I have finally won in the courts of Romania! It is not only my victory, but also ours – of those who are still waiting to be seen, heard and recognised.”
Mirzarafie-Ahi’s case mirrors a similar one decided in March in Poland.
An administrative court in Poland found itself in a nearly identical situation, addressing the marriage of two men who had wed in Berlin years earlier. Government officials in Poland refused to recognise the marriage. That court, too, sent the interstate dispute to the CJEU, which decided in the men’s favour based on their right to freedom of movement throughout the European Union.
Out in the City 