Why Black Gay Elders Are Re-Closeting

It can feel like hard-won victories slipping away.

LGBT+ elders are facing a new crisis: the return to the closet in old age. After surviving criminalisation, police raids, the AIDS epidemic and decades of enforced silence, many now fear losing their dignity and safety in care homes, hospitals and unreliable family‑based support systems.

For black gay men in particular, elder‑care anxiety has become one of the most powerful – and least discussed – pressure points.

This article explores why elder‑care anxiety is rising, how re-closeting operates and what dignity‑driven solutions can protect LGBT+ people as they age.

Note: While this piece focuses on the experiences and challenges most familiar to gay and bisexual black men, many of these patterns also shape the lives of other LGBT+ elders.

The Final Closet: What Re‑Closeting Means

Re‑closeting refers to the phenomenon where LGBT+ elders are forced to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity again after years of living openly. It most often happens in care settings – nursing homes, assisted‑living facilities or family‑based elder care – where safety can feel uncertain, and visibility becomes a risk. For many, retreating into secrecy is a survival strategy to avoid discrimination, neglect or hostility from staff, other residents or relatives.

For black gay men, re‑closeting is often a return to silence. Men who have lived openly may retreat into silence when entering institutional care, fearing discrimination from staff or peers who do not share their cultural or generational context.

Silence functions as risk management – a calculated strategy to ensure one is fed, bathed and housed without hostility.

The UK has robust legal frameworks, such as the Equality Act 2010, which technically protects LGBT+ people from discrimination in care settings. However, the lived reality for black gay men often tells a different story.

The Complex Case of Black Gay Elders

Research from Stonewall and SAGE shows many LGBT+ elders lack trust in care systems and worry that revealing their identity will lead to poorer treatment.

Black gay men in care facilities often face a “triple jeopardy.” These spaces are usually predominantly white, predominantly straight and culturally unfamiliar – creating a complex intersection of racism, homophobia and cultural isolation that compounds vulnerability.

The Quiet Return to the Closet—Ed-Gar’s Story

Ed-Gar, a 75-year-old black gay man, moved into a care home in Hackney. He’d migrated decades ago from Jamaica, worked most of his life as a bus driver, and built a “chosen family” of friends and partners. In the care home, he is separated from his support network. Surrounded by strangers who do not understand his history of migration or his gay identity, he stayed up one night, while everyone was asleep, to remove and refold photos of partners and friends he’d initially put up to blend in. His new roommate, Martha – a lovely woman who knits magic with her hands – has already confessed she likes him. For Ed-Gar, the tragedy isn’t just ageing; it is the forced “re-closeting” required to avoid being othered in the very place meant to care for him.

LGBT+ Elders and The Dementia Trap

Dementia often acts as a “truth-teller” as weakened cognitive filters collapse the ability to maintain a double life. Gay elders with dementia may unintentionally reveal hidden aspects of their identity, such as mentioning partners or recounting memories. This might result in awkwardness or isolation if care staff lack adequate LGBT+ training.

Legal Erasure of Chosen Family

Death and incapacity are moments where the system defaults to biology. Without airtight legal documentation (like a Power of Attorney), hospitals and care homes default to “next of kin.” Lifelong partners and friends can be barred from bedsides or excluded from funeral planning.

Policy Recommendations

Restoring dignity in LGBT+ elder care requires targeted, systemic changes:

1. LGBT+ Cultural Competency Training
   Training of care staff in sexuality, gender identity, and intersectionality including race and cultural diversity.
2. Dementia-Specific Identity Protocols
   Develop care guidelines that affirm identity during cognitive decline, preventing misgendering or erasure.
3. Recognition of Chosen Family
   Update care policies to ensure partners and chosen family have equal decision-making rights.

Conclusion

Ageing should mean freedom – not a return to the closet. For black gay men, dignity in later life should include the right to be seen, supported, and safe without compromise. Building systems that honour this truth is the real test of whether our societies value every life.

CHAPS Out Podcast

This podcast for men explores coming out later in life, midlife sexuality, and men’s mental health. If you’re questioning your sexuality or navigating a major life transition, this conversation is for you.

In this episode, host Grant Philpott speaks with guest Norman Goodman who shares his inspiring story of coming out as bisexual at the age of 69. From decades of marriage to widowhood, Norman talks candidly about his struggles, self-discovery, and the courage it takes to live authentically. Hear how Norman found love with his partner Tony, navigated societal expectations, and became a voice for older LGBT+ adults. He discusses the importance of bisexual visibility, mental health, and reaching out for support, offering guidance to anyone exploring their own coming out journey.

This episode is a must-listen for those seeking advice on coming out later in life, LGBT+ support, and embracing identity at any age. Whether you’re bisexual, gay, or an ally, Norman’s story shows it’s never too late to live openly, connect with the community, and find joy.

Chaps Out is a UK-based podcast giving voice to perspectives you don’t often hear. We provide relatable, uplifting, and positive conversations that offer encouragement, affirmation, and support for anyone on the journey of coming out, while celebrating and supporting bisexual and gay men.

Don’t miss our companion podcast, CHAPS OUT CULTURE, where guests recommend their favourite LGBTQ+ inspired art, music, literature, film, theatre, and TV.

International Women’s Day

This is the story of an awesome woman – Aderonke Apata – Founder of African Rainbow Family.

“No-one wants to leave their home. It’s painful being separated from your family and not being able to see them. I would love to be home and it makes me sad not to be there but it is so homophobic and draconian, it is impossible. 

I was prosecuted as a lesbian in Nigeria and had to flee the country for my own safety. My initial experiences of this country were not pleasant. Having been in the closet in my own country, I was expected to be ‘out’. I was being judged by a Western-world standard but I was coming from a country where it was not acceptable to be LGBTIQ. How was I meant to come to a strange land and open up straight away?

I’m the founder of African Rainbow Family (ARF) which supports LGBTIQ people of African heritage who are seeking or have sought asylum. We campaign for global LGBTIQ freedom and equality as well as on behalf of those seeking asylum in the UK on the basis of their sexuality. Alongside my voluntary role at ARF, I took a post-graduate Law degree and became a barrister.

I personally believe that I can do anything! I don’t see that there are challenges for me. If I want to do it, I will make it happen. But in supporting people seeking asylum, I have seen so many challenges. 

Going to another country, having to prove who you are and the discrimination you face is huge. So many people live in fear of being detained or deported; and even when they receive asylum they are tired. It takes a lot of resilience to strive.

My greatest achievement is that I have been able to influence the asylum process and bring a change to it. Also that I made it through my own campaign to stay in the UK; it took 13 years to go through the asylum system and it was hell. But I’ve also made new friends here who have become family to me; who have shown me love.

To women celebrating International Women’s Day, stay strong and take courage, don’t give up on anything. We will make it; it may take time but we will get there. Believe you can do it. 

I’ll be celebrating with my African Rainbow Family community raising awareness of our plight but also spreading the love!“ 

First Same Sex Orthodox Wedding

A Jewish couple believe their same-sex Orthodox wedding was probably the first of its kind in the UK.

Mancunian Michael Sluckis married Jay Schlesinger at Rochdale Town Hall, Lancashire, under the auspices of Orthodox rabbi Rahel Berkovits.

Since classical kiddushin (weddings) cannot be enacted between two men, the pair adopted the model of shutafut, the rabbinic institution of formal partnership, which is defined by a written agreement and a symbolic act of joint acquisition.

Michael, the son of Glynis and Martin Sluckis, and Austrian-born Jay, the son of Ivanka and Paul Schlesinger, keep kosher.

“Halacha is important for us,” Jay, who runs a scientific consultancy business, said. “When a straight Jewish couple plans to marry, the rabbi will tell them, ‘look, this is what happens’, so it was different for us. But if it had not been halachically sound, we would not have gone ahead with it.”

The wedding was last year and only now have the couple felt ready to discuss it openly.

Jay, 34, and 37-year-old Michael, who works as a chartered accountant in risk management, met through a dating app and had their first date in 2022.

Jay studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, in Jerusalem and, as Michael’s parents have a home in Israel, they enjoyed dates in the Jewish state, too.

It was at the Pardes Institute that Jay first met Rabbi Berkovits, who is one of the Orthodox women rabbis in Israel. She guided the couple in creating a ceremony which gave them “two halachic legs to stand on”.

Rabbi Rafael Jonathan Polisuk, who is also gay and a Pardes Institute faculty member, provided additional guidance, particularly on the wording of the shtar (document) which formed the basis of Jay and Michael’s halachic partnership.

It outlined obligations such as exclusivity and fidelity and mirrored the moral, spiritual and communal commitments of traditional Jewish marriage.

Jay said: “Over the past decade or so, lots of modern Orthodox communities in Israel have realised that, when it comes to their members who are gay, there are two options – either embrace them and be part of community life or let them run away to Tel Aviv, and start eating non-kosher and not keeping anything.

“There are quite a few modern Orthodox posekim (legal scholars) who have written on the subject and recognise that there is a need within the halachic system that there should be some kind of framework when it comes to two Jewish gay people living together.”

An unexpected challenge arose when one of the local kashrut authorities declined to certify the event because it was a same-sex wedding.

However, Jay and Michael’s caterer secured an alternative Orthodox certifying body which was willing to supervise the food.

The couple enjoyed a mini honeymoon in New York and have settled in London.

Thursday, 23 April – 7.00 – 8.40pm – Biographical Solo Play “Solomon”

Synagogue, Manchester Jewish Museum, 190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester M8 8LW

A new biographical play exploring the life and times of queer, pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon.

Step into Victorian London and meet Simeon Solomon, a brilliant, boundary-pushing queer Jewish artist at the heart of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

“Solomon” is a new biographical solo play that explores the life, art and inner world of painter Simeon Solomon as he navigates faith, desire, ambition and identity in a society determined to reject him. From his meteoric rise in the art world to the public scandal that shattered his career, Solomon’s story is both inspiring and devastatingly relevant.

Along the way, he encounters some of the era’s most celebrated figures, including Edward Burne-Jones, Henry Holiday and Algernon Charles Swinburne, as he reflects on love, belief and what it truly costs to live honestly.

Written by Stuart Eggleton, “Solomon” premiered at Camden People’s Theatre as part of the Tsitsit Jewish Fringe Festival (2023). Since then, it has been further developed with The Royal Academy of Art and toured to venues including JW3, Stanley Arts, Cambridge University and Seven Arts Leeds.

The play contains sexual references, depictions of sexual violence, homophobic themes, reference to and depiction of gay conversion therapy and strong language.

Doors will be open from 6.00pm for the performance to begin at 7.00pm. The Cafe will be open for food and drinks before the show, from 6.00pm.

Get tickets here – £14.00.

Researchers praise ‘stunning’ results of new prostate cancer treatment

A new drug for advanced prostate cancer has shown promise in early trials experts have said, with the medication shrinking tumours in some patients.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in many countries, including the US and UK. About 1.5 million men are diagnosed worldwide each year. The new drug has caused excitement as it is a type of treatment called immunotherapy. This approach uses the body’s own immune system to fight disease and has already proved beneficial for some cancers. However, experts note it has not yet had the same impact on prostate cancer.

Now scientists have reported results from an early-stage trial of an immunotherapy drug called VIR-5500, suggesting it could offer hope to men with advanced prostate cancer.

“We believe that such treatments may in the long term lead to cures”, said Prof Johann de Bono of the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, who led the work.

De Bono said VIR-5500 was an engineered antibody that brought together the body’s killer T-cells with tumour cells trying to evade them. This type of drug, called a T-cell engager, allowed the killer cells to wipe out the tumour ones.

The special feature of VIR-5500, De Bono added, was that it was designed to only become activated within the tumour. This not only minimised side-effects – an important consideration as other T-cell engagers have been found to trigger severe inflammatory responses in patients with prostate cancer – but allowed the drug to linger in the bloodstream, meaning fewer doses may be needed.

Under the phase one clinical trial, funded by Vir Biotechnology, 58 men with advanced prostate cancer, and who had stopped responding to other treatments, were given VIR-5500.

The researchers found the majority of patients – 88% – experienced only very mild side-effects.

They then looked at the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the men’s blood – a biomarker whereby higher levels can be a sign of prostate conditions.

De Bono noted the trial started at low doses, with the dose increasing in stages. When the team looked at data for 17 men given the highest dose, they found that for 14 (82%) their PSA level fell by at least half after treatment, nine (53%) saw their PSA level fall by at least 90%, and five (29%) experienced a fall of at least 99%.

De Bono described the results as unprecedented for a disease previously thought to be “immune-cold” – in other words resistant to immunotherapy.

The team added that, of 11 patients given the highest dose and whose tumours were measurable, five showed tumour shrinkage. In one case, involving a 63-year-old man whose cancer had spread to his liver, the team found 14 cancerous liver lesions “completely resolved” after six cycles of treatment.

The results, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology genitourinary cancers symposium in San Francisco.

De Bono said further clinical trials are now being planned. “We do need more data but the results are stunning,” he said.

Charlotte Bevan, professor of cancer biology at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the work, said an advance in using immunotherapy for prostate cancer was potentially very exciting, opening up a new class of drug. But, she added, it was important studies were carried out with patients of different ethnicities, as there were disparities in prostate cancer outcomes.

Simon Grieveson, assistant director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, described the early-phase trial as exciting.

“With over 12,000 men dying from prostate cancer each year in the UK, we urgently need new and innovative ways to treat the disease,” he said.

“These early results are extremely promising, with a number of men on the study responding positively to the treatment with minimal side effects. I look forward to seeing this now tested in larger trials, with the hope that this treatment will offer men more valuable time with their loved ones.”

Out With Prostate Cancer is a peer support group, primarily for gay men and bisexual men, non-binary people and trans women who have been affected by prostate cancer. The group will be presenting an information workshop at an Out In The City meeting in April.

Out On The Radio

This new 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 will be uploaded to Mixcloud so you can listen at your leisure.

The next show on 3 March 2026 goes out live from 2.00pm to 3.00pm and features special guest Rev Jide Macaulay from House of Rainbow and a recorded interview with Clare Summerskill, a stand-up, a writer, an actress, a singer-songwriter, a public speaker, an oral historian and a freelance academic.

Clare has been described by BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour as ”A Lesbian Victoria Wood!” and by What’s On Magazine as “One of the funniest women in the country.”

Listen to Show 1

https://www.mixcloud.com/allfm969/out-on-the-radio-tuesday-02-december-2025/

Listen to Show 2

https://www.mixcloud.com/allfm969/out-on-the-radio-tuesday-6th-january-2pm-2026/

Listen to Show 3

https://www.mixcloud.com/allfm969/out-on-the-radio-tuesday-03-february-2026/

Gorton Monastery

The Monastery is a short bus ride from the centre of Manchester, and although no longer a place of worship, it offers a sanctuary of peace.

We enjoyed an hour of silence. In essence, The Silence between 12.00 noon and 1.00pm is simply a place where you can recover the stillness and beauty at the heart of your being. Being in silence and peace is incredibly healing, a rest from the fast pace of modern life and a time to slow down.

It has been widely demonstrated that noise pollution is a threat to our health. A wonderful antidote can be found at Gorton Monastery, whose strong, sturdy walls enclose what for many is the epitome of a quiet, safe space.

We left all our baggage, worries and busy life at the door and took the time as a space for rest and recovery. A mini escape, a sanctuary of peace and urban retreat. A chance to get away from it all and gain some peace and perspective. A gift to ourselves or simply a chance to just have a rest!

The cafeteria was extremely busy, but we had a light lunch of jacket potatoes or sandwiches, before exploring the building.

A brief history of Polari

Polari is a secret language, which has now largely fallen out of use, but was historically spoken by gay men and female impersonators. It grew out of the world of entertainment, stretching back from West End theatres, through to 19th-century music halls and beyond that to travelling entertainers and market-stall holders.

And no flies! After visiting Gorton Monastery, we put our best lallies forward and with our eeks shining with hope, we trolled together towards the fantabulosa libraryette.

There we heard “Voiced” an unmissable evening of queer poetry and performance. Jez Dolan titivated us in her zhooshed up riah and gildy clobber.

Polari developed from an earlier form of language called Parlyaree which had roots in Italian and rudimentary forms of language used for communication by sailors around the Mediterranean. Also associated with travellers, buskers, beggars and prostitutes, it found its way into Britain, especially London and port cities, and gradually became used by gay men, especially during the first half of the 20th century.

Polari itself had Parlyaree as a base, but once in Britain was supplemented with a wealth of slang terminology from different sources, including Cockney Rhyming Slang, backslang (pronouncing a word as if it was spelt backwards), French, Yiddish and American airforce slang.

In a period when homosexuality was illegal and heavily stigmatised, it was useful as a means of conducting conversations in public spaces, which would have alerted others to your sexuality. Many of the words allowed speakers to gossip about mutual friends or to critique the appearance of people who were in the immediate vicinity.

“Vada the naff strides on the omee ajax” meant look at the awful trousers on the man nearby. Inserting a Polari word – such as bona (good) or palone (woman) – into a sentence could act as a coded way of identifying other people who might be gay. The language itself, full of camp, irony, innuendo and sarcasm, also helped its speakers to form a resilient worldview in the face of arrest, blackmail and physical violence.

Polari speakers “christened” themselves with camp names like Scotch Flo or Diamond Lil, affording themselves alternative identities that reclaimed the representations of them as effeminate in positive ways.

The 1960s comedy radio series Round the Horne had a regular sketch voiced by Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick, who played Polari-speaking actors. The version of Polari that was used was necessarily simplified and toned down for the British public, and by the 1960s, there was a feeling that Polari had already overstayed its welcome. Round the Horne spoiled the secret, rendering the language less attractive to its speakers. Meanwhile the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 was round the corner, making it less necessary for a secret lingo in any case.

Some younger gay men were more interested in concepts like gay pride, gay liberation and coming out and viewed Polari as a naff byproduct of a more repressive time. In the 1970s, in an early gay magazine called Lunch, activists branded Polari as ghettoising and it gradually became surplus to requirements.

Renewed interest

While few gay men today actively use Polari, in recent years it has gained a kind of latent respectability as an historic language – similar to the way Latin is seen by the Catholic faith. From a political standpoint, Polari is now recognised as historically important, an example of the perseverance of a reviled group of people who risked arrest and attack just for being true to who they were.

A group of activists called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence created a Polari Bible, running a Polari wordlist through a computer programme on an English version of the Bible. The Bible was bound in leather and displayed in a glass case at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. This was not to mock religion but to highlight how religious practices are filtered through different cultures and societies, and that despite not always being treated well by mainstream religions, there should still be space for gay people to engage with religion.

There are lines such as: “And the rib, which the Duchess Gloria had lelled from homie, made she a palone, and brought her unto the homie.” This translates as: “And the rib which God had taken from man was made into a woman and brought to the man.”

Never has a dead language had such an interesting afterlife.

Free bus travel for older and disabled passengers to be made permanent from 1 March 2026

Older and disabled people in Greater Manchester will benefit from free round-the-clock travel on Bee Network buses, with the permanent lifting of the 9.30am restrictions on concessionary passes from March 2026.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and council leaders from across the city-region have been working with older and disabled groups locally to bring about the major change which will give “real freedom” to passengers.

It follows two successful pilots in August and November, during which around 400,000 older and disabled people in Greater Manchester were able to use their concessionary passes 24/7, rather than having to wait until 9.30am to get on board.

LGBT+ History Month 2026

The theme for LGBT+ History Month 2026 is “Science & Innovation”. This theme highlights the contributions of LGBT+ people to science, technology, engineering and medicine, while also exploring how science has historically been used to pathologise LGBT+ identities. It aims to celebrate both historical and contemporary trailblazers.

Each year five LGBT+ historical figures are chosen in line with the theme:

• Barbara Burford, a medical researcher who established NHS equality and diversity guidelines

• Charles Beyer, a locomotive engineer and a founding member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

• Elke Mackenzie, a botanist who researched lichens in Antarctica

• Jemma Redmond, a biotechnologist who developed 3D bioprinters to create tissues and organs

• Robert Boyle, a founder of modern chemistry and of the modern scientific method.

LGBT+ History Month party

Out In The City held an LGBT+ History Month party with 50 people in attendance. Joe Cockx from the Golden Age Big Band entertained us with great songs from Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Andy Williams, Engelbert Humperdinck and more.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of fun and joy with a little bit of dancing. The buffet and raffle went down well – Martin won three prizes!

Section 28

20 February 2026 was the 38th anniversary of Manchester’s brilliant ‘Never Going Underground’ march, rally and concert. Ian McKellen featured significantly in the campaign and went on to openly campaign against Section 28 – here on Wogan.

Ian McKellen appears on Wogan to state his opposition to Section 28 of the Local Government Act – which prohibits the “intentional promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. Originally broadcast 3 June,1988.

Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was a British actor and comedian. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist.

He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Carry On films, and appeared in many British television programmes and radio comedies, including series with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as being a frequent panellist on BBC Radio 4’s comedy panel show Just a Minute from its second series in 1968 until his death 20 years later.

If he were alive today he would be celebrating his 100^th birthday!

Rainbow Lottery

Play the Rainbow Lottery and support Out In The City

The Rainbow Lottery is the UK’s first and only lottery supporting LGBT+ good causes.

Welcome to the Rainbow Lottery, the exciting weekly lottery that raises money for over 200 LGBT+ good causes totally, openly and exclusively.

The hope is to make a difference to good causes so they can carry on their vital work – which helps us all. Play the lottery, support the community – it’s fun, it’s simple and everybody wins!

How the lottery works:

• £1 per ticket – that’s right, unlike many other lotteries, the lottery tickets are only £1 per week.
• For every ticket you play, 80% goes to good causes and prizes.

£25,000 jackpot prize

• Match all 6 numbers and you win the JACKPOT! There are also prizes of £2000, £250, £25 and 3 free tickets for following week.
• Every month there is a Super Draw. February’s Super Draw is a

Luxury City Break worth £1,000 (or £1,000 cash!) One of our supporters could be getting away from it all this year with our fantastic bonus draw!

Whether you want to hit the West End for a weekend, see the architecture and nightlife of Barcelona, sample the art and food of Florence, or soak up the culture in Paris, this prize is simply not to be missed!

Buy tickets here.

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Museum of Transport

After meeting at Victoria Train Station, we took the short bus journey to Queens Road. There we met the rest of the group at the museum at the top of Boyle Street. The building was a working bus garage in the 1930s but now houses historic buses, coaches, trams as well as various collections and displays.

From horse bus to Metrolink we discovered Greater Manchester’s public road transport history. You could sit inside some of the buses, which brought back memories of our younger days.

We had pre-ordered our lunches – pie and peas, jacket potatoes and sandwiches – which we enjoyed in the surroundings of the tea room, a traditional 1950s cafeteria.

A visit to Greater Manchester’s Museum of Transport is a journey back in time.

We found ourselves transported to an age when all the local authorities around Manchester ran their own buses, proudly painted in local colours and adorned with the Corporation’s crest.

We were reminded of a more tranquil age when these mighty buses and trams, with their drivers and ‘clippies’, were the most familiar form of transport for virtually everyone. There are around ninety vintage vehicles, many of which have been fully restored and now look resplendent in their original liveries.

Pride of place in the museum must go to the Victorian horse drawn bus, circa 1890. It is a wonderful example of an early public transport vehicle and you can see exactly how passengers would have travelled about town at the turn of the nineteenth century.

The museum is actively involved in restoring the region’s forgotten buses. It also plays host to special events throughout the year, some of which give you the chance to ride vintage buses around the streets of Manchester.

More photos can be seen here.

Mozart’s Queer Opera – Apollo et Hyacinthus

Mozart was barely eleven years old, when, in May 1767, his opera, Apollo et Hyacinthus, was first performed by young male students from The Benedictine School in the great hall of Salzburg University. The libretto, written in Latin, was based on the story of the Greek God, Apollo, and his love for Hyacinthus, taken from Book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (a collection of Ancient Greek myths).

In the original story Apollo fell deeply in love with Hyacinthus, a handsome Spartan prince with whom he often exercised in the nude. Unwittingly, Apollo occasioned the demise of his lover when a discus thrown by him accidentally hit Hyacinthus in the head. Distraught at the death he had caused, Apollo frantically attempted to revive his lover, but to no avail. So, as a memorial to his beloved, and to their love, Apollo caused the hyacinth flower to sprout from the blood of the fallen Hyacinthus.

Later versions of the story introduced a further would-be lover and suggested that Zephyrus, the West Wind, jealous of the love of Apollo for Hyacinthus, was the one who had encouraged the god to throw his discus, with the Wind himself fatally guiding the discus towards the head of Hyacinthus. In this opera, Zephyrus too is a central character and, in an aside, confesses his guilt.

To downplay the central homosexual love triangle of the plot, the librettist, Father Rufinus, brought two new characters into the story, Oebalus and his daughter Melia (sister of Hyacinthus and sung by a boy chorister en travesti). Rufinus also introduced a presumed romance between Apollo and Melia into the story, thereby perhaps hoping to straightwash the work and forestall any potential criticism that might be occasioned by a Catholic priest writing such a well-known queer classical tale for young male students to perform. Nonetheless, the obvious queer overtones of the story would have been readily perceived by the all-male staff and students at the University, who as part of their basic education would be well-read in the Classics of Ancient Greece, and some no doubt quite familiar with the stories of Apollo and his various male lovers.

With his prodigious intellect I feel sure Mozart would also have been aware of the queer undercurrents in the story. After all, the love of Apollo for Hyacinthus is clearly foregrounded in the title and body of the opera that he wrote. That, allied perhaps with his own awareness of schoolboy crushes and of the prevalent colloquialism, then in everyday use, of the term, ‘Warme Brüder’, (literally ‘Warm Brothers’), a euphemistic phrase applied in the German States to refer to men who preferred to sleep with other men.

© Arthur Martland – LGBT History Month 2026

Saturday, 21 March 2026 – 3.00pm – “At the Rainbow’s End” by Clare Summerskill – Free – (Out In The City has 12 tickets – 2 tickets available)

The play is also on Saturday, 21 March at 7.00pm and Sunday, 22 March at 3.00pm

The play is Free and you can book here.

Hope Mill Theatre, 113 Pollard Street, Manchester M4 7JA

Presented by members of Artemis Theatre Company.

A verbatim play addressing homophobic and transphobic abuse of older LGBTQ+ people in care and receiving care in later life.

These script-in-hand performances of At the Rainbow’s End by Clare Summerskill at The Hope Mill Theatre are all FREE.

Clare Summerskill’s latest play is based entirely on interviews with older LGBT people who have experienced homophobia and transphobia in care settings and when receiving care in their own home. It tackles an extremely important issue concerning older LGBT people who, having perhaps been out for their whole adult lives, are faced with the possibility of having to go ‘back into the closet’ at the point of accessing care in later life.

Each performance will be followed by a Q&A with the writer, the audience and informed panellists.

Performance and post-show discussion last approximately 1.5 hours.