The fourth annual Manchester Pride Conference was held on 22 March 2022 at The Lowry Theatre.
The conference theme was “Greater Manchester, A City to be Proud In: Sustaining Greater Manchester’s Legacy of Pioneering LGBTQ+ Rights”, and was chaired by Stephanie Hirst.
The panel sessions included: “Greater Manchester Activism”; “Tackling Racism Within the LGBTQ+ Community”; and “Working Class and Queer”. Spotlight sessions included Anna Phylactic, Nathaniel Hall and Tolu Ajayi.
Greater Manchester is dedicated to transformation, unity, collaboration, social justice and equality … we do things differently here.
Tony Openshaw introduced himself: “In 1971 I turned 16. I could get married and have sex, so long as it was with someone of the opposite sex.
It wasn’t until I was 37 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in 1992.
I was 46 when the age of consent for gay men was equalised to that of heterosexuals in 2001.
I was 59 when I was permitted to marry my same sex partner in 2014.
I’ve been physically attacked on Sackville Street, had eggs thrown at my bedroom window and been evicted from a house, by order of a court, for being gay.
I am now 67 and had no alternative to become an activist.”
Plaza Cinema
The Plaza Super Cinema and Variety Theatre cinema in Stockport, opened in 1932 and is now a Grade II* listed building. After being a bingo hall for many years, it has now been restored as a cinema and theatre, showing classic films and staging live shows. It has been used as a filming location including Life on Mars and Peaky Blinders.
The building is in the art deco style and features a Compton Theatre Organ built with sunburst decorative glass panels. Our visit included a backstage tour, informative talk and refreshments in the period tearoom.
Here are two articles from the Cinema Theatre Association (CTA) – one is John Wilkinson’s obituary and the second is relating to John’s collection which was donated to the CTA.
The scenes of more than three million Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country have been brutally heart-wrenching. Eastern Europe is being overwhelmed right now. The despairing Ukrainians wait very long hours, sometimes even days to board buses and trains to cross the border. Some who have driven, have been leaving their cars and walking considerable distances — marathons to freedom. We are all shocked at what we’ve been seeing. The barbaric bulldozing of a free country by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Each day brings more shocking scenes, more horrific stories, and more desperate situations.
Only last September, over 7,000 people gathered in the capital city of Kyiv for the annual March for Equality.
Only last November, members of Out In The City sent solidarity greetings to Sphere in Kharkiv, an organisation that championed LGBT+ and women’s rights. This entire travesty spells doom for LGBT+ rights, on which progress had slowly started in Ukraine.
LGBT+ refugees fleeing Ukraine draw on European network of allies to find housing and medical care
LGBT+ Ukrainians face risks at borders but have been welcomed by LGBT+ communities in neighbouring countries
People in Kyiv, Ukraine, take part in the Equality March, organised by the LGBT+ communities in September 2021. A network of LGBT+ activists and organisations have sprung into action in recent weeks to support LGBT+ people fleeing the Russian invasion. (Photo: Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters)
When Edward Reese, a queer activist who works with Kyiv Pride, decided to flee Ukraine on 8 March, he knew it was going to be a long journey.
After leaving his home and walking for an hour in the freezing cold to the nearest working subway station, spending “one hell of a night” in a bomb shelter, catching a day-long bus ride to Lviv, and being escorted by aid workers to the Poland-Ukraine border, Reese was finally able to set foot in a small Polish border town.
Edward Reese is a queer activist that recently fled Ukraine and is staying with hosts in Poland. He says he has had a warm welcome by the local LGBT+ community.
“We slept for like an hour or two in the morning in this big, big hall with tons of other people on these makeshift beds,” said Reese.
A few hours later, he took a bus to Warsaw, where a local LGBT+ advocacy group connected him with queer-friendly hosts who could temporarily house him. The whole journey took more than two days.
Although Poland has limited the rights of LGBT+ people in recent years, Reese, who is non-binary and uses he/him pronouns, said he feels safe in the country. But that’s largely because he was quickly welcomed and aided by Poland’s LGBT+ community.
“Poland is not necessarily the best country for LGBT+ people to live,” said Julia Maciocha, chairwoman of Warsaw Pride, one of the organisations helping connect queer and gender diverse refugees to appropriate resources.
“So, we created a database of people that we know that are part of the community so we can match them with people that are in need of safe shelter.”
Limiting LGBT+ rights
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, more than 3 million people have fled, with more than 1.7 million of them arriving in neighbouring Poland.
A network of activists and organisations have sprung into action to support those among the refugees who are LGBT+, facilitating access to safe, queer-friendly housing, transportation and medical care.
“I was almost crying because European organisations like Warsaw Pride, like Budapest Pride, they reached out to us like in the first day of the war, offering their help, offering shelter, offering transportation from the border,” said Lenny Emson, executive director of Kyiv Pride.
“This is … a very good feeling that really helps us to survive through this time.”
Some of the neighbouring countries refugees have to pass through have become hostile to LGBT+ people in recent years.
In Hungary, Radio-Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported that in 2020, lawmakers amended the country’s constitution to define marriage as a heterosexual union and allow only married couples to adopt. It also limited the gender on legal and identification documents to the one assigned at birth.
In Poland, same-sex marriage is not legally recognised and adoption by same-sex couples is illegal; some jurisdictions in the country have gone so far as to declare themselves “LGBT-free zones.”
“So the difficulty is not just making it to the border checkpoints but to be able to get safe haven once they do cross the border to a neighbouring country,” said Kimahli Powell, executive director of Rainbow Railroad, an international organisation that helps LGBT+ people facing persecution.
Reese said so far, he’s only received an incredible amount of support and is currently staying “in a really nice room” with three cats in his Polish host’s apartment.
“We have a great amount of these propositions to host people, to help … from queer people, feminists, different people in different countries who really want to help Ukrainian queer people to go through this,” said Reese, who’s preparing to relocate to Denmark soon.
Trans women face risks crossing borders
Like Reese, some LGBT+ refugees plan to leave Poland after a few days for other Europeans countries.
Countries such as Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands are under less strain than bordering states and may be able to provide more resources and job opportunities to Ukrainian refugees, particularly those who are LGBT+.
The climate for the LGBT+ community inside Ukraine was not particularly accepting even before the war. A 2019 survey of around 40,000 people in 34 countries conducted by the Pew Research Center found that only 14 per cent of respondents in Ukraine thought homosexuality should be accepted in society.
There is no data on how many of Ukraine’s 41 million citizens are LGBT+, but one survey by Ipsos suggests that, globally, anywhere between three and ten per cent of people identify as LGBT+, depending on the country. That would mean potentially anywhere between 1.23 million and 4.1 million Ukrainians identify as LGBT+.
One problem for transgender women trying to leave the country is that their government ID still identifies them as male, meaning they are subject to the law barring males between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.
Trans people can legally change their gender but the process is long and complicated and people who have not yet made the change are now effectively trapped.
“Trans women whose gender marker is not matching their real gender or gender non-conforming people with a gender marker in their passport, they all are affected by this situation and they all are in danger when crossing the border,” said Emson.
“They can be discriminated [against], harassed and … of course, their attempts to cross the border would be unsuccessful.”
According to Powell, LGBT+ refugees also face difficulties accessing certain medications in bordering countries.
“We know for sure that there’s a shortage of antiretroviral medication for people living with and affected by HIV,” said Powell.
LGBT+ people inside Ukraine need essentials
Emson, who is currently in Kyiv, decided to stay in Ukraine to fight the Russian forces and support the LGBT+ community still in the country. Gay and trans people are allowed to join the military in Ukraine and have been taking part in the defence of the country, he said.
“I would like the world to know that there are trans people and LGBT+ people in Ukraine who are serving, who are protecting, who are trying to make their inputs into this fight,” said Emson.
Right now, Emson says, many queer people in Ukraine need the same basic essentials as everyone else: food, shelter and medicine.
“Those who need medication, like trans people who are taking hormones, the situation is even worse because there is a huge shortage of medications right now, and to get hormones is very challenging, too.”
The challenges facing LGBT+ Ukrainians closely mirror those of LGBT+ people in other conflict zones, according to Sharalyn Jordan, board chair of Rainbow Refugee, an organisation that helps people forced to flee persecution because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.
Some LGBT+ Ukrainians are fleeing Russian occupation. Others are signing up to fight
Bohdan Moroz, left, and Vlad Shast are LGBT+ Ukrainians. Moroz was evacuated to Berlin before conscription took effect. Shast is in Kyiv gathering supplies for the Ukrainian soldiers.
A few weeks ago, Vlad Shast was working as a stylist, and performing on the drag queen circuit in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
That was before the Russian invasion. Now, he is pushing a grocery cart from shop to shop in Kyiv, filling it with supplies for soldiers on the front lines.
“My life is like before and after,” Shast says. “My life has changed completely.”
Even before getting called up for mandatory conscription in Ukraine’s military, 26-year-old Shast volunteered for Ukraine’s territorial defence force, a civilian corps that reports to the military.
Shast is a prominent member of Ukraine’s queer scene, who uses they/them pronouns and identifies as nonbinary. They fear what might happen under Russian occupation. Inside Russia, LGBT+ people have faced persecution, even torture.
But when Zelenskyy announced wartime conscription, some LGBT+ Ukrainians fled the country.
“I knew that if I stayed, then the border would be closed to me, and they would obligate me to serve in the military,” says Bohdan Moroz, 23, a gay designer from Kyiv whose company evacuated him to Berlin before conscription took effect.
Moroz wasn’t breaking the law by fleeing Ukraine. But he still feels conflicted. He believes the war is important for people like him.
“I believe that Ukraine is a European country, that has equal rights for everybody,” Moroz says. “So fighting for freedom now means fighting for LGBT+ people as well.”
That’s why that drag performer Vlad Shast joined the territorial defence.
“I am a legend in the Ukrainian queer scene! And you know, now I’m living with straight, hetero men, and they don’t even care about my homosexuality, about my queerness — because now we are united.”
Here’s how you can help
Activists and organisations in Ukraine and abroad have taken steps to help Ukrainians whose sexual preference or gender identity puts them at additional risk.
LGBT+ organisations across eastern and central Europe are co-ordinating evacuations and shelter for LGBT+ refugees from the war-torn country. To help them, the international non-profit All Out has started a fundraiser with Ukrainian LGBT+ organisations Kyiv Pride and Insight. Through donations, they plan to get LGBT+ people out of the country and provide resources to those who stay. Donate to All Out here.
From international fundraisers to local grassroots efforts, here are some organisations looking to support Ukraine’s LGBT+ population: Alturi, Fulcrum, Gender Z, ILGA, Nash Mir LGBT Human Rights Center, OutRight Action International, Quarteera, QUA: LGBT+ Ukrainians in America and Rainbow Railroad.
The Bridgewater Hall is Manchester’s international concert venue, built to give the best possible space for music. The Hall hosts over 300 performances a year including classical music, rock, pop, jazz, world music and much more.
The Hall is home to the Hallé orchestra and we were lucky enough to see Cityscapes, a programme of music with America at its core, conducted by Rodolfo Barráez.
The programme included:
Gershwin – An American in Paris; Korngold – Violin Concerto with Ning Feng on violin; Jennifer Higdon – City Scape; and Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
Rodolfo Barráez, made his first visit to the Hallé since excelling in the inaugural Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition. Gershwin’s portrait of an American enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris, complete with car horns, was followed by the Violin Concerto of Austrian émigré Korngold incorporating melodies from his lush scores for Hollywood movies. It was played by Ning Feng, International Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music and winner of the 2006 Paganini Competition, who made his debut at The Bridgewater Hall. Jennifer Higdon’s City Scape is her evocation of Atlanta: here, in the slow movement, its creeks and parks. Bernstein’s dynamic symphonic dances were expanded from his music-theatre classic in which Shakespeare’s ‘star-crossed lovers’ are relocated to New York.
Free events
Manchester Open Door Tour: Harri Shanahan – Rebel Dykes
HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester M15 4FN – Saturday 26 March, 2.00pm – 3.00pm
Free, but booking required as limited capacity of 30
For the final Manchester Open Door Tour, join Harri Shanahan (they/them), co-director and animator of Rebel Dykes who will deliver a unique tour focusing on animation, character design, mixed media, documentary processes and collaborative working.
Harri Shanahan (they/them) is a filmmaker, artist and animator based in Manchester. Harri co-directed and created animation for the feature documentary, Rebel Dykes (Bohemia Media, 2021).
Harri learned animation independently through experimentation as part of a wider art practice that encompasses video, painting and performance.
Tribeca, 50 Sackville Street, Manchester M1 3WF – Friday 8 April, 6.30pm – Free
Join us at Tribeca on Sackville Street in the Gay Village for an evening dedicated to the life and times of Graham Giles, known to many as Dame Gracy.
Dame Gracy was an important gay activist in Manchester, a Gay Village legend, drag artist, uncle, friend, and much-missed community member who died in March 2021.
This event will tell the story of Gracy’s life, including short films, a timeline of Gracy’s life, speeches and stories from friends and family, photographs, memories and more.
The evening will include food, drink and music.
We are also gathering memories for a book dedicated to Gracy.
If you would like to know more about this event and project, please email greg@manchesterpride.com
People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Manchester M3 3ER – Tuesday 12 April, 6.00pm – 7.30pm – Free
The next session will be hosted by the wonderful Biphoria and will take place on Tuesday 12 April from 6.00pm till 7:30pm at People’s History Museum, if you’d like to join us please register for your free ticket using the link here.
Coccinelle was born in Paris on 23 August 1931, and became famous for having been France’s first transgender celebrity. The name that she was given by her parents was Jacques Charles, but she feminised her first two names to Jacqueline Charlotte. She later stated, “As a boy aged four I knew I was different. I was a girl, really, but nobody could see it.” Jacqueline earned the nickname – which she subsequently adopted as a stage name – ‘Coccinelle’ (Labybird) after appearing at a party in a red dress with black polka dots.
Coccinelle was born at 66 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, and was brought up in the Temple district. The Temple area of Paris is near to what is now a thriving gay nightlife scene, the Marais. Apparently from a young age, she expressed her inner femininity by wearing dresses and wigs. Coccinelle did not come from a particularly wealthy family and the first job she ever had was in a hairdressing salon. Unfortunately her father feared that his son, through this form of employment, would become a homosexual.
Coccinelle eventually entered the vibrant cabaret world as a drag queen or female impersonator according to the public comprehension of the time – some performers did even self-identify as transvestites. Another general term that was used for these glamorous individuals was ‘transformistes’. However, Coccinelle’s self-awareness and comprehension obviously extended beyond her stage persona as she clearly felt a strong affinity with her femaleness.
This stunningly beautiful woman had a sense not only for elegant fashion – she became renowned for her trademark polka dot dresses and mink coats – but she also discovered that she had a talent for the performance arts. After making her debut at Chez Madame Arthur in 1953 which was a fashionable cabaret, Coccinelle advanced onto the popular music hall at Le Carrousel de Paris which had opened in 1947. In fact, Coccinelle was a very talented singer upon which she built a career. She also developed her style by taking inspiration from and modelling her look on Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.
Coccinelle is also famous for being the first French individual to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Just like April Ashley, whom she had met at the popular Le Carrousel de Paris, Coccinelle travelled to Casablanca to undergo her gender-affirming procedure stating afterwards, “Dr Burou rectified the mistake nature had made and I became a real woman, on the inside as well as the outside.”
Coccinnelle’s gender-affirming surgery has also been described as a victory during an era she could still have been arrested for cross-dressing. In fact, there had been a French Law since 1800 making it illegal for women to wear trousers – obviously French women have ignored this law – however, it was only officially repealed in 2013.
At Le Carousel de Paris, Coccinelle not only encountered other iconic trans women such as April Ashley, but also the performer Bambi (Marie-Pierre Pruvot, born in Algeria) who became a lifelong friend. The Parisian cabaret scene became a magnetic centre that attracted into its orbit a number of trans feminine individuals. Not only did it become a haven in which there was the freedom for feminine gender expression but it also became the focal point for important information, and a network of care, support and communication.
Coccinelle became a media sensation after her surgery. Her career included appearances in the films ‘Europa di Notte’ (1959), ‘Los Viciosos’ (1962) and ‘Dias de Viejo Color’ (1968). As a talented singer she also recorded albums, appeared on TV shows and radio shows, and toured world-wide with her stage act.
Furthermore, Coccinelle’s name was emblazoned in red letters by Bruno Coquatrix on the front of the Paris Olympia for her 1963 revue ‘Cherchez la Femme’ – a production which showcased her magnetic talent as a singer. This was because she was the first French transgender woman to become a major star.
Coccinelle got married in 1960 to the sports writer Francis Bonnet. However, she was unusually required to be baptised again due to her name change to Jacqueline. The significant point here was that through the French Government, it was established for a transgender person to marry. All in all, Coccinelle was married three times in her life. Her second marriage to Mario Costa – a Paraguayan dancer – and finally to transgender activist Thierry Wilson with whom she jointly founded the organisation ‘Devenir Femme’ which provided care and was dedicated to supporting transgender individuals seeking gender re-assignment surgery.
Coccinelle was a pioneer of trans visibility. She refused to live in secrecy. In fact after her first marriage the issue of transgender, became a preoccupation in the media, both within and outside of France.
In the later years of her life, Coccinelle wanted to reach out and help others. She established the ‘Center for Aid, Research, and information for Trans-sexuality and Gender identity’. Before passing away, she also wrote and published her self-titled autobiography. This beautiful and amazing individual sadly died in Marseille at the age of 75, having been hospitalised after suffering a stroke. It has been said – and is part of queer ideology – that by simply existing and thriving in a heteronormative society, that you are taking part in your own subtle revolution. From this perspective, Coccinelle was a triumph.
Tony Jackson
Ragtime legend Tony Jackson was born into poverty in New Orleans in 1876. At age 10 he constructed a harpsichord out of backyard junk, tuned it and reproduced hymns he heard in church. At 13 he got his first job playing piano off hours at a honky-tonk. By 15 he was considered one of the best musicians in town – it is said he could play any tune after hearing it only once – and was soon the most sought after entertainer in Storyville.
Seeking greater freedom as an openly gay black man, he went to Chicago in 1912, playing venues like The De Luxe and Pekin Cafés. One of his show stopping tricks was to dance a high kicking cakewalk while playing. His voice was also exceptional – he could sing ballads, blues, and even opera from soprano to baritone.
Jackson wrote many tunes – most he sold the rights to for a minimal amount and many were stolen outright from him. Indeed, some well-known Tin Pan Alley pop tunes of the era were actually written by Jackson. His songs include “Michigan Water Blues” and “The Naked Dance”. One of the few songs published under his name was “Pretty Baby” (1916) which was written for his gay lover.
His personal style soon came to define the archetype image of the ragtime pianist – pearl gray derby, checkered vest, ascot tie with diamond stickpin, and garters on his arms to hold up his sleeves. It was said, “If you can’t play like Tony Jackson, at least you can look like him.” Sadly, Jackson’s musical virtuosity was never recorded, but his influence can be heard in the recordings of the younger musicians he inspired, like Jelly Roll Morton, Clarence Williams, and Steve Lewis. He died of alcoholism in 1921 at the age of 44.
The Duke is a 2020 British comedy-drama film dealing with the 1961 theft of the Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, the film stars Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren.
The film was awarded 5 stars from The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph following the World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2020. It was released in cinemas in the UK on 25 February 2022.
60-year-old self-educated working class Kempton Bunton (Broadbent) appears in Court Number 1 at the Old Bailey, pleading not guilty to charges of stealing Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of Wellington and its frame from the National Gallery in London. Six months earlier, in spring 1961, he sends a script to the BBC from his native Newcastle upon Tyne. Soon afterwards he is jailed at Durham for thirteen days for watching TV without a licence, although he can afford one he refuses to do so as part of his campaign against pensioners having to pay for it, part of his wider strong socialist beliefs about supporting the common man.
Kempton’s son Jackie meets him on his release and on their way home they visit the grave of Marion, Jackie’s sister, who had been killed in a bicycle accident aged only 18. Kempton’s wife Dorothy (Mirren) works as a housekeeper and babysitter for a local councillor and his wife, Jackie aims to become a shipbuilder and move away and his elder brother Kenny lives in Leeds, working in construction but also involved in low-level crime. Kempton himself is sacked from his job as a taxi driver due to being over-talkative to passengers and giving a free ride to an impoverished disabled World War One veteran. He gets Dorothy to allow him a two-day trip to London to drum up press and parliamentary attention for his campaign and BBC interest in his scripts, on the condition that if he does not get that attention he will give up writing and campaigning and get a job. An unseen man with a north-east English accent steals the painting and after Kempton’s return to Newcastle he and Jackie make a false back to a wardrobe to hide it.
Kempton sends a series of ransom notes to the government, saying that he will return the painting on the condition that the elderly be exempted from paying for a TV licence. Kenny and his separated lover Pammy come to visit his parents and she spots the painting in the wardrobe, revealing this to Kempton in private in hopes of getting half the £5,000 reward offered. Panicked, Kempton abandons a suggested Daily Mirror plan to raise money for his campaign via an exhibition of the painting and instead walks into the National Gallery to return it and confess to the theft. Though the case seems hopeless, his barrister Hutchinson defends him on the grounds that he had no intent to deprive the Gallery of it permanently, but instead simply ‘borrowed’ it to further his campaign, an impression Kempton bolsters by voluble testimony under cross-examination.
Back in Newcastle during the early stages of the trial, Jackie reveals to his mother that it had in fact been him who stole it for his father to use in his campaign, with his father covering up for him and taking the blame. The jury acquits Kempton of all charges except the theft of the £80 picture frame, which Jackie had removed from the painting at his London lodgings and then lost.
After his three-month sentence, Kempton and Dorothy forgive each other over how they had mishandled their grief at Marion’s death. Four years later Jackie admits his guilt to the police, but they and the Director of Public Prosecutions fear that a new trial could lead to Kempton being called as a witness and again becoming a embarrassing cause celebre. They therefore agree that if Jackie does not go public they will not prosecute. Text at the end of the film states that the frame was never recovered and that no plays by Bunton were ever produced, but that forty years later TV licences were made free to over 75s.
We enjoyed the film and most of us stayed on at HOME Cinema for a bite to eat. We bumped into Julie Hesmondhalgh (known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street between 1998 and 2014).
Rūrangi
Rūrangi is a film from 2020 currently showing at HOME Cinema. It is in English and Maori (with partial English subtitles).
The cast includes Elz Carrad as Caz Davis and is set in the small dairy farming community of Rūrangi in New Zealand.
Caz returns home after a decade seeking to rebuild relationships with his friends and middle aged father. During the ten years he has been estranged, Caz has transitioned, but his father bitter and grieving for his wife rejects his transgender son and is embarrassed.
The local council are trying to take over his father’s land and Caz as an activist fights a legal battle, bringing father and son to a closer relationship. Winner of the Frameline Audience Award, director Max Currie’s critically acclaimed Rūrangi is a powerful and authentic story interweaving themes of environmentalism, identity, and the strength of finding acceptance.
Out in the City 