Outside of London, Manchester is home to the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ community, renowned for its popular Gay Village on Canal Street. The city has also been home to many important LGBTQ+ figures, and has played host to numerous festivals that showcase the rich LGBTQ+ heritage of the region, including Pride and Queer Up North. In 1964, Greater Manchester was the birthplace of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Manchester City Council was hugely influential in the campaign against Section 28.
If it’s a night out you’re after, head over to Canal Street, which is a 5-minute taxi or 20-minute walk from our Manchester student accommodation. Described as a ‘beacon of celebration in the city’, this village-like community features a mix of bars, clubs, restaurants and green spaces set alongside a long stretch of the Rochdale Canal. Find out more about what’s on in Canal Street.
Canal Street is famous for being one of the UK’s liveliest LGBTQ+ hubs, and is an area where LGBTQ+ people can feel safe to be themselves. During Canal Street’s beginnings, LGBTQ+ pubs were identifiable by clouded glass windows, providing privacy for those within. One such example is the New Union pub, which was built in 1865, and became popular with the LGBTQ+ community in the 1950s.
A turning point for the area came in 1990, when Manto opened – a club with huge glass windows. You went to Manto to be seen, not hide. By the end of the Nineties, Canal Street had hit the mainstream. In 1999, three and a half million people tuned into Channel 4 to watch ‘Queer as Folk’, which showed off Canal Street’s amazing party atmosphere. Canal Street is still a popular destination today and continues to be somewhere for LGBT+ people to feel safe and express themselves.
Harry Stokes
Harry Stokes was a trans man living in Manchester in the 1800s – his remarkable true story was recently brought to life by Manchester Pride, after remaining hidden among the press archives of Manchester Central Library for more than a century. His life has also recently been turned into a play: ‘Harry Stokes - The Man-Woman of Manchester’.
Harry became the talk of the town after being seen as a woman in disguise – where nowadays we could see Harry as having a trans identity. It’s a truly fascinating story of a trans pioneer which quite rightly is finally being told. Find out more about Harry.
Alan Turing
Often dubbed ‘the father of modern computing’, Alan Turing was based at The University of Manchester after his code-breaking work with the British Intelligence Service at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Alan was homosexual and was posthumously pardoned by the Queen, having been convicted of gross indecency for his relationship with a man. He will feature on the new £50 note, which launches this summer.
Glasgow is proud to be one of the most gay-friendly places in Europe. The city was recently in the limelight with legendary Glaswegian drag queen Lawrence Chaney winning the grand finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in March this year, making ‘herstory’ as the first Scottish and plus-size queen to win the competition.
In the city itself, there’s an array of clubs for members (and supporters) of the LGBTQ+ community to choose from when partying in Glasgow, which are a short taxi ride from our student flats in Glasgow – read more about the nightlife on offer.
With most Pride events on hold for 2021, Glasgow Pride are organising a Pride Picnic, to keep the community spirit alive while following government guidance. The website says: ‘This June, come together outdoors and reconnect with loved ones while fundraising for a good cause. Host a Pride Picnic to raise money and help LGBT Youth Scotland make life better for young people.’
Liverpool has a buzzing LGBTQ+ community. Home to one of the biggest free pride events in Europe, Liverpool was also the first British city to install rainbow street signs in 2011, identifying the gay quarter. The city also has a long history of celebrating the transgender community and flies the transgender pride flag from all public buildings on International Transgender Day of Visibility each year.
Stanley Street Quarter was officially recognised as Liverpool’s Gay Quarter in 2013, featuring many bars, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs that appeal to the LGBTQ+ community. Stanley Street is a 5-minute walk from our Marybone student flats, so why not sample the nightlife this June?
This year’s Liverpool Pride has been cancelled, but there will be a ‘march online’ event on 31st July.
At the start of World War II, Liverpool was known as ‘the gay centre of the North’, due it being a major British port with an influx of gay sailors, stewards and airmen, as well as numerous passenger and merchant ships. Since then, Liverpool has been a part of many ground-breaking LGBTQ+ stories, including:
- Liverpool-born April Ashley became Britain’s first transsexual in 1960.
- Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, fronted by two openly gay band members, scored the longest running number one single in the UK in the 1980s.
- Liverpool based soap opera Brookside featured the first openly gay character on a British TV series in 1985 and showed the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss in 1994.
- In 2001, the UK’s first ever televised gay wedding was screened live on air on This Morning from Liverpool’s Albert Dock.
- Hollyoaks, filmed in Liverpool’s Lime Pictures studios, was the first British soap opera to cast an openly transgender actor, Annie Wallace, to play a transgender character. She became the first transgender actor ever to be nominated for a BAFTA.
- In 2012, Liverpool Football Club became the first Premier League team to support a pride event with members of staff and also fans marching the parade with flags provided by the club.
Cambridge has a rich LGBTQ+ history – it was famously involved in the political campaign for homosexual equality throughout the 1970s, and continues to contribute towards the equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community with an LGBTQ+ Campaign that is run by the university students. They run a range of social and educational events including regular meet ups, a support community as well as guest speaker events. The University of Cambridge also has a brilliant audio tour of the city, which is free to listen to.
Pride events in Cambridge are run by a charity called The Pink Festival, an open-air event with a number of marquees offering varied entertainment including live music, cabaret and comedy. Previous events have included a ‘Pink Games’ arena for sporting activities.
Cambridge has been home to many LGBTQ+ icons over the years, including EM Forster, a novelist who was associated with King’s College, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature 16 times. His last novel ‘Maurice’ (1971) was controversial at the time, as it was a homosexual love story and Forster’s sexuality had not previously been known.
A famous Cambridge Poet and Philosopher, Edward Carpenter has written about his experience of the LGBTQ+ night life in Cambridge in his autobiography ‘My Days And Dreams’.
Stephen Fry is probably one of the most well-known faces from the Cambridge area. He has been well known for being outspoken on the rights for both the LGBTQ+ community and for raising awareness around mental health and well-being. He’s been the President of mental health charity, Mind, since 2011.
London has claim to the first-ever Pride festival, which took place in 1971 – two years after the Stonewall Uprising on 28th June 1969, and one year after the first ever Pride event in New York City. 2,000 people took part in this fledgling event – now, more than one million people celebrate it annually in the UK's capital.
This year’s Pride in London will take place on the weekend of 11th September 2021, but in the meantime, there are plenty of vibrant LGBTQ+ friendly communities to explore across the capital. Soho is perhaps the most well-known gay community, with roots back in the 1890s. LGBTQ+ friendly places to visit in Soho include G-A-Y, Candy Bar, The Friendly Society, and The Admiral Duncan Shadow Lounge. Vauxhall, Camden and Stoke Newington are also popular with the LGBTQ+ community. All of these areas can be easily reached from our London student accommodation via public transport.
If you want to find out more about LGBTQ+ history in London, check out Queer Tours of London, a series of walks aimed at sharing the complex history of LGBTQ+ activism in the city. The tours each focus on a different issue affecting the community such as health concerns – from HIV to transitions – or the specific challenges LGBTQ+ asylum seekers face when fleeing persecution.
Dundee is home to a buzzing LGBTQ+ community, and held its first-ever Dundee Pride event in 2018 in City Square. While a date hasn’t yet been set for 2021, keep eye on the Pride website! Dundee is also home to Allsorts of Spectrum, an online youth group for 13-25 year olds in Dundee.
Dundee University also has an LGBT+ Society, which offers support and opportunities for fun, socialising, education, and activism for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community across Dundee.
Here at Sanctuary Students, we think it’s really important to create equal opportunities for all our residents and employees and our 'Our Inclusion for All' strategy sets out how we will protect the rights of our staff and customers.
Sanctuary is dedicated to achieving sexual orientation and gender identity equality in the workplace. In order to assist in achieving these aims, Sanctuary is a member of the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme, a best practice employers’ forum.
Pride is a wonderful event, but it can also be a confusing time, especially for people who aren’t out. It’s important to know when to ask for help. Don’t suffer in silence – talk it through with someone. Whether it’s a friend, family member, your GP or university tutor, sharing your feelings will help.
There are plenty of avenues of support you can turn to, including our Student Advice Line from our partners at Health Assured. At Sanctuary Students, your health is our priority and that’s why we offer professional support to help you with any problems you may face, from stress and depression to financial issues and coping. The phone line is open day and night, 365 days a year, and everything you discuss is kept confidential, so there’s nothing to worry about. Call the freephone number on 0800 030 5182 – we’re here as often as you need us, for as long as you like. Learn more about Sanctuary Students well-being services.
Mental health charity Mind also has a great list of organisations that support the LGBTQ+ community.