LGBTQ culture in Liverpool

The earliest experiences of homosexuality can be traced back to the Georgian era when Liverpool was growing rapidly in population and stature, right through to its height as second city of the British Empire during Queen Victoria's reign.

His encounters also involved other artisans 'from other classes and petit-bourgeois milieux', including three gentleman's servants and a fustian cutter named Simister who was well known for manipulating young men into homosexual sex.

The research by Dr Evans showed that between 1850 and 1918, there were more incidences in Liverpool than anywhere else in the entire county of Lancashire where inter-male sex related cases were being actively pursued by the police and courts.

From the 1890s, Evans argues that the police forces in larger conurbations were able to prosecute inter-male sex cases in greater numbers due to the fact they were able to more easily identify areas where it was taking place.

[38][39][40] According to the research by Dr Jeff Evans, in the couple of decades that followed World War I, police managers and their governing bodies in Liverpool were choosing to punish homosexual sex crimes in an even more severe and disproportionate manner than previous years.

Evans notes that Liverpool was flourishing as a large and busy port with a booming commercial sex industry, but argues that this was not necessarily the case why so many gay men were being prosecuted.

[41] In his interview with Our Story Liverpool, a local LGBT history project, the late artist Yankel Feather recounts his experiences of cottaging in public toilets off Princes Road in the 1930s.

Liverpool's strategic importance as the great port of the British Empire brought with it a constant flow of passenger liners and merchant ships and a regular influx of gay stewards, sailors, soldiers and airmen choosing to spend time and money in the city.

The general sense that death could very easily be around the corner and consequential 'live for the moment' ethos led to semi-secret pockets of acceptance and development of a vibrant underground subculture of homosexual bars and cottages.

[51] By 1975, most of the bars that had provided a safe haven for so long around Queen Square had been demolished to make way for the new St. John's Shopping Centre, Roe Street Gyratory and bus station.

Scarlett's and Reflections both served as a meeting place for members of Friend Merseyside, a Liverpool-based LGBT support group which operated a weekly coffee bar, befriending, counselling and switchboard service in the city centre.

In spite of the modest freedoms afforded by the bars, interviews reveal how homosexuality was still seen as taboo in mainstream society and how copies of the Gay Times were still being stocked in brown paper bags at the News From Nowhere bookstore, even by the late 1980s.

It was not until the late 1980s with the arrival of medication to treat HIV and AIDS such as AZT that the social scene started to recover and ultimately evolve to become more mainstream with the greater incorporation of heterosexual people.

[57] Due to the hysteria over the AIDS epidemic as well as anxieties surrounding the infamous Section 28, which prohibited local authorities from intentionally 'promoting homosexuality', Liverpool City Council chose to cancel a grant to a gay play being performed at the Everyman Theatre in 1988.

The magazine lists The Curzon Club, Garlands, Reflections, Paco's, The Lisbon, Brunswick Vaults and Daley's Dandelion as venues based in the emergent gay neighbourhood.

Whilst the LGBT community had established roots around Stanley Street and surrounding district for several decades, a debate on developing and promoting it as a 'gay village', akin to other major cities, was only just beginning to gather momentum.

The pro side hoped to boost the local economy whilst those with reservations pointed to the fact that a gay district was already growing organically and warned about further ghettoising the community.

[79][80] Prior to the introduction of legalised same sex relationships, Liverpool was one of the first local authorities to grant commitment ceremonies for gay couples at its municipal Register office.

Despite not granting legal rights at the time, in 2005, the city became the first ever UK local authority to include a gay couple on the front cover of its civil ceremony promotional material.

Shocked and outraged by the acquittal of Gavin Alker, who was said to have played a critical role in the murder,[89] the LGBT community organised a protest outside Liverpool Crown Court.

[93] The wider implications of these high-profile attacks have since been felt, not least through helping to galvanise the community by bringing together various disparate groups and organisations, but also causing a shift in attitude at municipal authority level.

[101] The city was the location for a pivotal moment in the history of the gay rights movement as the Liberal Democrats announced their public support for same sex marriage at their 2010 annual conference held in Liverpool, becoming the first mainstream British political party to do so.

[105] The first ever award ceremony to celebrate the achievements of Liverpool's LGBT community took place on 13 October 2011,[106] organised by Seen Magazine - the city's home grown lesbian and gay publication.

[113] Between March 2020 and the time the Liverpool Echo article had been published, the UK had been through a sequence of restrictive controls to stem the spread of Coronavirus which had directly affected the hospitality industry.

Towards the end of 2020, Linda had attempted to establish Funny Boyz club on Liverpool's Stanley Street with a large planned event but was forced to cancel at the last minute following the Government's announcement of the second national lockdown.

[117][118][119][120] In December 2020, Linda Gold reattempted to relaunch the Funny Boyz club in Liverpool during a brief window where the UK government allowed venues in Tier 2 regions to open for business.

Linda told Gay London Life that the events were heavily supported, complied with government guidelines and were intended to spread "colour to the world at a time when everybody was desperate to escape months of lockdowns and restrictions".

[131] Homotopia is a month-long festival of gay culture including theatre, film, photography and art, as well as delivering a national and international programme of social justice and education initiatives all year round.

[133] Homotopia has been attended by numerous high-profile figures from international gay society, including Peter Tatchell,[134] Holly Johnson, Armistead Maupin,[135] and Amy Lame.

Liverpool born men and women have championed equality for half a century, whilst major turning points in the history of the national and international LGBT community have been marked right in the heart of the city.