GM LGBTQIA+ Community Network Newsletter
Friday, 16th August 2024Good Afternoon,
Only a week away till Manchester Pride Festival Weekend but starting today is Scene Festival Manchester LGBTQ+ Film & TV Festival, celebrating Queer Stories on Screen, 16th – 22nd August – Manchester City Centre – Manchester Pride Festival Official Partner Event.
https://www.scenefestival.com/
This year’s Manchester Pride Candlelit Vigil will see them create another special on-screen memorial in memory of those we’ve lost. If you’d like to memorialise a friend or a loved one at this year’s Candlelit Vigil you can provide their details here.
Read the weekly newsletter from Canal St Manchester:
https://canal-st.co.uk/?na=v&nk=13316-ff801782ef&id=27
Consortium: For Stronger LGBT+ Communities
Sector News: https://mailchi.mp/89d1ce611ac2/jan24-9918401?e=4ef77ba796
Funding News: https://mailchi.mp/81209d09ccea/funding-news-jun23-9917493?e=4ef77ba796
Proud 2 B Parents: August Newsletter
https://mailchi.mp/6dfd48214d53/august-2024-monthly-email-16197854?e=c3332628fc
GM Equality Alliance Bulletin, Issue no 95, August 2024
https://www.gmcvo.org.uk/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=10021
Fighting with Pride: Monthly Newsletter
https://rb.gy/89w3iy
There is still time to register to join FWP at Manchester Pride – Saturday 24th August 2024.
Fighting with Pride will be marching in the Manchester Parade on Saturday 24th Aug alongside the Royal British Legion and MOD service personnel. We also plan to meet up on the following day for a social gathering with service personnel.
If you want further details about the march or the social event please contact John for further details
[email protected]
Or you can register to join FWP at Manchester Pride here – https://wkf.ms/3LgQvth
LGBT+ Manchester Walking Tour
In the run up to Manchester Pride, they are running additional ‘LGBT+ Manchester Walking Tours.’
Manchester Pride Tour Dates:
16th August @ 6pm,
17th August @ 3pm,
21st August @ 6pm
Booking: Book either by emailing [email protected] or by visiting our EventBrite:
Location: Our Manchester Pride tours will begin by the ‘Monument to Vimto’ – M1 3BU
Cost: £10pp (pay on arrival by cash/card) – free Solidarity tickets available
What is it?
Explore Manchester’s world-famous Gay Village on Josh’s LGBT+ Manchester Walking Tour
It’s a journey through iconic monuments, touching memorials, secret street art and legendary pubs to tell the story of:
How did Manchester become so bloody Queer?
They’ll share stories of Manchester’s LGBT+ heroes of both the past and present – from Victorian drag balls, to a TV programme that changed everything….
Josh has an MA History degree, specialising in Manchester’s LGBT+ history, and he continues to work in LGBT+ oral history
At the end of each tour, he offers his list of insider recommendations
It’s a great chance to connect with like-minded people from around the world and make new friends, whilst we dig into the atmosphere of Manchester’s LGBT+ heart and history
The tour is a blend of history, heritage, culture and fun, perfect both for international visitors as well as locals to the city who are seeking an unforgettable two hours exploring Manchester’s Gay Village
For these tours, Josh is offering completely free tickets, for people working with/for Manchester’s LGBT+ charities and LGBT+ organisations. (You must be able to prove eligibility)
If you’d like to join one of these tours, simply email Josh with the date (listed above) you’d like to go along to: [email protected]
Tickets are not limited, however group sizes are capped at 35 – so please do RSVP if you intend to join one of these tours.
HOME are thrilled to announce the sensational, award-winning production My Son’s a Queer, (But what can you do?)
Monday 19th – Sunday 25th August
It takes to the stage this summer ahead of Manchester PRIDE, as the acclaimed production makes its glittering debut in Manchester this August!
Written and performed by the multi-talented, social media sensation, My Son’s a Queer, (But what can you do?) has garnered widespread acclaim, evolving from a cult sensation to a WhatsOnStage award-winning and Olivier Award nominated production.
When Rob was 12, they attempted to stage a full-blown Disney parade in their house for their Grandma. As Rob donned a wig and played Mary Poppins, Ariel, Mickey Mouse and Belle, their Dad doubled as Stage Manager, Sound Technician and Goofy. Unfortunately, Dad missed all his cues and pushed all the floats in the wrong direction. Mum mistook Aladdin for Ursula. The costumes went awry and Ariel’s bubble gun didn’t work properly. Grandma had a nice time though.
My Son’s a Queer, (But what can you do?) is the joyous autobiographical story of Madge as they set out to recreate that infamous parade, inviting audiences on a journey filled with laughter, love, and the occasional mishap.
https://homemcr.org/production/my-sons-a-queer-but-what-can-you-do/
ON IT is a joint campaign by We Are Survivors and George House Trust offering support and advice around sex, chems, HIV and consent. It’s based on the ground-breaking report by Dr. Michael Atkins – aka Cheddar Gorgeous. On Saturday 24th August, ON IT will be taking part in the Manchester Pride Parade, and they are looking for participants to join their walking entry to carry placards, hand out postcards and stickers promoting the campaign, and take part in one of the most colorful, inclusive and diverse events in the city. If you’d like to join ON IT at the Manchester Pride Parade, drop an e-mail to [email protected] to secure your place, and your free ON IT campaign t-shirt!
Find out more about ON IT, and take the quiz at www.onit.org.uk
The FestiDale,
Community Arts Festival is live this week at Kingsway Park High School, Rochdale. The festival culminates with their Family Pride Day at the FestiDale, Sunday the 18th – a day full of different activities for all the family, including drop-in arts and crafts, Family Catwalk Extravaganza, a drama workshop for young people 14-25, and a dance party for all!
All tickets are pay-what-you-can, starting at just £1, they also have free community tickets available for local groups based across Rochdale.
https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/event/family-pride-day/
Out In The City Are you LGBT+ over 50 years of age?
If so, then you are warmly invited to Out In The City’s Pride Party.
It’s at Cross Street Chapel, 29 Cross Street, Manchester M2 1NL from 2.00pm to 4.00pm on Thursday, 22 August.
There will be Entertainment – Frank n’ Flirter and their own boy band, Wolf, a Buffet and a Raffle.
Trans Pamper: Friday 23rd Aug, 12pm – 4pm at Feel Good Club
Hosted by Violet Blond, Make up by Patti Baston, Barbers Crown of Thorns
Free Event: Pamper yourself, have a little mini make over!
Superbia Guide to Pride
Superbia is Manchester Pride’s year-round arts and culture programme, and each year we proudly promote a series of alternative events as part of Manchester Pride Festival. We are proud to have funded a fantastic selection of events taking place on and around Manchester Pride Festival Weekend this year. From events designed to help you prep for Pride, to celebrations of queer life and love and opportunities to connect with your local community; the programme offers something for everyone to get involved with!
Check out this year’s Superbia Guide to Pride here.
Youth Guide to Pride
Youth Pride MCR is a programme of events specially designed in collaboration with young people under the age of 18 as part of the Manchester Pride Festival! Working in partnership with AKT and The Proud Trust we’ve put on a jam-packed weekend of activities and workshops, including stellar performances from our young drag stars in The House of Queens, Kings and Holy Things!
Events are free but ticketed. Check out the Youth Guide to Pride and reserve your spot HERE.
Family Guide to Pride
Join us on Saturday 24th of August where Manchester Pride has partnered with Proud 2 B Parents and Great Northern to deliver a fantastic day of family-friendly activities at Family Pride MCR! At Family Pride MCR, our mission is to ensure that the stories we share with children reflect the beautiful world they live in: a world where every family is celebrated and embraced.
Check out the Family Guide to Pride HERE
The Candlelit Vigil
The Candlelit Vigil is a significant event that marks the culmination of the Manchester Pride Festival. Created in partnership with George House Trust and taking place in the serene surroundings of Sackville Gardens, this moment of reflection brings together LGBTQ+ communities and allies to remember those we have lost to HIV, and to stand united in the fight against homophobia, transphobia, and the persistent stigma that surrounds HIV.
This year’s Vigil will see us create another special on-screen memorial in memory of those we’ve lost. If you’d like to memorialise a friend or a loved one at this year’s Candlelit Vigil you can provide their details here.
Rainbow Mind – Active Pride, LGBTQIA+ Mindful Walk
Saturday 31st August 2024, 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Manchester City Centre
Didsbury Pride – Saturday 31st August, 12pm – 9pm
Didsbury Pride host their 7th annual Pride Festival celebrating inclusion and diversity within the LGBTQ+ community and their allies.
Commencing with a Rainbow Walk through Didsbury Village at midday with a DJ and full Samba Band (for those wishing to attend please assemble on Stenner Lane at the side of The Didsbury Pub M20 2SG from 11.30am) and running through until 9pm.
This is a free to attend family event with lots of food & drink stalls, LGBTQ+ info stalls, Drag Time stories and children’s area along with a full line up of stage acts including Years & Years Tribute, DJ sets and headliner Kelly Wilde – The Queen of Pride.
There is an after-Pride Party from 9pm at the Head of Steam in Didsbury Village running through until midnight
Festival Location – 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR
https://www.instagram.com/didsburypride/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/didsburypride
Chorlton Pride Fundraiser – Pop Quiz and After Party
with Host Vin Dicktiv from the House of Gorgeous
Friday 27th September 8pm
The Beagle, Barlow Moor Road.
Tickets from £5 (with booking fee)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chorlton-pride-fundraiser-pop-quiz-and-afterparty-tickets-954009787957
Get into running with Manchester Frontrunners’ Couch-to-5K course!
Want to get into running, and with a friendly and supportive group to boot? Join Manchester’s LGBTQ+ running club for their FREE Couch-to-5K course, returning on Thursday 5th September. Places are limited, so please contact course leader and accredited running coach Steve Hatton as soon as possible at [email protected].
More information available on the Manchester Frontrunners website.
Stonewall Equality Dinner: 30th October 2024, 7pm – 1am
De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, London, WC2
The Equality Dinner is the most prestigious day in the Stonewall calendar and this year will be hosted by Gok Wan and Suzi Ruffell.
On the night, over 400 of the UK’s most prominent supporters of LGBTQ+ rights from across public life and business will attend to learn about, and raise funds for, Stonewall’s vital campaigns for LGBTQ+ freedom, equity and potential. The evening’s entertainment delivers a balance of Stonewall’s important messaging complemented by fun and fundraising in equal measures.
This year’s Equality Dinner delivers an important rallying call for LGBTQ+ supporters and allies – that we need to stand together to protect the progress we have made. The UK is falling behind on the global stage as a ‘culture war’ takes hold of our politics and media and as hate crime rises. The need to stand together for a positive future for LGBTQ+ people is more important than ever.
For further information and to book your table please visit: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/equality-dinner
Greater Manchester Pride Events for 2024
Manchester Pride Friday 23rd – Monday 26th August
Didsbury Pride Note – Saturday 31st August NOT the first Saturday in September!
Ramsbottom Pride Saturday 21st September
Withington Pride Saturday 21st September
Chorlton Pride Fundraiser See Below:
Withington Pride. Have got a few call outs for this year’s Withy Pride – If you can help, please get in touch
Gravy Mag Queer PoC Exhibition and Poets Call out
Open call for PoC LGBTQ+ artists and poetry performers, for work of any medium on any theme for an Exhibition
and showcase as part of Withington Pride 2024.
Open and closed community space @ Withington Pride
They aim for Withington Pride to celebrate and strengthen existing networks of care and community support. We’re therefore inviting LGBTQ+ community groups to host a space on the day in free rooms at Withington Methodist Church.
- Open community space: host one of your regular group sessions as a drop-in, whether that’s crafts, conversation or a workshop. Or simply offer a brew and chat as an introduction to your group (we could publises as a X’s community cafe).
- Returning to pride’s roots in grassroots activism, we hope offering such community spaces will offer an introduction to intersectional groups and act as a living community notice board.
- Closed community space: bring your regular group to Withington Pride with a free meeting space.
- We hope that this offer will support community members who might not otherwise have had the confidence to come alone to join in the day’s festivities and hope having this space would be the start of a great day out for your group.
- Alternatively, if you’d like to share physical flyers or posters for your group they can distribute these at Withington Pride
Interested? Drop us an email @ [email protected]
Call out for volunteer Community space coordinator- coordinating the community rooms between 12-4pm on 21st of September, with a flexible commitment to supporting administration of the community space offer in advance of the day.
https://www.withingtonpride.com/
Instagram: @withingtonpride
Facebook: @withingtonpride
GM LGBTQ+ Equality Panel:
Are you an LGBTQ+ person living in Greater Manchester who’s passionate about equality and wants to make a difference for the communities you represent?
Join the LGBTQ+ Equality Panel and help shape queer inclusive policy in Greater Manchester!
They’re hosting two open days on 21st September (online) and 5th October (in-person at LGBT Foundation) 12-2pm where you can learn more about the panel and apply to join. Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gm-lgbtq-equality-panel-open-day-tickets-950034417517?aff=oddtdtcreator
Got a question? Get in touch at [email protected]”
LINDEN ARCHIVES: Stuart Linden Rhodes
A new coffee table size photobook of the queer 1990’s is available now for pre order from https://www.pariahpress.com/product-page/linden-archives
Titled simply Linden Archives this book presents a collection of photographs of Pride events, Mr Gay UK contests alongside Club and Bar images from London, Brighton to Newcastle and Manchester. The foreword is written by actor Russell Tovey.
A photobook that seeks to encapsulate a peoples defiant in the face of the AIDS crises and discriminatory laws. Included in this work are many images that have fallen foul of Instagram’s unjustly censorious and baffling algorithm — alongside uninhibited photographs of Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Derek Jarman, Take That, Julian Clary, Peter Tatchell, Paul O’Grady, East 17 and many more.
‘Linden’ was the roving reporter for APN and the Gay Times during the early to mid 1990s, his columns for those magazines were entitled: Out & About with Linden. Stuart Linden Rhodes was also a lecturer at a local further education college, the pseudonym ‘Linden’ adopted due to concerns generated by draconian Clause 28 legislation sanctioned by Tory governments of the era. At home in North Yorkshire during the ‘rona lockdowns of 2020-21, Stuart established the Linden Archives online as a way to preserve his work and look back fondly on the brash, thriving gay scene of the 1990s. More recently, his photography has featured on BBC television & radio and in Mastermind Magazine, Crotch, The Guardian, You Otter Know and Photography – A Queer History. Imagery from the archives have been exhibited at the Grundy Art Gallery, Queer Britain, Moray Pride, Vane Gallery and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum as part of the Museum of Youth Culture.
The Sunday Boys: Are seeking New Directors for their Board
Do you have knowledge and experience in the music sector? Could you help to shape and support an organisation dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and allies through songs and stories? If so, The Sunday Boys would like to hear from you.
They’re looking for at least two new Directors to sit on their board and help them continue to take their choir from strength to strength.
Please click here to read the role description
In the first instance, please email Executive Director Matt Saint on [email protected] to express interest or discuss the role in more detail. They can happily arrange a video or telephone call with the directors best placed to answer your questions should you wish. Interviews will take place in August 2024.
FORWARD CIC – Improving the wellbeing of Stockport’s LGBTQIA+ community. Follow on social media
https://www.facebook.com/ForwardLGBT
https://www.instagram.com/forward_stockport/
Forward Fundraising
From cake shop to lifeline!
Learn how Forward, an inclusive cake shop turned LGBT support organisation in Stockport. Tina and Ged share how Forward has become a vital lifeline for the LGBT+ community, offering a range of activities from online socials to walks and talks. Discover the impact of your pledges and learn how you can get involved to support their mission. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. Watch now to find out how you can help create a more inclusive and supportive community. #LGBT #CommunitySupport #ForwardLGBT If you can please donate here:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/forwardLGBT…
Walks
It helps loneliness, Gives isolated people in the community a space to socialise, creates a space to live healthily not only physically but mentally.
Join them in the great outdoors for a walk and talk, litter pick, connecting with your community and nature! Tuesdays from 6.30 pm – keep an eye on our socials for details of where to meet etc and please let them know if you are planning on joining us.
13th Alexandra Park, Edgeley
20th Woodbank Park, Offerton
27th Bruntwood Park, Cheadle
The Rainbow Lottery is the UK’s first weekly lottery that raises money for the LGBTQ+ community. Their hope is to make a difference to our over 100 good causes across the country, so they can carry on their vital work – which helps us all.
For more info: www.rainbowlottery.co.uk To start supporting causes in OUR community purchase your ticket here:
https://www.rainbowlottery.co.uk/referral/1754044334/1961609853
Surveys / Research / Questionnaires / Training:
Pride in Leadership:
A call to action – survey of LGBTQ+ people examining potential barriers to career development
In recent years, significant strides have been made to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. However, there remains a notable gap in addressing the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in professional environments. That is why we are launching a comprehensive survey of career development experiences – to help drive change. Please complete the survey here.
Job Vacancies
Trans Creative is Hiring.
Trans Creative is looking for an experienced General Manager to join the Trans Creative team on a part-time fixed-term freelance basis until June 2025.
This busy, varied and exciting role will commence in September 2024. They’re looking for a highly experienced and well organised person to work alongside the Artistic Director to ensure the smooth running of all aspects of the organisation, including finance, fundraising, service delivery, administration and their bi-monthly Trans Social Club.
For more information about this role and how to apply, visit www.transcreative.uk/work-with-us
Deadline for applications 10th September Midnight