Why Manchester is 'way ahead of the rest of the country' in the fight for LGBTQ rights
The LGBTQ community is part of the Mancunian identity, according to the co-author of a new book that explores queer history.
Academic Matt Cook argues that there is a “real fusion of gay pride and metropolitan pride” in the city. This fusion, he says, put Manchester “way ahead of the rest of the country” when it came to the fight for LGBTQ rights.
In his new book ‘ Queer Beyond London ’, co-authored with Alison Oram, the professor of modern history at Birkbeck, University of London looks at the queer history of four UK cities that are often overshadowed by the capital. Read more: The Mancunian Way: Gibbs vs Gallaghers He travels to Manchester, Leeds, Brighton, and Plymouth from the 1960s to the noughties, exploring LGBTQ life, culture, and activism through the decades.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Northern Agenda podcast ahead of Manchester Pride later this month, Prof Cook says the combination of gay pride and Mancunian identity “emerges out of something quite particular” about the city. Listen to the full interview with Matt Cook here: “In Manchester, because of the kind of local council - the city council support for lesbian and gay rights - there’s a real fusion of gay pride and metropolitan pride,” he explains. “So first of all, if you think about that very long history of radicalism in Manchester.
