LGBTQ+ History month: a northern take

For LGBTQ History Month, I wanted to start close to home. Manchester has a long, proud, and sometimes complicated queer history, and many of the stories rooted here still shape the world we live and work in today. Queer history isn’t just something that happens “elsewhere” or in big headline moments, it’s much more micro than that. It cultivates in everyday lives, working history, shared spaces, and people quietly supporting one another.

Henry Stokes ran a successful bricklaying business and was a special constable in Manchester  in the early 1800s, he was also a trans man. Long before today’s language or visibility, Henry lived and worked as himself. His story is a simple but powerful reminder that trans people have always existed, not on the margins of history, but right inside it.

One of Manchester’s most well-known moments of solidarity came in the 1980s with Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. LGBTQ activists supported mining communities during the strike, recognising that justice, dignity, and safety are shared struggles. It’s a story that still resonates today.

Manchester’s Gay Village also has a deeper past than many people realise. Before it became a visible LGBTQ hub, the area was part of a red-light district at a time when both sex work and homosexuality were criminalised. These overlapping communities often offered one another cover and safety. It wasn’t glamorous. It was practical, human, and rooted in survival. 

There’s no way I could write about all things queer and the North, and NOT mention Hebden Bridge. Hebden Bridge has been coined the Lesbian Capital of the North, and anyone who has visited will agree with that moniker. The 1970s saw an influx of artists, activists, and lesbians flock to the area, it now has the highest number of lesbians per square mile within the UK (allegedly).  

Go slightly further across Calderdale and you reach Halifax, the home of Anne Lister. Anne Lister, known as Gentleman Jack, was from a landowning family within Halifax and is classed as the first ‘modern lesbian’, with many of her diaries documenting her relationships with women. In 1934 Anne ‘married’ her partner Ann Walker at the Holy Trinity Church in Goodramgate in York - ok maybe not married, but they took holy communion together to affirm their lesbian relationship in the eyes of god. Holy Trinity Church is now celebrateda as the birthplace of lesbian marriage in the UK.

Now this one you MIGHT need to hear me out... Hadrians Wall, built to keep northern barbarians (me) out during the Roman Empire - it’s actually gay.  Ok the wall might not be, but Emperor Hadrian who built it might have been. Married to a woman, he was also largely documented to have close sexual relationships with many men. Now Hadrians Wall is viewed as a huge part of queer history in the north. 

For us, LGBTQ History Month isn’t just about looking back. It’s about recognising the resilience, creativity, and care that have always existed, often in difficult circumstances. Manchester’s and the North’s queer history shows what’s possible when people look after one another, stand together, and make space for difference.

That feels like something worth celebrating.