A pink tank featured in the 2007 Manchester Pride parade. Later I saw it speeding down Oxford Road, still with trans girls on-board, and pulling up at the traffic lights. Which was even funnier.
25 August 2007, Manchester, England. Activists invaded the annual Manchester Pride parade today in a protest against the commercialisation of this one-time community and fundraising event.
The 2007 poster for Manchester Pride doesn’t mention the words ‘gay, lesbian, transgender, bi’. It only has the abbreviation ‘LGBT’ in tiny print.
Since 2004 Manchester has had two Caribbean Carnivals. The one in July that has run for decades is now ignored by Manchester City Council. Go to the Council information centre and they will actually deny that there are two Caribbean Carnivals in Manchester each year.
Get Bent! Short Films
Date: Friday, August 31, 2007 20.00 - 00.00
Location: Contact Theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester.
Description: The cutting-edge of underground queer film-making from across the country and beyond comes to the Contact Theatre. Get Bent! has selected ten cinematic gems that explore the darkest and most humorous recesses of contemporary life. The evening rounds off with a special performance by instrumental four-piece, 7 Hertz accompanying a black and white queer cult classic. Followed by DJs and late bar.
Warning: Contains explicit material.
This event is wheelchair accessible. Please contact filmfest (at) get-bent-manchester.com for any further information.
Get Bent! Documentaries: Life in Motion
Date: Saturday 1st September 13.00 - 19.00
Location: Council Chambers, Manchester University Students Union, Oxford Rd.
‘Life in Motion’ is a wheelchair accessible event. Please contact filmfest (at) get-bent-manchester.com for any further information.
How much fact-checking does The Pink Paper do? Does it publish information from press releases without checking the accuracy? Would it ever pull the wool over our eyes if it meant a bit of extra advertising money from Manchester Pride?

Preparations are well underway for Get Bent. An answer to the commercialism of Manchester’s mainstream pride event.
A weekend of free events, food, music, film, art, discussion and fun! Standby for the full programme of events, coming in the next few days. Everyone is welcome (see below).
During and after Get Bent there will be video coverage here on g7uk and on the Get Bent YouTube channel.
Website | MySpace | YouTube | Facebook
Happening: Friday 24 August - Sunday 2 September 2007
Grab a flyer or graphic for your website here.
What’s the thinking behind Get Bent?
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* Get Bent is a safe space for all genders and sexualities and seeks to engage with and foster the possibility of creating queer-positive spaces.
* Get Bent challenges the notion that you have to act or dress a certain way to be accepted.
* Get Bent follows a DiY ethic, creating wide variety of programming by supporting diverse people to create diverse events.
* Get Bent provides an alternative to commercial gay spaces by creating a queer autonomous space that is sex-positive without being sex-centered, doesn’t depend on alcohol to have a good time, and is unafraid to put the politics back into pride.
* Get Bent fosters a sense of community by being inclusive: all ages, all incomes, all abilities, all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, regardless of HIV status, those who are comfortable in commercial gay spaces and those who aren’t.
* Everyone is welcome to participate in this celebration of queerness!



