g7uk » trans

Interview with Julia Grant (video)

GS — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:47:54 +0000

A 70-minute interview with legendary Manchester gay village business woman Julia Grant.

A decade ago, Julia Grant was one of the best-known business owners in Manchester’s gay village and an outspoken voice in both the LGBT and mainstream media.

After Mardi Gras 1999 raised nothing at all for good causes, she ran the successful and free-to-enter GayFest for two years. But, some people — including local councillors and Manchester City Council — weren’t happy at all.

Unexpectedly, in 2002, Julia sold Hollywood Showbar and her other businesses and left. Despite rumours and malicious gossip since then, she didn’t speak out in public.

Now, in this exclusive interview Julia Grant reveals the LGBT history that you won’t see at the current Manchester Pride exhibition at The Lowry gallery. Plus she recalls the events that drove her out of the city.

This was recorded on 10 July 2011 during the Sparkle weekend.

Note: eventually, when time allows, archive photos, video and other media will be added to this interview.

Misleading statistics and misconceptions about the gay community

GS — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:26:53 +0000

Much of the gay world is driven by misleading statistics and misconceptions and rather ‘woolly’ thinking. This suits some people down to the ground.

Facts and figures are exaggerated and misrepresented for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes due to ignorance and silliness or with the best of intentions. Other times deliberately for profit, to get funding or to grab or hold onto control of an event or organisation.

Some do it to present a picture that better suits their upbringing and view of life and because of a desperate urge to ‘fit in’ and be no different.

A few years ago I realised how the organisers of Manchester’s August Bank Holiday event (currently known as Manchester Pride) had consistently misled the public about attendance figures over the years. Particularly the crowd numbers at the Saturday parade. They published vastly-inflated figures that were physically impossible and so did the media.

I began to wonder what else are we being misled about?

What people are asking this week (no. 789): The LGF

GS — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:53:48 +0000

Why doesn’t the name of the LGF (or ‘Lesbian and Gay F**kwits’ as the poppets are known locally) include bisexual or transgender? Who could be dropped next? Lesbians perhaps?

Pink tank at Manchester Pride 2007 (video)

GS — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:50:54 +0000

Watch the video here.

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.

Vaughn Lowery ad (video)

GS — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 01:27:53 +0000

Famous across America for being the KMart Joe Boxer underwear guy, now Vaughn Lowery has done a great ad for the Houston Chronicle.

More KMart/Joe Boxer ads featuring Vaughn here and here. How long before we see this talented guy on British TV?

World Naked Bike Ride 2007: Manchester (video)

GS — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 07:08:06 +0000

Last night at 7pm, naked cyclists rode around Manchester city centre. They were protesting about oil dependency and car culture and celebrating ‘the human body and the bike’.

Sackville Park village fete (video)

GS — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:03:48 +0000

Sunday afternoon was the final day of the Queer Up North arts festival and a village fete was held in Sackville Park. There was a cake judging competition, stalls and a great punch and judy show.

Manchester’s Odeon cinema subjected to a damaging ‘systematic and methodical’ assault to prevent preservation

GS — Sat, 19 May 2007 16:18:37 +0000

Manchester’s former Odeon cinema, on Oxford Street, has been subjected to a ‘systematic and methodical’ assault to prevent it being preserved, according to the man who tried to save it.

Photographer loses image library in fire — how safe is your audio and visual data?

GS — Wed, 16 May 2007 09:59:53 +0000

As a photographer myself, I broke out into a cold sweat reading how this poor man lost most of his image library in the Lever Street fire. Equipment can be replaced but unique transparencies, negatives and digital images can’t be.

Help needed after the fire in Lever Street, Manchester on 30 April

GS — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:14:04 +0000

On 30 April, just four days after I wrote about the Basement Social Centre in Manchester city centre and said what a unique and absolutely spiffing place it was, a huge fire ripped through a building to the rear of it.
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