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Liverpool's Gay Village People
Liverpool
Liverpool community finally gets its Gay Village
"Local gay and lesbian businesses hope this will rival Manchester in the pursuit of the lucrative ââ¬Ëpink poundââ¬â¢."
From next year Liverpool will have its very own Gay Village, one that local gay and lesbian businesses hope will rival Manchester in the pursuit of the lucrative ‘pink pound’.
While bars and nightclubs around the Erbele Street, Stanley Street, Cumberland Street are already at the hub of gay nightlife, the area officially be christened Liverpool’s Gay Village in 2009 and the city council is poised to give the go-ahead to pedestrianisation of the area to see traffic banned in the vicinity after 10pm at weekends.
Although the local council avoids using the term ‘Gay Village’ it is in fact embracing a culture that many considered has been long ignored by the local constituency.
In July of this year 18 year-old Michael Causer was murdered at a party in Huyton in what police have called a homophobic attack. The gay community since spoke out about this being the tip of the iceberg of hate crimes in the area.
Last year a report by Stormbreak revealed that nearly six out of ten LGBT people had experienced varying degrees of homophobic crime in the Liverpool area. It also revealed that the average homosexual adult living or working in the city was likely to experience around 15 crimes relating to their sexuality, in their lifetime.
Liverpool’s growing gay community have on the most embraced the prospect of the regenerated city’s Gay Village. Although the annual Gay Pride’s marches haven’t compared to those of London, Manchester and Brighton, Liverpool hosts the annual Homotopia festival, which showcases gay and lesbian talent.
However, director of Homotopia, Gary Everett remains uncertain of the benefits of such things as ‘Gay Villages’. He told the BBC:
"I am not convinced that social engineering of this sort is a good idea. These things should be organic and it is happening organically. This quarter is already edgy and dynamic and it is definitely mature, building on a great gay heritage stretching back for the past 50 years”
Stonewall’s Ben Summerskill agreed:
“Having areas where people can gather together and feel safe in is really important. But in the long run you might hope it was not necessary and people should feel safe absolutely anywhere”
Liverpool has recently had multi-billion pound facelift and was crowned the European Capital of Culture 2008.
