By LGBT Foundation
With excerpts from the Manchester Evening News
Here If You Need Us
How a Manchester helpline sparked a LGBTQ+ revolution in the North West of the UK
ReadPhone a Friend Poster (2005) by Lesbian & Gay FoundationLGBT Foundation
From a stairwell in Longsight to multiple Gay Centres in central Manchester, our helpline set the wheels in motion for a wider LGBTQ+ movement across the North West of the UK
Phone a Friend Billboard (2005) by LGBT FoundationLGBT Foundation
Humble beginnings
Whilst it has faced many name-changes and relocations over the years, LGBT Foundation celebrates 50 years since the launch of the helpline this year. To date, it's estimated that more than 250,000 people have rung up - registering more than 3.7 million minutes’ worth of advice
LGBTQ+ people have always existed, but the roots of activism to achieve mainstream acceptance and equality fully emerged in the UK in the mid-twentieth century. It's a great source of Mancunian pride that the roots of the UK LGBTQ+ rights movement can be traced back to this region, where the North Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee, that later became the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), helped to decriminalise same-sex acts in the late 1960s.
1973: Manchester Gay Alliance
The Manchester Gay Alliance was formed in 1973 and made up of TV/TS (trans group), University of Manchester’s Lesbian and Gay Society (Gaysoc) and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. They held meetings at Withington Town Hall.
Connections to form this new alliance started to be made at the Homophile Society which members of CHE attended. The Manchester Gay Alliance, led by Terry Waller, organised the Switchboard helpline which started in his flat in Longsight in 1975. The phone was on a windowsill halfway up the stairs.
“The Alliance did simple discos at Cheetham and Islington town halls and we raised enough money to be able to produce a newsletter. On behalf of the Alliance, we were then able to start the helpline with a phone on the stairs."
1977: Manchester's first "Gay Centre"
The Switchboard’s first official space was upstairs in the University of Manchester at Waterloo Place, 178 Oxford Road (now the Manchester China Institute, UoM).
The early days of the helpline
Paul Fairweather, one of the volunteers for the original Manchester Gay Switchboard in the 1970s and co-founder of George House Trust, talks about the origin and impact of the Switchboard helpline
"I remember talking to a young gay man, a teenager...had never talked to anyone, was really scared of what his parents would say. So I think I was able to have a long conversation with him, and he actually phoned back repeatedly so I had a number of conversations, and eventually he came along to the gay youth group...to meet him face-to-face and see him blossom and grow over the years was really important to see that, you know, just being able to help someone."
Welcome to Manchester Gay Centre Leaflet (1981) by Manchester Gay CentreLGBT Foundation
In 1977 they were joined by an organisation called Friend, who had space in the basement, offering befriending, gay advice and counselling which was starting to supplement the work done for students by Contact Nightline but designed to reach isolated gay people outside of the university.
1978: Promotion in the Mancunion
The Gay Centre invited people to drop in during the daytime to buy books, badges or just for a chat. Titles stocked included: How to cope with the law if you’re not 100% conventionally heterosexual by Steve Cohen and The Politics of Homosexuality by Don Milligan.
"To spread the word, we’d feature posters of two men and two women - but we eventually changed it to four women because we realised that men would still read it, whilst there was always a danger that women felt forgotten."
Lesbian Link PhotographLGBT Foundation
1978: Launch of Lesbian Link
Lesbian Link was launched by Manchester Gay Alliance as an organisation for women run by women with the similar model of a helpline, and initially they used the Switchboard’s same number running on Thursdays and Sundays.
From campus to KAMPUS
Many people in the Manchester Gay Alliance attended discos run by Gaysoc which started in the Open Lounge and the Squat but were most successful when they moved to the Poly Union on Friday Nights in the Aytoun Building of Manchester Metropolitan University (now Kampus). Around 150 people attended every week.
Do we know what we want?
A document shared with attendees at a Manchester Gay Community Centre workshop in c. 1979 asking attendees to reflect on the needs of new accommodation, following an anticipated move out of the basement of 178 Waterloo Road which had been loaned to the Centre by the University.
An application for a continuation of funding to Manchester's Gay Information Centre. It describes the basement as 'inadequate' and 'damp' and notes that the Students' Union, who had loaned the space, requested it back for the new academic year. Other reasons cited: the need to furnish larger premises, increased telephone charges, and increased travel expenses due to 'more requests for talks, seminars, and help with training for advice centres' and the desire to attend 'national gatherings'.
Funding - The Bureaucrat's Nightmare
A document shared with attendees at a Manchester Gay Community Centre workshop in c. 1979 detailing the difficulties of obtaining adequate funds for the centre and requesting the workshop 'apply its mind to discovering new ways of raising cash'.
"...trying to work out funding for a Gay Community Centre is like trying to put a fast-growing chicken back inside the egg - without breaking the shell."
1981: Bloom Street
Switchboard and Friend eventually merged and this was start of the development of a bigger Gay Centre, with many more groups being able to meet safely at the venue. Thanks to a council grant, they moved to Bloom Street in 1981, where they stayed until 1988.
In 1984 Manchester City Council formed the Equal Opportunities Committee. A year later, Manchester Pride was born (although it wasn’t called this at the time!) following a £1,700 grant from the Manchester City Council to put on a two-week celebration, complete with a huge banner adorning Oxford Street. In addition, the Manchester AIDS Line (which became George House Trust) was launched by six gay men including Paul Fairweather, and the City Council formed an 'AIDS Working Party'.
1986: Sidney Street
It was the move to Sidney Street which was approved by the Council in 1986 and came with a purpose-built £2 million building that felt like a huge step forward in funding/size of the organisation.
Facelift for the Gay Centre
Our centres have always been a home for the community, with this feature in the Mancunian Gay particularly capturing the delight of the Gay Centre's visitors at its new look.
Gay Centre Discussion Invitation (1987) by Gay LifeLGBT Foundation
"The previously rather tatty, and frankly dreary interior has been completely redecorated, and transformed into a series of bright, inviting spaces...The overall effect is fresh, crisp and smart - a far cry from the past."
MeSMAC
In 1990 the Manchester Gay Alliance and Lesbian Link merged to form the Manchester Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, and MeSMAC (Men Who Have Sex with Men - Action in the Community) Manchester was formed.
The story continues...
Take a deeper dive into Manchester and LGBT Foundation's history by visiting our Archives at Manchester Central Library or listening to the oral histories online.
Our journey to the present day continues in our next Google Arts & Culture Story, "Protect Your Lover", where our impact expanded beyond the helpline and social activities into the delivery of safer sex campaigns across Manchester during the 1990s. Visit our Partner Profile to celebrate five decades of Queer Hope & Joy with us!
In the middle of a stairway at a Longsight flat the phone began to ring - things were never the same again
Adam Maidment, Manchester Evening News
With special thanks to Archives+ at Manchester Central Library who hold LGBT Foundation's collections. LGBT Foundation's 50th Anniversary is proudly sponsored by Barefoot Wine and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
