Proud to Be Behind You
How LGBT Foundation evolved into its present-day position as the UK's largest LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing charity, continuing to champion liberation and equality for the community
ReadWelcome to Manchester Gay Centre Leaflet (1981) by Manchester Gay CentreLGBT Foundation
Where Queer Hope & Joy Flourish
LGBT Foundation is the UK's largest health and wellbeing charity, based in Manchester, UK. We've been on the frontlines improving LGBTQ+ health, wellbeing and equality since 1975 and invite you to explore our journey, supporting queer communities to achieve their full potential in 2025 and beyond.
2011: Richmond Street
2011 saw the Lesbian & Gay Foundation move into a new home on Richmond Street, enabling the expansion of our helpline for LGBTQ+ support (running since 1975!) and email support hours in order to meet 59% increased demand along with higher footfall
Opening of the LGF Richmond Street Community Resource Centre
“We would not be where we are today without our space in the heart of the city, which has allowed many to find a safe refuge and a place where they can truly be themselves, often for the first time in their lives."
14th March 2011
2011: Launch of our Village Angels
One Friday night, a group of volunteers in iconic pink high-vis jackets stepped out into the Village, and the rest is history. Today they are still our most visible presence in the community, keeping LGBTQ+ partygoers safe on Friday and Saturday nights. In 2019 they won the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service!
CEO to OBE
2011 continued to be a momentous year, with CEO Paul Martin awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities, dedicating it to the whole team at the Lesbian & Gay Foundation for their tireless work.
"Twenty-two years ago, members of LGBT communities couldn't begin to imagine awards like this would be made in recognition of our work in our communities.
I think the biggest achievement is the fact that LGF is still here and has achieved so much - and we still very much want to continue being here."
2012: Launch of Pride in Practice
Pride in Practice is an accreditation programme for healthcare practitioners, developed to improve the experiences of LGBTQ+ people accessing primary care services. After a successful trial with some Manchester GPs, Pride in Practice began supporting primary care services in 2012.
Our love for educational print continued well into the 2010s, with these beer mats highlighting some of our most well-known national services: Safer Sex pack distribution, sexual health advice and Pride in Practice training for healthcare. These mats were distributed in venues in the Gay Village, key to the organisation's strategy of reaching communities in their own spaces.
2013: Marriage Equality
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 officially came into force, with the first same-sex marriages in England and Wales taking place on 29 March 2014. LGF hosted an event and screening celebrating this historical moment at our Richmond Street centre.
2015: Becoming LGBT Foundation
2015 brought another metamorphosis: becoming trans+ inclusive in name as well as approach to the future of LGBT Foundation's scope and services.
2017-2019: Making a Difference
In the late 2010s, LGBT Foundation continued to publish and contribute to significant reports and became the largest LGBT health and community services charity in the UK by 2019, supporting over 40,000 people via our services and 600,000 people online every year.
In the same year, Manchester City Council tendered a scheme to build an “LGBT-affirmative extra-care scheme" for older LGBTQ+ people on the site of the now-demolished Spire Hospital in Whalley Range, Greater Manchester. LGBT Foundation enrolled community members to take part in what the scheme could look like...
2019: Launch of Pride in Ageing
Launched by our patron Sir Ian McKellen in Manchester, Pride in Ageing was the first programme of its kind in Manchester, creating spaces for over 50s LGBTQ+ people to find community and joy in ageing.
After many years at the beloved Richmond Street Community Resource Centre, in the heart of the Gay Village, 2020 brought one of the Foundation's greatest challenges yet: COVID-19. With strict government restrictions and an increasingly uncertain operating and funding landscape, LGBT Foundation moved its services online, closing down its physical community centre. The pandemic had a disproportionately adverse impact on marginalised communities such as LGBTQ+ people, which we documented in one of our most groundbreaking reports, Hidden Figures.
2020: Manchester Pride at Home
Our patron Owain Wyn Evans joined us in 2020 to help us spread more queer hope and joy in a year where we couldn't celebrate in person with our community. As always, we adapted - and supported them during this unprecedented time through a programme of virtual events and remote services.
The end of 2020 saw LGBT Foundation pilot an NHS trans healthcare service for Greater Manchester, Indigo Gender Service, in partnership with gtd healthcare. With the need for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training more apparent than ever, LGBT Foundation launched its Training Academy programme in 2021, offering a model for systems change for individuals and businesses.
2022: Sackville Street
Our current Mancunian home is Village-adjacent, offering an LGBTQ+ affirmative building as a safe space where people can be who they are, informed by community needs and new priorities of accessibility and hybrid co-working and service delivery.
2023: New look, new direction
In 2023 LGBT Foundation collaborated with HAVAS to bring its new look and feel to life, together with a five-year Strategic Plan to mark a new chapter in its history and a bright outlook for its future.
"LGBT Foundation has undergone a rebrand that is about much more than a fresh logo...During dark times, it is more important than ever that our community’s light burns brightly. At LGBT Foundation, our new brand is a new outlook. We are fundamentally shifting perspectives – ours and others – towards cultivating and celebrating queer hope and joy."
Expansion of Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence Services
By 2023, LGBT Foundation's Domestic Abuse Service, first launched in 2017, had expanded to include dedicated support for survivors of LGBTQ+ sexual violence, highlighting the nuance of LGBTQ+ experiences and the need for our Community Safety programme.
2024: Approval of plans for first LGBTQ+ care home
Working with the Russell Road Community Steering Group, Manchester City Council and Great Places, LGBT Foundation are playing a key role in the development of the first-of-its-kind purpose-built LGBTQ+ Extra Care housing scheme for LGBTQ+ folks and allies over 55.
2024: More hope and joy, to more people
Our services expanded to Liverpool, Merseyside, Coventry and Warwickshire. In the same year we celebrated 30 years of free condom & lube distribution and our continued commitment to meet the needs of our community.
2025: This is What a Woman Looks Like
In 2025 we invite the LGBTQ+ community and allies to come together and champion inclusion, to ensure no one is left behind and we can move forward together - louder and prouder than ever. Find out more about our This is What a Woman Looks Like campaign here.
LGBT Foundation is incredibly proud of what we've achieved over the last fifty years together with our partners and community, without whom we wouldn't be here today. We're committed to fighting for equality and a world where LGBTQ+ people can experience hope and joy in all aspects of their lives.
We want to thank all our incredible colleagues, volunteers, corporate partners, donors, service users and community members who have made progress possible.
We recognise that due to intersectional forms of oppression, LGBT Foundation's formation, history and legacy focuses on gay men, while this is only one facet of a diverse timeline of queer communities and activism that shaped the present day. There are still many more LGBTQ+ stories to tell and we are excited to play our part in platforming these in the years to come.
LGBT Foundation announces closure of Gay Village community centre
Adam Maidment, Manchester Evening News
Research into LGBT+ sexual health services during Covid-19 wins award
Joe Stafford, University of Manchester
LGBT Foundation Annual Report 2022
LGBT Foundation
LGBT Foundation Annual Report 2023
LGBT Foundation
Manchester's "radical fairy" celebrates OBE
Chris Long, BBC News
LGBT Foundation launches dedicated support services for LGBTQ+ victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse
LGBT Foundation
Plans submitted for LGBTQ+ Extra Care scheme
Great Places
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.
