A Merseyside-based artist has been attending Pride events since the 80s and even protested with Lily Savage when she was a child.
Jazamin Sinclair, who lives in Aigburth, remembers going to demonstrations and “shouting for gay and lesbian rights” with her aunties who helped organise marches in London. While her family members were making sure meetings were running smoothly and preparing food for performers, Jazamin herself was making memories and getting papped by the likes of Gay Times, the same magazine she would appear on the front cover of for her commitment to taking a stance against anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
The former photography student told the ECHO : “I remember the marches and then the performances and parties as being loads of fun. I enjoyed it all as a child. I didn’t really realise the seriousness of it all as well though at the time - and apparently we came up against the likes of the National Front on occasion at some of the demonstrations and marches.
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"It was really cool and exciting - I loved being around the queer community and I loved dressing up, going to Pride, and all the colour and flamboyance, and everyone embracing their true selves. Plus getting to scream, shout and sing at the demos and marches. Looking back, I have so many happy memories from that time and have so much admiration for everything everyone in the LGBTQ+ community was doing to fight for all the queer rights that we have today.”
At one Pride demonstration in London, Jazamin was brought on stage by Paul O’Grady’s alter-ego, Lily Savage and while there are still drag queens performing up and down the country, the 41-year-old appreciates how there is “more acceptance” now compared to when she first attended.
Jazamin, who moved to the city in 2003, added: “I think it is great that there is more acceptance now about sexuality and gender on the whole. It has become so much more widely acceptable to embrace yourself, your sexuality and your gender now. However, I also see similarities to back then, in terms of some of the rhetoric from the far right both here in the UK and around the world. This, alongside the rise of nationalism and homophobic and racist hate crimes in recent years, scares me if I’m honest.”
Having been surrounded by the LGBTQ+ community and its allies made Jazamin realise she was bisexual and pansexual. Despite her family being incredibly supportive, society hasn’t always been as kind to her. Jazamin attended school during the period when Margaret Thatcher and the Tories made Section 28 law. This was a series of laws across Britain that prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities.
Recalling the experience, the content creator at Smithdown Social Arts Hub, said: “I have been acutely aware of homophobia from a very young age with my aunties being lesbians. I experienced a little bit of teasing in school in London when some kids found out. And even though they were out and proud, to protect me, they said I shouldn’t tell everyone at school that they were gay - in case of bullying. I saw the struggles my aunties and queer friends of our family had to deal with in order to be accepted. I remember how my mum and my aunties’ gay male friends had to live with additional stigmatism due to how HIV and AIDS were portrayed as being a ‘gay plague’ at that time.”
Things only got worse when Jazamin and her family moved to North Wales in the 90s - a place, which according to Jazamin, was “quite bad” with homophobia and racism. Here, at a new school, she was subjected to homophobic slurs.
Now, as a multidisciplinary artist, Jazamin channels both the good and the bad experiences into her work. Being politically motivated, she creates satirical artwork about the government and those in power. Poking fun at the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, Jazamin also addresses issues ranging from Brexit to Austerity, all of which stem from her "distrust and anger" towards the Tories. She added: “My political artwork and music is pretty much always created out of frustration and anger towards those in charge - so in many ways, it is a cathartic outlet. With a lot of my work, especially the political artwork and music, I make it because I feel frustrated and want to inspire people to think, educate people, and make positive changes in the world.”
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