It’s always been queer up north.” This is the introduction to Manchester I am given by playwright, actor, and self-proclaimed “accidental historian” Chris Hoyle, the voice of Manchester’s LGBT+ Walking Tour.
As we sit down next to Alan Turing in the Sackville Gardens, learn about lesbian suffragettes, and discover the story of 19th-century trans trailblazer Henry Stokes (who literally helped build the city), it’s hard to disagree. In true Mancunion fashion, it seems its LGBT+ residents would settle for nothing less than changing the world.
