Door policies and invasive questions in Manchester
Adam is a senior What’s On and LGBTQ+ reporter for the Manchester Evening News, covering new restaurant and bar openings, food reviews, gig reviews, and issues that matter to the LGBTQ+ community. Adam joined the M.E.N in 2019 as a Facebook Community Reporter and also runs the LGBTQ+ Bulletin newsletter.
A 1992 article from the Manchester Evening News has found its way back into the news this week(Image: Red Light)
It’s hard to imagine that a venue in Manchester’s Gay Village could get away with ever asking a woman in line to name four famous lesbians to prove they were part of the LGBTQ+ community before being allowed inside.
But it has happened on at least one occasion, back in 1992. A historic M.E.N article, titled ‘Sorry, you don’t look gay enough’, was brought back into the spotlight earlier this week after a framed copy of the story was stolen from the walls of cocktail bar Red Light.
The venue, which sits opposite the Gay Village, is run by Deana Ferguson and the framed article had formed part of a number of queer-based images and memorabilia that fills the venue. The hunt is on to find the article, now dubbed the ‘queer Mona Lisa of Manchester’, and return it back where it belongs.
In the piece, reveller Rebekah McDonough spoke to a reporter about how she was refused entry to Hacienda’s famous queer club night Flesh. Having failed to recall four famous lesbians 33 years ago, she also struggled to namecheck four lesbian meeting places in Manchester.
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Canal Street and the Gay Village play an important part of Manchester(Image: Manchester Evening News)
At the time, a club promoter explained how ‘management reserve[d] the right to refuse admission to known heterosexuals’.
Discussing the randomness of this week’s art heist with a colleague over a morning brew, I realised there’s quite a lot still to sadly resonate with the original article. There have been times when people have been turned away from the Village for not being ‘straight’ or ‘gay’ acting.
Going back a few years ago, I recall being part of a larger group of friends and being refused entry at one nightclub – the name of the venue is irrelevant. We were told they were open to ‘members only’. When we asked how we became members, we were told to go online (to which there was no such membership option available anyway). It was clearly a polite way of telling us to move on as they then let in groups of others right afterwards.
We decided that, at the time, it was probably perhaps because our group included two people – who happened to be male and female presenting – who were holding hands. They weren’t actually straight, but perceived to be.
The Gay Village offers a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, but it isn’t always so welcoming to some(Image: Manchester Evening News)
And it’s sad that not only did we come to that as the possible conclusion, but we also just accepted it as the reason too. And that experience certainly wasn’t unique to just us either.
There’s a Reddit post from two years ago which recalled how one visitor, who referred to themselves as a ’32-year old non-binary person’, had been refused entry to two venues in the Gay Village because they were alone and were told they were operating on a ‘no ‘single entry’ policy’
A ‘a bi cis woman with a boyfriend’ said she had too had similar experiences at some of the area’s venues, adding: “You’re supposedly part of this LGBTQ community but you will be turned away if you don’t fit certain ideals.”
On the other side of the debate, I can also recall times when groups of Hen Do’s have taken over bars in the area and made myself and other clubbers feel like a spectacle, like they were at a zoo to observe and amuse themselves with how we act and interact with one another (In addition, friendly reminder that drag is not a contact sport – stop touching performers).
A 1992 article from the Manchester Evening News has found its way back into the news this week(Image: Red Light)
I understand door policies, I understand capacity control, I understand safety reasons and I also understand how the Gay Village works. We have also sadly seen many examples where the Village and its frequent visitors have been directly targeted in crimes, so restrictions and rules are definitely needed.
We have also seen, not just in Manchester and in this country, how our hard-earned rights can so easily be taken away from us, so it’s important that there are spaces where people can feel free to be themselves without judgement or having to outline who they are. Especially trans people, non-binary folk, people of colour and those others who tend not to fix in the societal box of expected gender, sexuality or identity norms.
But, isn’t that where the line starts to get blurred? By judging people or refusing entry based on a perception based on how they look or present themselves, it does sort of go against those very foundations that places like the Village are grounded upon.
There isn’t a solution that will appeal to everyone, but discussing matters could be a big start(Image: ASP)
That being said, I do feel like there are many aspects of the Gay Village that have become better since my group was refused entry many moons ago. You will often see people expressing their authentic lives so openly and so happily without any nasty looks or side-eyes. And I do think that’s in part down to a general freeness of a younger generation spreading through.
It’s something where there will never be a one-size-fits-all solution, and I’m not saying my opinion offers up the definite response to the situation. Other people will think and feel differently, as is their right to do so. I totally accept that it can really be quite hard to operate a door policy without having to contradict or offend someone.
I am glad we are further away from the days of having to recall famous lesbians at the door, but we’re perhaps still not as far forward as we’d like to wish we were sometimes.
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