Nottinghamshire: centre of the LGBT universe?

By David Edgley on 13 Sep 2014

Same-sex marriage started on March 29th 2014, but in Nottingham they were doing it in the 14th Century. My city has many firsts: the first “official” gay club; the first Trade Union support group; the first UK Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies; the first “out” footballer; home to the founder of GLF in the UK; Stonewall’s “first in the NHS organisation”.

To that you can add tales of the Pansy’s Parlour, the Coffin Parade; the Asda Kiss-in; the gay swimming furore; Robina Hood’s Gay Street Theatre; the secret bomb plot and the world’s most valuable bathroom loofahs. And when you read a 1964 newspaper article that makes it clear that all gay men look like one of Nottingham’s MPs, you must come to the conclusion that Nottinghamshire IS the centre of the LGBT universe.