Liverpool has an impressive history when is comes to LGBTQ+ movements. Scouse queers have been on the forefront of championing equal rights for the queer community for over 50 years, with many major turning points both nationally and internationally taking place in our city. Below is a list of all the times that Liverpool has been at the heart of LGBTQ+ history:

1960: April Ashley is Britains first trans woman to undergo reassignment surgery.
1976: GYRO (Gay Youth ‘R’ Out) is founded. Still going 44 years later, it is the UK’s longest running LGBTQ+ youth group (we love you GYRO<3).
1984: Frankie Goes To Hollywood score the longest running number one single in the UK for the 1980’s. Fronted by openly gay members Holly Johnson and Paul Ruthford, the Liverpool pop band spent nine weeks in the top spot with their catchy bop Two Tribes.
1994: The first (pre watershed) lesbian kiss is broadcast on television thanks to Liverpool soap opera, Brookside.

1994: Liverpool born Edwina Currie became the first British MP to introduce a motion in the House of Commons to equalise the age of consent for gay men saying, "As a Jewish Scouse female, I knew enough about discrimination and could never see the justification for [an unequal age of consent]”.
1997: Angela Eagle becomes Britains first ‘out’ lesbian MP (MP for Wallasey).
1999: Caroline Paige becomes the first openly serving transgender officer in the British Armed Forces. Born in Wallasey, she joined the RAF in 1980 (pre-transition) and continued to serve after her gender reassignment in 1999.
2002: A 30-year-old Scouse lesbian became first person to successfully challenge the British government's unfair discrimination against homosexual couples. Thanks to her landmark case against Liverpool City Council, it was accepted that the gay partners of mental health patients in same sex relationships would qualify as 'nearest relatives' and, therefore, they would have the same rights as heterosexual unmarried couples.
2005: Liverpool Register Office became the UK's first to include a gay couple on the front cover of official civil ceremony promotional material.
2008: Angela Eagle (previously Britains first openly ‘out’ lesbian MP) also became the first female MP to enter a civil partnership.
2010: Hollyoaks (filmed in Liverpool’s Lime Picture Studio) became the first British soap opera to include a teenage transgender storyline within their show.
2011 : Liverpool became the first British city to officially recognise a gay quarter with the introduction of rainbow street signs around the Stanley Street area.
2012 : Liverpool was the first city IN THE WORLD to officially mark IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Bi-phobia and Transphobia) with a programme of free events.
2012 : Ullet Road Unitarian Church, Liverpool, hosted the first UK civil partnership on religious premises.
2012: Liverpool Pride was the first Pride in the country to have a football club ‘officially’ represented at a UK Pride event. Liverpool Football Club have sponsored pride ever since. Employees and the red’s loud and proud supporters show up to march through the city in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community.
2013: Liverpool became the first UK city with a gay couple as first citizens. Lord Mayor Gary Millar was sworn in whilst his civil partner, Steve Macfarlane, became Lord Mayor's Consort.
2015: Hollyoaks, already the first to show a trans-teen storyline, were also the first British soap opera to cast an openly transgender actor to play a trans character. Actress Annie Wallace went on to be the first transgender actor to be nominated for a BAFTA award.
2018: Gay Times held their annual award ceremony at the Walker Art Gallery, the first time in history that it has been held outside of London. Gay Times Owner, James Frost, chose Liverpool as a 'wonderfully vibrant, thriving and culturally diverse city'.

Liverpool: A Queer History