Truly celebrating the ‘T’ in LGBT: Homotopia Turns Ten

This year’s Liverpudlian festival of queer culture, Homotopia, returns for its tenth birthday with a distinctly trans* friendly flavour.

The history of early gender reassignment surgery is explored in the documentary I Am a Woman Now, showing on 16 November at the Museum of Liverpool, which traces the patients of Georges Burou, the man who pioneered the surgery in Casablanca in the 1950s/60s.

April Ashley, MBE, the first person to transition surgically in Britain and a Liverpudlian herself, is featured in the film. A separate exhibition from her personal archive, April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady, at the Museum of Liverpool should also provide a glimpse into our under-reported history.

Of the exhibition, which runs unil 21 September 2014, Lou Muddle, a member of the Homotopia team, said: “[It] tells her story, but tells her story alongside the legislative and social changes that have affected trans* people.”

This community side to the show includes a timeline of events and people of significance to transgender and transsexual history. When asked to pick a particular development that helped trans* people throughout the UK, Ashley said: “The most marvellous thing for me was when groups like the Beaumont Society and Press for Change and Mermaids were formed.

“I had been receiving letters for years from trans* people looking for advice and support which I wasn't qualified to give professionally. I still offered these people support and gave them my phone number if they wanted to talk but I was able to tell them that were proper support organisations that could help them.”

Another trans* celebrity whose presence can be felt at the festival is Divine, the star of many John Waters films. Through the regional premiere of the documentary of her life, I Am Divine, on 10 November at FACT, the late diva remains with us. And for Waters fans the director and actor will be appearing on 8 November in a one-man vaudeville show at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

Cross-dressing is also the topic of Neil McKenna’s book Fanny & Stella, which is about the sensational trial of two young Victorian men. A solicitor and bank clerk respectively by day, the pair dressed in women's clothing to act and work in the sex industry. McKenna will be giving a talk on 6 November at the Bluecoat.

He says: “Were they 'trans' in the modern sense of the word? Or were they camp, and was their effeminacy the only identity they could find for their sexuality? I'm not sure. And I don't think we have to be too sure, rather just glory in Fanny and Stella’s wonderful personalities.”

Other wonderful personalities feature in This Way Out, a collaborative exhibition by Boy George and Mark Wardel (aka TradeMark) at Camp & Furnace on Greenland Street. Running until 25 November, the show explores themes of gender, sexuality and constructed identities.

Mark, who is himself from New Brighton in Liverpool, says of himself and George: "We've known each other since the late 70s and for gay men of our generation you were almost forced into taking on a false identity... Being gay was looked on more as a shameful secret. So from being a child or a young teenager you became practiced in the art of deception."

He and George were inspired by David Bowie and the idea that you didn't have to conform, didn't have to be the person that society had conditioned you to think you were. The exhibition is very much about the people who have inspired Mark and George and been part of their lives and circles.

This Way Out is the first time Boy George's photographs have been publicly exhibited. Alongside Mark's paintings and other media their collaboration can be seen in the repetition of subjects. 

For instance, George once overheard a drag queen in New York insulting another by calling her a "cheap version of Naomi Campbell," according to Mark. Both their versions of ‘NoMoney Campbell’ will be displayed at the show.

There are also pieces that reference cosmetics surgery, which Mark says is another way that people can enhance or change their identities.

He has worked with Homotopia over the years and says he can’t believe the time has gone so fast, a sentiment echoed elsewhere. Mark says: “When I was growing up as a gay teen in Liverpool I couldn’t have imagined these kinds of events on behalf of LGBT people here. Society’s changed so much and Homotopia’s been a big part of that.”

For Gary Everett, the artistic director of the festival, the ten year anniversary is a chance to reflect on how the LGBT arts community in Liverpool has grown and what still needs to be done.

He says: “Mark is older than me but his story is something I hear a lot from many older trans people, gay men and older lesbians.  Historically, Liverpool for all its vibrancy, energy and creativity was a tough port city. It must have been difficult for many, apart from the brave queens who didn’t give a fuck.”

Everett feels that Homotopia would not have enjoyed the amount of civic support in the 70s and 80s that it does today. He particularly praises Liverpool City Council for their support.

In many ways this year is all about the visual focus. Luca Bartozzi is curating two shows that explore punk through a queer gaze: Germfree Adolescents, and England's Erotic Dream, both of which run from 31 October to 24 November. He says: "[Punk is] often inappropriately portrayed in popular media as an overtly machoist movement."

Bartozzi says that the works vividly expose moments of gender performativity, and that the DIY punk attitude encouraged people to experiment rather than conform to strict models of gender. For him one of the merits of Homotopia is that it's "proudly visible."

As one of the only festivals in Europe dedicated to LGB (and particularly) T arts, hopefully we'll be wishing Homotopia a happy 20th birthday in another decade.