Gay Manchester

Gay Manchester – The Nomadic Boys

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Gay Manchester - The Nomadic Boys

My coming out story started out in the late 1990s when the British Queer as Folk version first aired on our screens. Back then, a confused and extremely repressed young teenage Stefan watched in awe as 3 gay blokes, Stuart, Vince and Nathan, went about their daily lives in Manchester’s Canal Street Gay Village. 

I was flabbergasted! Stunned!

This was the first time I had ever seen “normal” gay guys popularised on screen. It was also the first time I had ever seen gay urban life dramatised in such a way that it felt so real! Finally, that “feeling” that up until this point I had been forced to suppress by the society around me was, in fact, something totally natural. What a relief! I wasn’t ill or abnormal. I was in fact part of a large LGBTQ family that also felt the same way. As that young teenage Stefan continued to watch Queer As Folk, he also dreamed: maybe, just maybe, I could grow up and be just like Stuart, Vince and Nathan living so freely in the gay streets of Manchester…

Gay Manchester

Fast forward a few decades and I’m galavanting down those same historic gay streets, with Seby to hand, together exploring one of the coolest and most progressive places in Europe. 

I will always love Manchester! 

As well as having a special place in my big gay heart, it has an exciting gay scene, one of the best gay Pride events in the UK and is one of the few places in the world where I feel comfortable walking the streets holding hands with my Seby. It’s also super close to London (just 2 hours by train), which makes it ideal for a weekend trip.

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at the Nomadic Boys

England Gay Travel Resources

Gay Manchester – The Nomadic Boys

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Gay Manchester - The Nomadic Boys

We love Manchester. It is such a cool city with a very liberal and progressive vibe. This is where Emmeline Pankhurst started the movement for women’s right to vote in the UK in the 1920s, and where The Vegetarian Society was born in the early 1800s. Manchester also has one of the largest student populations in Europe, and has historically maintained a very strong left-wing anti-aristocratic sentiment.

Manchester is located in Northwest England, just over 2 hours from London by train making it very easy to reach. Whenever we’re in London, we always try to come here for a weekend to party on Canal Street. This is one of the few places in the world we feel very safe about walking the streets in public holding hands.

Here’s our guide to gay Manchester, featuring the best bars, clubs, events and hotels to stay.

Manchester gay village: Canal Street

Manchester’s gay village is compact, with loads of gay bars and clubs. The main focal point is the pedestrianised Canal Street which runs along the Rochdale Canal, minutes walking distance from the city’s main train station: Manchester Piccadilly. You will recognise it from the original UK version of Queer as Folk where Stuart, Vince and Nathan prowled the streets on their nights out.

Most of the gay bars and clubs of Manchester are based in the few streets surrounding Canal Street. Saturday night is the best night to go partying, and Thursday another popular night because this is when the gay sports groups go out to socialise. On weekday evenings, particularly on Fridays, the crowds tend to come in two waves – the just-after-work crowd at around 5-7pm, then another wave at around 10/11pm.

The Gay Village is also the focal point of Manchester Gay Pride, which is one of our favourite Pride events. It is the largest annual gay event in Manchester, taking place on the last week of August. It is definitely worth planning your trip around if you’re in the UK in August.

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at The Nomadic Boys

Manchester Gay Travel Resources

Scruffy Gios Does Gay Manchester

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Gay Manchester - Scruffy Gios

Manchester is a city with a very special place in my heart. The recent events, so terribly evil and heartbreaking, shook me and left me astonished. My thoughts and prayers are with Manchester and all those involved.

As an openly proud member of the LGBT community I am sure you will all join me and keep living freely and openly and without hate and prejudice. And this is why I love gay Manchester: it is a shining city of love in these troubled times.

Have you ever visited this vibrant city in the Northwest of England? Greater Manchester is the second biggest urban area of England (after London, before the West-Midlands) with a very inclusive and open-minded attitude.

I visited gay Manchester for the first time for the celebration of its fun Pride in 2013, and I absolutely loved it: Manchester Pride, traditionally held at the end of August during a long bank holiday weekend, is one of the most attended in England, beaten only in popularity by London Pride. Since then I have been to Manchester a few times, and every time I discover some new facets of the city.

The core of the gay life of the city happens in the Manchester Gay Village, right in the centre of the city: it is a neighborhood full of bars, clubs and restaurants where the LGBT community gathers, around Canal Street.

By Scruffy Gios – Full Story at The Scruffy Italian Traveler

Northwestern England Gay Travel Resources

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