SPARKLE 2011 - 8th/9th/10th July - Manchester

[TSTied]

Sparkle is a celebration of all things transgender, from workshops and talks to parties, meals and fun, it is a weekend festival promoting the positive and at the same time providing support, help and friendship for those who need it. This year we plan to build on the success of 2010, with even more stalls and stands in the park for the Saturday afternoon festivities. The main stage is back too, with a great line-up of TG talent and of course the fun Tranny of the Year as well. Saturday night sees our second Sparkle Ball with live entertaiment and food.

Please come and say hello to me when I am Stewarding from 12 noon 'til 2pm on the Saturday.

[Jim Beaux]

Have a great time.

Then come back and document, for history, how it went.

I'm trying to dig up how the late 60s early 70s went - tough - no info unless the people from them post now.

So have a great time. Then post!

[ConradG]

A lot depends on your definition of transexual, transgendered etc. In the 1960s and 1970s in the UK, drag was more common than what you would now call transexual where someone lives full time as a woman, takes hormones, and proceeds to SRS. Partly this was because a man dressed as a woman could be arrested if in a public place, and partly because hormones were hard to get hold of and expensive.

Socially, in the 1960s there were one of two exclusive, members-only clubs (I think one was called the Apollo club but this might have been a gay club, it was in Chinatown), where the rich and famous could 'take their pick' along with rough trade and the usual floating voters -this came out of the years when same-sex between men was illegal and private clubs were one way of socialising although there were a couple of pubs in London (like the Coleherne in Earl's Court) that were known to be 99% gay (the 1% being undercover cops, confused tourists, or relatives of the regulars). The notorious Kray brothers (a crime family of two twins from London's East End) ran some of these parties, and it was partly their connections to 'the rich and famous' that got them banged up in the late 60s for their rest of their lives, give or take a few years in hospital at the end. One well-known transexual, Vikki de Lambrey was found dead in suspicious circumstances in the 1980s, the full context as yet unknown:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicky_de_Lambray

The 1970s was a decade of liberalization, two hairdessers ran a monthly 'drag ball' at the Porchester Hall at the end of Queensway in Bayswater in London -I recall seeing a teenage Maralyn there before she had a hit record and crashed and burned in the 80s, but apart from a few transexuals it was mostly drag queens, and mostly Uk/European. Filipinos working in the health service (mostly as domestics) were common and one or two who were transitioning made it to Porchester Hall, but I do remember Yvonne Sinclair who made a major contribution to tg life in London over the years
http://www.yvonnesinclair.co.uk/galleries/phddest/index.htm (includes some old Porchester Hall photos).

There were a number of pubs across London that featured drag acts either every night or three or four times a week (The Cricketers in South London, The Black Cap in Camden being two of the most famous) but it was the in the 80s that a combination of economic progress in Asia and Latin America, cheaper costs of travel, more foreign students, and a more relaxed attitude to visibly transgendered people brought them into public spaces at all times of the day so that now nobody notices or cares.

The WayOut Club is I suppose a natural successor to Porchester Hall, other clubs come and go or are private sex clubs, but Porchester Hall and WayOut are open venues where anyone can go and hae a drink, dance, chat or whatever -a cabaret, Madame Jo-Jo's in London's Soho was opened by Paul Raymond famous for what used to be the longest running strip club (Raymond's RevueBar) until it too closed some years ago) Jo-Jo's didn't last long although the venue is still there I think they open on a Saturday night if at all. I can't speak for Manchester or other cities in the UK as I don't know them well enough.