Blog: An introduction to Birmingham's LGBTQ+ history

Hi, I’m Ruby and for LGBTQ+ History Month this year, I want to share some interesting aspects of Birmingham’s own LGBTQ+ history and look into the role the city played in gay liberation and pride. Let’s dive in! 

The Nightingale Club 

The Nightingale Club is an iconic LGBTQ+ Birmingham landmark that’s hosted performances from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK contestants and themed club nights, but it also played a huge part in creating Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ community. 

The 1960s was a scary and dangerous time for queer people, with a higher age of consent for gay men, limited jurisdiction, and harsher punishments for gay people caught on the streets. Queer people had few safe spaces to meet and have fun. 

Two men - Laurie Williams and Derek Pemberton – decided to take matters into their own hands. In 1967, they bought an old Indian restaurant for £600 and turned it into The Nightingale. Today, The Nightingale is the oldest Birmingham gay club and one of the oldest surviving gay nightclubs in the UK, taking its rightful place in Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ history and leaving a mark on the world.  

The Nightingale was also host to the Birmingham Gay Community Centre This opened in 1976 and was the first official LGBTQ+ community centre to be set up in the UK and paved the way for the opening of similar institutions across the country in the 1980s. Birmingham really was the hub for innovation in the gay community!  

Birmingham Gay Village 

In 1967, after The Sexual Offences Act decriminalised private sex between men over 21, The Nightingale Club opened its doors, marking the start of the Gay Village. The area then expanded in the 1980s to multiple bars and venues in the surrounding areas. In the 1990s. the number of venues increased due to a larger number of customers and the Gay Village as we know it was formed.  

Now, as part of the LGBTQ+ scene in Birmingham, the Gay Village is an area near Smallbrook Queensway. This area near the Chinese Quarter is home to Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ district and many LGBTQ+ venues and businesses. Birmingham’s Gay Village is visited by many and has a thriving night life. With clubs, sports bars, cocktail bars, cabaret bars, shops, music, dancing and drag queens, there is a rich LGBTQ+ culture in the city.  

Birmingham Gay Liberation Front 

In the early 1970s, Birmingham had set up one of the UK’s largest Gay Liberation Front (GLF) groups. They organised Gay Pride Weekends, with the first being in July of 1972 where leaflets, balloons, and oranges were given out, and a rally held at Cannon Hill Park to raise awareness about the LGBTQ+ community. That same year, the group hosted the National Conference of the GLF at the University of Birmingham, where there was a strong student Gay Liberation Front presence. Eventually, Birmingham’s first official Gay Pride Festival took place in 1997 with a street carnival, a market, and live music performances. 

Khakan Qureshi and Finding A Voice 

Khakan Qureshi was born in Birmingham to a Pakistani and Muslim family. As an LGBTQ+ Muslim, he struggled with not being accepted in his community and not being able to talk about his sexuality. He had no role models or support systems, so he decided to create them. In 2014, he started ‘Finding a Voice’, a group which provided safe spaces for LGBTQ+ South Asians to meet and talk about their experiences. The group also raises awareness for intersectionality, focusing on the racism and Islamophobia also faced by LGBTQ+ South Asians. In 2020, Qureshi’s work for the LGBTQ+ community was recognised when he was awarded the British Empire Medal.  

Final thoughts 

As someone who came to Birmingham for university, I’ve loved discovering how much history, creativity and activism has taken place in this city. I mean, I went to a Drag Queen meet and greet with Paige Three, Sillexa Diction, and Tayris Mongardi from Drag Race UK at The Nightingale and I had no idea the place was so important to queer history and culture in Birmingham! These stories deserve to be told and shared so that people get to enjoy this perspective of a vibrant and welcoming Birmingham and as a place with a rich LGBTQ+ history. 

Celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month with us