‘Gayzin Liverpool’

Homotopia is Liverpool's lesbian and gay festival, featuring film, photography and theatre events. The first one took place last year. Julian Bond went to speak to its organiser, Gary Everett.

Tell us a little about Homotopia
Homotopia is a festival of queer performance, music, art, video, film, so call it a cornucopia of queer culture. And the reason I've used the word 'queer' is to appropriate what's actually been stolen from the queer community in terms of their identity, which has suffered in Liverpool, and has lived in the wake of London, Brighton, Manchester and Leeds, and has not been given a good lesbian and gay festival. Homotopia was our response to that - an alternative event - which has been a success.

Could you say more on how you are appropriating the word 'queer'?
It is meant to signify to a community that this is an event by and for a community. And also it signifies appropriating a word that for many years has been derogatory and negative. It can empower that community if they can acquire it and use it as a positive rather than a negative.

It states in your brochure that you are hoping for a cultural shift in the way gays and lesbians are represented. What exactly do you envisage?
When I was an actor here in Liverpool there was no identifiable platform for gay and lesbian artists, there was a lot of talented gay performers….I mean I'm not asking for special status but I think it's a shame that they didn't seem to have any representation in the city. I think Liverpool has always been a pretty homophobic city; to my mind this has always overshadowed the cultural agenda in the city. So I think the mainstream should - and I stress should - incorporate more lesbian and gay work. So one of our ambitions is to get lesbian and gay work seen by the mainstream straight audience.

Do you ever see a point in the future when these distinctions would no longer be an issue?
We are not where we need to be until we get acceptance in education, society, politics; across the board we are not going to get that holding hands. Unless you push this agenda…I mean I'm not saying Liverpool's the most homophobic place in the world but there still needs to be a lot of initiatives to take place.
What we are finding is that with kids in schools the tag of hate is 'faggot' which it never used to be, and that seems to be the acceptable term. And until you can tackle homophobia at that level it will become the norm and you will discriminate and you will attack and you will vilify…unfortunately if you are gay at fourteen or fifteen you are in a very hostile situation at school. So from my point of view, yeah, I would like to be in a utopian situation where everyone is holding hands and embracing one another but Liverpool has a long way to go.

Is there a class element to how members of the gay community exist and are treated? I'm thinking of the difference between a working class place like Liverpool and a more cosmopolitan place like Brighton?
Yes, maybe there is a more bourgeois edge to Brighton. Maybe that's what attracts; the more tolerant aspects of living down there, a far more liberal and laid back attitude to gays and lesbians.
It's far more difficult to be 'out' in Park Road than in Parkgate! Then again the Blue Rinse Brigade are probably the worst culprits, but to be gay in Park Road is far worse than to be gay in some sleepy suburb.

I read on a website about a Liverpool gay guy advocating avoiding a Manchester-type village, to avoid becoming ghettoised. He said he didn't want to be marginalized or separated, but wanted to go into any bar or restaurant and be safe in it - what's your view on that?
He's right, I agree, but there are a lot of older gay men and elder lesbians who just feel uncomfortable and the reason for that - you can't convince a 45 year old lesbian who may have suffered homophobia, discrimination, abuse, that that discrimination is going to stop because it's hip and trendy to go to a gay bar. You can't change people's views overnight. Now I don't think that's the way forward but that's the way they see it.

Is there a contradiction in wishing to influence kids and yet running Homotopia, which is a predominantly adult audience?
Well we are looking towards some initiatives towards schools and community centres, but whenever you bring up sexuality in relation to schools it seems to throw up all kinds of demons, arguments and problems. Particularly the religious schools, they seem to just want to shut the door.

Returning to Homotopia, in what way do you consider an arts festival a good medium to influence and reach people?
I think it's one way of encapsulating people's fears, hopes and aspirations; through art and performance you can confront the stereotypes, you can inform, you can educate, as well as entertain. It's one of those mediums, which is human, it's not remote control, you're experiencing something, and you are touching something. You can challenge the status quo and introduce something new, and this is fresh and the city has needed it for a long time. It could have happened about 10 years ago, it's happened now, it's one of those things, there's been no TLC in this city for the gay community but now things hopefully are changing.

To play devil's advocate, why should the gay community be subsidised by the taxpayer to advance itself?
The honest answer is that all cities should look after all of their communities. The gay community in Liverpool has been neglected, and in some cases repressed politically, and if the city takes minority communities seriously then it's worth its weight in gold. I think social inclusion is important. I think the community needs and deserves more respect across the city and of late it's getting it. If the city is going to be taken seriously as a European capital of culture then the gay community needs to be part of that.