LIKE last year's inaugural event Liverpool's second Homotopia festival will feature flamboyant drag queens and extravagant club nights. As before, it will push gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender cultures from their place in the shadows into the city's mainstream, filling the theatres, cinemas and streets with diverse events. This year however, as debates rage over creating a gay quarter and Liverpool deals with making its Capital of Culture plans reflect its population's diversity, the festival's political message will be even more significant. Homotopia organiser Gary Everett insists the city needs to catch up with places like Manchester and Brighton if it is to take its place on the world stage in 2008. "It's important, if Liverpool is to be taken seriously internationally, that there is a focus on lesbian, gay and transgender people. "Liverpool has turned a corner and is continuing to do so. Urban regeneration will undoubtedly need a lesbian and gay injection. It will definitely have to start including the agenda as a more visible force," he says. In September, Liverpool City Council agreed to look into ways of making the city more "gay friendly", including encouraging club and bar owners to set up business close to existing gay venues. Although many people are pleased that such a debate has been started at all, there has been criticism that a gay scene cannot be manufactured by a local authority. "It's organic. It can't just happen or be engineered. However, I'm really encouraged that the council has had a full meeting and that they're debating a gay quarter. This proves that Liverpool is turning a corner, that they want to start promoting it as an inclusive and diverse place to be," says Gary. "It's important that we don't get wrapped up in the idea of a community. It's all about people, about individual lives and how people see themselves. I don't want to wrap it up in the gay quarter around Stanley Street, there's a lot more going on. "I think lesbian and gay people should be out there celebrating in all parts of the city." Organising such a high profile festival was something Gary had never attempted before he was approached by the Liverpool Culture Company's Creative Communities team last year and asked to create an event that celebrated gay culture. But once he began meeting with local arts organisations and the gay community, the programme almost fell together. At the same time, the city's first Lesbian and Gay Film Festival was being planned, which was to become an integral part of Homotopia. "Liverpool has historically sat in the shadows of places like Manchester, Glasgow, London and Brighton and I think it's important that the lesbian and gay experience is seen from all different angles. "I think through arts and performance, through visual arts in particular, you can build a bridge without having to force people to go into bars or clubs. "You're building a human experience. It's important that people from all walks of life see that diversity and that we showcase and celebrate it. It promotes tolerance and a better understanding of people's experience and lifestyles," explains Gary, who is also an actor. Gary insists he is not "trying to take on Manchester", where the Mardi Gras (now Manchester Pride) festival has been running for more than a decade, but he praises Liverpool's traditional rival city for its inclusivity. Last year's Homotopia attracted around 3,500 people over 10 days - hoped to double during this year's two-week event, which starts today - compared to 200,000 at the single day of the Pride march last August Bank Holiday. Despite this only being Liverpool's second Homotopia festival, gay culture is immersed in the city's history. "Liverpool's had a very colourful past and even through the Merseybeat sound there was quote a vibrant gay scene but it was very underground. "There were places like the Stork Hotel, the Bears Paw and the Magic Clock, where Epstein used to go and drink. "It was very hidden, knock on the door three times and you're in sort of thing, it was a very secret circle. "There was a pub called the Dart that was next door to the Royal Court that was famous for drag queens and flamboyant eccentrics and bohemians. When you look in the history of Liverpool you don't find much about the gay community. It's not a taboo but it just hasn't been recorded," he says. Gary is keen to prove that "by highlighting the diversity yourealise how everybody is the same". The festival, which includes an evening with leading gay and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and a gala showing of the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, aims to challenge sexual stereotyping. Surprisingly however, some of its greatest critics are from within the gay community. "Lesbian and gay people are pigeonholed into one particular lifestyle. It's not reflective of the truth - people bring up families, people live alone... "It can get very male-orientated or vice versa sometimes. You can fight that battle within the gay community that you're not looking after the lesbians or the gay men. It can be very fractious. "I'd like to think there's something for everyone in there this time round," says Gary. Although Homotopia will go some way to improving tolerance in Liverpool, it cannot do it alone. The city has a long way to go if it is to be truly inclusive by 2008. "I think it's getting there but there's a lot more work to do and that's down to promoting better, being more focused, more partnerships being struck and more serious investors to get involved," insists Gary. "All Homotopia can do is to be one of those small building blocks that can help create a culture shift. "We've got to single out equality and tolerance and I think the festival can do that but it's only a building block." ____________________________ lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk Wildelife A GRANDMOTHER-OF-THREE and a young professional are among the people featured in a photographic exhibition which aims to reflect the real lives of Merseyside's gay community. German artist Ben Zuhlcke, who has lived in Liverpool for the past seven years, was invited to create a montage of images to be showcased as part of the city's Homotopia festival. The result is a series of striking portraits, showing each subject in both a private and a public setting, that demonstrate the similarities between everyone no matter what their sexuality. Ben explains: "It is about giving the gay people more visibility in Liverpool. People are often stereotyped and are often not confident enough to admit to their sexual orientation. I wanted to demystify people's impressions of what a gay person looks like." The photographer let his subjects decide how they were to be photographed, resulting in a more personal collection of images. "I left it up to them how subtle wanted it to be. The public image could be people at work and the private image at home with their families," he adds. Ben hopes that his exhibition will show young people who are struggling with their sexuality that they can be themselves and do not have to conform to the public's, or even the gay community's, idea of what constitutes homosexuality. "I wanted the people in the exhibition to be inspirational to young people. I wanted to show that if you choose a certain lifestyle you don't have to be trapped by it," says Ben. "It is common for gay people to meet up in bars and clubs but this isn't the whole picture. I thought that, by showing people in two different settings, it would show how three-dimensional they are." * WILDELIFE, by Ben Zuhlcke, is showing at Patrick's Bar, on Victoria Street, Liverpool, throughout the Homotopia festival. Programme highlights Today: Rather Be Dead Than Gay, evening with performer Nathan Edwards, 7.30pm at the Unity Theatre, Hope Place. Wednesday Nov 2: Trademark "Fly", exhibition of work that branded London's explosion of gay culture, Polished T Gallery 37-41 Duke Street. Runs until November 14. Thursday Nov 3: Queer Conversations, leading gay and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell in conversation with Radio Merseyside's Angela Heslop, 6.30pm at the Unity Theatre. Friday Nov 4: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, cult film starring Bette Davis as a grotesque former child star, 8pm at the Philharmonic Hall. Saturday Nov 5: Tales Of Boy Nancy "Dead Good Poets", billed as "a water-drenched tale of marvellous creatures, transgender sailors, sex-changing fish and doomed seals", 2pm and 4pm at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock. Free admission. Sunday Nov 6: The Alternative Sunday School, artist David Hoyle hosts a fun filled afternoon with homemade art, photographic representations and English afternoon tea, 3pm at The Egg Space, Newington Buildings, Newington, off Bold Street. Monday Nov 7: Suddenly, Spanish film about a lonely, overweight lingerie salesperson kidnapped by two lesbian punks, 8.30pm at the Fact Centre. Tuesday Nov 8: Degenerate Music Silenced by Hitler, taster of the music banned by the Nazis for being considered Bolshevik or homosexual, 8pm at Unity Theatre, repeated the following evening. Wednesday Nov 9: Bona Cornucopia, David Benson presents a collection of screen clips featuring Kenneth Williams, 10pm at the Unity Theatre. Thursday Nov 10: Claire Summerskill Acts Her Age, a moving mixture of monologue, stand-up, comedy characters and original songs as she ponders ageing, betrayal and loneliness and looking for a new lesbian love interest, at the Unity Theatre. Friday Nov 11: The Lavender Club, night of cabaret, comedy, music and poetry, 10pm at the Unity Theatre. Repeated the following day. Saturday Nov 12: Closing party featuring David McAlmont and Jennifer John, 10pm at the Liverpool Carling Academy. * FOR booking details, call 0151 233 6753 or visit www.homotopia.net | 
