A lesbian and gay choir staged a mass singalong on Manchester’s tram
network after homophobic thugs attacked two young gay men who were
singing songs from the musical Wicked on a night out.
The event – entitled Safe to Sing – started with about 80 singers
boarding trams in the city centre on Monday evening to belt out tunes
including Somewhere, from West Side Story, and Petula Clark’s Downtown –
with the main refrain changed to “Canal Street”, the heart of
Manchester’s gay village.
Volunteers gave out rainbow coloured cupcakes to bemused passengers
from a box marked “Cake Not Hate” as the driver explained over the PA
what was going on.
Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus (MLGC) then got off at Piccadilly
Gardens, where 25-year-old Jean-Claude Manseau, known as Jo, and Jake
Heaton, 19, were beaten by a gang of men two weeks ago.
The choir were joined by their counterparts from the Hallé ensemble,
as well as Manchester Community choir, Blackburn People’s choir, the
Manchester Bach choir and other groups from the north west.
Against the backdrop of the illuminated ferris wheel, several hundred
people filled the square with song, ending with a full-blooded
rendition of Defying Gravity, Wicked’s theme song.
Manseau and Heaton were on their way to Canal Street when they were
attacked in the early hours of 1 November. They said the incident began
on a tram when they were “having a laugh” singing songs from Wicked,
prompting homophobic taunts from another man on board.
When the pair got off the tram at Piccadilly Gardens, the abuse
continued. They claim they were then set upon by a mob of 15 other men,
who shouted homophobic abuse during the attack.
Manseau, a shop worker, was knocked unconscious and suffered black
eyes, a split lip and broken nose. He cannot remember anything about the
attack, which “destroyed every bit of confidence I have”.
Neither victim felt up to attending Monday’s event, but Jacqueline
Nield, Jo’s mother, was moved to tears. “To think that all these people
have come out tonight for my son. It’s just a pity the rest of the world
isn’t so kind.”
She said Jo was still “in a bad way” but was really touched at the action.
The singers were warmly received by passengers on the trams. “It’s
quite a surprise, but I think it’s great,” said Martin Knagg, 18. Damian
McHugh, who works for an HIV charity, said: “It’s so important to show
support. There’s a lot of talk about the gay community and sometimes
people think it’s just about going out to party, but this is what it’s
about too. This is about sending out a clear message that homophobia is
unacceptable in our city.”
At Piccadilly Gardens, a nun with a beard and sunglasses declared the performance “fantabulosa”. Jacqui Moff from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,
a worldwide order formed around 1979 in response to attacks on
homosexuals by fundamentalist religious organisations, said: “It is very
important to fight back in a positive and enthusiastic way when
something horrible happens rather than hiding away.”
Moff said she had been the victim of homophobic abuse on a number of
occasions in Manchester when “incognito” – ie out of her habit and in
her civvies.
After the attack, Heaton told the Manchester Evening News (MEN) he
was sure they had been targeted because they were gay. “It’s completely
shocking. Nowadays you think people are mostly accepting of people’s
sexuality, especially in a big city like Manchester. We did nothing to
provoke it. We were just having a laugh and a sing on the tram,” he
said.
Manseau told the paper: “It has destroyed every bit of confidence I
have. It will be a while before I go anywhere on my own. I don’t know
when I’ll feel safe to go into Manchester again.”
After news of the attack spread in the media, MLGC decided to respond by creating the Safe to Sing event.
With the support of Manchester city council, Transport for Greater
Manchester and the tram operators, Metrolink, the choir sang on a few
short tram journeys. The tracks were specially chosen to celebrate
freedom and love as a community, according to Kath Fox, MLGC co-chair.
She said the event was “a way for us to reach out to Jo and Jake and to
assure them we will defend the right to safe passage on public transport
for all people, especially those from the LGBT community”.
Fox said: “Out of the ugliest circumstances, the most meaningful and
powerful messages emerge and that is what we hope to achieve with Safe
to Sing.”
In a statement, the producers of Wicked said: “On behalf of the
entire Wicked UK companies, our thoughts and best wishes go out to both
Jean-Claude Manseau and Jake Heaton, as well as their families, and we
wish them a speedy recovery from the senseless and violent attack that
took place in Manchester.
Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, said
the singalong showed the “real face of Greater Manchester”, in contrast
to the “disgraceful” attack.
He said: “The Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus have organised a
fantastic, positive response to an awful incident. I hope it will give
the confidence to Jo and Jake – and the wider communities of our region –
that when we say we will take a stand against hate crime, we mean it.
This is about reclaiming our streets, reclaiming our public transport,
reclaiming our city centre and showing that when we act together we are
stronger than those who would seek to drive us apart.”
Greater Manchester police (GMP) are treating the attack as a
homophobic hate crime, said Inspector Phil Spurgeon. No arrests have yet
been made, but officers continue to trawl through CCTV cameras which
caught at least some of the attack.
The man on the tram was described as slim, white, in his early 20s,
with very short hair and scruffy clothes. He was with a woman who is
described as slim, with long dark hair, also in her 20s.
The group of men, who were already in Piccadilly Gardens, were described as black or mixed race.
Between April 2013 and March this year, 466 reports of hate crime motivated by sexual orientation were recorded by GMP.
The Lesbian & Gay Foundation’s recent Community Safety Report suggests such crime is far more prevalent.
Half of the 35,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual people estimated to live
in Manchester have experienced a homophobic or biphobic hate crime or
incident, according to its report -, but 62% of them did not report it.
Source the guardian
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