How Covid closed LGBT+ spaces and made us redefine what 'community' means
By ITV News Digital Journalist Jocelyn Evans
Lockdown has forced the closure of events, nightlife, and social gatherings for everyone. For LGBT+ people those spaces are a safe haven - providing community, emotional support, and helping validate identities.
Taking those spaces away, therefore, has left a huge hole in the lives of many LGBT+ people.
"These spaces are hugely important in creating a sense of belonging," says Scarlett Langdon, co-founder of queer club night Gal Pals.
Her and co-founder Xandice Armah started Gal Pals in 2015, to make a safe space for queer women, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.
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They've continued the events in lockdown over Zoom and have seen positives in doing so.
"We have had people come who've never been to a queer event before, and they have found it a more accessible way of entering those spaces."
Scarlett says people from parts of the country without many queer spaces have been able to attend online and, though Gal Pal in-person events are wheelchair accessible, holding the event over Zoom offers more accessibility.
They plan to merge their online and in-person events in the future, taking forward the positives they've found in lockdown and applying them as restrictions ease.
Scarlett says people who are not LGBT+ may not appreciate what queer nightlife provides people: "Having a safe space, where you can just let loose and have a good time and not have to worry about someone harassing you or kissing your partner without someone staring at you or making fetishing comments.
"We're always receiving messages from people, telling us how much they appreciate the space and how safe they feel in that environment and that means so much to us."
LGBT+ venues were already under threat pre-pandemic with many facing uncertain futures amid rising rent costs and increasingly homogenised city centres.
Dr Will Nutland has worked as a sexual health advocate for more than 25 years and it is often those spaces that have provided essential services and allowed messaging to reach the most marginalised people.
He worries the number of venues, and the type of venues, could deplete further as a result of the pandemic.
"I have a real concern that some of the essence of our communities will start to fall away," he says.
"For me it's not just about the numbers of venues, it's the diversity of venues.
"We tend to know that the ones that will be most likely to survive are the ones that fall into the 'acceptable' sides of being gay - so the venues for cisgendered, white, gay men of a particular class or particular income are probably the ones that will survive.
"And the ones that, for example, might be more likely to be attractive to trans people, or to women, or to people of colour, are the kinds of ones that will probably be the first to close."
Events like Gal Pals are, however, are signs LGBT+ spaces are diversifying and thriving.
"I think there might be opportunities for a phoenix to start rising from the flames here," Will says - with Covid offering some of that opportunity.
"Maybe one of the positive outcomes of Covid is that we start to see new and fresh places to go to that are more inclusive, that don't fit into those very binary narratives or gay and straight or male and female. I'm excited by that potential."