page_title: LGBT culture in Liverpool
section_title: 2000s–present
hierarchical_section_title: LGBT culture in Liverpool / 2000s–present
caption_attribution_description: English: Mersey Marauders FC, Liverpool's LGBT football team, play Liverpool City Councillors for the Armistead Cup at Liverpool Pride Cage Football tournament 2011.
context_page_description: LGBT life in Liverpool, England is made up of persons who are either lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender/transsexual. Research commissioned by the North West Regional Development Agency approximated that there were around 94,000 LGBT persons living in the city's metropolitan area by mid-2009 - equivalent to the GLB population of San Francisco, making it the single largest minority group on Merseyside.
  Out of 100 cities around the world, Liverpool was voted number 51 most LGBT friendly in 2017. The poll was taken by the gay community in major hubs around the world.
  As the location of Britain's first and only official gay quarter, the only LGBT combined arts organisation in the North of England, the UK's most gay friendly university and one of Europe's largest free LGBT Pride festivals, life in modern Liverpool allows many more liberties for gays and lesbians than it ever did. However, up until quite recently the city was often thought of as a 'lesser gay-friendly' destination and compared negatively in comparison to other metropolitan areas of similar size and stature.
context_section_description: In the 2000s, Liverpool's gay community had become increasingly visible and there was a concerted push to take it further, however, comparisons were still being drawn with the greater gay profile of its closest neighbour Manchester, which along with its successful gay village and Mardi Gras, had for a long time claimed to be 'Gay Capital of the North'.
  Liverpool was often accused of lagging behind and not providing adequate provisions for its diverse communities.  It had been a decade since the city had held a Pride of its own while a debate on establishing an official gay district around Stanley Street had begun to gather momentum.
  2004 saw the launch of Homotopia and the first Liverpool Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (Outsiders) which together boasted an ambitious programme of LGBT culture across the city.  Homotopia's Festival Director, Gary Everett, said "The City is experiencing one of the most exciting chapters in its history, and I hope that this event will unleash the creative energies."
  Mersey Marauders, Liverpool's own gay football team was launched later in 2005, whilst city leaders continued debating the Liverpool gay village.  The pro side hoped to boost the local economy whilst those with reservations pointed to the fact that a gay district was already growing organically and warned about further ghettoising the community. Prior to the introduction of legalised same sex relationships, Liverpool was one of the first local authorities to grant commitment ceremonies for gay couples at its municipal Register office.  Despite not granting legal rights at the time, in 2005, the city became the first ever UK local authority to include a gay couple on the front cover of its civil ceremony promotional material.
  A report in 2006 into the experience of LGBTQ+ people living, working, studying and socialising in Liverpool found that of the 210 that took part in the survey 59% had experienced homophobic crime within the Liverpool area. This was significantly higher than in London which reported a hate incidence rate of 47%.
caption: Mersey Marauders FC facing Liverpool City Councillors for the Armistead Cup at Liverpool Pride 2011
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