IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
Save Our Spaces Campaign and Alert! Rubber Ball
Many of you will know that Alert! has not been able to run an event since Pride (August last year). This is not through lack of interest or enthusiasm on our part but instead reflects an apparent sudden change in attitude from Manchester City Council Licencing Department.
There appears to be a ‘crackdown’ across the Village on events which include darkrooms. Those of you who attend other fetish events may have noticed with disappointment that we are not the only ones affected; The Eagle has not run a darkroom since August either, Jock was forced out of Night People, DILF went darkroom-free and so on.
This is the impact
Because of this, our venue owner believes that to allow us to run a darkroom would jeopardise his licence. We, all of us, represent a risk if we choose to express our sexuality in ways that are entirely appropriate to our community.
We can only meet our obligation to Manchester Rubbermen Weekend (April 24th) by agreeing with the venue that this must be a dance only event. The same restriction applies to Recon and in fact any events run in the Village for MRM Weekend.
We believe that the law is clear and that Private Members Clubs (PMCs) for a protected characteristic (ie gay/bi men) are allowed to permit consensual sex. In fact, what is the point of a protected characteristic if we are forced to abide by a heteronormative model of how we show our affection for each other?
The catalyst for this was when the Licencing and Out of Hours Team (LOOHT) received a small number of complaints, which we believe are vexatious and we suspect came from one person who, following MRM last year, swore to destroy fetish in Manchester. We have had sight of some of these ridiculous complaints and whilst we probably should not reveal specifics, an equivalent complaint would have been, “I went to an event called Sports Kit, promoted with images of people wearing sports kit, and with a sports kit dress code; when I attended, I was shocked and outraged to see people wearing sports kit at the event.” As ludicrous as these complaints may be, LOOHT is nevertheless duty-bound to investigate but rather than being pragmatic and sensible, seems to be using them as ‘evidence’ that we are breaking the law and then hitting venues with over-zealous inspections. Those of you who attended our Pride event will recall that we had such a visit then – and these intrusions kill the event and make us feel like we are doing something wrong.
This is why we are angry
Perhaps, like us, you feel that this is persecution of our community. We do nobody any harm, have a spotless record when it comes to drugs and public nuisance complaints and look after our customers with great care. Sadly, it would appear that someone in Licensing has got hold of the proverbial bone and refuses to let it go.
Furthermore – and we are sure you will be as outraged about this as we are – the Licensing and Out of Hours Team (LOOHT), including Greater Manchester Police (GMP) make a point of citing as one of their highlighted concerns, “the protection of children from harm”, seemingly implying that we pose an increased risk to minors. I’d like to see a minor try to get past our door team! The Eagle has had EIGHT visits from Licencing in this period, almost all of them targeting fetish events and many specifically checking in the toilets and dark spaces to try to find gay and bi men having sex. LOOHT and GMP promise that these visits will continue in the future, despite this matter being in dispute.
Even if unintended, this has cost us our regular events (including Christmas and our 15th birthday which would have been this month) and made it impossible for Night People, Eagle and others to allow sex on the premises even for PMC events. With so few fetish-friendly venues left in the village, we have nowhere else to take the night, and even if we did, we would risk the same thing happening to whichever venue hosted us.
We recognise that you will be disappointed, angry and frustrated; we are all of these and more.
This is what we have done
Working with The Eagle management and the three councillors for Piccadilly ward (who are 100% behind us), on behalf of all the bars and promotors, we have tried for six months to challenge this with the council. We hoped that the matter could be resolved through pragmatism and collaboration, without the need to make a public fuss. We have hit many roadblocks on that journey, from LOOHT delaying and not replying to communications, to refusing to accept that venues and events are allowed to operate as PMCs.
We have sent hundreds of emails to dozens of people in the council right up to senior executives, spent many hours in meetings, applied pressure where we could. We wanted to do this working with LOOHT and GMP, however, these efforts have so far been in vain. We have been stonewalled (reminding me that the LGBTQ Community has experience of another Stonewall which didn’t end so well for the authorities). Our next step will have to be to contact the LGBTQ press and seek their assistance in publicising this matter – we don’t want to do that but we may be left with no choice.
But let us remain optimistic. We are, at the time of writing, still hopeful that we will be able to meet with the key decision-makers in the Council and Police and that the matter can be brought to a swift and amicable solution – but don't hold your breath.
We specifically want to know –when we have been able to run darkrooms for 15 years:
- What has changed?
- Why is Manchester being treated differently to other cities (Birmingham, London etc)?
- Is this part of a larger plan to sanitise and gentrify the Village, driving fetish out and leaving only the ‘fluffy’ events that the general public finds tolerable?
- Is this at the behest of the developers who are building apartments and hotels around the Village?
- What are the further ‘unintended consequences’ of this – for example, will it drive fetish into uncontrolled private sex parties where no first aid, safer sex packs, and support are available?
- And perhaps most important of all, why does Licensing think that we all pose an increased risk to children? Are gay and bi men, by default, seen by LOOHT and GMP as paedophiles?
We will continue to fight this and hope to have a resolution before April; however, this is looking increasingly unlikely.
We offer our unreserved apologies for the situation, for this fundamental change to events over MRM Weekend and across the annual calendar and commit to continuing to fight this injustice.
This is what can you do to help?
We will present this to the council to show your support. Whether you are an Alert! customer, attend events at the Eagle, use dark rooms in other spaces or just feel that it is important that gay men are allowed venues and events where we can express ourselves in ways which may not fit a heteronormative model but are no less important and appropriate for our community, then please add your name to the petition. Every name will help.
Thank you for your support.
We will keep you apprised of any changes in the situation.
Please continue to support the events even if they have no darkroom – venues and promoters need an income and we need to be able to show demand. Tickets for the MRM Weekend, including the Alert! Rubber Ball are available here: http://bit.ly/MRM11tix
Should you wish to write directly to Licensing we suggest you contact Councillor Akbah who is the executive in charge of LOOHT (Licensing and Out of Hours Team). His email address is cllr.r.akbar@manchester.gov.uk – but please, whatever you do, spare us a few minutes to complete the petition https://club-alert.com/petition/
Thank you
Adrian and the Alert! team
Joint statement, written in conjunction with the Eagle management team.
