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GAY TIMES •

I. JORDAN: “I just love euphoria, I’m such a sucker for it”

I. JORDAN has had a hell of a summer. It’s been a hell of a year, actually. Releasing their first album last May, moving in a circle of extremely successful recording artists featuring, and touring it internationally, they’ve become a mainstay on queer and secular line-ups alike – making them one of the most booked, busy and exciting artists in the world right now. And “in the world” is not just a lazy end to a sentence, but reference to the fact that they have literally played the four corners...
Gay Times Magazine •

Eating out: a snapshot of FLINTA+ chefs at London's hottest queer restaurants

Easting out in London has never been more enjoyable.

The culture of pop ups and guest chefs, make for a luscious and exciting culinary landscape, whether you stumble across a coincidental collab or your ear is firmly to the ground listening for the next rumbling of a residency.

As with literally every other aspect of culture, queer people are and have been at the forefront of that vibrancy. From Bleecker Burger's Zan Kaufman founding the company in 2012, to musician Denai Moore’s vegan antics...
Gay Times Magazine •

What is the trans unemployment gap – and what we can do about it?

“I started Transpire Talent to close the trans unemployment gap, which is currently double that of the cisgender population,” says Lucia Blayke, of Transpire Talent. The founder of Europe’s first trans recruitment agency is citing a 2021 report from McKinsey & Co that found that trans people were twice as likely as cis people to be unemployed. This is worrying not simply on the level of the clear discrimination at play, but in terms of the other challenges trans people fa...
Gay Times Magazine •

Torrey Peters: “Maybe you f*ck other trans girls, maybe you don't, but you care and you love”

If Torrey Peters isn’t a household name already, then she will be after Stag Dance. Currently, after Detransition, Baby’s Women’s Prize for Fiction nomination and international success, I think it depends on who’s house you’re in, soon it won’t. But if you were disappointed that Detransition, Baby wasn’t How To Be A Trans Ally 101, you’ll be equally disappointed by Stag Dance. Though different in almost every way, Peters’ second book is every bit as complex as Detransit...
GAY TIMES •

Shura: “Getting muscles takes so long”

I sort of joke that it’s giving Joan of Arc top, and then Ellie from The Last Of Us bottom. I think that the first sort of obvious one is a game I played called Baldur’s Gate 3, which took over my life. I just sort of fell in love with the idea of myself as this slightly chaotic gnome Bard.
I had also just read The Little Prince and was absolutely devastated by it, like this is not a children’s book. There’s this really striking image of him stood on top of a mountain range, and then the themes...
GAY TIMES •

Dolls and dykes: Plastyk is a new era of lesbianism in South London

On 21st of September this year the trans community in London achieved another of its “firsts” – we’ve had the first London Trans+ Pride, we’ve had Harpies, Europe’s first trans strip club, and now we have the first lesbian night run by a trans woman. It’s worth saying I would love to be wrong about this, and if you know of one that predates Plastyk, then please let me know. And I know that there are other trans-run lesbian nights, operated by non-binary people and trans mascs, in fact there are...
GAY TIMES •

Blue-chip galleries and Gail's: An outsider's guide to Frieze

The Frieze fairs (London and Masters) landed in Regents Park this week, sending ”art people” into their annual frenzy. It’s the art world’s equivalent of fashion week with much more money and much less embarrassment about it. There is absolutely nothing coy, current or trendy about a “Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Lounge”, or champagne at a minimum of £20 a glass. In that sense, Frieze is fundamentally and proudly unabashed. 
The fairs take place in what must be two of the largest marquees on...
The Sunday Times •

Skinny jeans are back: here’s how to style them

Full disclosure: I’ve always loved skinny jeans. People say they’re uncomfortable but honestly, to me, there is nothing more comforting than having my calves hugged by soft, stretchy denim. So earlier this year, when Miu Miu, the instigator of all present trends, showed models traipsing down the catwalk in low-rise skinnies, my interest was piqued. The Instagram-based trend forecaster Data, But Make It Fashion confirmed it: after analysing hundreds of social media posts mentioning skinny jeans,...
GAY TIMES •

The Substance reminds us that body horror has always been trans

If you’ve been on the internet over the past few weeks, it’s been near impossible to avoid talk of The Substance, the best-known example of the “feminist body horror” revival which also includes Nightbitch and Shell. From tales of Demi Moore’s career best performance, to its scathing critique of the beauty industry and society’s attitudes towards ageing women, the internet is awash with (mostly) praise for Coralie Fargeat’s second feature. 
The film stars Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, an Oscar-win...
GAY TIMES •

HARPIA: London’s c*ntiest dolls combine their slay for one night only - GAY TIMES

To be past your first birthday in London queer nightlife is a blessing and a curse – a blessing in that you made it, just like most businesses, most parties give up the ghost in their first year. And while it can be a curse to have to rise to the occasion of bigger expectations,  bigger venues, bigger fees, more pressure and bigger queues, the Opia girlies haven’t hesitated as they’ve planted their heels in each stride forward. From a launch night collaboration with Chema Diaz, to their designer...
Dazed •

Anohni on hope, her tour, and the misogyny of transphobia

Anohni is an artist whose voice does so much more than sing – there is a power to her words and an indescribable beauty to listening to her speak. Between songs, she often begins lilting, meandering tales that take you from the minute and personal to the monumental and everlasting. At her Barbican show on July 2, it was childhood memories of sugar in tea, understood through the violence and crimes committed by colonial Britain in acquiring those substances.
Her latest project, Anohni and the Joh...
Dazed •

An ode to INFERNO, London’s most ‘chaotic, beautiful’ rave

As a haven for queer self-expression, INFERNO has likewise become a haven for photographers. Revellers’ running riot, palpable chaotic energy, bold make-up and cutting-edge fashion all serve as the perfect ingredients for a good image, leading to some of the most iconic shots of contemporary queer clubbing culture.
For nine years, INFERNO has more or less defined the concept of the “queer techno rave” in London. Its rotating cast of local and international hard dance techno DJs, boundary-pushing...
Dazed •

In pictures: the opening night of London’s new lesbian bar

Around four weeks ago, rumblings emerged on social media of “a new lesbian bar on Broadway Market”: La Camionera (Spanish for “female truck driver”, but also, informally, a butch lesbian). Other than this, information was sparse, the marketing obscure and the owner tantalisingly anonymous. Where is it? What is it going to look like? Is it a full-time bar? Is it just a club night? And most importantly, whose ex is running it?
The news captivated the lesbian rumour mill for weeks, reaching its dar...
Dazed •

The ultimate guide to UK queer nightlife for 2023

Introducing Horror Nation?, a new season from Dazed about the current state of the UK from the perspective of the young people who live here. Over the course of this week, we will be celebrating the good that is happening all across the country – the culture and the creativity, the artists and the activists, the positive forces for change. But we will also be confronting the reality that life is getting increasingly challenging for British youth, and that Britishness itself is in flux, or even c...
British GQ •

What I learned reading every Sophie interview ever

On 30 January we lost Sophie, a ground-breaking, generation-defining musician and one of the most important trans artists we’ve ever had. Her music redefined the parameters of music, famous for a soundscape of clanging metal, snapping latex, bubbles, pops and fizzing. The result is experimental dance music, overlaid with childlike emotive vocals, sweet enough to pass for pop, uncomfortable enough to be interesting and sensitive enough to be deeply meaningful.She quickly made her name as a produc...
Hunger •

Taahliah: NOT YOUR SUBGENRE

I want to start by talking about “Bourgeoisie”, it’s a great track from your EP, and makes it very clear that you’re not the bourgeoisie. Why was it so important to you to make your class and cultural background so clear?
I’m so inspired and energised by the fact that I’m working class. And whenever I would come into situations where people would confuse my class background or think that I came from a higher class that what I was, it was almost as if they were insinuating that all the things tha...
AnOther •

Emily Crooked on Casting London Fashion Week’s Most Inclusive Show

In January 2019, I walked my first London Fashion Week show for Art School and was lucky enough to write about the experience and how much it meant to me for AnOther. Imagine my sense of beautiful symmetry when I found myself, just over two year later, working with the now-sole creative director Eden Loweth and the founder of London Trans+ Pride and Harpies, Lucia Blayke, as casting directors for the Autumn/Winter 2021 show.
The response to the show was incredible, and, humblingly, the response...
British Vogue •

Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The UK Government’s Potential Backtracking On Trans Rights

2020 has been a traumatic year for the trans community. High-profile social media transphobia has been consistent and vicious; at least 28 trans people were murdered in the first seven months of the year alone (for perspective, that’s almost one a week); the President of the United States has regularly spoken about banning trans people from not only bathrooms and hostels but also from accessing healthcare during a pandemic; and the British government has backtracked on a potential update to the...
Dazed •

Tremors is the club night bringing online avatar looks from URL to IRL

January 24 saw the return of Tremors, an east London party premised around hardcore dance music, performance art, and otherworldly, verging on terrifying, beauty looks. Past nights have seen household hardcore and PC music names like Spinee, GFOTY, and Panteros666 play, alongside an artistic and online presence that includes holographic installations for Hanger and a virtual avatar campaign for Walter van Beirendonck. And they threw the dirty, underground afters for Danny L Harle’s Harlecore ser...
AnOther •

Uplifting Portraits from London’s First Trans Pride

On Saturday, 14 September, 2,000 trans+ people and allies marched through central London, making history as the first ever London Trans+ Pride. The day started at Hyde Park Corner and saw a mass of trans+ pride flags and protest signs flood through Piccadilly Circus, down Shaftesbury Avenue, ending in Soho Square for speeches – made in true DIY activist style from a bench reimagined as a stage – by event organiser Lucia Blayke, as well as members of the trans+ and intersex community. Izzy MacCal...
British Vogue •

London's Trans+ Community Made History During LFW – And This Weekend's Empowering March Was Just The Beginning

After around two hours of chanting “What do we want? Trans rights! When do we want them? Now!” and listening to gorgeous words from our community, music was played and the day became more lighthearted as those that attended sat in Soho Square with drinks and food and got to know each other and come down from the ridiculous high of marching for your rights with so many beautiful people.

After around two hours of chanting “What do we want? Trans rights! When do we want them? Now!” and listening t...
British Vogue •

The Importance Of Trans Communities – And How I Found Mine

Eight months ago I was living in Bristol, immersing myself in London’s queer scene through social media. As a trans person, the part that most appealed to me - amongst Dalston Superstore, the hedonism of Adonis, the glamour of London Queer Fashion Show and Pussy Palace - was Transmissions and its founder Lucia Blake. To me, as one of only a few trans women I knew in a queer scene dominated by cis people, the idea and image of a community run by and comprising of trans people looked like bliss. I...
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