The Flying Handbag
A big, purpose-built LGBTQ+ bar and club on Queen Street, open from noon every day with drag hosts, karaoke, food and a sun terrace.
Androgynous people in Blackpool
Androgyny as identity and as style, Blackpool's gender-bending stage history, and welcoming places.
Androgynous describes a mix of masculine and feminine, or something in between. It can be:
- an identity: some people describe their gender as androgynous, usually under the non-binary umbrella; or
- a style: clothes, hair and make-up that mix masculine and feminine, which people of any gender and sexuality can wear.
An androgynous appearance doesn't tell you someone's gender identity, and non-binary people don't have to look androgynous: every way of presenting is equally valid. The A for androgynous appears in some longer acronyms, such as LGBTQQIP2SAA.
Androgyny on Blackpool's stages
Blackpool has made a show of blurring gender for well over a century.
- Vesta Tilley (1864 to 1952), the male impersonator, was a Blackpool headliner around 1900. A 1909 Palace Theatre programme billed her as "The World's Favourite Artiste".
- Comic dames and female impersonators played Blackpool's pantomimes and variety seasons for generations. See panto dames.
- Danny La Rue, Britain's most famous female impersonator, switched on the Illuminations in 1972.
- The Flamingo, from 1979, mixed leather, dungarees and glam on the same dancefloor.
See Vesta Tilley and the Blackpool drag tradition.
Where you'll fit in
Androgynous style is everyday wear in the Rainbow Quarter. The mixed bars, the cabaret venues and the late club on Queen Street are the most relaxed.
Funny Girls
Blackpool's best-known drag cabaret, staging big themed revues in a restored 1939 art deco cinema two minutes from Blackpool North.
Groups and support
If androgynous is your gender, not just your style, Blackpool's trans and non-binary services are open to you.
Blackpool Renaissance trans support group
A long-running trans peer support group meeting twice a month at a Dickson Road guesthouse, open to trans people, partners and allies.
Gender Outreach drop-in, Blackpool
A free monthly lunchtime drop-in at Blackpool Central Library for people on, waiting for or considering the gender identity clinic pathway.
Lancashire LGBT Women and Non-Binary Group
A free monthly online group from the county LGBTQ+ charity for lesbian, bi, trans and queer women and femme non-binary people.
Blackpool Allies
A free, relaxed social evening twice a month for LGBT+ people and anyone who supports them, at the Horizon centre on Dickson Road.
More
Sources
Trans and gender identity: more pages
TransgenderPeer groups, the gender outreach drop-in, the Phoenix Clinic, trans-friendly stays, history and UK law.Trans menLancashire Lads, trans-masc support online, the Phoenix Clinic, welcoming venues and history.Trans womenTransInclusion and Renaissance, the Phoenix Clinic, trans-friendly stays and nights out.Non-binaryWhat non-binary means, local groups and clinics, unisex spaces and your rights in the UK.Gender-fluidWhat gender-fluid means, practical tips, groups that welcome you and your rights.AgenderWhat agender means, how it differs from asexual, and the groups and spaces open to you.BigenderWhat bigender means, how it differs from gender-fluid and bisexual, and who welcomes you.Gender-nonconformingWhat gender-nonconforming means, how it differs from trans, practical tips and support.Two-SpiritWhat Two-Spirit means, where it comes from, and the Canadian MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ term.Third gender and cultural identitiesHijra, fa'afafine, muxe and more: third genders around the world, UK law, and faith and culture support.Every identityThe full list, the long acronyms and UK law.