Artwork celebrates extraordinary Wigan gay rights pioneer

He is one of the latest additions to the Icons room in the art exhibition space on the upper floor of The Galleries Shopping Centre.

Allan began an amazing campaign for gay rights in the mid-1960s from the unlikely surroundings of a miner’s cottage in Atherton.

This all happened several years before the Stonewall riots in New York that are often highlighted as the beginning of the LGBTQ+ movement.

Acclaimed artists Al Holmes and Al Taylor, who curate The Fire Within and are partners, have put on display a special piece of artwork celebrating his life and achievements in the Icons room.

Commissioned by Manchester Pride through Arts Council England, their piece is made up of the co-ordinates of his borough home arranged as a cross, with neon numbers in rainbow colours.

And Allan’s story is one they are very keen for more residents in the borough to know.

They said: “We want to put Wigan on the map as the beginning of gay rights and equality. We’re not as tuned into the movement in our own country and that won’t change until we start to tell our own stories.

“It is phenomenal that this all started in Atherton. Everyone knows about Stonewall but almost no-one knows about Allan.

“We need to see how many amazing things there are here in our own borough. Allan’s is a really special story.”

Allan was an employee of the National Coal Board and became frustrated at Parliament’s failure to implement the Wolfenden Report, which had concluded in 1957 that the criminalisation of homosexuality was an infringement on civil liberty and the law had no business interfering in or banning private relationships between consenting adults.

He created a leaflet to promote his views on gay rights and included his address at the bottom.

It made headline news, with his campaign being featured on the front page of the Leigh Reporter newspaper in 1965.

That led to him receiving thousands of messages from people in a similar position to him, inadvertently creating the first large-scale national gay community.

For Al and Al one of the most significant aspects of Allan’s work is that his status as a coal board worker and his living in Atherton dismantled an argument which was used by politicians in connection with the Wolfenden Report, that working-class communities in particular would not accept gay relationships.

Wigan now has its own annual Pride festival and attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people have changed considerably since the mid-1960s.

However, Al and Al said that prejudice is still very much a problem and Allan’s story is a reminder of how much remains to be done as well as celebrating the advances that have occurred since his pioneering public stand for gay rights.

They said: “Allan lived right in the middle of a mining community and had no trouble at all. That proved that Westminster was just avoiding the issue.

“What Allan did was very, very brave. He was the first gay man to create a leaflet promoting his gay rights agenda and published his address at the bottom.

“The leaflet exuded the message ‘you are not alone’ and as a result, he received thousands of supportive letters.

“Allan created the first LGBTQ community and he was from Wigan borough.

“As a gay lad growing up in Wigan, I didn’t have any idea that this was part of my history. I only discovered Allan in recent months and I think that’s a huge shame.

“The Fire Within is about openness, tolerance and heritage – Allan’s story encompasses all of that.

“Being a gay man or part of a minority group can sometimes be isolating. Although acceptance and judgement has improved over time, there’s still a long way to go before people truly understand us.

“The Fire Within will help tackle this by creating a safe space for people, including our young people who are figuring out their identities.”

Allan founded the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and his importance has been acknowledged by leading activist Peter Tatchell, who has referred to him as the grandfather of gay rights.