LGBT culture in Liverpool, England has a recorded history since the 18th century. Many historic LGBT firsts and pioneering moments in the LGBT rights movement either took place in Liverpool or were achieved by citizens of the city.

Prominence in the UK and Northern England

As part of one of the largest cities in the United Kingdom, Liverpool's LGBT community is widely acknowledged as one of the most active and prominent in the country. In 2017, Liverpool was voted number 51 most LGBT friendly city in the world. The poll was taken by the gay community in major hubs around the world.

The city is the location of Britain's first and only official gay quarter, the only LGBT combined arts organisation in Northern England, the UK's most gay friendly university and one of Europe's largest free LGBT Pride festivals.

In recent years, Liverpool's LGBT community has been at the focus of global attention. Liverpool hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 which led to a significant number of international LGBT tourists visiting the city.

In July 2023, Pride in Liverpool officially hosted the Pride parade on behalf of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. Kyiv was unable to host the event due to sustained military invasion and occupation through the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

18th century

The history of gay and LGBT Liverpool is one full of contrasts and contradictions from larger than life characters, legendary gay clubs and relative tolerance, to the anonymous and underground subculture of cottaging, repression and outright persecution. As a commercial city and major port, the history is long and manifold. The earliest experiences of homosexuality can be traced back to the Georgian era when Liverpool was growing rapidly in population and stature, right through to its height as second city of the British Empire during Queen Victoria's reign.

In England, sex between men was punishable by death until 1861 under the Buggery Act 1533.

In summer 1806, twenty four men aged 17 to 84 from in and around Warrington, Manchester, and Liverpool were arrested for sodomy and other homosexual offences (three men were from Liverpool: Aspinall, Denton, and Smith and were all acquitted). Nine of the men were eventually tried by magistrates John Borron and Richard Gwillym at the Lancaster assizes. The trials became known collectively as the "Remarkable Trials", a reference to a pamphlet of the same name published shortly afterwards.

After the executions of three men, the two magistrates decided to investigate the scale of, and clamp down on, further homosexual offences in the region. They relied heavily on the interviews, statements and confessions of a Manchester artisan named Thomas Rix. During his testimonies, Rix spoke of his life and sexual experiences in Liverpool in the 1790s, suggesting that sodomy was widespread in the town. Rix spoke of homosexuals congregating in the ropewalk which led from Whitechapel and Dale Street.

According to Rix, most of his homosexual encounters with other men were casual and took place in streets, taverns and pubs. He made particular reference to a tavern "kept by a widow woman in Trueman Street at the bottom of Dale Street in Liverpool."

Acquaintances and sexual partners that he met involved a man named John Barron, a broker, a publican, a joiner and a weaver. His encounters also involved other artisans "from other classes and petit-bourgeois milieux", including three gentleman's servants and a fustian cutter named Simister who was well known for manipulating young men into homosexual sex.

19th century

Research by Dr Jeff Evans highlights the extent to which gay men were arrested and persecuted in the court papers of Liverpool between 1850 and the 1970s.

In 1861, Parliament removed the death penalty for the crime of buggery under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. The punishment was now life imprisonment or a jail sentence of not less than 10 years.

The research by Dr Evans showed that between 1850 and 1918, there were more incidences in Liverpool than anywhere else in the entire county of Lancashire where inter-male sex related cases were being actively pursued by the police and courts. During these years, there were a total of 276 incidences in Lancashire where magistrates insisted on a man accused of a homosexual sex crime should be sent to trial. Only four urban centres in the county recorded these incidences in double figures: 109 occasions were in Liverpool, 35 were in Manchester, 36 in Salford and 11 in St Helens.

Evans compared the high number of cases in Liverpool to the rest of Lancashire, where it was a relatively rare occurrence for police forces to build successful criminal cases against homosexual crimes, or for gay men to be sent to trial. He argues that Liverpool was a notable exception to the rule.

From the 1890s, Evans argues that the police forces in larger conurbations were able to prosecute inter-male sex cases in greater numbers due to the fact they were able to more easily identify areas where it was taking place. From as early as 1806, Liverpool City Police force had identified an established meeting place for homosexual sex at the bottom end of Dale Street in Liverpool City Centre.

It was also during this period it is known that Jack the Ripper suspect Francis Tumblety had a homosexual affair with well-known author Hall Caine whilst spending time in the city. Tumblety is said to have engaged in 'unusual sexual activities' and became known for his 'mania for the company of young men and grown-up youths', and for despising women. In 1888, he was arrested on charges of gross indecency and indecent assault with force and arms against four men in Liverpool, euphemisms for homosexual activities. It would have been later in the same year he was arrested on suspicion of the infamous Whitechapel murders.

During the 1870s, Constantine P. Cavafy lived in Liverpool with his family. Widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century, his homosexual orientation informed much of his work which included sexually explicit erotic poetry.

1895 saw a high-profile case involving three homosexual men in Liverpool which culminated in the hanging of William Miller, a 27-year-old sailor, at Watson Prison. Miller had been lodging with Edward Moyse, a wealthy local bookshop proprietor, and his young apprentice John Needham, who were both homosexuals. Over time Miller had become violently jealous of the pair and proceeded to batter Moyse to death with a fire poker as well as attempting to take Needham's life. Miller had also turned his attentions on finding Moyse's money. After surviving the attack, Needham was able to raise the alarm, inform the police and positively identify Miller, who was later tried and hanged for murder.

20th century 1910s–1920s

According to a thesis by Dr Jeff Evans, in the couple of decades that followed World War I, police managers and their governing bodies in Liverpool were choosing to punish homosexual sex crimes in an even more severe and disproportionate manner than previous years. In the period between 1919 and 1939, Liverpool continued to be the location with the most number of homosexuals being sent to trial compared to anywhere else in Lancashire. Evans notes that Liverpool was flourishing as a large and busy port with a booming commercial sex industry, but argues that this was not necessarily the case why so many gay men were being prosecuted. Evans argues that Liverpool was an exceptional case within Lancashire where a more explicit 'moral agenda' was taking place to stamp out homosexual sex acts. There was also a marked increase in the number of cases where the most serious charge of 'gross indecency' was being pursued.

1930s

In his interview with Our Story Liverpool, a local LGBT history project, the late artist Yankel Feather recounts his experiences of cottaging in public toilets off Princes Road in the 1930s. Due to the lack of openly gay clubs and bars at this time, many gay men visited lavatories as a means of meeting others in secret for both sex and company. Yankel explains how life was still very difficult and how men would make the most of whatever pleasures they could get in life. During the Second World War, he goes onto describe how a 'gay identity' had not yet developed and how the word 'queer' was still being used to describe 'difference'.

1940s–1960s

A number of contributing factors at the advent of World War II meant Liverpool had earned itself a reputation as 'gay centre of The North'. Liverpool's strategic importance as the great port of the British Empire brought with it a constant flow of passenger liners and merchant ships and a regular influx of gay stewards, sailors, soldiers and airmen choosing to spend time and money in the city. The general sense that death could very easily be around the corner and consequential 'live for the moment' ethos led to semi-secret pockets of acceptance and development of a vibrant underground subculture of homosexual bars and cottages. Gays and lesbians found refuge in the pubs around Queen Square close to the city's music clubs and theatres in what had evolved into an unofficial gay village. The area was already familiar to the 'theatrical crowd' and had been associated with 'disreputable activity' since the early 19th century.

Gay frequented bars included the Stork Hotel, Magic Clock, Royal Court bar, Old Royal and the Basnett Bar. Numerous other places such as the Black Cat & Bear's Paw existed further out from the main strip.

The neighbourhood provided asylum well into the 1960s, but people who patronised the bars tended to be confined to those who were aware of the criminality and comfortable enough being out. Sex between men was still a criminal offence and being gay was highly disapproved of socially. Local radio DJ Pete Price recalled how the gay clientele were still forced to exercise caution when frequenting the area as despite being relatively tolerated by local police, considerable adversity would still be felt. As a consequence, the semi-covert community had adopted its own slang terms and language.

The Magic Clock was characterised as 'home away from home' for a lot of gay men, a 'little old fashioned traditional pub with stained glass windows, beaten copper bar top and big brass bar pumps' full of 'Quentin Crisp types', 'camp little queens' in suits and glamorous eyelashes. The barmaid known as 'Babs' was known to be a gay tolerant motherly figure and the straight clientele were very aware of the type of place it was, very often the only place gay people could mix with others who were like them. Regulars recall how pubs in those days closed at 10pm and when the alcohol had finished many would continue onwards to house parties.

Cinemas also provided an alternative place where gay men could meet. The Liverpool News Theatre on Clayton Square and Tatler News Theatre on Church Street were known in gay circles as a meeting place for sex. Closer to the bars, the Playhouse Theatre also had a strong gay element and the gay community would often mix with members of the cast.