QueerQuest #9

Streetview: https://maps.app.goo.gl/o8YymEhkWdSQwBwF9
Geocache code: GCBE227

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With the truth revealed – a truth much more complex than first realised, Gawain must now offer himself the same forgiveness and compassion he receives. Rather than suffering the same fate he inflicted upon the Green Knight in the court, he receives only a ‘nick’ on his neck.

The ‘nick’ is a mark of both his faults and his resilience. Think about a time you were wrong, misjudged someone or made a mistake. How did you offer yourself compassion and forgiveness and embracing your imperfections as part of your unique story? How can these ‘nicks’ become sources of strength rather than shame?

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Artist’s Statement: Based on the life of ‘Miss Lily Laurel’ from 1891 who, born a woman, was known for her impersonation of men. This piece plays with the notion of binary, of black & white with a carefully placed ‘grey’ feather in the side of the hat.

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LINK: https://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.com/2014/02/male-impersonators.html

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We chose this location near to the Alton Towers Estate which, in 1891, hosted Miss Lily Laurel, a male impersonator, whose satirical performance parodied male manners to subvert the stereotyping at the time of women as “beautiful, chaste, domestic creatures,” at their Flower Show. This act of challenging gender norms on a public stage established an early, powerful ancestor to modern drag performers and wider queer visibility.

In a different way, a young couple visiting to our Pride In The Moorlands stall in June 2025 expressed a quieter confidence, sharing: “We went on our second date to Alton Towers, and we felt safe to hold hands for the first time.”

Whether through the dramatic guise of the impersonator or the brave, simple act of holding hands at a theme park, this space of leisure and entertainment has been somewhere that the suspension of the mundane can move people to express themselves more freely.

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Trans Man age 34: “I have learned that visibility is a double edged sword – when you have visibility then people are going to have feelings about it and they’re not all going to be nice. That’s the flip side of the massive progress that we’ve made.’

Gay cis Man aged 84: “I really would endorse what you’ve said very very strongly. I’ve had very good…positive things from my coming out as a gay man and as a person with HIV. The young people I’ve met – I don’t think they have it easier at all… We have made huge progress legally but changing hearts and minds is quite something else… and just reading young people’s literature I think ‘I didn’t have to do that, it wasn’t like that for me’ – by comparison I had a really great time at school and some kids these days have a rotten time.”