Be / here

Your voice matters 🧡

Be/Here wants to learn about LGBTQIA+ people’s health, healthcare experiences and cancer-screening needs.

You can take part if you are aged 18+, live in England and identify as LGBTQIA+ or are questioning. The survey takes around 5–7 minutes and does not ask for your name or contact details.

Take part: https://vanessausw.wixforms.com/f/7505589738825319507

Please share this post with your friends, networks and community groups.

***rHealth

🌙 **The evenings are beginning to get darker.**

Whether you’re commuting, starting university, walking the dog or heading home after seeing friends, **WalkSafe+** offers another way to stay connected with people you trust.

The free UK personal-safety app allows you to share your live journey and expected arrival time with chosen friends or family.

📍 Share your location when you choose
⏰ Let someone know when you expect to arrive
🏳️ Find safety-trained venues nearby
🆘 Send an SOS alert to your trusted contacts

Download WalkSafe+ free for Apple or Android:
🔗 https://walksafe.io/download-walksafe/

WalkSafe+ is a safety tool, not a guarantee—and responsibility always lies with anyone causing harm, never with you.

If you are in immediate danger, call **999**.

A gentle reminder for anyone feeling worn down by the news: staying informed and protecting your nervous system can coexist.

You are allowed to:

• choose one trusted source instead of constant updates
• mute words or accounts that repeatedly distress you
• step away from arguments you cannot safely hold
• ask a friend to tell you if something genuinely urgent changes
• return to your body, your home and the people around you

Logging off is not the same as not caring. Rest can help us stay connected to our values without living in a permanent state of alarm.

What helps you stay grounded when the news feels relentless?

***rWellbeing

Older LGBTQ+ people in rural, coastal and less connected communities may have fewer opportunities to access affirming support.

Specialist services are often concentrated in places with larger LGBTQ+ populations, leaving some people travelling long distances or receiving no suitable support.

Be/Here works in Greater Manchester and provides online LGBTQIA+ informed support across the UK. Distance should not prevent anyone from feeling understood.

Find out more: www.beheremcr.co.uk

Manchester’s new LGBTQIA+ Heritage Trail is here. 🏳️‍🌈

The trail connects places and stories that have shaped q***r life across the city. It is a lovely invitation to notice that LGBTQIA+ history does not live only in archives—it lives in streets, venues, protests, friendships and memories.

Feeling connected to community history can offer something powerful: proof that we were here, that people organised, cared for one another and made change possible.

Explore the trail:

https://lgbt.foundation/manchesters-lgbtqia-heritage-trail-is-here/

Which Manchester place holds an important LGBTQIA+ memory for you?

***rHistory

On Bi Visibility Day, we want to say this clearly: bi people do not become less bi because of the gender of their current partner.

Bi people can experience erasure in straight spaces and within LGBTQIA+ communities. That can mean repeatedly having identity questioned, treated as a phase or assumed from the relationship someone is in.

Being seen matters. So does being believed without having to prove yourself.

Today we celebrate bi, bisexual, biromantic and bi+ people in all the different ways they live, love and belong.

Older LGBTQ+ people have spent decades creating change, challenging injustice and building community support.

They should not be excluded from LGBTQ+ spaces or from decisions about services intended for them.

At Be/Here, we believe support should be built with our communities, grounded in lived experience and responsive to the different identities people carry.

LGBTQ+ inclusion has no upper age limit.

Source: Centre for Ageing Better, State of Ageing Spotlight: Older LGBTQ+ People, 2026.

Manchester Pride may be over, but your mind and body might still be catching up.

Pride can hold joy, connection and freedom. It can also involve crowds, disrupted sleep, sensory overload, spending pressure, alcohol or substances, difficult encounters and a return to everyday spaces that feel less affirming.

A post-Pride dip does not mean you did Pride “wrong”.

Today might be for water, food, rest, clean clothes, less scrolling and one gentle conversation with somebody who feels safe. You do not have to process the whole weekend at once.

What is helping you reset after Pride season?

Be/Here offers free LGBTQIA+ mental health skills workshops and community spaces:
https://www.beheremcr.co.uk/lgbtqiamentalhealthworkshopsandevents

***rWellbeing