00:15Hello and welcome to Made in Cairns Live on KMTV, where we explore the world of businesses
00:20and creators throughout the county. I'm Foray Adeoye and today we're celebrating Pride Month
00:25by exploring LGBTQ plus run and inclusive businesses. First this week, our reporter Maria
00:31Klesas caught up with the founder of Margit Queer Library to discuss why preserving LGBTQ plus
00:37history and creating safe spaces matter. They also spoke about Margit's vibrant queer creative
00:43community and how Pride helps spark conversations and foster meaningful connections. Let's take a
00:49look now. What is the story behind the library? Why and how did it start? So the library opened
00:55almost a year ago. We opened on June 14th last year. I only really learnt and was able to
01:05read about LGBT history, queer theory, all of these ideas and histories by going to university.
01:17I've always felt really passionately as a result of that, that I want to create less barriers
01:23between how we access those histories and those books. What does accessibility look like for you?
01:29Do you rely on donations to keep afloat? We do receive donations. I'm very grateful for those
01:35donations. They mean that we can keep because we also provide free tea, free coffee. So it means
01:41that we can keep the kettle on. It's a totally free space, which means that people sign up but there's
01:47no membership fee, there's no fines. What does Pride Month mean to you personally and the community
01:53around your library? You know, personally, Pride Month is every month. I think Pride Month is a really
01:58important month in the calendar year where it creates opportunities for connection and exposure and
02:07having visibility that we're here. Why do you think preservation and archiving is important, specifically for the
02:14community? What I what I find really energizing about archiving as an area is getting into that nitty gritty of
02:24of
02:24sitting with complex questions of power and memory and what's missing and who's not in the room and who's not
02:32in
02:33these archives. Margate has a very strong creative LGBTQ plus community. How has this influenced your space?
02:41Creatively, there is this energy in Margate that is just try, just try and people come around an idea, they
02:52will be
02:52supportive, they will show up. A lot of the queer scene in Margate is very DIY, you know, it's very
03:00cardboard.
03:00It's very just like have a go. What is the most rewarding thing about running your library?
03:05There's this word that comes up that I think particularly moves me is when somebody says that it's safe, it
03:12feels like a
03:12safe space. And that means that means a lot. Next, let's take a moment. Let's take a look at how
03:19the LGBTQ plus community
03:21are creating safe spaces for themselves within the nightlife culture in the county. Our reporter Alia Pritchard went down to
03:28Wistable to speak with a pub owner to find out more. Having businesses here in Kent that create safe spaces
03:34for members of the
03:35LGBTQ plus community is so important. So I went down to Wistable to visit a queer owned business.
03:42I'm at the 12 Taps to speak to the owner, Livvy, about owning an inclusive bar.
03:45We've been here for 10 years now. We opened in March 2016. It's an inclusive space. It's a queer run
03:52space, but it's an inclusive space
03:53it is for everybody. Yeah, we specialise in craft beer. We've got 12 lines of craft beer. We also make
03:58our own gin and we do a
04:00seasonal cocktail list as well. We also make a pizza gin and a hop gin. We make them using a
04:06very low energy technique called vacuum
04:08distilling. So it's environmentally sort of very low impact. And the Wistable gin is inspired, well, it's
04:15inspired by Wistable. So some of the botanicals in it are seaweed, organic seaweed and some fennel which
04:22you find on tankers' slopes. Now let's find out what inspired them to open up this bar and how they
04:28promote inclusivity. One of the things that we wanted to do when we opened the bar was make it a
04:33space that
04:33would be welcoming to everybody. And I think we had a special sort of eye on the queer community and
04:39also women who may want to drink on their own or in groups of women. Because traditionally drinking
04:44spaces have been quite male, quite traditional, and we wanted to sort of mix that up a bit.
04:49And I think especially for people who maybe recently have come out, and especially I think talking now
04:55about the trans community, there's a lot of people who are very cautious about being out in public and
04:59stuff. And so I think it's really important to have inclusive spaces, not just inclusive spaces, but
05:05spaces that make sure they advertise to being such. But what steps can businesses here in Kent take to
05:10become more inclusive? You don't have to be queer run to be queer inclusive. And you don't have to be
05:17a
05:17gay bar to be sort of an inclusive space. Don't just assume that people know that you are inclusive.
05:24Send that signal out. Because I think now more than ever, it's really important when people are starting
05:29to feel a bit, you know, cautious about going out of an evening. So I think there are things that
05:34our industry can do to help that. And I think if you make it quite obvious the type of business
05:40you
05:40are and the type of space you are, you keep out some of the problems, which is not to say
05:44that it never
05:45happens. But we will always, we will always, always root it out and have a zero tolerance policy now.
05:51I'd really just like to say to other businesses, like please, if you are, think about these things and try
05:56and
05:56make yourself as welcoming and as safe as you can be.
06:00Alia Pritchard for KMTV.
06:03A growing safe space for the LGBTQIA plus community is the world of tabletop board gaming.
06:09Canterbury in particular hosts an array of board game events, including those found at the Longrest Cafe,
06:15Mooring Cafe, Dias of Destiny and at the universities in the city. Our reporter Jackie Wean went to a Pride
06:22and
06:22board, Pride board game club hosted by a coffee shop to get some more insights into how tabletop
06:28gaming can bring people from the LGBTQIA community together. Let's take a look.
06:33Fruitworks began in 2011 as a place to hire out private studios and meeting rooms with the aim
06:39being to create a space for creatives to innovate. Attached to the renovated Victorian warehouse that
06:44Fruitworks calls home is their own separate coffee shop. Today is the Canterbury Pride Festival,
06:49the main event of which is the Pride going throughout the high street. But what if you want to celebrate
06:54Pride but those kinds of big events aren't really for you? Well I'm here for the Freeworks coffee shop
06:59in Canterbury to speak to the organisers of the Pride board game event. Let's take a look.
07:03This Pride board game event is ran by Hand Limit, a group created by couple Abbey and Shaw,
07:08with the aim of creating a relaxing space for like-minded gamers.
07:12So Hand Limit started out as a blog, just writing about board games. It was my way of kind of
07:17just indulging in the hobby but it always had a direction of wanting to promote board games
07:23as a way of promoting positive mental health and community building. Then about a year ago we decided
07:28to run in-person events and for the public to come and join us and share the love of gaming.
07:35So
07:36we organise these events and get all our friends that run businesses involved to come along and help us out.
07:41Our kind of little collective is made up of a bunch of neurodivergent queers so Pride has always been
07:49very important to us. But the idea of doing something during Pride came a couple of years ago
07:54when we attended the main Canterbury Pride event which was fantastic but quite a sensory overload experience.
08:02It would be great if we could do a Pride event that was something that we liked to do like
08:06playing board
08:07games or table shop games. Why don't we just do it? The event was supported by multiple local businesses
08:12other than Fruitworks including Board at Home, a Fanit-based board game shop and Drawn and Quartered,
08:18a Canterbury-based tattoo shop. Both of them ran stalls at the event selling various items alongside a
08:24charity Tombolo. I find that they kind of give people a common ground, let people get to know each other,
08:31maybe eliminate some of the awkward small talk between people as well and just show that whatever
08:39someone might be like with preferences or identity and things like that, that there's common ground
08:47that we all share, that we all have together. So, Drawn and Quartered, our tattoo shop is a queer
08:53owner so we love to support local queer businesses. We are here today to support Handleman. We have a
08:58store where we're doing temporary tattoos and stickers. So, the original owners knew the people
09:03wearing it, Shaw and Abbey, became good friends with them, ended up playing board games and when
09:09they started up the business, we found it quite hard as a small business to try and make ourselves
09:14more seen and known for Pride. However, those two both said, why don't you just come here for a bit
09:21and
09:22this is the second time running and it's going to be something we'll be doing all the time.
09:30And finally, let's take a moment to delve into some figures and statistics around LGBTQIA plus
09:36businesses and how they can help the community. Joining me this week to bring us the deep dive is Lottie
09:42Mason.
09:48Hi Lottie. Hi. So, what does the LGBTQ plus owned business space look like in the county?
09:56So, according to an OutBritain report from 2026, there are 250,000 LGBT plus owned businesses operating in
10:03the UK at the moment with 750,000 people employed. In that statistic, these businesses have proven to be
10:10huge providers to the economy with a hundred billion pound turnover. And are there any hubs or prevalence in
10:17the in Kent's for the LGBTQIA plus community? Yes, there's lots. So, you may know Brighton,
10:24London and Manchester as queer hubs of the UK. But did you know that Kent's very own Margate is part
10:29of
10:29that list as well? So, Margate's annual Pride attracts more than 15,000 people every year. It's
10:47a state that Margate has become known as England's unassuming LGBTQ plus hub, with census data showing
10:52that over 7% of the population identify as being LGBTQIA plus, which is a higher percentage than cities
10:59like Manchester and Bristol and not far behind Brighton, the UK's long standing, famously queer
11:04capital of the coastal capital tool for the queer community. Sorry. Kent also has many Pride events,
11:12which take place every year throughout the county,
11:14most notably Maidstone, Canterbury, Fabersham, Ashford, Dover and Margate. Thank you.
11:27You've been watching Maid in Kent live on KMTV. There's more news made just for Kent throughout
11:32the evening. Don't forget, you can always keep us up to date with the latest news across the county
11:37by logging on to kmtv.co.uk. But for me, from now, that's all. Goodbye.
11:43Bye.
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