Is Sheffield so backward?

I class myself as a professinal Sheffielder, very proud of my city and it's heritage and never miss an opportunity to sing the city's praises and the warmth and generosity of spirit of it's citizens to all and sundry.

Last week a work colleague arrived from France to spend a few weeks living and working in Sheffield. With typical Sheffield warmth and hospitality she was made most welcome....until she innocently asked if there was anywhere in the city where she could meet and socialise with other lesbians.

From the reaction to her innocent and genuine query, the poor girl may as well have announced that she had got smallpox or some other unmentionable disease. I know that we pride ourselves on being down to earth, hard working, salt of the earth types, but it is 2003 not 1803. Surely Sheffield's well deserved reputation of offering a warm welcome to all is still alive and strong?

There is a gay/lesbian scene in sheffield, I read about it in another topic. But I know what your getting at. When I'm told Sheffield is the 4th biggest city I can hardley believe it. I expected much more facilities. I've visited big cities, London, Liverpool, Manchester, medium cities like Chester, and large towns like Warrington and Widnes. Sheffield seems to me to be like a big Warrington, but not as good for shopping and stuff as Chester. I suppose its the Meadowhall effect.

Although having said that Chester did get a bit quiet when an out of town retail place called "Cheshire Oaks" opened. Cheshire Oaks, isn't warehouses disguised as shops its a huge carpark ringed by brick built shops. It can takes hours to get in and out of the place near christmas, but despite this Chester still does very well and seems to have a bigger centre. It certainly has a busier one. The problems appears to me to have to do with a lot of officeblocks in the centre which would need to be got rid of to allow more space for shops. Of course dislocating lots of buildings isn't really what a city should do eiher..

When you think of Sheffield being backward - imagine living in Barnsley.

Moon Maiden

No one should have to imagine living in Barnsley!

Barnsley may not be the liberal centre of the universe, but from my experience of Barnsley folk I am sure that their reaction to my French colleagues revelation that she is a lesbian and her enquiry as to where she might meet other like minded people during her time in Sheffield 'shock..horror' would not have been greeted with the reaction it was by a fair few citizens of our so called 'big and friendly city.'

ooh Duckie whata todo-I can understand people being shy of dealing with perversion, so would I!Best to keep quiet Shhh.Ahh.

Does Sheffield have a gay area, like Manchester's Canal Street?

thank god not.

Oh my god! That is so silly! I cannot believe some people are so very "backward" and hush hush on sexuality nowadays! :shock: I really am shocked! I would have thought with all the revelations on the gay scene (Will Young winning pop star program) we would have come to accept that sexuality shouldn't be a big deal!!!

If the young woman had asked me where she could socialise with lesbians, I would certainly not look down on her or treat her any differently. If anything, I'd be doing some research to help her find some places. It's a shame some people aren't as like minded. I for one, was taught to treat people how I expected to be treat. A lot of people claim to be likeminded in this respect, but clearly not many when we still have petty cases like this. It's appauling

im all for equal rights etc. but im glad we dont have a canal street, as its a really run down/rough area of manchester.

No we don't have a Canal Street.......we have Castle Market! And The Moor!!

hehehe Castle Market and lower Moor are a no-go zone for me. You can call me a snob if you wish, but I feel very unnearved and a bit on edge when entering those areas alone. To be totally honest, my Mum won't even go around that area with me, which shows how bad it must be!

I was discussing the city centre with a friend of mine a few days ago. We came to the conclusion that Primark is the fine line between the high street with all the nice shops, and the rougher market end. We claim to have a culture shock from going past Primark!

Maybe its the pidgeons that scare me the most. Whilst waiting for the 95 bus outside Ethel Austen, a crazed pidgeon was ratling around in the bus shelter, causing quite a stir. As you can imagine I was terrified because I didn't want it to fly near me or even worse, poop on my hair :oops: So I've sworn that I'm going to walk to the TJ Hughes bus stop from now on, to avoid the pidgeons!