Mindy Meleyal
Mindy was one of the founding members of the Lesbian Commune at 148 Boulevard [1982 – 1987].
Her, Lel and Alphie bought the property for 10K before renovating it fully themselves. Bringing in two female electricians from Manchester to rewire the house. They lived there for 5 years. “When it all ended if I could have taken the floor boards I would, it was so important.”
Collectively while in Boulevard the changed their surnames by deed poll to Meleyal – an amalgamation of all their then first names
Mindy studied Documentary Photography between 1983/84 at Hull while also doing an MA in Women’s Studies at York University. As a photographer she created a darkroom in her bedroom at thentop of the house to develop and print images. Many were added to the Boulevard “family album”. Her photos feature the women, the house in transition, their community and the social/political events they attended included a drag night at The George with Bobby Mandrell.
“It’s like having a baby”Angie screeched when we were developing prints.”
“These were politically challenging times both for women and lesbians. Be a nice girl” rhetoric was dominant and a fear of lesbians was pronounced. For example Mandy Precious worked in the chip shop opposite and she told us her mother warned us about our house and us women. You have to remember it in the context of the time, which was deeply misogynistic. We were involved in the 2nd wave feminism debate and some of it was puritanical. We were deconstructing the patriarchy and dismantling the family construct. I was a recovering hetrosexual so was Lel, we had both been married. Boulevard was a radical place. We were trying to break the cast of conditioning of women in the past – it was still a time when a woman had to get husbands permission to do anything with money. We had our own money from divorces or wages. I left Hull for Manchester because of Homophobia. I’d been outed. I found out when i was in B&Q and my life was made hell at work.
In HU3 there were working class lesbians living in what was then called Butch and Femme couples. The Femme would refer to their girlfriend/partner as He – without irony. Sandy was one woman who had women’s names tattooed down her arms. It was also complicated around sex, it was a time of freedom. We lived in non-monogamous ways. It was like musical chairs. I had 3 girlfriends at once! But it was too dynamic to be sustainable. It was sex that broke up the house.
I had spent 7 years trying to get pregnant. Then I got cervical cancer and that stopped any hope. I was in Boulevard at the time. I had to do something so I went to York to study. My thesis was Boundary issues in Lesbian relationships! Hahaha
At the community centre on Spring Bank us at Boulevard were considered light weights, concerned with fun. We said we were a “fun loving bunch of the women’s army”. Fun was disapproved of by the Hu5 folks.
We used to go to Star and Garter and watch Candy, it was enjoyable. I also went to The George to see him. Clarice used to shout Stand up! And force you to get on the furniture. Other lesbians came too. The politicised ones from Hu5 hated it. They used to say “Gay men aping women go fuck !” You have to remember gay men didn’t like lesbians, they called us Fish, until the AIDs crisis and then it changed, when we started to care for them and fight.
