Prominent Salfordians - LGBTQ+

Shelley Holroyd

Shelley was born on 17th May 1973 in Salford. She is a female British former javelin thrower. She has devoted her life to athletics, from competing at the Olympics to coaching Paralympians - but she says being part of a new LGBT+ inclusion project in the sport is a chance to make her career "even more worthwhile". The former javelin thrower is one of the founding members of the Athletics Pride Network (APN), which has been established by UK Athletics to foster a greater sense of community for people in track and field who are lesbian, gay, bi and trans, with the support of allies welcomed too.

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Shelagh Delaney

25th November 1938 - 20th November 2011
Shelagh was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work, A Taste of Honey (1958), has been described by Michael Patterson as "probably the most performed play by a post-war British woman playwright". Delaney was born in 1938 in Broughton, Salford. Delaney was the first dramatist successfully to overcome the ancient, censorial veto on stage plays that openly depicted gay characters or discussed homosexuality. Her sympathetic portrayal of the play's young, gay student was, therefore, ground-breaking.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

8th September 1934 – 14th March 2016
Davies was born in Holly Street, Langworthy, Salford, and lived in Trafford Road before moving to Wyville Drive in Swinton. He was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a conductor, Davies was an associate conductor/composer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1992 to 2002, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Davies was a life-long supporter of gay rights and a Vice-President of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

Tony Warren

Anthony McVay Simpson MBE (8th July 1936 – 1st March 2016) publishing under pen name Tony Warren, was an English television screenwriter and actor, best known for creating the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. He created other television dramas and wrote critically acclaimed novels. Warren was born at 3 Wilton Avenue, Pendlebury. He attended Clarendon Road Primary School and Eccles Grammar School. Warren was openly gay from his early years of Coronation Street, at a time when homosexual acts were illegal.