Some of Merseyside’s finest gay uncles have shared their favourite things about being a ‘Guncle’ with the Liverpool ECHO.
Gay uncles are no new thing and have been around for some time. The term of endearment has been known to be given to non-related gay males who are regarded as an “honorary uncle” by friends and their children as well as those who are biologically related.
‘Guncles’ are usually the ones who are happy enough to babysit the family's nephew and nieces for a few hours, knowing they can hand them back at the end of the day, or, from my personal experience, the ones who teach them all the things they shouldn’t. The light-hearted concept has its own dedicated day in the calendar - August 14, but despite this and with the climate often so full of negativity towards the LGBTQ+ community, we decided to celebrate gay uncles from across Merseyside regardless of the day
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John Cullen, originally from Wirral , has been an uncle since he was three years old. Now, 25 years on, he is still taking care of his nephew Michael on nights out, helping his niece Olivia navigate through life and his other niece Grace navigate through the boss levels on Crash Bandicoot.
The 28-year-old civil servant added: “The best part of being an uncle to them currently is that they’re getting older so they often come to gay town with me now. However, I do educate my nephew and nieces as much as I can in regards to the LGBTQ+ community and the history behind it, but they are very liberal with regard to topics surrounding such discussions anyway. For me, visibility is very important within the community and that’s why no topic is off the cards when it comes to what I can discuss with them.”
Glen Dashka-Reilly, a 42-year-old from Waterloo, has had his hands full with uncle duties for over two decades now. The support worker has seven nieces, nine nephews and one great-nephew, who mean “the absolute world to him”. When they were younger, Glen spent the majority of his free time taking his family members to the local parks, on walks through the woods and to the beaches.
However, now they are older Glen's “biggest bond” is with his first niece Chloe, who is now 21. Glen fondly recalled seeing her “little face light up” every time he used to sing her favourite song, Celine Dion’s I’m Alive, to her. He said “no words could ever describe that and the feeling".
Speaking more on what being an uncle means to him, Glen told the ECHO : “To see my younger siblings become parents and watching their children grow, seeing them smile, play and learn means the absolute world to me and it melts my heart to see them develop.”
The LGBTQ+ community was “non-existent” when Glen was growing up. The former Hugh Baird College student remembers how you “would see people on a night out but the following day if you saw them, you wouldn’t even look at them, let alone talk about them”. Now, as acceptance grows and equality looms closer, Glen uses his position in the family to educate the next generation.
Echoing a similar sentiment is teaching assistant, Mark McManus. The 34-year-old, who is originally from Greasby, “treasures” all the time he spends with his family, including his three-year-old nephew, Jac. While the former Theatre and Arts Management student doesn’t use the title, ‘Guncle’, his nephew will know why Mark has a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend when the time is right.
He said: “Jac is the firstborn of the next generation of our family, so he gets undivided attention from all of us, although he's going to have competition in a few months when his baby sister comes along. Hopefully, he'll be the loving big brother that I know he will be. My favourite thing to do is honestly buying all of the noisiest toys that Jac really loves and then leaving, not having to deal with Hey Duggie theme tunes playing over and over again. He's obsessed with animals, so I'm happy just being the taxi there and back. I'm more than happy to run about and be a clown while everyone else is talking seriously, which he likes.”
Mark explained how he has known he has wanted kids since before his nephew was born but having Jac around, has “confirmed” that he would “cope as a dad”.
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