Geri

A SPICE GIRL WHO SUNG ABOUT IT RAINING MEN, SOMEONE WHO JUST GETS US AND OUR STRUGGLES, GERI HORNER (NEÉ HALLIWELL) IS AS CLOSE TO BEING A GAY MAN AS IT’S POSSIBLE TO BE

WORDS: JUNO DAWSON PHOTOGRAPHS: ELIZABETH HOFF

'OUR GIRLS'

HONORARY GAY

At the time of writing, this author is chained to her desk under the watchful eye of an editor waiting on the first draft of a memoir. It’s supposed to be about my lifelong struggles with gender and subsequent transition, and as reluctant as I was to delve into my childhood for source material, one thing soon became clear: the most influential figures of my adolescence were not my parents, friends or teachers.

That honour went to the Spice Girls. I’m not even kidding. I had such an abundance of Girl Power, I almost turned into one. Even Adele acknowledged, on James Corden’s chat show, that the world would have been denied her talent had it not been for the Spice Girls lighting a fire under her bum. We are starting to see the legacy of that band, that phenomenon, in today’s performers.

And, a hundred years from now, when we open the holographic iBook on the 1990s we will see one picture: Geri Halliwell, in a Union Jack teatowel dress, storming the 1997 Brit Awards. She is the icon within an iconic band.

So, when Attitude set out to crown an Honorary Gay for 2016, it made perfect sense to bestow the title on The Artist Formerly Known as Ginger.

“I am so honoured,” she gushes when I ask how she feels about it. “I’m incredibly flattered to be included. You’ve always been such support through the ups and downs, which I am touched by. I value the gay fans’ loyalty so much, thank you.”

GERI IS A TWO-TIMEAttitude cover girl: once as a boxer, once as a latexclad sex nurse. I ask if she’s always felt at home among the LGBT+ community. “Always,” she replies. “The community is so welcoming, liberal, kind, glamorous yet vulnerable, and has such great humour, the self-deprecation. I felt kinship always.”