On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Dr Stephen Hatton waited nervously in a large room with red walls and a high ceiling on the first floor of Outhouse, the queer community centre on Capel Street. A rainbow flag hung on one side of the room. A trans flag dangled above a shiny white fireplace mantel on the other side. Hatton had set up several black metal chairs in a loop, and taken up one seat closest to a table with his phone and laptop, ready for the first meeting of a new queer protection group in the city.