Stonewall Gazette

Written by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette


I'd always enjoyed watching female impersonator Charles Pierce perform his Bette Davis routine. Pierce had wit and good comedic timing (see him perform in a video at the end of this post). Imagine my surprise when I came across the entertaining video, The Battle of the Bette Davis Impersonators, from J. D. Doyle, the curator of Queer Music Heritage!

Written by Shane Smith, Editor of Stonewall Gazette

Alan Turing was not only a computer scientist but also a respected mathematician and is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Why is it that so many people don't know who this man is?

I believe that because Turing was a gay man he's been brushed out of history. The truth about Alan Turing's legacy is that he's not celebrated in the same way as other famous inventors such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.

Turing is the man who stopped the Nazi's from ruling the world. Seriously! He lead the way in cracking coded messages which gave the Allies the upper hand in defeating the Nazis during World War Two. He was a genius. Turing is often painted as a homosexual who loathed himself, a person for whom one should feel pity. Is that an accurate representation of Turing? Is that how he'd want to be remembered?

Written by The Gay Almanac


San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White today, November 27, in 1978.
 

Earlier this year in February the Human Rights Campaign presented actor Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld) with the HRC Visibility Award at the 2017 HRC North Carolina Gala. She spoke of the importance of being seen & heard and shared powerful remarks about bisexual visibility. It was a beautiful speech! I was so inspired by her story. She spoke her truth and it was incredibly moving.

Written by Will Kohler


In 1960 every state in America had an anti-sodomy law on its books.

One of the biggest steps toward gay equality, the end of America’s sodomy laws, began on November 17, 1998 when a 911 operator received a call about “a black male going crazy with a gun” at John Geddes Lawrence’s home in the Houston suburbs. Harris County sheriff’s deputies responded and entered Lawrence’s unlocked apartment. There, they purportedly found Lawrence and Tyron Garner engaging in consensual sex.

What they actually found is a matter of debate. Lawrence and Garner weren’t lovers — in fact, that false report had been phoned in by Garner’s actual lover, Robert Eubanks, who suspected Garner and Lawrence were having an affair.

Lawrence and Garner were arrested, held in jail overnight, and charged with violating Section 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code. That law, otherwise known as the Texas Homosexual Conduct law, prohibited engaging “in deviant sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.”
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Written by Olga Khoroshilova


Gay men had been part of a distinct underground community in Russia long before the revolution and they recognized each other by the "secret language" of fashion. In St Petersburg, some wore red ties, or red shawls, onto which they would sew the back pockets of trousers. Others powdered their faces and wore a lot of mascara. After the revolution, the heavily made-up "silent film star look" became more mainstream and no longer just a fashion for young gay men.


In January 1921 Russian Baltic Fleet sailor Afanasy Shaur organised an extraordinary gay wedding in Petrograd.

The guests included 95 former army officers along with members of the lower ranks of both the army and navy, and one woman, dressed in a man's suit. Shaur pulled out all the stops. He did not think guests would come if it had just been a party. But he gambled - rightly - that a proper wedding with all the Russian traditions, bread and salt, a blessing from the proud parents, and a concert to follow, would be irresistible. At the time Russia's gay community was enjoying a brief window of tolerance.

But the wedding in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) was not all it seemed. Afanasy Shaur was in fact a member of the secret police, and at the end of the festivities the guests were all arrested.

After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks scrapped and rewrote the country's laws. They produced two Criminal Codes - in 1922 and 1926 - and an article prohibiting gay sex was left off both. READ MORE

Written by Cristina Nualart


In the 1990s, the contemporary art scene was booming in Hanoi. New galleries opened, foreign art collectors took an interest in this relatively unknown country and, although censorship by a watchful regime did not disappear, Vietnamese artists gained some freedoms. Significant innovations included the appearance of performance art and of homosexual content in the artwork of Truong Tan, possibly the first openly gay Vietnamese visual artist.


Truong Tan’s first work showing homosexual content dates from 1992, when the painting Circus was displayed in a group show at the Hanoi Fine Arts University, where Tan was a lecturer. Truong Tan’s catalogue for his first solo exhibition in 1994 documents his tentative exploration of performance art and frequent use of ropes [see picture above]. The decision to show this work activated something in him. “My goal was set,” he said, explaining that he was ready to stop hiding his homosexuality and that he was determined to forge a career as a professional artist. It wasn’t easy, and for some time he kept his homoerotic drawings private. READ MORE

Written by Corey Saucier


They call us “fags,” and “sexual deviants,” and “abominations,” and flamboyant fem flamers who only complain about our rights… but they forget that we also stood in packed hospitals as our lovers died terrible pale-lipped deaths.

We took our friends home to hospice because their families rejected them, and we nursed them in our guest rooms until their medications no longer worked and there was no more breath for them to breathe.

We were brave…and selfless…and beautiful…and Holy, like some blue-eyed black-winged creature screaming tears into the corner with our eyes squeezed shut so that we didn’t go mad—casting spells made of light and prayer—as savage as any monster.

We gay men were bright unflinching examples of how to love the dying.

And so many of us remain….

Walking the streets of gay ghettos in bright pink shirts with limp wrists and loud gay sayings.

Yelling, “Yaaaasss!” at cocktail parties; pretending to be vapid and silly and vain….

But really we were the winged creatures in golden halos garbed in long-suffering and grace that carried our loved ones from one world to the other like angels, or fairies, or the ferocious Valkyrie. READ MORE

Harvey Milk, Sally Ride, George Takei | Illustration by Allie Kolarik

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Written by Daniel Wenger


There is only one hopeful scene in “Different from the Others,” a silent picture from 1919 that is widely considered the first feature film about gay love. In it, a gaunt, handsome man plays the piano in his Berlin drawing room. He is Paul Körner, a violin virtuoso, and, in his silk housecoat, surrounded by heavy drapery and Grecian statuettes, he appears to live a life that is resplendent but lonely. Then an unlikely event sets him on a new course: a young music student has come calling. Kurt Sivers, round-faced, excitable, has seen all of Paul’s concerts, and he approaches the master nervously, hands clutched to his chest. “My deepest wish would come true if you were willing to be my teacher!” an intertitle reads. Paul responds by offering Kurt his great open palm. Their alliance, a perfect meeting of passion and pedagogy, seems indivisibly strong—but, by the end of the film, we have learned that it is otherwise, owing to the self-hatred and cruelty that homosexual love can inspire, even in Weimar Berlin. READ MORE

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Written by Michael Waters


He debuted in the '70s, to both acclaim and outrage. A lobby group called Protect America’s Children made this statement in 1978—about a doll: “It’s another evidence of the desperation the homosexual campaign has reached in its effort to put homosexual lifestyle, which is a deathstyle, across to the American people.”

That year, the release of Gay Bob, billed as the world’s first openly gay doll, caused a minor sensation. Enraged consumers complained that a toy with a homosexual backstory would lead to other “disgusting” dolls like “Priscilla the Prostitute” and “Danny the Dope Pusher.” Esquire awarded Gay Bob its “Dubious Achievement Award.” And anti-gay organizations across the United States blustered.


Gay Bob, who was meant to resemble a cross between Robert Redford and Paul Newman, was blond, with a flannel shirt, tight jeans, and one pierced ear. The doll gave anti-gay organizations plenty to fear; intrinsic within it was a celebration of gay identity, evidenced by Gay Bob’s programmed speech. “Gay people,” Bob said, “are no different than straight people… if everyone came ‘out of their closets’ there wouldn’t be so many angry, frustrated, frightened people.”

In a cheeky move, the box in which Gay Bob was packaged came in the outline of a closet, so that when he left his box, he was literally coming out of the closet. Gay Bob explained: “It’s not easy to be honest about what you are — in fact it takes a great deal of courage… But remember if Gay Bob has the courage to come out his closet, so can you.” READ MORE

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Written by Dylan C Robertson


The secret to keeping on top of MP Randy Boissonnault’s work is his “gay agenda.” Boissonnault was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2016 as the Liberals’ new special advisor on LGBTQ2 issues, to help co-ordinate the government’s response to issues ranging from including trans people in Canada’s human-rights code, to a promised repeal of restrictions on gay men donating blood. In an interview with Xtra, Boissonnault says the government’s move towards an apology and redress would include creating some kind of historical record for those who were persecuted by the Canadian government. The federal government intends to move forward on a case-by-case basis if it issues compensation or pardons to people who were jailed and fired for being gay. “When it comes to compensation, there’s all kinds of models — and it’s also important when we’re looking at anything to do with pardons or discharges that we look at this on a case-by-case basis,” Boissonnault says. “We’re going to look at very many different ways, including leveraging technology, getting people’s stories on the record — doing this is a respectful and sensitive way.” Boissonnault breaks down his job into three parts: as a focal point for queer Canadians to reach their government, a co-ordinator among multiple government departments and a spokesperson to highlight successes and shortcomings.
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In the United Kingdom, LGBT History Month is observed during February, to coincide with a major celebration of the 2003 abolition of Section 28. This year's theme is Religion, Belief and Philosophy. Let's celebrate our community!

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Written by Karen Iris Tucker


Bullies roamed his high school gym class, so Cleve Jones feigned a chronic lung ailment and retreated to the library. It was on one such occasion that he flipped through the magazine that likely saved his life. A headline piqued Jones’ interest: “Homosexuals in Revolt!” It topped a Life report on the nascent gay liberation movement that was taking root in New York and California. The year was 1971.

“I’m pretty sure that was the exact moment I stopped planning to kill myself,” Jones, 62, says in his new memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement. “I took the pills I had been hoarding from their hiding place and flushed them down the toilet.” Until then, Jones says, he had thought there was no one else like him on the planet.

From there, Jones takes readers on his thrilling, if perilous, voyage from fey, long-haired teen hitching his way from his home in Arizona to San Francisco, to becoming the mentee of Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in America. Jones survives San Francisco’s viciously homophobic police in the ’70s and, later, the AIDS epidemic that took his dearest friends. In the process, he helps mobilize the anguished, fiery momentum of LGBTQ rights in the United States and also conceives the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. His life story continues to impress; When We Rise is credited as an inspiration for the ABC miniseries of the same name that is expected to premiere in February 2017. Jones was a historical consultant for the TV project but says he hasn’t yet seen it.

It seems only fitting to talk to Jones, a grass-roots political firebrand, at a time when the election of Donald Trump feels like a massive setback for progressive, pro-LGBTQ policies. Describing himself variously as “terrified” and “heartbroken” by the results, Jones is nevertheless unbowed: “The next person to tell me we survived Reagan and Bush is going to get slapped.” READ MORE

RELATED Gay Rights Pioneer, Cleve Jones, Covers A & U

Written by Owen Bowcott

Alan Turing

Thousands of men convicted of offences that once criminalized homosexuality but are no longer on the statute book have been posthumously pardoned under a new law. A clause in the policing and crime bill, which received royal assent on Tuesday, extends to those who are dead the existing process of purging past criminal records.

The general pardon is modeled on the 2013 royal pardon granted by the Queen to Alan Turing, the mathematician who broke the German Enigma codes during the second world war. He killed himself in 1954, at the age of 41, after his conviction for gross indecency.

Welcoming the legislation, the justice minister Sam Gyimah said: “This is a truly momentous day. We can never undo the hurt caused, but we have apologised and taken action to right these wrongs. I am immensely proud that ‘Turing’s law’ has become a reality under this government.” But critics say move does not go far enough. READ MORE

Written by Jim Farber


More than 50 years ago, an album appeared that let the love that dare not speak its name sing out loud. The man who voiced the male-to-male love songs contained on the album wasn’t identified on the cover. Neither were the musicians who played on it, the man who produced the music, nor the two male figures who lurked in the dark shadows that enveloped the cover. The disc, titled Love Is a Drag in 1962, featured a sincere crooner interpreting American standards previously recorded only by women, like My Man, The Man I Love and Mad About The Boy.

"The Washington Blade, in partnership with the D.C. Public Library, is digitizing its nearly 50-year archive of LGBT news and photos. This week, the Blade and DCPL announced the early years are completed and available online," writes Blade Staff.

The years 1969-1982 have been digitized; the remaining years will be added over the course of 2017. To access the archive, visit washingtonblade.com and click on the Archives link in the top left navigation. “We hear from readers every week looking to access old Washington Blade stories,” said Blade publisher Lynne Brown. “We are excited to announce this milestone in our effort to fully digitize and make publicly available all Blade content from the past 47 years.”

Written by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette

Written by Matt Broomfield


In a year when David Cameron's been hailed as an LGBT ally, this group are taking back ownership of queer culture's fight against conservatism. Despite what your beloved great-aunt believes, queer people weren't made in a lab in 1996 to piss her off and infiltrate the soaps. A new group have organised a walking tour of queer culture landmarks in London, to make visible history often overlooked rather than let right-wing politicians take credit for magically solving The Gay Problem under David Cameron. The tours don't properly kick off until February 2017. READ MORE

Written by Anna Swartz


[Thursday, December 15, 1973] marks 43 years since the American Psychiatric Association, the organization that publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders — a change that, to many, marked a major step forward for what would become the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

However, a week after the decision, the New York Times published a conversation between two doctors, Robert Spitzer, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia and a member of the APA's nomenclature committee and Irving Bieber, a professor of psychiatry at the New York Medical College and the chairman of a research committee on male homosexuality. What that discussion would show was that there would still be a long way to go until gay and lesbian identities would be welcome into the mainstream. Indeed, the APA's decision wasn't an end to the pathologization of sexual orientation. As Spitzer said in the story, homosexuality did not meet the criteria for a "psychiatric illness" because it did not "regularly cause subjective distress." In other words, being gay and comfortable with it was no longer a disorder — but being gay and unhappy about it was. "In no longer considering it a psychiatric disorder, we are not saying that it is normal or that it is as valuable as heterosexuality," Spitzer noted. READ MORE