This Weekend In Gay History FRIDAY, JUNE 28

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This Weekend In Gay History

FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2013

1929 - the English poet, philosopher, art critic, and Gay pioneer  EDWARD CARPENTER, died on this date (b: 1844).

Edward Carpenter was a pioneering socialist and radical prophet of a new age of fellowship in which social relations would be transformed by a new spiritual consciousness. The way he lived his life, perhaps even more than his extensive writings, was the essence of his message. It is perhaps not surprising that his reputation faded quickly after his death, as he lived much of his life modestly spreading his message by personal contact and example rather than by major literary works or through a national political career. He has been described as having that unusual combination of qualities: charisma with modesty. His ideas became immensely influential during the early years of the Socialist movement in Britain: perhaps Carpenter's most widely remembered legacy to the Socialist and Co-operative movements was his anthem England Arise!

A leading figure in late 19th and early 20th century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labor Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, John Addington Symonds, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J.K. Kinney, Jack London, William Morris, E.R. Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.

But it is his writings on the subject of homosexuality and his open espousal of this identity that makes him unique. If you are unfamiliar with Carpenter, find him…read him. He is one of the formative, foundational Gay philosophers in the late 19th and early 20th century. His influence was widespread at the time, and is no less innovative and profound, today.  Harry Hay spoke many times of the influence Carpenter's work had on his early understanding of Gay sexuality.  His important writings include:

*  Towards Democracy (1883)

*  England's Ideal (1887)

*  Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure (1889; reissued 1920)

*  Homogenic Love and Its Place in a Free Society (1894).

*  Love's Coming of Age (1896)

*  Days with Walt Whitman (1906)

*  Iolaus — Anthology of Friendship (editor, 1908)

*  The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women (1908)

*  The intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk (1914)

*  My Days and Dreams (autobiography, 1916)

*  Pagan & Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning (1920)

A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a Gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D.H. Lawrenceand E M Forster. On his return from India in 1891, he met George Merrill, a working class man also from Sheffield, and the two men struck up a relationship, eventually moving in together in 1898. Merrill had been raised in the slums of Sheffield and had no formal education. Two men of different classes living together as a couple was almost unheard of in England in the 1890s, a fact made all the more extraordinary by the hysteria about alternative sexualities generated by the Oscar Wilde trial of 1895 and the Criminal Law Amendment Bill passed a decade earlier "outlawing all forms of male homosexual contact". But their relationship endured and they remained partners for the rest of their lives. Their relationship not only defied Victorian sexual mores but also the highly stratified British class system. Their partnership, in many ways, reflected Carpenter's cherished conviction that same-sex love had the power to subvert class boundaries. It was his belief that at sometime in the future, Gay people would be the cause of radical social change in the social conditions of man. Carpenter remarks in his work "The Intermediate Sex": "Eros is a great leveller. Perhaps the true Democracy rests, more firmly than anywhere else, on a sentiment which easily passes the bounds of class and caste, and unites in the closest affection the most estranged ranks of society. It is noticeable how often Uranians of good position and breeding are drawn to rougher types, as of manual workers, and frequently very permanent alliances grow up in this way, which although not publicly acknowledged have a decided influence on social institutions, customs and political tendencies". p.114-115  (Note: The term "Uranian", referring to a passage from Plato's Symposium, was often used at the time to describe someone who would be termed "Gay" nowadays. Carpenter is counted among the Uranians himself.)

[Carpenter's longtime companion George Merrill] After the First World War Carpenter had moved to Guildford, Surrey, with Merrill. In January 1928, Merrill died suddenly, leaving Carpenter devastated. Carpenter's state of mind is described vividly by the noted political activist G. Lowes Dickinson,

"Edward's grief when that occurred was overwhelming. I remember him walking on my arm to the cemetery at Guildford where they had buried George a few days before, and where he himself was to lie a year or so later. It was a day of pouring rain, and we stood beside the grave, while Carpenter [cried] again and again, 'They have put him away in the cold ground'."

In May 1928, Carpenter suffered a paralytic stroke which rendered him almost helpless. He lived another 13 months before he died on Friday June 28, 1929.  His own words form the epitaph engraved on his tombstone:

"Do not think too much of the dead husk of your friend, or mourn too much over it, but send your thoughts out towards the real soul or self which has escaped — to reach it. For so, surely you will cast a light of gladness upon his onward journey, and contribute your part towards the building of that kingdom of love which links our earth to heaven."

1942 – on this date DAVE KOPAY, the former professional football player, born; A former American football running back in the National Football League who in 1975 became one of the first professional athletes to come out as Gay. 

Kopay attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. He entered the University of Washington in 1961 and became an All-American running back in his senior year. He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers. 

He played professional football from 1964 to 1972 with the Detroit Lions, the Washington Redskins, theNew Orleans Saints, and the Green Bay Packers.

After he retired from the NFL, he was considered a top contender for coaching positions, but he believes he was snubbed by professional and college teams because of his sexual orientation. He went to work as a salesman/purchaser in his uncle's floorcovering business in Hollywood. He is also a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

After Kopay retired from the NFL, he was considered a top contender for coaching positions, but he believes he was snubbed by professional and college teams because of his sexual orientation. He went to work as a salesman/purchaser in his uncle's floor covering business in Hollywood. He is also a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation. His 1977 biography, The David Kopay Story, written with Perry Dean Young, offers insights into the sexual proclivities of heterosexual football players and their homophobia. In 1986, Kopay also revealed his brief affair with Jerry Smith (1943–1986), who played for the Washington Redskins from 1965–1977 and who died of AIDS without ever having publicly come out of the closet.

Since Kopay, only two additional former NFL Players have come out as gay, Roy Simmons in 1992, and Esera Tuaolo in 2002. Kopay has been credited with inspiring these athletes to be more open about their sexual orientation.

1956 - today's the birthday of Cuban American poet, novelist, translator and journalist ACHY OBEJAS.  Her work is focused on personal and national identity issues.  She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Obejas was born June 28, 1956 in Havana, Cuba. After emigrating to the United States at the age of six, she lived in Michigan City, Indiana and attended Indiana University from 1977 - 1979, when she moved to Chicago. Beginning in 1991, she was a reporter, and later, a freelance entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune and other publications. She earned an M.F.A from Warren Wilson College in 1993. She was the Springer Lecturer in Creative Writing (2003-2005) at the University of Chicago, as well as an advisor for the online prose magazine, Otium.  Obejas has served visiting writer in residence at the University of Hawai'i and DePaul University.

In 2008, she translated Junot Diaz's Pulitzer-prize winning novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao into Spanish.

Her books include "Havana Luna" (2009), Ruins (2009), Havana Noir (2007), This is What Happened In Our Other Life (poetry) (2007), Days of Awe (2001), Memory Mambo (1996) and We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? (1994)

1970 - On the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, more than 2,000 people march in New York City as part of the First Gay Pride parade in the United States.

2000 - In the case of BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA V. DALE, the U.S. Supreme Court rules the Boy Scouts of America can discriminate against Gays and Bisexuals saying it is a private organization and not bound by local human rights laws.  The ruling overturning the New Jersey Supreme Court's application of the New Jersey public accommodations law, which had forced the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to readmit Eagle scout and assistant Scoutmaster James Dale. When he was a student at Rutgers University, Dale became copresident of the Lesbian/Gay student alliance. Then, in July 1990, he attended a seminar on the health needs of lesbian and gay teenagers. During the seminar, he was interviewed, and the work was subsequently published. He was expelled from Scouting after BSA officials read the interview in a local newspaper and Dale was quoted as stating he was gay.

There has been opposition to BSA's membership policies from organizations and individuals. Some within the Scouting movement, as well as long-time Scouting supporters, parents, chartered organizations, and religious organizations have expressed opposition to the policies in ways ranging from protests to forming organizations that advocate inclusiveness. Some push for a voluntary change within the BSA, others seek involuntary change by filing lawsuits, still others choose to disassociate themselves from the BSA or encourage others to do so. Some public entities and private institutions have ceased financial or other support the BSA, primarily as a result of conflicts between their nondiscrimination policies and the BSA's membership policies. About 50 of the 1300 local United Ways, including those in Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle, have withdrawn all funding. The BSA has also lost all funding from several large corporations that had been regular donors, such as Chase Manhattan Bank, Levi Strauss, Fleet Bank, CVS/pharmacy, and Pew Charitable Trusts. For example, Pew Charitable Trusts, which had consistently supported the BSA for over fifty years, decided to cancel a $100,000 donation and cease future donations. A number of public entities (including the cities of Chicago, San Diego, Tempe, Buffalo Grove, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara, as well as the states of California, Illinois, and Connecticut) have canceled charitable donations (of money or preferential land access) that had historically been granted to the Scouts.

The Boy Scouts were not always as hard core about this issue.  But the organization in the last few decades has been taken over by both the United Methodist and Mormon churches, which sponsor the largest numbers of scout troops.  Both denominations are homophobic in their practices and policies toward GLGT people, so it's not surprising that they would support the scouting organization in such blatant institutional bigotry.  

Eagle Scout filmmaker Steven Spielberg had been a long-time supporter of Scouting, depicting a young Indiana Jones as a Boy Scout in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and helping to create the Cinematography merit badge. Spielberg resigned from the BSA Advisory Council in 2001, saying, "it has deeply saddened me to see the Boy Scouts of America actively and publicly participating in discrimination."

2005 - on this date BRENDA HOWARD, the American LGBT activist died (b. 1946); a Bisexual rights activist and sex-positive feminist, who was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement. A militant activist who helped plan and participated in LGBT rights actions for over three decades, Howard was a leader of the Gay Liberation Front and for several years chair of the Gay Activists Alliance in the early post-Stonewall era. She is known as the "Mother of Pride", for her work in coordinating the first month anniversary rally and then the "Christopher Street Liberation Day March" to commemorate the first year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Howard also originated the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world every June.

A fixture in New York City's LGBT Community Howard was active in the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights which helped guide New York City's LGBT rights law through the City Council in 1986. In 2005 the Queens Chapter of PFLAG announced the creation of the "Brenda Howard Award". This is the first time a major American LGBT organization has named award after an out Bisexual member of the LGBT Community. The award, to be given yearly, recognizes an individual or organization whose work on behalf of the LGBT Community best exemplifies the vision, principals and community service exemplified by the late Brenda Howard and who serves as a positive and visible role model for the Bisexual Community.

2007 - In a federal lawsuit a British company -- Qsoft Consulting Limited, based in Twickenham, Middlesex -- claimed it owned the name "gaydar" as part of its Gay and Lesbian dating Web sites and online digital radio service.  Gay people everywhere had a hearty laugh.

2008 - the second-ever Gay Pride event was held in New Delhi with over 1000 attendees demanding an end to colonial-era laws against homosexuality. According to the Times of India, the Delhi Gay Pride Parade, which went down the Barakhamba Road to Jantar Mantar, called for a doing away with Article 377 from the lawbooks, and stop making homosexuality a punishable offense. They chanted slogans like "377 Bharat Chhodo," "Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Gay," and "Down down down down – 377 down down" in the march which was also attended by supportive straight Indian celebrities.

2009 - the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network protested outside of the Obama White House in opposition to the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy of expelling Gay soldiers.  Obama had promised to repeal DADT but had not done anything as yet.  Over 100 people gathered to protest the Obama administration's slow progress on the issue.  As we know the policy was repealed this year but the repeal has not gone into effect yet.

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

1855 - the French symbolist poet, novelist and reluctant journalist JEAN LORRAIN, was born on this date (d: 1906).  Born Paul Duval, Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism, and (for the times) openly Gay. Lorrain wrote a number of collections of verse, including La foret bleue (1883) and L'ombre ardente, (1897). He is also remembered for his decadent novels and short stories, such as Monsieur de Phocas (1901) and Histoires des masquesSonyeuse, which he links to portraits exhibited by Antonio de La Gandara in 1893. The once famous journalist worked only because he had to. He preferred to spend his life sleeping with the sailors along the Paris, Nice and Marseilles waterfronts. "Fucking," he once wrote, "is basically a sport for idle minds. When you work, it's good-bye ass!" Although his works are largely forgotten today, they should be revived and vigorously pursued. How can one ignore -- I mean, ya gotta love!...an author who, in a fashionable Parisian restaurant, once shouted at the top of his lungs the following couplet: "I spent the night between two fellows from the docks, / who took turns, and cured me of the hots!"

His best novels appeared in his final years. Monsieur de Bougrelon (1897), Monsieur de Phocas (1901), and Le Vice Errant (1902) center on men mired in decadence, vice, and (implicitly) homosexuality; La Maison Philibert (1904) gives a picture of life in a provincial brothel and a panoramic tour of Parisian prostitution and criminality.

Most of Lorrain's income derived from journalism. Beginning in the mid-1880s, he wrote regular columns for a series of mass-circulation newspapers, most notably Le Courrier francais, L'Evenement, and L'Echo de Paris. He chronicled Parisian life of the day--the literary, theatrical, and artistic worlds, as well as French society, both high and low--using his savage wit to attack and ridicule many of the era's leading figures. In the process, he made countless enemies. Edmond de Goncourt wondered in 1895, "What's Lorrain's dominant trait? Is it spite or a complete lack of tact?" (Most people thought it the former.) But asSarah Bernhardt once wrote Lorrain, "inside the abominably depraved being that you are, there beats the heart of a great artist, a genuinely sensitive and tender heart."

1962 - today is the birthday of the British actress AMANDA DONOHOE. She first came to attention of the worldwide audience in 1986 when she was cast opposite Oliver Reed as Lucy Irvine in Nicolas Roeg's Castaway (where she appeared nude in some sequences of the movie). She followed this up with roles in two Ken Russell films The Lair of the White Worm, based on a Bram Stoker novel, and The Rainbow, based on a D.H. Lawrence novel. In 1981, Amanda appeared in the music video for the song, "Stand & Deliver" by Adam & the Ants. She has been open about being Bisexual telling Diva magazine "My first sexual experiences were with women and if a woman comes into my life who is absolutely stunning and satisfies me emotionally, intellectually and sexually I'm not going to draw the line and say 'I can't because you're a woman.'"

1982 - PIERRE BALMAIN, the French fashion designer, died on this date (b. 1914).  Known for sophistication and elegance, he said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement." Balmain was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Happy New Year (1980). Additional Broadway theatre credits include costumes for Katharine Hepburn in The Millionairess (1952) and Josephine Baker for her eponymous 1964 revue. His companion was the Danish designer Erik Mortensen, who worked as a designer at Balmain from 1948 until 1991.

1999 - on this date Brian Patrick Thornton and his boyfriend pranked NBC's THE TODAY SHOW and Al Roker to create what some consider the first kiss between two actual Gay men on national television.  Writing of the event years later Thornton recalled that "Roker walked over to a couple celebrating a milestone wedding anniversary. "What’s your secret?" he asked. "Pray," the husband answered. That finished, Roker barreled down the line of gathered fans, proclaiming that there was a guy who had something to ask. And with that, the camera and microphone were thrust in Rich’s and my faces. “Jill, I’ve got something I have to tell you,” I stammered. “I’m so happy that I love … Rich!” And with that, I turned to Rich, and we mashed our lips together in what is possibly the most awkwardly fashioned kiss in TV history. But it was history: the first (real) Gay-male kiss broadcast in the U.S. Roker, to his credit, rolled with the punches."  A few minutes later Roker made the comment: “See, they wouldn’t do that on Will and Grace.”

2007 - The day before LONDON PRIDE, British police were tipped off about a suspicious car parked on Haymarket Street (in London's West End) along the route of the Gay Pride parade. Inside a Mercedes they found gas containers and a large number of nails, unnerving Londoners who planned to attend tomorrow's event. Police described the bomb as similar to those used by Iraqi insurgents. The bomb was defused and the area cordoned off, with nearby subway stations closed.

- also on this date BRENT HAWKES, the Toronto minister who conducted the marriage ceremonies that led to same-sex marriage being legalized nationwide, was awarded his country's highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada.  In 2001, Hawkes won his suit against the Ontario government, forcing the province to recognize Gay marriages. One year later the federal government ditched its plan to appeal Hawkes' case and Gay marriage became legal nationwide in 2005. The Order of Canada is given in the name of Queen Elizabeth by her representative there and recognizes "exemplary achievement and service to Canada." Hawkes lives in Toronto with John Sproule, his partner of more than twenty years. They married on March 7, 2006.

2008 - on this date OneNewsNow, the "Christian news service" covertly owned by the right wing, virulently anti-Gay "American Family Association" published a seriously messed up article.  You see, OneNewsNow receives syndicated content from providers like the Associated Press and edits instances of the word "Gay" to read "homosexual." Although the site is registered to the conservative, anti-Gay organization, the fact is not disclosed anywhere on the site.

In the article posted Sunday night about Olympic track and field star Tyson Gay they edited the news to the point of hilarity:

"Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials," the article read, "and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday." The headline read "Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic events."

2009 - on this date 200 people protested outside of Ft. Worth's police headquarters yesterday after a Saturday raid on a Gay bar brought charges of harassment and brutality by police. One patron was hospitalized with a brain injury. Arrests were made for "public intoxication"...inside of a bar.  This, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.

SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013

1917 - the iconic Jazz singer and gay icon LENA HORNE was born in Brooklyn, New York on this date (d. 2010).

1986 – on this date the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults. The ruling upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals.  Seventeen years after Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court directly overruled the decision in Lawrence v. Texas, (2003), and held that such laws are unconstitutional. In overruling Bowers v. Hardwick, the 2003 Court stated that "Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today."


2005 - on this date the country of SPAIN legalized SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Their society seems to be holding up rather well.



2006 - In what was probably Canada's highest profile Gay wedding of the year two Mounties tied the knot on this date. Constable Jason Tree, 27, andConstable David Connors, 28, met while in high school. It is the first same-sex marriage within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the couple wore the distinctive scarlet dress uniforms the force is known for worldwide.

"I think it's great if we change the public perception," said Tree, 27, who patrols a stretch of rural fishing communities along the Bay of Fundy. "If the public sees the RCMP as representing the diversity of the community, that is good." About 25 miles away, Connors, 28, helps to police Yarmouth, a town of 8,000. The two men met in college eight years ago and have been partners since.  The force has assigned the two men close together, as it does with other couples, and fellow officers "have all been great," Tree said from their home in Meteghan, southwest of Halifax.  "This is a first for us," RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Skidmore told a local paper. "Certainly, the RCMP welcomes a workforce that is representative of Canadian society, and that is the case here.

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