Today In Gay History TUESDAY, JUNE 11

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Today In Gay History

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2013 

1877 - today's the birthday of the British poet RENéE VIVIEN (d. 1909).  Born Pauline Mary Tarn, Vivien wrote in the French language. She took to heart all the mannerisms of Symbolism, as one of the last poets to claim allegiance to the school. Her compositions include sonnets, hendecasyllabic verse, and prose poetry.

1947 - We don't know the exact day, but it was first published this month in 1947, so let's talk about VICE VERSA today, shall we?  Subtitled "America's Gayest Magazine", Vice Versa, was the earliest known U.S. periodical published especially for Lesbians, as well as the earliest extant example of the lesbian  and gay press in that country.

The magazine was the project of Lisa Ben (an anagram of  'lesbian'), a secretary in a Los Angeles Movie Studio. By her own account, Ben had "a lot of time to herself" at work and, starting in June of 1947, "twice each month typed out five carbons and one original of Vice Versa. She recalled being told  by her boss that he didn't care what she was typing, but he  wanted her to 'look busy' so people at the studio would think he was important.

She described the intention of the magazine being to create "a medium through which we may express our thoughts, our emotions, our opinions -- as long as material was 'within the bounds of good  taste.'"  The nine issues of Vice Versa created by Lisa Ben "combined a  unique editorial mix and a highly personal style" and opened up  a forum for lesbians to communicate with each other via readers'  letters, personal essays, short fiction and poetry". The first  issue weighed in at 15 pages, subsequent ones ranged from 9 to  20 pages.

In Unspeakable, his history of the gay and lesbian press in the  United States, journalist and historian Rodger Streitmatter  noted that Vice Versa "contained no bylines, no photographs, no  advertisements, no masthead and neither the name or address of  its editor... yet it set the agenda that has defined lesbian and  gay journalism for 50 years." As examples of the 'defining  qualities' of the magazine, Jim Kepner, founder and curator of  the International Gay and Lesbian Archives cites Vice Versa's  mix of editorials, short stories, poetry, book and film reviews  and a letters column as setting "the pattern that hundreds (of  gay and lesbian magazines) have followed.

The publication was free, and Ben distributed each issue herself  initially. Issues were later passed from friend to friend in an  informal network, so that each issue may have been read by  dozens.  Ben eventually left her job at RKO Studios, and publication of  the magazine ceased in 1948.


1972 - The first issue of "The Other Woman" was produced on this date. It was a combination of several feminist newspapers with the predominant input from lesbian feminists.


1976 - on this date in Kingston, Ontario, Canada a convention of the New Democratic Party called for the inclusion of sexual orientation in human rights codes.  It was the first time a major Canadian political party accepted Gay movement demands for civil rights and recognition.

2008 - Norway, which first granted its LGBT citizens the right to civil unions way back in 1993, on this date legalized same-sex marriage.  On this date members of of Parliament in Norway approved a bill that finally allowed same-sex couples to marry.  It was approved by 84 votes to 41. The new law made marriage in Norway gender neutral. The Scandinavian country already allowed Gay and Lesbian couples to enter into civil partnerships, but LGBT rights groups had long complained the law does not go far enough.  Now it does.

2010 - on this date an advisory panel of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowly voted to maintain the ban on blood donations from homosexual men. The vote was 7-6 to maintain the ban. Under the FDA's rules, men cannot give blood if they have had sex with another man at least once since 1977. The FDA was considering changing the blood donation rule to ban only men who had had sex with another man within the past five years. The rule came into force originally in 1985 to protect the blood supply from HIV. Critics claim that the ban is discriminatory and outdated, as other high risk groups such as prostitutes, intravenous drug users, and promiscuous heterosexuals are deferred from donation only one year from their last high risk encounter. 

2010 - on this date ICELAND approved Gay Marriage.  Most strikingly it was the first country to do so with a UNANIMOUS VOTE!  Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed the law allowing same-sex partners to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance. The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between "man and man, woman and woman," in addition to unions between men and women. Iceland, a socially tolerant island nation of about 320,000 people, became the first country to elect an openly gay head of state in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurðardóttir  became prime minister after being nominated by her party. "The attitude in Iceland is fairly pragmatic," said Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland. "It (gay marriage) has not been a big issue in national politics -- it's not been controversial."

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