A little history of our own...

The LGBT History Project has its roots in work we did for the Rainbow Network, the corporate support network for LGBT staff at the then Department for Constitutional Affairs (aka the DCA, which later became part of the Ministry of Justice when it was created in 2007).

The Rainbow Network used LGBT History Month as a way to inform staff about LGBT issues generally, presenting events in different parts of England and Wales (in the departmental offices). Over the years we gave presentations on the lasting impact of Section 28, international laws on homosexuality, the development of thinking on homosexuality from the late 19th century and lots more. My personal favourite has always been the 2 hour seminar on Polari, in which I got participants to sit a mock GCSE paper.

In 2007, when the DCA provided generous funding for its diversity networks, the Rainbow Network worked with a gay-run graphic design company, Smart Arts, to produce the very first edition of Past2Present.

That first edition was only produced in a limited print run (of about 1,000 copies, if I remember correctly) and there are very few now available. I have about 3 copies, the rest are spread about the UK. We sent them to all our members and to local offices - magistrates' courts, county courts, crown courts.

We were never entirely sure how that was received - although we do know that someone in the Magistrates' Court at Leamington Spa shredded the copies we sent there. A Rainbow Network member, who was not out at the time, reported that back to us. We contacted the regional manager, without giving away the location (to avoid outing our member). I'm pleased to say that he worked with us to provide a full day's training on LGBT workplace issues to all the managers in that region.

Recently, I got in contact with one of the people who worked with me on the Rainbow Network. It turned out that he had a relatively complete draft of that original Past2Present in pdf format. With a little bit of work, I have managed to re-create it almost in its pristine glory - the design is not quite perfect, but then Smart Arts had far more professional software (and skill) than I have.

Here's the link:-

Past2Present 2007 - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2007.pdf

The other editions can be downloaded here:-
(There was no 2008 edition.)
Past2Present 2009 - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2009.pdf
Past2Present 2010 - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2010.pdf
Past2Present 2011 - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2011.pdf
Past2Present 2012 - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2012.pdf
Past2Present 2013 - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2013.pdf

http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/

Margaret Thatcher, RIP

It was with no regret whatsoever that I heard a few days ago of the death of Baroness Thatcher.

Since then there has been outpourings of grief and of vitriol -  you can guess which part of the political spectrum each came from, I'm sure.

And I'll confess to a sneaky voice in my head singing, "Ding dong...". I'm not proud of that. As a child, if I couldn't say something nice about someone, I was always encouraged to say nothing instead. So I've been able to resist the temptation to actually sing it out loud, though I have made reference to it in at least one Facebook post.

So, my basic reaction to Mrs T's passing is - 'Oh'. Indifference. I didn't know her personally, so I feel no sadness. And, although I will say that I despised her coldhearted policies and lack of insight into their effect on the vulnerable, I don't feel an urge to dance and rejoice either.

For me, Margaret Thatcher was a cold, ambitious individual. Anyone who thinks she should be an icon for women should, in my view, consider whether she actually did very much to improve the lot of women. A lot of articles written over the past few days by women make it plain than none of the writers think she did anything of value for women.

As a gay man, my dislike of her stems from Section 28, which her government brought in. A mean-spirited piece of legislation whose repercussions for LGBT young people are still being felt. A number of LGBT commentators have written about this.

In February of 2009, as part of a day long event I helped to present for LGBT History Month, I gave a presentation called 'The Shadow of Section 28', that gives some idea of my thinking.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24371157/Shadow_of_Section_28.pdf

In my view, while Margaret Thatcher was not the main architect of this legislation, it is quite obvious that she was content to support it and felt happy to fall in with the rhetoric about the 'poor children'. And she was, after all, the leader of the government responsible for making it clear that LGBT people were not worthy of the protection of the law, were beyond the Pale. By making it difficult (to say the least) to talk about LGBT lives to young people, another generation grew up knowing only what was rumoured about them. Never a constructive way.

The lack of discussion about LGBT people at school, indeed the fear that some teachers had of doing so, in case they got into trouble, has damaged countless lives and encouraged a school culture that has resulted in the high levels of homophobic bullying we see reported in Stonewall's The School Report. I lay the blame for that at her door, as the Prime Minister whose government brought Section 28 into being.

More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28

This link shows Mrs T in October 1987 making her feeling known about the need for Section 28, making a connection, as homophobes so often do, to children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VRRWuryb4k

Stonewall's The School Report 2012:
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/at_school/education_for_all/quick_links/education_resources/7956.asp

Marriage Equality

You may possibly have noticed that marriage equality is big news in the US and Europe at the moment, with the  Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-13 heading for the Report Stage and 3rd Reading in the House of Commons any time now.

The marriage equality movement in the US is currently waiting with baited breath for SCOTUS (the Supreme Court Of The United States) to give judgment on the recent hearings about Proposition 8 and DOMA. The former added a new provision to the California Constitution, "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". The latter (the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into US Law by President Clinton in 1996) restricts federal marriage benefits and limits inter-state marriage recognition to opposite-sex marriages only.

However, I spotted a couple of postings online that show the struggle for marriage equality in the US began earlier than I had previously realised. In the 1970s, in fact.

In 1970, the October issue of Jet magazine included a photo of Edna Knowles and Peaches Stevens at their wedding in Liz’s Mark III Lounge, a gay bar on the South Side of Chicago, “before a host of friends and well wishers". Of course, the wedding was not recognised in law. 
http://queermuseum.tumblr.com/post/46378568256/queer-african-american-women-and-the-history-of#_=_

And the blog, Hunter Of Justice, blogged about the subject last December, starting with the 1972 case of Baker v. Nelson. This was the first gay marriage case to reach the Supreme Court. The Court dismissed the plaintiffs' claim "for lack of a substantial federal question"; ie. the Court considered the couple's Equal Protection argument to be so patently invalid that it was not worthy of their attention.

Over the next year or so, two further claims were filed, but neither reached the Supreme Court.

See:
http://hunterofjustice.com/2012/12/gay-marriage-ca-1970.html
With further detail here:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20090707.html

You can follow the progress of the UK's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-13 here:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2012-13/marriagesamesexcouplesbill.html

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act

Added on 30 March 2013:
Barely two years after the Stonewall riots, an activist group threw a gay engagement party at the New York Marriage Bureau. They were protesting a City Clerk's threat of legal action against Father Robert Clemment, who was performing Holy unions for gay members of The Church of the Beloved Disciple. Randy Wicker was there to capture it all on film.
http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2013/03/29/throwing-a-gay-engagement-party-in-1971-the-fight-for-marriage-equality/

Photos of Gay Pride In New York City: 1970-1979

Shamelessly taken from a tweet by @LGBTSpace.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/gay-pride-in-new-york-city-1970-1979

The secret gay history of the Royal Society

Writing for Gay Star News, Mark Govier asks why the Royal Society, Britain’s national scientific organisation, hides its great gay roots from Francis Bacon to Isaac Newton.
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/secret-gay-history-royal-society260313

More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society
http://royalsociety.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Philosophical_Club
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

The first ever gay television drama?

South, a film tackling the then brave themes of race and sexuality, was first shown on ITV in 1959 - only 2 years after the Wolfenden Report, which recommended the partial decrimiinalisation of male homosexual acts, was published; and 2 years before Victim, starring Dirk Bogarde, was released. It deals with a dashing Polish army lieutenant exiled in the US deep south as civil war approaches and the question of whom he really loves: a plantation owner's angry niece, Miss Regina, or the tall, blond, rugged officer who arrives suddenly – a handsome man called Eric MacClure.

Lieutenant Jan Wicziewsky was played by Peter Wyngarde, who went on to play Jason King, possibly the campest, yet most determinedly heterosexual ladies' man ever to be seen on TV. Wyngarde was himself gay and is now known to have been in a long term relationship with fellow actor, Alan Bates, at the time of the broadcast.

Peter Wyngarde as the dapper Jason King

South will be seen for the first time in a generation at the BFI's 27th London lesbian and gay film festival this coming Saturday and Sunday [23/24 April 2013].

More information:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/16/itv-play-gay-television
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/first-gay-drama-unearthed-british-film-institute180313
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wyngarde
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_King_%28TV_series%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_%281961_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Bogarde

Antinopolis

The modern revivers of the cult of an ancient Roman gay god have claimed that Egyptian authorities are ignoring widespread looting of the Egyptian city named for him.

Antinous was the young lover of Emperor Hadrian. He drowned in the Nile in October 130CE, aged 19. Hadrian is said to have been so distraught that he "wept for him like a woman". He deified the youth, though his precise status in the Roman pantheon seems to have been unclear.

For more information:
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/claims-egyptian-city-named-roman-emperor-hadrian%E2%80%99s-boyfriend-left-looters150313
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinous
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinopolis