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

Past2Present

One of the main outputs of the LGBT History Project is our annual magazine, Past2Present. This year I have managed to advertise it everywhere (well, in lots of places) - thanks to some kind people on Twitter - except here.

Past2Present 2013

Available for download here:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-2013.pdf

The story of Eugene Falleni

Eugenia by Mark Tedeschi QC is the true story of a transgender man at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia - featuring running away to sea, a vicious rape at the discovery of his biological sex, an abandoned child, a new identity, marriage, murder and the most high-profile court trial of the time.

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenia_Falleni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Tedeschi

Published in 2012, the book is widely available.

a transgender man at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia - featuring running away to sea, a viscous rape at the discovery of his biological sex, an abandoned child, a new identity, marriage, murder and the most high-profile court trial of the decade - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/woman-who-married-two-women-edwardian-australia280213#sthash.qhf32AQx.dpuf

a transgender man at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia - featuring running away to sea, a viscous rape at the discovery of his biological sex, an abandoned child, a new identity, marriage, murder and the most high-profile court trial of the decade - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/woman-who-married-two-women-edwardian-australia280213#sthash.qhf32AQx.dpuf

a transgender man at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia - featuring running away to sea, a viscous rape at the discovery of his biological sex, an abandoned child, a new identity, marriage, murder and the most high-profile court trial of the decade - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/woman-who-married-two-women-edwardian-australia280213#sthash.qhf32AQx.dpuf

a transgender man at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia - featuring running away to sea, a viscous rape at the discovery of his biological sex, an abandoned child, a new identity, marriage, murder and the most high-profile court trial of the decade - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/woman-who-married-two-women-edwardian-australia280213#sthash.qhf32AQx.dpuf

'Sleep well, my love'

The website Letters of Note has just published the text of a love letter from American World War II veteran Brian Keith to Dave, a fellow soldier he met and fell in love with in 1943 while stationed in North Africa, on the occasion of their anniversary. It's an almost lyrical letter, with a sad, bitter-sweet ending.

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2013/02/sleep-well-my-love.html

The original letter is apparently held in the US Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/index.html