Monday, 13 August 2012

Sister Boom Boom has died, aged 57

Sister Boom Boom, 1984
Jack Fertig, one of the first Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, died on the evening of 5th August of liver cancer, aged 57. He died at home with his partner, Elias Trevino, and other members of his family at his side.
Jack Fertig speaking at a 9/11 memorial in 2010.
(Photo: Rick Gerharter)
A detailed obituary appears in San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter:

Flickriver.com has a number of images tagged for Sister Boom Boom here:

A previous post on this blog:

The Sisters' website:
The websites for the London & Manchester Orders:
http://www.thesisters.demon.co.uk/ - although it appears to be abandonned (and not in a good way)

UPDATE 11/11/13: However, the Manchester Sisters did manage to upload a Polari translation of the Bible, which is now available from here:

If that has peaked your curiosity about Polari, this recent post might help:


BTW - this is my
100th post
to the LGBT History Project Blog!

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Sunday, 12 August 2012

Go TeamLGBT!!!

GayStarNews reports today that 10 of the 23 out gay athletes in the London Olympics have won medals - with a haul that would place Team LGBT at no. 19 in the official rankings, ahead of countries like Spain, Brazil & Canada.
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/nearly-half-openly-gay-athletes-win-medals-olympics120812


London 2012 Olympics: an LGBT legacy?
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/london-2012-olympic-lgbt-legacy120812

London bids to host the 2018 Gay Games/OutGames

More than 40 percent of the out LGBT athletes at the London Olympics took home medals, a better medal-winning percentage than Team USA
http://www.thegavoice.com/news/world-news/5045-outsports-wraps-up-lgbt-medal-winners-in-london-olympics

For information on LGBT sports in Europe:

The European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation:

The 2011 and 2012 editions of Past2Present followed the LGBT History Month theme of Sport:
2011 - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24371157/Past2Present-Feb2011.pdf
2012 - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24371157/P2P2012.pdf
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Saturday, 11 August 2012

US Army: Newly promoted Brigadier General is highest ranking serving officer to come out

Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith receives her stars from wife Tracey Hepner
"Army reserve officer Tammy Smith calls her recent promotion to brigadier general exciting and humbling, saying it gives her a chance to be a leader in advancing Army values and excellence.

What she glosses over is that along with the promotion she is also publicly acknowledging her sexuality for the first time, making her the first general officer to come out as gay while still serving. It comes less than a year after the end of the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

“All of those facts are irrelevant,” she said. “I don’t think I need to be focused on that. What is relevant is upholding Army values and the responsibility this carries.”"

Updated 14 April 2013:
At the 6th annual gala of US workplace advocates Out & Equal on 25th April 2013, Brigadier General Tammy Smith will receive the organisation’s Advocacy Award.
http://www.lesbian.com/lesbian-military-officer-to-be-honored-with-advocacy-award/
http://www.outandequal.org/

For more about this, go to:

Thanks to Towle Road (the 'site with homosexual tendencies'!) for bringing this to my attention:
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Friday, 10 August 2012

The Wellcome Library

Beth & I spent yesterday exploring the Wellcome Library to see what they had that would suit our researches for future editions of Past2Present. The 2012 edition is available for download from here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24371157/P2P2012.pdf

We left about 7 hours (including a delicious lunch in the cafe) later, barely having scratched the surface. There is a wealth of information and material for us here.


There's also the image collection:
It's useful to note that images are available under creative commons license for non-commercial use.

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Your Story - a look back at gay Manchester on Gaydio

A Gaydio item with Manchester locals talking about their experiences as LGBT people in Manchester as far as the 1960s. (Lasts 1hr 3mins.)

 
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Tuesday, 7 August 2012

The Birth of Gay’s The Word


This link takes you to a piece on the Polari Magazine website by Ernest Hole, who set up one of my favourite bookshops in London (and probably the world, actually) Gay's The Word, in Marchmont Street, London WC1 (near Russell Square).

My association with the shop goes back to 1980, so not all that long after it first opened. I was only just out to myself at that point and remember walking hurriedly past the door on several occasions before I managed to go in.


It was there that I used to buy my copies of Gay News and where I still buy many of my LGBT-related books. Between about 2003 to 2008, I even managed to spend hundreds of pounds of the Department for Constitutional Affair's money to set up a resource library for the Rainbow Network (the department's support group for its LGBT staff) and its members and allies.

I still go there occasionally to check for the latest LGBT literature and non-fiction. It's a gay bibliophile's paradise.

The shop's website:

More information:

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Choreographer Nigel Charnock has died

Nigel Charnock, the performer, director and choreographer and founder member of DV8, has died, aged 52, of stomach cancer. He is survived by his two older brothers, Andrew and Peter, and his partner, Luke Pell.

Here are a variety of articles celebrating his life and work:

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