A Lesbian Photo-History

These pictures document the changing times over 150 years, from what was in fashion in clothing to what society deemed as appropriate.

Curated by Marie Lyn Bernard, also known as Riese, the pictures show how the community has changed and evolved. These images were found by painstakingly looking through archives, websites, digital collections, and Tumblr sites alike.

http://www.autostraddle.com/150-years-of-lesbians-144337/

The article on Autostraddle was the basis for a piece in The Mail On Sunday, of all newspapers!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210599/Evolution-community-One-womans-stunning-collection-lesbians-past-150-years.html

October is LGBT History Month in the US

After a prolonged break, due to unfortunately having to go on holiday for three weeks in France (holiday photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrispark1957/sets/72157631592155709/ - if you like to look at other people's holiday photos, that is), I thought I'd ease myself back into the blog gently.

Next month is when our cousins in the US celebrate LGBT History Month. In February, when we celebrate LGBT History Month here, they're celebrating Black History Month. Confused? Me too.

This link will take you to a thoughtful piece on the Sun-Sentinel site, which explains quite succinctly why it's important to celebrate the various History Months:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/chan-lowe/sfl-lgbt-history-month-20120925,0,484107.story

Other links:
http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/ - NB: The rather pretty badges for 2013 are already on sale.

http://lgbthistorymonth.com/ - The US site.
http://www.lgbthistory.org.uk/ - LGBT History Month Scotland.
http://www.lgbthistorymonthnorfolk.org.uk/ - LGBT History Month Norfolk.
http://www.glbthistory.org/ - A US site.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/same-sex_desire_and_gender/introduction.aspx - Part of the Birtish Museum's site.
http://www.lgbthistoryuk.org/ - the UK LGBT History Project.

By the way:
The LGBT History Month Pre-Launch event this year will be held at Bletchley Park, home of the codebreakers, on Thursday 15th November (all day). More info from the UK LGBT History Month site.

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:

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=67941
This is from The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9478289/Jack-Fertig.html

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

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/addadada/tags/sisterboomboom/

More information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Boom_Boom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_Perpetual_Indulgence

A previous post on this blog:

http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sisters-of-perpetual-indulgence.html

The Sisters' website:

http://www.thesisters.org/index.php/sistory

The websites for the London & Manchester Orders:

http://www.londonsisters.org/

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:

http://www.polaribible.org/

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

http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/polari-secret-gay-language.html

BTW - this is my

100th post

to the LGBT History Project Blog!

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

http://www.london2018.info/

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:

http://www.gaysport.info/index.php

The European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation:

http://www.eglsf.info/welcome.php

Gay Games Blog:
http://gaygamesblog.blogspot.co.uk/

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

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:

http://www.stripes.com/news/smith-becomes-first-gay-general-officer-to-serve-openly-1.185372

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186887/U-S-Army-officer-openly-gay-general.html

http://themoderatevoice.com/155675/tammy-smith-our-military%E2%80%99s-first-openly-gay-general/

Thanks to Towle Road (the 'site with homosexual tendencies'!) for bringing this to my attention:

http://www.towleroad.com

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.

http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/index.html

There's also the image collection:

http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/

It's useful to note that images are available under creative commons license for non-commercial use.

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.)

http://player.gaydio.co.uk/?odCat=21&odItem=282

 

http://www.gaydio.co.uk/