[Achievement
– the name given in heraldry to the full pictorial representation of a coat of
arms.]
This weekend sees the climax of Manchester Pride. Wherever
you go in the city you’ll see the city council’s coat of arms and derivatives
of it – on buildings, on street signs, on litter bins. Here is the Manchester
coat of arms with a few others that have incorporated parts of it.
The single design element that is common to them all is what
we heraldists call “three bendlets enhanced” – three diagonal stripes slightly
to one side of the shield.
Now, here’s the heraldic achievement of the poet Lord Byron,
one of several that can be seen in Nottingham. Does the shield look familiar?
There is a family link between the pansexual Byron and the
city of Manchester where the whole spectrum of the lgbt community is being
celebrated this weekend.
Lord Byron’s earliest male-line ancestor is mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as holder of several manors in Nottinghamshire and
Derbyshire. These were the days before heraldry developed. Kings, barons and
knights adopted any emblem they wanted, whether or not it had been used in
their family or not. As generations passed these personal emblems were adopted
by other members of the family. Some families adopted animals as emblems, like
the lions of England inherited by “Queens” Edward II and James I.
In some cases the emblems originated in the construction
elements of a shield. Central bosses and studs were painted and they became
family emblems as discs. The three red discs of the Courtenay family (of which
the 3rd Earl of Devon, young lover of William Beckford, was the
family head) may have begun this way. Metal bars fixed across the shield to
strengthen it because the bars and stripes in heraldry, and this is probably
the ultimate origin of Lord Byron’s shield. Interestingly, the position of the
bars, centred to one side of the shield, is the area most often hit during
battle and jousts.
Another common practice in the early days of heraldry was to
adapt the coat of arms of a related or connected family. That is how Lord
Byron’s arms came into being.
In the 12th century Lord Byron’s ancestors
married heiresses from Lancashire in the Manchester area and they established a
second manorial base there. One family of local importance they married into
were the Grelleys, lords of the manor of Manchester. The Grelleys had a coat of
arms of three gold stripes on a red shield, the same one still used as part of
the city arms of Manchester today.
The Byrons inherited the manor of Manchester from the
Grelleys. To commemorate this descent they adopted the three stripes from the
Grelley shield and turned them red. And when Sir John Byron, MP for Nottingham,
was created a peer in 1643 he chose his full title to be Baron Byron of
Rochdale in the County Palatine of Lancaster (having bought the manor of
Rochdale in 1638 from “Queen” James I to add to his Manchester estates).
A coat of arms used by the old Failsworth Urban District
Council, situated in Manchester, shows this inheritance in visual form
perfectly. I’ve shown the Failsworth arms below. It shows the stripes of the
Grelleys and Byrons joined together as is passing the manor of Manchester from
one family to the other.
As people wander around Manchester this weekend during the
city’s Pride celebrations, the spirit of Lord Byron will no doubt be there with
them.
LAST TIME
: 48) Keith Tomlinson (b.1980)
climbed Mount Elbrus in Russia, one of the 7 highest continental mountains (the
Seven Summits), a mountaineering challenge completed by 49) Cason Crane (b.1992). A parallel challenge of running a
marathon on each continent has been completed by 50) Todd J. Henry, an astronomer who searched for extra-terrestrial
intelligence, a subject speculated upon in the 16th century by 51) Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).
51)
Giordano Bruno was one
of the leading mathematicians of his age, though his controversial views on the
multiple existence of Christ on alien worlds put him in the black books of
scientists and the Church alike and led to his execution for heresy.
In 1591 he applied for the
vacant professorship of mathematics at Padua University. He was unsuccessful.
Instead the position went to an up-and-coming mathematician by the name of
Galileo. But then Galileo had influential patrons who campaigned on his behalf
him to the university, though they denied it. These patrons were the Del Monte
brothers, one of whom was 52) Cardinal
Francesco del Monte (1549-1627).
Cardinal del Monte was
also an amateur mathematician like his brothers, and it was his eldest brother,
the Marchese del Monte, who influenced Galileo’s work on trajectories. The
Cardinal is most famous (apart from being the first recorded owner of the
Portland vase) as the patron of another rising young star of the Renaissance,
the artist Caravaggio, under his patronage he painted “The Cardsharps”.
After failing to get the
professorship at Padua Giordano Bruno found himself increasingly at odds with
both the Church and the authorities over his views. Very shortly afterwards he
became the subject of the heresy trial that led to his execution.
It is Bruno’s two-year
stay in England that leads us on to the most intriguing (in more ways than one)
period of his life. In 1583 he arrived in London as a guest of the French
ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The ambassador had made many
friends in London, a few of them from the world of the theatre as well as
politics. It was probably at one of his many dinners that the ambassador
introduced Giordano Bruno to 53) Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).
I cannot bring Marlowe
into the story without mentioning two things about him. The first is his role
as a spy, the other we’ll come to later. The French ambassador was no stranger
to espionage himself. As ambassador he was able to place French Catholic spies
at Elizabeth’s Protestant court and, no doubt, knew who some of Elizabeth’s
spies were. Perhaps he knew that Christopher Marlowe was a spy.
Marlowe was just one of
many in the pay of Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. He was
employed for many years to spy on Catholic sympathisers and plotters. But the
French ambassador probably didn’t know there was another spy living under his
very nose.
When Giordano Bruno
arrived there was a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, invade England from
Spain, and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. Plans for this were rather
carelessly revealed during the after-dinner chat at the French ambassador’s
residence. Walsingham was informed and the plotter executed for treason.
Walsingham had a double agent working in the ambassador’s house called Henry
Fagot. It has been revealed in recent years that Fagot was actually 51) Giordano Bruno.
The other thing to mention
about 53) Christopher Marlowe is his
often alleged authorship of some (or all) of the works of Shakespeare. While
this is a subject of constant discussion and speculation there is evidence that
one of Marlowe’s works influenced one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays.
Another famous writer
often alleged to have written Shakespeare’s plays, or at least the ones written
after Marlowe’s death was Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He
makes just a cameo appearance today because his brother, 54) Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), also worked in Walsingham’s spy
ring. One intriguing theory put forward recently is that Christopher Marlowe
faked his own death and that Anthony Bacon helped him to escape to France.
Back to Marlowe’s
influence on Shakespeare. “Titus Andronicus” is one of the Bard’s early plays
whose authorship has been questioned the most. It isn’t considered one of his
best. T. S. Eliot called it “one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays
ever written”. In that respect it can be said to have inspired a genre of film
that is popular purely because it is just that.
“Titus Andronicus” was
partly inspired by several Elizabethan revenge tragedies, one of which was
called “Tambourline”, written by Christopher Marlowe. What marks “Titus” out is
its violence and gore. It was very popular with Elizabethan audiences, and it
still is. A recent production by The Globe even had people fainting in the
audience because of the graphic nature of the modern stage effects of rape and
mutilation. It’s all very reminiscent of the reports of audience reactions when
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was first released. And that’s the next
connection in the chain (pardon the pun).
Modern slasher films and
splatter movies are deliberately made to highlight the gore and horror and are
not known for their strength of script or depth of character. Most characters
are there purely to be disposed of in the most gruesome and entertaining manner
possible. T. S. Eliot could have used his above-quoted remark to describe any
slasher film. However, it is a genre with a distinguished history going back to
“Titus Andronicus” and beyond and remains one of the greatest contributors to
modern culture.
Even though there have
been many lgbt characters in horror and slasher films over the years (the most
famous being Norman Bates in “Psycho”), and there have been many lgbt horror
writers, the genre didn’t really get a specifically gay slasher film until 2004
when “Hellbent” was released. The writer and director of that film was 55) Paul Etheredge.
When “80 Gays” returns in
a couple of weeks we’ll discover what slasher films have in common with
Wimbledon.
To start the ball rolling
with this new series we look to the hills and at the career of one of the first
female mountaineers in history – Freda du Faur (1882-1935).
Although female mountaineers
were not unknown of in the Edwardian era just over a hundred years ago it was
rare to come across one who was unmarried. Freda was one such mountaineer. She
was born in Sydney, Australia, into a wealthy family. Her father Frederick was
a public servant working as a land agent and cartographer for the Crown Lands
Office. He was a founder member and first chairman of the Geographical Society
of Australia in 1883, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, so
exploration was in Freda’s blood.
In 1894 Frederick was
instrumental in having Ku-ring-gai Chase near Sydney declared a national park
and he was appointed as its managing trustee. The family moved there, and it
was the rugged natural landscape which attracted the young Freda to the outdoors.
She would often wander through the park with her dog exploring all the hidden
gullies and scrambling up rocks.
Rock climbing was not a
profession a well-educated young lady like Freda du Faur could pursue
unquestioned and she began to train to be a nurse instead. However, she was
dogged by mental illness throughout her life, and she had to stop her training
because of what was called her “sensitive, highly-strung nature”. Today she
would be diagnosed as bipolar. Fortunately, a family inheritance meant that
Freda could live independently and do whatever she wanted. And that meant she
could travel and explore to her heart’s content.
In 1906 Freda visited New
Zealand and became fascinated by that country’s highest peak, Mount
Aoraki-Cook, and the Southern Alps. When she was able to return two years later
she contacted a well-known guide, Peter Graham, to help her learn the
techniques in altitude climbing that would help her reach the summit of
Aoraki-Cook.
They had only been work
together for a few weeks when Freda made her first mountain climb up Mount
Sealy. This was remarkable enough for a woman who had no previous experience,
but what concerned people more than anything was that she didn’t have a
chaperone when she and Peter Graham were camping out overnight on the mountains
alone. It was only after she secured her reputation as a serious and successful
climber that she stopped using chaperone-porters.
Just a few weeks later
Freda made her first attempt on Mount Aoraki-Cook, but ice and crevasses prevented
her and Graham from completing the climb. However, she did complete other
climbs so her novice season wasn’t a total failure.
The following year Freda
returned to New Zealand and this time she was successful in climbing to the top
of Aoraki-Cook. She was the first woman (and the first ever Australian) to
reach the top. Spurred on by enthusiasm after her success Freda went on to
climb another four mountains that season.
Over the next two years
Freda returned to climb more peaks of the Southern Alps, gaining a reputation
as a great pioneer of female mountain climbing.
In 1912 she made her final
ascent up Aoraki-Cook by making the first successful climb along the ridge that
ran between the mountain’s three main peaks. This was considered impossible,
but she, Peter Graham and David Thompson completed it at the beginning of 1913.
Later that year Freda
moved to England with her life partner Muriel Cadogan, planning to climb in the
Alps. But the First World War broke out and put a halt to the plans. Instead Freda
wrote a book about her exploits and feats.
Both Freda and Muriel were
dogged by ill health. Muriel was admitted into an institution following a
breakdown and Freda moved in with her for a while. In 1927 Muriel’s family took
her back to Australia, but she died on the voyage home. Freda herself returned
to Australia shortly afterwards.
In 1935 Freda du Faur,
after years of bouts of depression, committed suicide by carbon monoxide
poisoning. She was 53. She was buried
privately in an unmarked grave, seemingly forgotten by all those outside her
family.
But Freda’s achievements
were not forgotten. They were commemorated in 2013 for the centenary of her
first ascent up Aoraki-Cook. A group of professional New Zealand mountain
climbers kept her memory alive, and in 2006 had paid for a memorial stone and
plaque to be placed at her grave.
Today there are many
female mountaineers following in Freda du Faur’s footsteps, some whose own
mentors may have been inspired by the feats of this extremely adventurous pioneer.
This is an introduction to
a new series of articles in which I look at those lgbt athletes and adventurers
who take themselves to the limit and push themselves to the extreme.
In part this series is
inspired by research I undertook last year when I was putting together my
“Around the World in 80 Gays” series. The most recent of these articles ten
days ago featured some extreme athletes – mountaineers and multi-marathon
runners. There were many others I would also liked to have mentioned, so many
that I had no space for them, so what better place to begin this new “Xtremely
Queer” series by coming hot on the trail after my article of Keith Tomlinson,
Cason Crane and Todd Henry. Of others that I’ve previously written about I will
mention Count Eigil Knuth, the Danish archaeologist who discovered the world’s
most northerly civilisation beyond the Arctic Circle.
There are various
activities that can be classed as “extreme”. You may have tried some of them
yourself. Some are son popular that people have forgotten that they’re actually
“extreme”. Marathon running is an example. We should remember that the very
first marathon run by Pheidippides in 490 BC ended in his death from
exhaustion. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures and film of marathon runners in
difficulties during a run.
But the facts behind
Pheidippides’ marathon run are not as we may think. Modern scholars believe the
story of hi s run is a mixture of other, unconnected, stories that were
confused together by authors writing down the event decades after it was
supposed to have occurred. It is not now believed that the message that
Pheidippides conveyed was not delivered after the Battle of Marathon but
before. The confusion may have been created by Lucian, the Roman writer who
also described a fantastic journey to the intersex race of human on the Moon.
Pheidippides may have been
a real person. He is mentioned in other ancient Greek writings as a kind of
long-distance messenger. Over the rough mountain tracks between the ancient
city states it would have been quicker to send runners instead of messengers on
horseback because the rough terrain would slow the horses down to a walk, even
though they could go faster on the flat. It seems there was a special class of
messenger, a specially trained long-distance runner, of which Pheidippides was
one.
In the full legendary
version of his run Pheidippides not only ran the 26 miles to Athens to bring
news of the victory at the battle of marathon but he had also run 150 miles to
Sparta and back in the previous two days. So it’s no wonder that the story of
him collapsing and dying from exhaustion was created.
The first part of the
legend is probably true. The esteemed writer Herodotus records Pheidippides ran
from Athens to Sparta on a mission to ask for military help in fighting the
Persians at marathon. The next day he ran back to Athens.
One diversion on the
mission was an encounter with the shepherd-loving god Pan. Phiedippides was met
by Pan on the run to Sparta who asked him why the Athenians hadn’t called upon
him for help against the Persians. He had helped them in the past and was
willing to help again. So, when Phiedippides returned to Athens 2 days later he
passed on his message as well as the one from the Spartans.
The Athenians called upon
Pan’s assistance and they firmly believed that the god was with them at the
Battle of Marathon and helped in their victory. As a result they built a new
shrine to Pan next to the Acropolis and instituted a new annual festival in his
honour complete with games, sacrifice and torch race. Even though Pheidippides’
run to Sparta is recorded by Herodotus, the famous run from Marathon is not and
doesn’t appear until Lucian wrote it down 500 years later.
A modern ultra-marathon
event commemorating Pheidippides’ 150 mile Spartan run is a much more fitting
tribute to this long-distance messenger. The event, called the Spartathlon, was
created in 1983 after a group of RAF officers proved it was possible. I haven’t
been able to ascertain if any lgbt runners have competed but they’ll feature in
a future “Xtremely Queer” article if they have.
Before I sign off for
today there’s another lgbt link between the Battle of Marathon and sport.
Leading the Persian army at the battle was the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias.
He, along with his brother Hipparchus, was one of the most hated rulers of
Athens. In 514 BC a plot to assassinate them was hatched up by the couple
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. The plan was to kill the tyrants during the Greater
Panathenaean Games – the “Gayest Games in Ancient Greece”. I told the story of
the assassination here. In brief, Hipparchus was assassinated and Hippias
escaped to rule as tyrant alone. Also, as Pheidippides was Athenian we assume that
he competed at the Panathenaean Games at some point in his life.
The first regular
“Xtremely Queer” article will appear at the weekend with a look at an lgbt
pioneer of female mountaineering.
Picture two couples – an
older man and a youth in each. Picture them among the trees away from the city.
Now picture them separated by 4,000 years and 1,684 miles. One thing connects both
couples, and that is an undecyphered alphabet discovered in 1893.
The most recent of these
couple are Arthur Evans and George Cook, both arrested in Hyde Park on 29th
January 1924 for a “violation of public decency”. Arthur was fined and George
ordered to leave London. A week later after his arrest Arthur – the well-known
archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941) – gave his personal estate on the
island of Crete to the British School at Athens. The estate consisted of a huge
archaeological site.
Now, let’s go to that
other couple several thousand years earlier. The older man is also well-known –
King Minos of Crete – and the youth with him among the trees is Ganymede. The
most common version of the story of Ganymede involves his kidnap by the god Zeus,
but this older version may have been inspired by the Cretan ritual of
kidnapping a youth to establish a sexual relationship.
The Cretan ritual
consisted of the consensual “kidnap” of a youth or boy by an older,
aristocratic man, who took the youngster into the woods for a period of
“getting to know you”. A sexual relationship developed and this is said to be
the origin of the practice of man-youth sex found in all the gymnasia and army
barracks found throughout Ancient Greece.
The undecyphered alphabet
belonged to the Cretans, a civilisation Sir Arthur Evans named Minoan after
King Minos, and it was the reason the archaeologist went to Crete in the first
place.
The son of another noted
antiquarian, Sir John Evans, Arthur’s interest in archaeology was with him from
a very young age.
It was in 1886 when he was
Director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford that Arthur was given a seal stone,
a small stone used to impress a design or writing into clay or wax. It was
inscribed with marks that looked like Mycenaean, the early alphabet of the
Greek mainland, In 1893 Arthur purchased more of these small stones that were
being sold as antiquarian souvenirs in Athens. Try as he could he was unable to
read the inscriptions. He realised they must be in a language hitherto unknown
and his quest to decode this language began.
Arthur was told that seal
stones could be found in great numbers on the island of Crete so in 1894 he set
off to find more. He had no difficulty finding them as they were all over the
place. They were even being worn as amulets by the local women.
There was an abandoned
archaeological site on Crete called Knossos, discovered in 1878. Sectarian
conflict in the area led to the excavations being halted. When the dispute was
resolved by the island becoming a Greek possession in 1899 it was safe to
resume. Arthur was keen to prevent political interference of his own
excavations at Knossos by buying the whole site. In 1900 full excavations
began.
Just like his hero
Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy, Arthur was keen on rediscovering
the sites mentioned in the ancient myths and legends. As he dug his site Arthur
began to be convinced that Knossos, with its labyrinthine passages and many
images of bulls, was the palace of King Minos and the inspiration behind the
legend of the Minotaur. It was a civilisation much older and a lot different to
the Mycenaean mainland.
Arthur found more examples
of the mysterious writing on clay tablets, and realised that there were
actually two distinct versions. Because the writings consisted mainly of
straight lines he called them Linear A and Linear B. In Arthur’s mind these
coded scripts were the precursors of the Greek alphabet and quite vehemently
defended his opinion. It has emerged since his death that Linear A existed on
the Greek mainland also and may have been a shared alphabet.
Arthur Evans spent the
rest of his trying to decode the Linear alphabet without success. When he died
in 1941 he was no nearer discovering what they said and what they revealed about
the Minoan civilisation than he did on the day he picked up his first seal
stone. Other archaeologists were just as mystified and many of them tried to
decipher the Minoan code.
With Linear B being a
later version of Linear A and consequently nearer in form to more recent
alphabets it was easier to find some structure to the writing. An archaeologist
called Alice Kober managed to construct a list of symbols in Linear B which
corresponded to syllables in words based on phonetics. However, no-one knew how
these phonetic syllables were pronounced. A kind of breakthrough was made when
it was suggested that Linear B might contain the names of important Cretan
cities.
You could say there was a
“Rosetta Stone” moment. The Rosetta Stone was the means by which the Egyptian
hieroglyphics were decoded using names of kings written in one script that were
identified in the hieroglyphics. Linear B contained the names of towns, and
once these were identified the whole alphabet could be unravelled.
Through the hard work of
modern archaeologists the lost language of the Minoans was revealed.
Unfortunately there is little in Linear B that works when applied to Linear A.
They seem to be very different languages. More than 60 years after the death of
Sir Arthur Evans we’re no nearer discovering what Linear A says, or of decoding
the secret language of King Minos and the Minoans.
It’s time to get sinful
again! This time we go green with ENVY.
Along with red and blue,
green is a colour which is instantly associated with one of the Seven Deadly
Sins. The association dates from Medieval times and entered Christian tradition
(not to be confused with Christian doctrine). So we place ENVY on the green
stripe of the Rainbow Pride flag.
I suppose, like many gay
men, I’ve been guilty of envy many times. I’ve lost count of times I wish I was
as young and gorgeous as Tom Daley!
Envy has often been
substituted with JEALOUSY. In modern psychological terms the two are slightly
different. Jealousy is the negative emotion felt at the uncontrollable loss of
something which you want back (your ex, your job, etc.). ENVY is felt against
people who possess something you never had in the first place, whether status,
abilities or attributes of someone else. To the medieval mind there was no
difference however.
If there’s one thing my
researches have shown me over the years it’s that when it comes to envy its
best NOT to be highly placed in society. In particular, it best not to be a
male favourite of a king, because most of them have come to a sticky end
because of it.
Of particular personal
interest is the fate that befell the two favourites of my ancestor King Edward
II of England (1284-1327). I know I’ve mentioned them several times on this
blog, most notably in this article. But it illustrates well the role that both
envy and jealousy played in the downfall of Piers Gaveston, murdered by the
barons whose traditional positions at court and influence were given to the
favourite.
King Edward’s next
favourite didn’t fare any better. Hugh le Despencer (d.1326) rose to prominence
as a royal favourite 700 years ago in 1315. He was among a group of nobles who
supported the king in his battle against the Earl of Lancaster. When open
hostilities broke out in 1321 Hugh was well placed at court. On Lancaster’s
defeat Hugh received many estates that belonged to the rebels. In 1322 King
Edward (accompanied by Hugh) came to Nottingham Castle to pardon all the rebels
(including one Robin Hood of Wakefield).
Soon Hugh was being envied
and hated by the barons as much as Gaveston was. Even Edward’s queen, Isabella,
was jealous of Hugh’s influence. It was the catalyst for her rebellion and
Edward’s forced abdication. Even though I doubt there was any sexual aspect to
the relationship between Hugh and the king it’s clear that their contemporaries
were sure of it. Hugh suffered the fate of all those condemned for treason in
England – he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Even his 89-year-old father
didn’t escape punishment – he was hanged and fed to the dogs.
But envy and jealousy can
work the other way round. In one of my “Around the World in 80 Gays” articles a
few weeks ago I recounted how the Byzantine Emperor Mikhael III fell in love
with a hunky peasant called Basileios. With no legitimate heir to succeed him
Mikhael quickly elevated Basileios into a succession of imperial offices of
state, culminating in that of Co-Emperor.
Apart from the general
political and dynastic rivalries that characterised Byzantine history there was
very little envy on display. True, there was some envy of the former peasant’s
rise to power, but he was wily enough to keep in everyone’s favour. Until, that
is, the arrival of a new favourite.
In 866 the 26-year-old
Mikhael found a new favourite, presumably one a lot younger than the
30-plus-year-old Basileios. The new favourite flattered Mikhael so much that he
was rewarded by being given the emperor’s shoes to wear. Not just any shoes,
but the official red jewelled shoes that were part of the imperial regalia.
Only an emperor was entitled to wear them. Even Basileios hadn’t been allowed
to wear them, and he was Co-Emperor. It would be like Dorothy in “The Wizard of
Oz” giving her ruby slippers to the Munchkins to play with. Basileios
complained vigorously. Mikhael threatened to give the co-emperorship to the new
favourite if he didn’t mind his own business. You can guess what happened next.
Basileios became jealous
and envious of the new favourite’s position and feared losing this title, even
if Mikhael didn’t really mean it. But to make sure that he remained Co-Emperor
he decided to assassinate them both.
After a particularly
alcohol-filled evening (Mikhael’s nickname was “the Drunkard”) the emperor
retired to bed with the new favourite in the adjoining room, reserved for the
most trusted imperial official. Basileios burst through the chambers and
stabbed Mikhael before he could get out of bed. The new favourite was dragged
away, and presumably executed, though there’s no actual record of what happened
to him.
Basileios was now sole
Emperor of Byzantium and he reigned for 19 years. It was his envy and jealousy
that got him there, but he was actually a popular ruler – you couldn’t reign
for 19 years in those days without being liked! So at least envy did someone a
favour even if it IS one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
(NOTE: The reason I
haven’t named Mikhael’s new favourite is because I didn’t want him to be
confused with Basileois. The new favourite was called Basiliskos).
LAST TIME : 44) Modest Tchaikovsky (1850-1916) and his famous composing
brother 45) Pyotr Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893) are linked by marriage to 46)
Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) and 47)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). All four featured prominently in the opening
or closing ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, despite the Russian
government’s anti-gay views over which many called for a boycott, but one man
who protested by going to Russia was 48) Keith Tomlinson (b.1980).
Rather than join a boycott
48) Keith Tomlinson decided that the
best way he could highlight the homophobia in Russia was to raise funds for the
lgbt charity Stonewall, and the way he chose to do it was to climb the highest
mountain in Europe, Mount Elbrus in Russia, just 148 miles from Sochi.
In August last year Keith
reached the summit of Elbrus and unfurled a Rainbow Pride flag. This isn’t the
first time a rainbow has flown from the summit. In 2013 I write a series of
articles about 49) Cason Crane (b.1992),
another young gay mountaineer who climbed Elbrus for his Rainbow Summit project.
Being the highest mountain
in Europe makes Mount Elbrus a popular challenge for mountaineers. As such it
belongs to a specific challenge called the Seven Summits in which the aim is to
climb the highest mountain of each continent (Elbrus in Europe, Everest in
Asia, Kilimanjaro in Africa, McKinley-Denali in North America, Aconcagua in
South America, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, and either Carstenz or Kosciuszko
in Australasia).
Quite often the first
continental summit attempted is the shortest, Kilimanjaro. Cason completed his
climb at the age of 15, and Keith completed his climb in 2011. The experience
was so inspiring that Keith came out as gay 2 days later. Although
mountaineering has taken a back seat Keith Tomlinson still continues to raise
money for lgbt charities by running marathons. Even if he doesn’t complete the
Seven Summits challenge he may still get the chance to complete an equivalent
challenge, to run a marathon on each continent, even in Antarctica.
Many marathon runners,
both professional and amateur, take up the continental marathon challenge. One
person to have completed it is 50) Todd
J. Henry, Professor of Astronomy at Georgia State University. We’ve
encountered Professor Henry before in an article I wrote in March in my “StarGayzing” series. Todd has been running marathons since 1980 and took part in
the very first Antarctic marathon in 1995. He came second. Since then he has
run over 40 marathons and reached the seven-continental target in 2008.
Todd Henry’s main work in
astronomy has been in the study of Earth’s nearest stars. In 1994 he founded
RECONS, the Research Consortium On Nearby Stars, of which he is still the
Director. Since then he has become one of the leading educators into our
immediate interstellar neighbourhood, working with NASA on their own Nearby
Stars Project.
On earning his PhD Todd
Henry was appointed a postdoctoral fellow with the SETI Project at the Phoenix
Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. SETI is the Search for
Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. That’s not looking for bug-eyed monster or
Martians but the examination of radio emissions could indicate that they are
not naturally created, or even looking for evidence that organic molecules
exist in space which could form life. There are several scientific research
programmes into SETI, of which the project Todd Henry worked on is just one.
Another is the SETI League.
The idea that life exists
on other worlds isn’t new. As I mentioned several years ago a 2nd
century writer called Lucian wrote about a fantastical voyage to the Moon and
the strange life that lived there (including something that sounds very much like
a kangaroo).
The birth of modern
science in the 16th century saw new techniques applied to the study
of astronomy. The idea of life existing on other possible worlds gained renewed
speculation. One scientist in particular is remembered for his theory about
extra-terrestrial life – for the wrong reasons.
The SETI League created an
annual prize named after this 16th century scientist, awarded to
scientists who make a significant contribution to SETI. They hail him as a hero
of science against religion, even though his only contribution to SETI was his
belief that if life exists on other worlds then God sent Christ to minister to
each and every one of them. We all know how preposterous the multiplicity of
one person is, and so did the Church, so they labelled him a heretic even
though they accepted his scientific theories. But some scientists today use
this to distort historical fact for their own anti-religion agenda and claim he
was declared a heretic because of his science. He wasn’t.
The award the SETI League
created in his memory is called a Bruno, and the scientist himself, the subject
of an article I wrote in January, was 51)
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).
Next time we see how Bruno
links to splatter movies through Shakespeare.
I can’t believe that its my
blog anniversary again. It gives me the opportunity to reflect on the past 4
years and plan ahead for the future.
First of all I send all my
best wishes and thanks to everyone who has read my blog. Without you it would
be just like talking to myself. A big thank you also to those who have
responded or contributed to my research, including my recent guest blogger
David Gwinnutt, the Irish Olympian who asked to be added to my
lgbt Olympian list, and to several people who helped to put the record straight on
a couple of lgbt community flags.
However much I enjoy
researching and writing my blog it is hard work. Trying to fit it in with my
job and other commitments has been difficult at times, but that won’t put me
off from continuing. However, I hope you won’t mind if I take it easy today.
As you can see by today’s
page view count I (90,823) I do have an audience and I’m gradually creeping up
to the number I never dreamed of reaching – the magic 100,000, and hopefully
I’ll reach that magic number before the New Year. The steady increase has
always encouraged me to continue.
Over the past year I’ve
been thinking about ways to expand the Queerstory Files presence, toying with
the idea of revamping the layout of the page. Stay tuned.
Another addition I hope to
introduce is a Facebook page. Many times, when I’ve been researching or reading
the news, that there’s been a snippet of information which was ideal to pass
on, whether it was news of events, historical anniversaries or other Facebook
and internet sites that may be of interest. I’ve often had to wait several
weeks or even months before I find the appropriate place on the blog. So,
again, stay tuned.
In the meantime I hope you
won’t mind if I open a bottle of champagne tonight and drink a toast to you
all.
Following a highly
successful Stockholm Pride last weekend the Eurogames begin today. The
Eurogames are the longest running international lgbt sport festival in Europe,
having been founded in 1992. It gives me a good reason to feature Stockholm in
my “City Pride” series. Here are some locations in the city that feature in
Sweden’s lgbt heritage.
1)
Kungsträdgården – We’ll
start with the Eurogames, at the venue where the games begin. The grand opening
ceremony is being held tonight here at the Kungsträdgården after an afternoon
of fun sporting activities for visitors. The ceremony itself will include the
customary entrance of the teams, not only from across Europe but from as far
afield as Australia as well.
2)
Olympic Stadium –
Stockholm has actually hosted the Olympic Games twice. The first was in 1912 as
host of the summer games, and the second was in 1956 for the Melbourne games.
Australia has strict quarantine rules on horses so couldn’t host the equestrian
events. So Stockholm was chosen as an alternate venue. There was even an
opening ceremony and Olympic cauldron. This stadium was built for the 1912
Olympics and hosted several events, including gymnastics. This was the year
that gymnastic pioneer and coach Niels Bukh finally got to the Olympics after
being dropped from the Danish team in 1908 (which would have made him the first lgbt Olympian). He was selected as a team coach for
the Stockholm 1912 games and they came away with the silver medal (in the now
discontinued Swedish System event).
3)
Skeppargaten – This was
the final home of the distinguished Swedish writer and leading figure of the
Swedish socialist movement, Karin Boye (1900-1941). She was born in Gothenburg
and the family moved to Stockholm when Karin was young. After meeting her life
partner Margot Hanel in Berlin the couple moved into this house. In 1941 they
both committed suicide, Margot shortly after Karin.
4)
Parliament building – Home of the Swedish
parliament, the Riksdag. It has seen 19 elected lgbt members – 14 men and 5
women. After the UK the Swedish parliament has the most lgbt MP sitting at the
present time, with 12 (including a government minister). The first lgbt MP was
Kent Carlsson in 1991 who wasn’t openly gay at the time. The first openly lgbt
MP in Sweden was Tasso Stafilidis, a member of the Left Party who was elected
in 1998.
5)
The Kronor Palace – the
birthplace of Queen Kristina of Sweden in 1626. Her father treated her as his
male heir, giving her an education more suited to a boy. He was killed in
battle when Kristina was 6 and she succeeded to the throne. After reigning well
and wisely for 22 years she abdicated in 1654 and travelled around Europe. She
had a relationship with a courtier called Ebba Sparre, and the enigmatic nature
of their sexuality still lingers over 400 years later. A famous film of
Kristina’s life was made in 1933, starring Greta Garbo (below) in the title
role.
6)
Lutheran Cathedral – in
2009 the Lutheran Church of Sweden appointed the world’s first openly lesbian
bishop as Bishop of Stockholm, Eva Brunne (b.1954). She was ordained in 1978
and has served in the Stockholm diocese since 1980. While serving as Dean of
Huddinge and Botkyrka Eva registered her partnership with a fellow Lutheran
minister, Gunilla Linden, with the church’s blessing. Eva’s consecration as
bishop in the cathedral was attended by the King and Queen of Sweden.
7)
The Swedish Academy -
This is the home of the organisation which is responsible for choosing the
winner of the annual Nobel Prize for Literature. Over the decades they have
chosen such lgbt authors as Thomas Mann (in 1929), Patrick White (in 1973) and
Selma Lagerlöf (in 1909, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature). The Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, whose reign
saw Sweden’s golden age of cultural achievements. Gustav had many male
“favourites” as court and gave them high positions at court. Lgbt members of
the Swedish Academy include the above-mentioned Selma Lagerlöf (from
1914-1940), historian Wilhelm Erik Svedelius (from1864-1889), author Viktor
Rydberg (from 1877-1895), and UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld (from
1954-61).
8)
Cirkus – This is the
venue for Sweden’s annual national song contest, the Melodifestivalen. The
winning song goes on to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It
hasn’t done badly – 6 winners in total, including this year’s winner, which
means the Eurovision Song Contest returns to Sweden in 2016. Unfortunately 1992
wasn’t a good year. Gay singer Christer Björkmann won the Melodifestivalen that
year and went to the Eurovision finals – he came second from last. Undaunted,
Christer entered the Melodifestivalen again in 1999 – and came last. Not to let
these set-backs get him down, he went on to become the festival’s supervisor,
and returned to Eurovision in 2013 as the producer of the finals held in Malmo.
9)
Södra Maternity Hospital
– The first and biggest movie megastar to come from Stockholm was Greta Garbo
(1905-1990). There are many places in the city which commemorate her, including
several of her homes, but here, at Stockholm’s maternity hospital, Great was
born. Her starring role in the film biography of Queen Kristina helped to form
her iconic status that lasted long after she retired from public life in 1991.
The speculations on her bisexuality have helped to ensure that Greta Garbo
remains one of the world’s most enigmatic stars.
Believe it or not the Rio
Olympics begin in one year from this Wednesday. Long-term followers of my blog
may remember the “Olympic Countdown” series I wrote in the run-up to the 2012 London
Olympics, the first attempt anyone had ever made to chronicle lgbt involvement
in the Olympic movement (I hope to publish a new, more comprehensive online
book version next year).
Today I begin my new
Olympic-Paralympic series. Inspired by the beginning of the 2014 Sochi opening
ceremony I’m taking the alphabet and looking at all aspects of the games with
an emphasis on contributions from the lgbt community. I won’t link back to my
earlier Olympic Countdown series unless it gives more information than I can’t
include in this new series.
So, let’s get started and
look at the letter “A”.
“A” is for … ATHENS
and ATTICUS
What better place to start
than with ancient Greece. Even though the ancient Olympics never took place in
Athens the Greek capital has a special place in the history of the modern
games. It was where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896, and where the
2004 games were held.
Most of the modern
Olympics made use of several ancient sporting sites in Athens, frequently using
the Panathanaiko Stadium. It was built over 2,500 years ago to host the
athletic events at the Panathenaean Games, the games I called “The Gayest Games
in Ancient Greece” (I covered these games way back in the first months of this
blog 4 years ago). The stadium was used during the 2004 Athens games for the
archery contest. It is also the place where the Olympic torch arrives from
Olympia and is handed over to the host city.
In the year 140 the
Panathanaiko Stadium was enlarged, funded by a distinguished Greek aristocrat
called Herodes Atticus. During his lifetime Greece was part of the Roman Empire
and Herodes was appointed Prefect of the free cities of Asia in 125 by the gay
emperor Hadrian.
Herodes and his wife
Regilla were also linked to Olympia. Regilla was a priestess at the temple of
Demeter Chamayne and, as such, was the only woman allowed to attend the ancient
Olympic Games. I’ll say more about this couple when we reach “O is for …
Olympia” next year.
The customary practice of
having a younger male lover (termed an eromenos) extended beyond the ancient
Greek army and gymnasia. Herodes Atticus had an eromenos called Polydeukes. In
around 160 double tragedy struck Herodes. His wife Regilla died after an attack
(some call it murder), and Polydeukes seems to have died not long afterwards.
He was only 15 years old, and Herodes was grief-stricken at both losses.
Herodes built monuments
and statues in memory of both his wife and young eromenos. To Polydeukes he
also commissioned funeral games, no doubt held at the Panathanaiko Stadium he
had rebuilt. Herodes was inconsolable over his losses and he too died shortly
afterwards.
“A” is for … ATHENS 2004
The 2004 Athens Olympics
and Paralympics currently hold the distinction of having the most lgbt
medallists of any games – 22 at the Olympics and 7 at the Paralympics. Of these
12 were gold medals. Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe won the most medals – 2
gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze.
The most successful sport
was equestrianism with 6 medals being won, half of them gold medal won by UK’s Lee Pearson,
the most highly medalled Olympian/Paralympian to date. American equestrian
rider Robert Dover was making his 6th and last competitive
appearance in Athens, winning a bronze medal. As well as being the male athlete
who has competed in the most Olympics he was also the first openly gay male
athlete to compete, which he did in Seoul 1988 (the first female lgbt Olympian
was sculptor Renée Sintenis in 1928; John Curry was outed during the 1976
Innsbruck games after competing but before the end of the games so, although he
acknowledged his sexuality, he wasn’t the first to actually compete as an out
gay athlete).
The women’s tennis
competition saw 5 former Wimbledon champions compete, including Martina
Navratilova who, at the age of 47, is the oldest female athlete to compete.
Outside the sporting
event, the torch relay had 8 known lgbt relay runners, including former Olympic
swimming champions Mark Tewksbury and Daniel Kowalski. Prudence Mabele and Shaun
Mellors were mentioned in one of my “80 Gays” articles.
The artistic director for
the opening and closing ceremonies was gay director Dimitris Panaioannou.
“A” is for … AIDS
Sport has seen the loss of
so many talented athletes. The Olympic Games has also felt this loss. Here are
the Olympians who passed away due to AIDS-related illnesses:
Tom
Waddell (1937-1987),
American decathlete and founder of the Gay Games.
Ondrej
Nepela (1951-1989),
Czech 1972 Olympic figure skating champion.
Rob
McCall (1958-1991),
Canadian 1988 Olympic figure skating bronze medallist.
Brian
Pockar (1959-1992),
Canadian figure skater.
John
Curry (1949-1994),
British 1978 Olympic figure skating champion.
The website of the RioOlympics is already up and running and I love it! It’s well worth a look. The
official IOC website is here.
