80 Gays Around the World: Part 9) Pride and Prejudice in Moscow

Last time: The eccentricities of 29) Caligula (12-41 AD) led to the posthumous removal of his image from statues, the modern equivalent being removed from photographs like 30) Nikolai Yezhov (1895-1940), a Soviet official who had an affair with 31) Filipp Goloshchyokin (1876-1941), the man who organised the assassination of the Romanovs, though one who was assassinated earlier was 32) Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905).

Before the well-known Russian Revolution of 1917 there was the Russian Revolution of 1905. 32) Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was one of its most prominent victims.

The causes of the 1905 revolution were the same as those in 1917. Attempts to modernise and industrialise the Russian empire only led to the peasant class moving into urban areas for work, and workers’ rights was the most widespread reason for protests.

In January 1905 workers marched through St. Petersburg to the tsar’s palace to hand in a petition calling for more workers’ rights. Troops were instructed to keep the peaceful protestors out of the city centre. For some reason, troops began shooting at them and several hundred protestors (the actual number is debated even today) were killed. The event is known as “Bloody Sunday” and is regarded by many historians as the start of the 1905 revolution.

As a nephew of the Tsar, Grand Duke Sergei received high political office. He was appointed Governor General of Moscow in 1891 and although he was a great philanthropist and supporter of various charitable causes the same cannot be said about his politics. He wasn’t a great politician. By the time of the Bloody Sunday massacre he had resigned the governorship, but he knew that as part of the regime that was creating the problems he knew he was a likely target for assassination.

In February Sergei went to a concert at the Bolshoi Theatre. There an assassin awaited him, but when the assassin saw that Sergei’s wife and children were with him, his attempt was abandoned.

The Grand Duke’s wife was Princess Elizabeth von Hessen (1864-1918), a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria and the sister of the founder of the Mountbatten family. Despite having very happy marriage and fathering children, rumours of Sergei’s homosexuality were common during his lifetime. It’s difficult to find firm evidence for this one way or the other but it has been a subject of discussion in several historical books and biographies about the period for it to be ignored. Sergei’s supposed homosexuality was never publicly acknowledged. At that time it would have been difficult for him to admit to it, being a devout Roman Catholic, and with the pressures of being a member of the Imperial family and the scandal it would have caused at the time.

We can understand why Sergei could have felt entrapped by his homosexuality, if he was homosexual or bisexual. The growth of the Socialist and Communist movements in his lifetime were very vocally homophobic. Almost the entire history of Russia since then has been anti-gay. The old homophobic Communist laws that were removed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 came back with the election of an ex-Soviet KGB agent as its current President. He began re-introducing the Communist laws punishing homosexuality from 2010 onwards.

Two days after the aborted assassination attempt, the assassin saw his opportunity again. He spotted Sergei’s open carriage taking him to his former governor’s office. He threw his bomb straight into Sergei’s lap and it exploded instantly. The Grand Duke was literally blown to bits, the carriage driver was mortally wounded, and the assassin severely injured.

I mentioned in my “Pride Tops” and “Pride Bottoms” lists that Pride marches were banned in Moscow for a hundred years in 2012. Moscow has got the closest Russia has got to any form of annual physical Pride march.

The first Moscow Pride was held on 27 May 2006. The city council banned it but it took place anyway. It drew a number of high profile international activists, including Oscar Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland. The march was marred by violence and arrests and was eventually broken up by the police.

Successive Moscow Pride marches were similarly banned (except in 2009 when it served as Slavic Pride). In June 2012 all Pride marches in Moscow were banned for 100 years. The last one before the ban was on 28 May 2011. This also attracted international activists, including Dan Choi, Andy Thayer, and 32) Louis-Georges Tin (b.1974) who were all taken into police custody and later released.

Louis-Georges Tin may not be a name you’re familiar with, but I’m sure you know what his contribution to the global lgbt community is. He founded what is now called the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). The original name was simply International Day Against Homophobia. Transphobia was added in 2009, and Biphobia in 2015.

Tin was born on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. He began his anti-racist and lgbt activism whilst at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

There’s few details online about the precise timeline of events that led to the formation of IDAHOBIT, but it’s clear that by 2004 Louis-Georges Tin had organised a campaign to create a special day for victims of homophobia and abuse every 17th May.

But why did he choose 17th May? On that date in 1990, the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases. Although not universally supported, IDAHOBIT has been officially recognised and continues to be promoted by many governments around the world.

Long before scientists accepted that homosexuality was as normal as heterosexuality they classed it as a mental illness or a disease. The famous psychologist Sigmund Freud regarded homosexuality as a type of paranoia. One of the leading figures in persuading medical science that homosexuality was not an illness or disease was a gay psychiatrist called 34) Dr. John E. Fryer (1936-2003).

In 1972, Fryer attended a convention of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Dallas. His purpose was to give a speech calling for the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness as labelled in the APA’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”. However, in making the speech Fryer had to publicly declare his own homosexuality, and in doing so was afraid of how this would affect his professional career and medical license. Therefore he made his speech in disguise, wearing a large wig, rubber mask, oversized clothing, and using the pseudonym of Dr. H. Anonymous.

There had been calls for the declassification of homosexuality before, but Fryer made the right speech at the right time. The APA removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses the following year. For this speech Dr. John Fryer has earned his place in American lgbt history as one of its leading champions who paved the way for the World Health Organisation to follow in 1990. It’s undoubtedly the only thing Fryer will be remembered for, but like everyone else, he had a life outside his activism.

John Fryer was also an accomplished pipe organ player and choirmaster. As a youngster he leatnt how to play the piano and he quickly progressed to the pipe organ. Believe me, I’ve did both in my local Methodist church when I was younger, and they are different instruments requiring different playing techniques. Wherever Fryer lived he offered his services as an organ player. During his tenure at Temple University in Philadelphia, he played the organ for their graduation ceremonies.

He was also the choirmaster at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. No doubt he played their pipe organ as well. Sadly, the church closed in 2007, but the organ was saved and is now located in Old St. Joseph’s Church nearer the city centre.

As for the rest of the property, the building was sold to the Waldorf School, who still own it. The stained glass windows, which John Fryer would have seen every time he stepped into the church, went elsewhere, including one of only three surviving windows designed by 35) Violet Oakley (1874-1961).

Next time: We rest in piece among some musical lgbt icons and find unexpected objects in the rain.

80 Gays Around the World: Part 8) Persona Non Grata

Last time: 23) Harmodius and 24) Aristogeiton were killed rebelling against 25) Hipparchus (whose father-in-law, 26 Charmus of Kollyton had been sexual partner, at different times, to his brother 27 Hippias and father 28 Peisistratus) during the ritual torch relay to the Parthenon, whose main architect also created the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, which was particularly admired by 29) Caligula (12-41 AD).

29) Caligula (12-41 AD) has become one of the most notorious and eccentric of all the Roman Emperors. Among his sexual eccentricities were dating a Senator and a male actor at the same time, and allegedly committing incest with his sisters. The Senator even complained often about being exhausted by Caligula’s bedtime activities.

A lot of Caligula’s eccentricities can be misinterpreted. For example, the famous story of him making his favourite horse a senator could easily be thought of as a sign of madness. But it could also be interpreted as a jibe against what he thought was the standard of the debate and actions of the then Senate. He thought his horse would do a better job. I’m sure you’ve even made comments yourself that a horse or something could do a better job than your local politician.

Like many Roman Emperors (and a couple of Presidents in 2026), Caligula had an over-inflated opinion of themselves. One of his egomaniac projects was to have all the statues of Greek gods and heroes transported from Greece to Rome. There they would have their heads removed and replaced with carved portraits of his own head. One of these statues was that of Zeus at Olympia.

However, the statue of Zeus, or maybe Zeus himself, who knows, made it known that it thought of Caligula’s plan. The Greek writer Suetonius writes that scaffolding was erected around the statue and workmen were preparing to disassemble it for transportation to Rome. It was at this point that the workmen heard the sound of laughter coming from the statue. The laughter was so loud and hard that the scaffolding collapsed. The workmen ran off in terror and swore never to return to finish their task. This is probably one of those apocryphal stories that were popular at the time.

After Caligula’s assassination his successor and the Roman Senate wanted to make sure that he was erased from history. In Rome there was a process called “damnatio memoriae”, which means “damnation of memory”, a kind of ancient “cancel culture”.

Modern cancel culture has led to many statues and memorials have been defaced of removed from public sight because of that person’s supposed link to an issue that goes against the personal beliefs of an activist. In the instance of Caligula’s “damnatio memoriae”, all his statues, portraits and inscriptions were to be defaced and his properties seized by the state. The Senate wanted to ensure that that no-one ever heard about him again. Luckily, there are many surviving records, like the writings of Suetonius mentioned above, and things like coins across the Roman Empire and beyond that testified to his existence.

A lot of the statues and busts of Caligula were simply thrown in to rivers. Many of them were re-cut in order to change the resemblance from Caligula to another emperor. Above is one of many examples of Caligula’s face being re-sculpted into that of his successor, Claudius (currently in the archaeological museum at the site of Carsulae, Umbrio, Italy; photos by Eric R. Varner, “The Digital Sculpture Project”, 2013). The front view is obviously more successful than the side view.

How ironic. The emperor who wanted to removed the heads of gods from statues and replace them with sculptures of his own head, ended up having his face removed from his own statues and replaced.

Other regimes throughout history have tried to erase the evidence of a person’s existence or presence purely because of a difference of opinion or politics. Not all of them went as far as complete obliteration from the records as attempted by Rome. You’ve probably seen footage of statues to dictators being knocked down following a coup.

The USSR, of the Soviet Union (1922-1991), was one of the most notorious regimes for removing people from their records. One of the most famous cases was that of 30) Nikolai Yetzov (1895-1940).

Nikolai Yezhov was the People’s Commisar (Chairman) of the Party Control Commission of the Central Committee, or NKVD (what preceded the dreaded KGB). In effect he was head of the Soviet secret police.

In 1937 he became responsible for what is known as the Great Purge, or Yezhovshchina (the Age of Yezhov). He became one of those gay men who should never become a role model.

The Great Purge was called by Soviet leader Josef Stalin to deal with any opposition or criticism of his leadership. Any member of the Communist Party could be arrested and executed at Yezhov’s command, including their wives and children. Ethnic groups and the Russian Intelligentsia were also targeted. Most of the non-political prisoners were sent to the Gulag labour camps. During the first year of the Purge over half a million people were sent to the Gulags. When the Gulags became too overcrowded Yezhov ordered prisoners to be executed.

Eventually, but only after about 1.2 million people were killed, did Stalin think that Yezhov had over-stepped his authority and was doing more harm than good for the Communist Party. Yezhov’s undoing was his attempt to arrest the leader of the Georgian branch of the NKVD. The suspect convinced Stalin to help him overthrow Yezhov. Yezhov knew that his days were numbered and he resigned in November 1938. He was arrested five months later.

Yezhov confessed (probably by force) to incompetence and that the Great Purge had led to crimes against the state. He even confessed to being gay and having a string of homosexual partners, despite being married. He was found guilty and executed on 4th February 1940.

What connects Nikolai Yezhov to Caligula is what happened after his death. Because Yezhov has no statues erected to him, the only method available at the time to remove his image was to remove him from all official photographs, particularly ones which showed him with Stalin and other senior Soviet politicians, like the “before and after” example below.

During his arrest and confession to homosexual activity he admitted to having an affair with another leading Soviet figure, 31) Filipp Goloshchyokin (1876-1941).

Like Yezhov, Goloshchyokin has been named as the man responsible for the deaths of over a million of his own countrymen. He was from Kazakhstan, at the time a constituent “republic” of the Soviet Union. By 1925 he had become the virtual dictator of Kazakhstan. Stalin introduced his policy of collectivisation of agriculture, effectively forcing all peasant families to stop producing food for themselves and making them work for state-run farms with dozens of other families. The theory behind this was that it produced more food for equal distribution around the Soviet Union, in particular for the growing industrial urban centres. The actual effect was that it deprive rural peasants of their livestock and not producing enough food for them to live on. The result was widespread famine.

Under Golshchyokin’s zealous implementation of this policy an estimated 2 million Kazakhs died of starvation, 40% of the population, because most of the food they produced went to the cities.

It was at the beginning of this policy that Goloshchyokin met and had an affair with Nikolai Yezhov. During the Great Purge Goloshchyokin was sure he was safe as long a Yezhov was running the NKVD. Not long after Yezhov was arrested and admitted to their affair Goloshchyokin was also arrested. He, too, was executed.

Yet, the general public are unaware of the Kazakh Famine, or of Goloshchyokin’s role in it. What they might know more about is a previous massacre that he was personally responsible for – the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and the imperial Romanov family. Goloshchuokin’s role in the massacre was as the principal captor of the Tsar and his immediate family in Tsarskoye Selo. In fact, he was the man in charge of arranging the killings and disposal of the bodies.

This event is well-known, but what people often forget is that some Romanovs survived, and some were murdered even before the 1917 Russian Revolution by previous revolutionary assassins. One of the victims was 32) Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905).

Next time: Pride and prejudice in Moscow.

Advent 4: Witches, Burning Effigies, Sex and Peaches

After three Sundays of Christmas trees and decorations let’s skip to the other end of the Twelve Days of Christmas and take a trip to Italy.

Among over 170 seasonal gift-bringers around the world that I’ve researched, one of the most famous is la Befana of Italy.

This is an edited version of an essay I have written for my personal Christmas files about la Befana. It is one of many, more academically-based, pieces I have written on various Christmas characters following several years of research. As such it contains more information and sources than I would normally include on this blog. La Befana is one of those characters whose history is so complex and massive that cutting it down has been difficult, but I hope you find what follows is of interest. I’ve expanded information on various lgbt+ aspects of la Befana’s history. So settle down for a longer read than normal.

Today, la Befana is depicted as a witch or old hag. Her name has become synonymous with witches, but not the scary Hallowe’en type but as a kindly old woman.

There are several variations of the legend behind la Befana’s gift-bringing activities. They all date back several centuries. The most common version is that she was an old woman who lived in the Holy Land during the time of Christ’s birth. The Three Kings arrived one night, after being told that la Befana was her village’s best hostess. They told la Befana that they needed to rest overnight on their way to visit the baby Jesus and give him gifts. They invited la Befana to go with them the following morning, but she declined saying there was some housework she needed to do.

The following morning she waved the Three Kings off on their journey. But their mission prayed on her mind and she couldn’t concentrate on her housework, so she decided to go and join them. Gathering up some small gifts to give to the baby Jesus she headed out into the village. But she soon realised that the Kings didn’t tell her which direction they were going. La Befana walked through every town and village looking for the baby Jesus, hoping to give her gifts to Him. Eventually, exhaustion took its toll and she collapsed and died. The baby Jesus, in one of those mysterious events that often occur in legends, took pity on la Befana’s fate and decided that from then on her spirit would be His gift-giving representative in Italy. Today, la Befana leaves gifts for all children in the hope that one of them may be the baby Jesus.

But how did she become a gift-bringer specific to Italy? And what involvement did a gay poet have in her development?

The most generally accepted origin of La Befana’s name is that it comes from the Italian word “Epifania” (=Epiphany), which is a Christian festival celebrated on 6th January and commemorates the arrival of the Three Kings at the Nativity. “Epifania” ultimately derives from the Greek word “epifaneia”, meaning “manifestation, or appearance”. The history of Epiphany is long and complicated and I won’t go into all of it – except for one thing: it’s the original date chosen by Gnostics in the 2nd century as the one on which the birth of Christ was celebrated.

In 2018 I wrote about Christmas and the Gnostics. Basically, the Gnostics were various small sects of Christians spread around the eastern Roman Empire. They didn’t celebrate Christ’s death at Easter, but celebrated his birth instead. Christians didn’t celebrate birthdays, mainly because of high infant mortality rates – they preferred to remember their deaths (like modern memorials and individual burials). Gnostics believed that the world and its inhabitants were evil, and the birth of Christ was a manifestation of God’s goodness, hence they adopted the word “epihaneia” for a special day of prayer and worship to celebrate the event (the name Christmas for Christ’s birth was adopted by Western Roman Christians much later).

One of those eastern Gnostic sects were the Carpocratians in Egypt. They believed that if the world and its people were evil then procreative sex was bad and non-procreative sex (specifically with the same gender) would bring them salvation. Western Christians accused them of being promiscuous and of having gay orgies, but there’s nothing to indicate they were having any more sex than anyone else.

The Gnostics, including the Carpocratians, are believed to be the first to celebrate Christ’s birth on January 6th. When the Western Christian authorities in Rome realised that the eastern Gnostic worship of Christ’s birth was becoming too popular they decided that rather than ban celebrating Christ’s birth they decided to come up with their own date. Unlike the Gnostics, the Western Roman Church used various clues in the New Testament and traditional dates of Christ’s crucifixion to came up with December 25th. Even though the Gnostics eventually faded away, their date of January 6th for Christ’s birth still survives in some east African and central Asian denominations (Eastern Orthodox Christianity also celebrates Christmas Day on January 6th, but it has nothing to do with the Gnostics).

To complicate matters, Roman Christians decided to keep Epiphany as the celebration of the “manifestation” of Christ, the doctrine that Christ was revealed to the world as its Saviour through the arrival of the Three Kings, and this eventually led to many Roman churches, particularly those around the Mediterranean where the Gnostics had been most influential, adopting January 6th as a gift-giving day, They later moved it to St. Nicholas’s Eve, December 5th, and that’s another story on its own.

Italy is one of those Mediterranean regions who adopted Epiphany as their original gift-giving date. They called it Pasca Epiphania, Pasca in this sense means “feast”, a Christian term used for a “holy day”, a day of worship, prayer and commemoration of a specific person or event (ultimately derived from the proto-Indo-European word for “god”). Of course “holy day” is where our modern word “holiday” comes from. There’s so much more to say about the Italian Pasca Epiphania and its origins, but we must concentrate specifically on its link to la Befana.

In winter, and often around Epiphany time, many European nations held bonfires as a traditional celebration in winter. On these bonfires they burned effigies of an old woman, said to represent the old year (much like an old man often represents the Old Year today, though he isn’t burned – this can link us to Baby New Year, an image popularised by gay artist J. C. Leyendecker). This bonfire custom still survives in Italy, whether called Guibiana, Panevin (or Pan e vin), or several other names. In medieval Venice, where the bonfire festival was held near Epiphany, the effigy gradually acquired the name reflecting the date – Befana. The name quickly spread across the whole of Italy (much in the same way as the name of the 17th century terrorist Guy Fawkes, still burned on bonfires in England every November 5th, became misappropriated by the USA in the 19th century to mean “man” or “person”). So, the name Befana was just an Italian slang term for an effigy of an old woman, and was later applied to humans in the meaning of a witch or hag.

But why burn an effigy of an old woman in the first place? Well, it is believed that what was originally burned was a large log on which was painted a face. Sound familiar? It’s the most likely origin of the Christmas log, and the Spanish “pooping log”, the Tìo de Nadal which is burned the day after Christmas Day. So, even if some Christmas traditions in different parts of the world seem unconnected, there is a connection if you go back far enough. And why a woman? Well, those bonfires held in winter were also to celebrate the end of harvest. Most cultures had a female deity that presided over harvest, like the Greek goddess Demeter, so burning effigies of female deities represented the gratitude to the goddess of a fruitful harvest and the hope of a good one the next year (modern New Year celebrations are pretty much the same thing).

The first printed use of the word “befana” in the sense of an old woman occurred in 1535 in a poem called “Sonetto in descrizion dell’Arcivescovo di Firenze”, or “A Sonnet Describing the Archbishop of Florence”. It was written by Francesco Berni (c.1497-1536), a satirist and comic poet whose works often included coded sexual references to boys. The sonnet was a sarcastic dig at the archbishop and begins with the words “Chi vuol veder quantunque pò Natura / In far una fantastica befana”. Translated into English this reads “If you could see what Nature does / In making a fanciful witch”. Berni uses the word “befana” figuratively, using it to call the archbishop an ugly and disgusting old woman. He may even have been using it in the sense of a befana puppet. Perhaps both.

Francecso Berni was born in Florence into a well-connected family. In 1517 he went to live with a Catholic cardinal who was a distant cousin. It was in Rome that Berni began writing poetry. In 1523 the cardinal’s nephew “exiled” Berni to a monastery in Abruzzo near the Adriatic coast over some homosexual scandal. Why exiling Berni to a closed community of men would have removed him from any gay impulses is a mystery. As to the exact nature of the scandal there are no surviving details.

However, it is known that Francesco Berni was a member of an influential group that included other gay writers. His works were so distinctive in their satire and coded gay references that his style has been named after him – Bernesque poetry.

Perhaps the most obvious coded gay references Berni used are contained in private letters to his fellow gay friends. In the letters he asked friends to provide, and thanked them for sending him, “hams”, a slang term for buttocks (with their accompanying young men!), and “peaches”, a slang term for the penis. These “hams” and “peaches” were to be “eaten” himself, as he himself put it, or passed on to other friends.

But, let’s get back to la Befana. The first printed reference to the term befana being used to denote Epiphany occurs on a few years after Berni’s reference, in around 1541. It appears in a comedy play called “La Trinunzia” by Berni’s Florentine contemporary and fellow-writer of Bernesque poetry, (who has no known link to enjoying or passing around Berni’s “hams” and “peaches”), Agnolo Firenzuola (1493-1543). In his play a character says the line “Hannomel detto le pecore la notte di befana, che tutte favellano”. This translates into “Hannomel said the sheep on Epiphany night, that they all talk”. This echoes another popular medieval European legend that all animals could talk in human languages on Christmas night.

The use of Befana as the name of an old woman who give gifts at Epiphany, the use we are most familiar with today, comes in another comic poem, a heroic epic called “Il Malmantile Racquistato”, or “Malmantile Recaptured”. It was written by another Florentine writer, Lorenzo Lippi (1606-1665). The poem was published posthumously in 1676.

Lippi’s first reference says: “Le balie si servano della voce befana, per intendere una di quelle larve che nuocono a’bambini, come il bau ecc., e gli persuadono che ci sia la befana cattiva e la buona, e che venga nelle case per la via delcammino.” This translates into English as:” The nurses use the word befana to mean one of those masks that frighten children, like the woof, etc., and they persuade them that there is a bad Befana and a good one, and that she comes into the houses [to reward or punish] along the way.”

That’s the early development of Italy’s “female Santa”, la Befana. There’s so much more history covering her complete transformation into a popular Christmas character, which includes contributions from other Italian gay (or suspected gay) writers such as Giordano Bruno and Count Giacomo Leopardi, but we must leave it at that or we’ll be here until next Advent.

I’ll just conclude by mentioning that la Befana has influenced several other seasonal characters and traditions around the world, which is yet whole new essay in its own right. Briefly, the characters Babushka (Russia), La Vieja de Belen (Dominican Republic), and to some extent Mari Domingi (France), are all old woman with back-stories about hosting the Three Kings and searching for the Baby Jesus.

And that’s it for today, and for 2025. Next year will bring many changes, which you’ll learn about in due course. I want to give you all a BIG THANK YOU for reading my blog, and in particular for reaching the mile-stone of a million page views. I can’t express how humbled and honoured I am that so many people find what I write remotely interesting.

I’ll sign off by wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and wish you all the best for the New Year.

80 Gays Around the World: Part 7) Death and Democracy

Last Time on “80 Gays”: 19) Adonis, although he had several male lovers, is most associated with 20) Aphrodite, a deity famous for her beauty and less well-known for her male form, 21) Aphroditus, a deity often confused with 22) Hermaphroditus, and in one of her other alternate persona called Aphrodite Urania, there was a statue in the agora of Athens near to those of 23) Harmodius and 24) Aristogeiton.

The story of 23) Harmodius and 24) Aristogeiton was featured on this blog in its first year way back in 2011. It formed part of my series on “The Gayest Games in Ancient Greece”, a brief history of the Panathenaic Games. You can read the relevant section here.

The Panathenaic, or Panthenaean, Games are currently believed to have lasted for eight days. Day 6 was the most spectacular and most eagerly anticipated of the whole festival, apart from the final day with its sacrifices, prize giving and partying. It began as night fell in the sacred olive grove in Akademia outside the city gate. Each of the ten demes, or “tribes”, of Athens has selected a team of four men to take part in this event, the Panathenaic torch relay to the Acropolis. In the Akademia was an altar to the god of love and guardian of same-sex male relationships, Eros.

The tangled sexual web into which Harmodius and Aristogeiton found themselves deserves going over again from the above-mentioned 2011 blog entry. Aristogeiton had a rival for the position of senior partner of Harmodius. That rival was 25) Hipparchus, but Harmodius rejected him. Just to point out what I’ve written before – same-sex relationships in Greece were not what we would call gay today. There were a traditional part of a young man’s passage into adulthood. Every young man who entered the gymnasium or army training academy expected to acquire an older man as a sexual partner. It was perfectly normal for a Greek man to have a young male lover and a wife, as Hipparchus had, at the same time.

Hipparchus’s wife was the daughter of 26) Charmus of Kolyttus, whose own young male lover in the gymnasium was Hipparchus’s brother, 27) Hippias. And, yes, Charmus had previously been the young partner of an older man, and guess who it was? It was the father of Hipparchus and Hippias, 28) Peisistratus.

I’m not surprised if you’re confused, so I’ll add this illustration from 2011 which may make it clearer.

The outcome of this web of relationships was the assassination of Hippias by Aristogeiton and Harmodius, followed by their own deaths, turning them into local heroes and inspiring the people of Athens to introduce a form of democracy, regarded as the birth of democracy in our modern world.

What is relevant for us in relation to this series of “80 Gays” is that all of those named today have some connection to the Panathenian torch relay. Aristogetion, Harmodiius, Hippias and Hipparchus were present at the relay during which three of them were killed, and Charmus and Peisistratus are both connected to the altar of Eros at which the relay torches were lit.

The torches were lit from the sacred flame at the altar of Eros. This altar and shrine were built be either Peisistratus or Charmus. It was most probably built by Peisistratus to honour his former lover Charmus.

Of course, we can’t think of a torch relay these days without thinking about the modern Olympics, introduced by Nazi Germany at the 1936 games. The ancient Olympics never had a torch relay, but there is a connection between those games and the Panathenian torch relay in the person of Phidias (No. 8 in the 2020 series of “80 Gays”). The Panathenian relay ended at the Acropolis, which features many of Phidias’s sculptures on the Parthenon. The modern Olympic torch relay begins at Olympia, the ancient site of the original games, where Phidias made one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World, the gigantic statue of Zeus.

Even in the ancient world, this statute of Zeus was seen as a great wonder. If it had still existed in the early 20th century I’m sure the Nazis would have tried to add it to their stash of stolen art treasures in Berlin. It had definitely been ear-marked centuries earlier for transportation to Rome and have its head replaced with that of one of the most eccentric Roman emperors, 20) Caligula (12 AD-41 AD).

Next time on “80 Gays”: We ignore a prophecy and get written out of history, and end up being arrested at Moscow Pride.

Star-Gayzing: Dressed For Space

I’m back. The history exhibition of my home village that I produced with my siblings was a modest success. It’s still creating a buzz on the village history Facebook page. But now I must return to this blog and reveal more hidden or forgotten aspects of lgbt history.

Earlier this year I wrote about lgbt costume designers in the “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” franchises. Today we look at another science fiction television series, one which celebrates its 50th anniversary today. That series is “Space: 1999”.

“Space: 1999” is one of my favourite shows, and I saw that very first episode on 4 September 1975. What appealed to me most, apart from the theme tune and opening credits, were the costumes. In particular, the costumes of the crew of Moonbase Alpha, the protagonists of the series.

But first, I want to give an update on my Time Lord cosplay. I mentioned on May 4th that I was dusting off the costume and doing repairs. Well, one week before I was intending to wear it at EmCon I changed my mind. I was still going to cosplay a Time Lord, but now I wanted to cosplay Ncuti Gatwa as Doctor Who himself. Specifically, in the costume he wore in his final episode that was broadcast exactly a week before the convention. Below is a couple of screenshots I took to help me make the costume. All I had was a white, short-sleeved top, so I had 6 days to come up with something that looked like that.

A black pin-striped waistcoat and black trousers that I already had would be substitutes for the blue, denim ones Ncuti wore. All I needed was to buy enough denim material to make the kilt, and as I own a genuine kilt I knew that it required a LOT of material.

Below in the finished costume. I was very pleased with the end result, even though it wasn’t an exact copy, and I had enough material left over to make a denim waistcoat in the future. Unlike the purple Time Lord robes, I wasn’t embarrassed walking through the busy Saturday morning streets of Nottingham city centre to the convention half a mile away. The success of my endeavours was proven by people recognising the costume, including actor Jemma Redgrave who co-starred with Ncuti Gatwa in the final episode.

You may think all that was irrelevant, but you’ll be surprised just how much it isn’t.

Back to “Space: 1999”. The Moonbase Alpha uniforms were designed by openly gay designer Rudi Gernreich (1922-1985). Rudi was one of the most well-known fashion designers of the 1960s and ‘70s. He was born in Austria and, as a Jew, was forced to flee to the USA with his mother when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938.

Rudi’s talent in fashion was sparked as a child by visiting his aunt’s dress shop in Vienna. He would spend hours sketching the high society dresses that his aunt sold. These sketches caught the attention of Ladislaus Czettel, a costume designer who had recently returned to Austria after having found it difficult finding work in Germany because he was Jewish. Czettel offered Rudi an apprenticeship in London, but Rudi’s mother though he was too young to travel abroad (Rudi was only 12).

Rudi’s fashion career in the USA started in Hollywood, but he hated it. Likewise, he worked for various fashion designers and disliked the fact that he was required to follow “house design” and current fashion trends. However, during this period he was also designing and selling some of his own designs.

By 1960 he was able to found his own design house, G. R. Designs (later renamed Rudi Gernreich Inc.). Now he was able to let his own ideas about fashion turn him into a leading figure of the 1960s fashion revolution with daring experiments in fashion theory, design and colours. In particular he advocated the wearing of unisex clothing, something that seems quite normal today, but some of his ideas may strike us as being unusual (his monokini still attracts controversy among fashion historians).

It was the unisex look that Rudi came up with for the “Space: 1999” Moonbase Alpha uniforms. It was a simple plain, beige two-piece – trousers and long-sleeved top. The only indications or rank or occupation was in the colour of one sleeve and subtle rank markings (photo below). He also designed a vesion with a skirt. These were worn through the first sries, but another designer altered them for the second.

Rudi became something of a celebrity in the 1960s. He even appeared as himself in an episode of the classic television series “Batman”. A screenshot of that appearance is below.

But, wait. Haven’t I seen that orange and brown plaid combination recently? Actually, yes, I have, and it brings us back to Ncuti Gatwa’s costumes as Doctor Who.

The first costume anyone ever saw Ncuti Gatwa wearing was in the publicity photos released in 2022 to reveal what his Doctor would look like. It consisted of an orange sweater and brown plain coat (pictured below). It’s one of several costumes Ncuti wore it in his first full episode as the Doctor, “The Church on Ruby Road”, broadcast on Christmas Day 2023, and he wore in a later episode called “Dot and Bubble”.

This similarity may have been just a coincidence, except that I don’t believe in coincidence. The costume designer for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor was Pam Downes. Pam hasn’t admitted in any interview that I’ve read that the orange sweater and brown plain coat combination was inspired by Rudi’s costume in the “Batman” episode, but I’ll leave it up to you to make your own conclusion.

However, Pam has said that she tried to experiment with the Doctor’s costume. One design element she was keen to include, as was the show’s producer, Russell T. Davies, was the use of kilts or skirts for he Doctor. Ncuti’s Doctor wore several kilts throughout his tenure. Pam said she was inspired by the look of the “men in skirts” of 1970s New York. Guess who was the leading advocate for men wearing skirts in the 1970s? Yes, Rudi Gernreich.

There are other lgbt costume designers in science fiction to write about and they will appear next year, where we will encounter the late Queen Elizabeth II and a long lost “Doctor Who” story (not together).

80 Gays Around the World: Part 6) Greek Beauties

Last time on “80 Gays”: 15) Father Markus Furhman (b.1971) became the first openly gay Franciscan “bishop” after ministering in Cologne, home of the alleged relics of the Three Kings, 16) Caspar, 17) Melchior, and 18) Balthazar, the latter’s gift to the Baby Jesus traditionally being myrrh, an aromatic resin from a plant named after the mother of 18) Adonis.

The name of 18) Adonis has become a byword for male physical beauty. With the ancient Greeks putting so much emphasis on same-sex activity in the training of athletes and soldiers, it comes as no surprise that Adonis was the sexual partner of both male and female deities.

As a young teenager Adonis was the lover of two Greek gods with many gay connections of their own – Apollo (who features many times on this blog), and Dionysos (also featured several times).

Perhaps Adonis’s most well-known lover was the goddess 19) Aphrodite. It may seem strange that the goddess of love and feminine beauty should have some queer connections, but in this other “Star-Gayzing” entry I point out the dual nature of Aphrodite’s sexuality. There I explain how her birth from the severed genitals of Uranus led her to become a kind of patron goddess of same-sex couples.

At the beginning of this series of “80 Gays” I commented that a lot of botanical connections cropped up. Last time I mentioned how Adonis’s mother Myrrha gave her name to the plant myrrh. Another plant connection comes in one of the annual festivals in Athens called Adonia, which was named after him. This was a female-only festival. Women would go up onto their rooves, singing and dancing, mourning the death of Adonis. On the roof they planted lettuce and fennel seeds into pottery sherds (both plants were considered to be aphrodisiacs – there’s Aphrodite’s name again), which they called Gardens of Adonis. The women then went down into the streets and formed a procession which went to the sea shore (or a stream, it varied depending on how far away they lived from the sea), and buried, or planted, the “gardens” along with little effigies of Adonis.

Aphrodite’s floral connection also involves a garden. This time it comes in the form of one of her patronages. Aphrodite was the patron god of vegetation and fertility, and thus she was known as Aphrodite of the Gardens. There was a shrine and sanctuary to her under this name near the Acropolis in Athens. There were two statues of her, one of which was a herm.

Herm is the term given to a tall square or rectangular column with a carved head (and sometimes a torso) at the top, with a carved penis at the proportional height sticking out of the square column. The Aphrodite herm had her head at the top and a penis further down. There’s a herm statue of Aphrodite in the national museum in Stockholm, Sweden, which depicts her as fully female from the waist upwards. She is holding her dress up to reveal a square column underneath with a penis.

It is from herm statues like this that Aphrodite evolved into a separate deity – 21) Aphroditus.

Historically, Aphroditus was probably based on an earlier deity in Cyprus. Once the cult of Aphroditus made it to Greece it was assimilated into that of Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of spiritual love. What makes things more complicated is that some modern websites confuse Aphroditus with the more familiar 22) Hermaphroditus,

The more I read about both Aphroditus and Hermaphroditus the more I realise that they are not the same. I think that the confusion comes from “herm” in Hermaphrodite, and the fact that the name Aphroditus was first used in reference to herm statues of Aphrodite. Hermaphroditus seems to be a later addition to the pantheon of Greek deities. I wrote about both Aphroditus and Hermaphroditus several years ago (see here), so I won’t go into it in detail here. Suffice it to say that in the later Roman period the image of Hermaphroditus as intersex developed from Greek myths about him being the son of Aphrodite and Hermes, a god not really “invented” until a century or two after the first herm statues of Aphrodite were made. If you’re not already confused, Hermes got his name from originally being a herm statue.

But let’s get back to Aphrodite. As well as two statues of her near the Acropolis as Aphrodite of the Gardens (one of which had male genitalia, remember), the goddess had another temple and shrine in Athens dedicated to her as Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of spiritual love.

The temple was in the agora, the inner-city public square and meeting place. In the sanctuary was a statue of her made by a famous sculptor called Phidias (no. 8 in the 2020 “80 Gays” series). I’ll return to Phidias in a later entry in this current series.

Whenever ancient Athens is mentioned Adonis and Aphrodite are not the first names that spring to mind, Athena is, of course. Another thing that springs to mind is the founding of Greek democracy. So it is not surprising that on the other side of the agora there were once statues of the couple who are regarded as being the people who inspired the creation of Athenian democracy. They were 23) Harmodius and 24) Aristogeiton.

Next time: We carry a torch against tyranny, untangle a gay “incestuous” dynasty, and remove a few statues.

Advent 3: Christmas is a Bit of a Drag

Modern drag has advanced little since the start of this century (if at all). Much of it is lingering in the style of the 1980s, desperately trying to appear relevant and significant in today’s world, and failing, due to drag’s outdated gay stereotypes. However, it is far advanced from the drag and female impersonations of a hundred years ago.

If we go back further to look at what influenced modern drag we find the British pantomime dame and, even earlier, the character of the Italian commedia dell’arte. And even further back than that, we have comic female characters played by men in medieval mystery plays based on stories in the Bible.

It has to be admitted that these very early drag-like performances were purely for entertainment purposes and no gender identity was assigned to the performer. It is well-known that at one time women were not allowed, or discouraged, to be actors. That meant that any female character, including the Virgin Mary in Christmas nativity plays, were played by men or boys.

One development of the medieval mystery play is one I wrote about in 2019, the French Société Mattachine. In that article I explained how the early gay rights organisation in the USA, the Mattachine Society, was named after these medieval performers.

The Mattachines were not confined to France. The name seems to derive from the Italian “mattaccino”, which comes from “matto” meaning “mad”. From this we understand how the comic characters found in various mattachine groups throughout medieval Europe act in over-the-top performances, as if mad.

If we skip across to Spain we find the matachines who were popular in the 17th century, quite some time after other European variations had begun to die away. Because of this, the Spanish matachines is the form which has survived today – but not in Spain.

The Spanish matachines had developed into a more musical and dance form rather than drama. It still had the stock characters familiar in all its forms in Europe – a hero, a young woman, an old man, a villain, and more pertinent for our purposes today, an old woman played in drag. A particularly Spanish addition to the cast was a bull.

But what have the matachines got to do with Christmas? Bear with me while I digress. We have to look at how the matachines dances evolved after the Spanish colonised Central America. There’s a debate which is pertinent to the matachines, and Christmas in general. It concerns what I believe is a common misconception constantly repeated at this time of year that Christmas traditions are actually pagan. No matter how much research in many academic papers and books I can find no actual proof of this, only a lot of unsupported opinion based on coincidence from the 18th century onwards (not to mention modern crap about Santa and Coca Cola). Thankfully, an increasing number of qualified historians have debunked many of these pagan lies. Just because two things sound or behave the same it doesn’t prove they’re connected.

Usually, the Christian Church is presented as adopting pagan practices to encourage indigenous communities to convert to Christianity. I believe the opposite. I’m not alone in this. This 2021 article on the history of matachines in Mexico from the Universad Nacional Autómona de México comes to the same conclusion. It is becoming clear through modern research that it was newly converted indigenous communities who looked at what Christian practices were similar to their own and then adapted them without losing their own cultural identity. The Christian Church authorities, in their turn, saw no reason to object and, as long as Christian doctrine was followed, accepted the new ethnic take on their practices (except a handful of puritan extremists, like those today who want to ban “Harry Potter” because it “promotes witchcraft”).

The Spanish Conquistadors spread their matachine dances across Central America. In Mexico the Aztecs in particular merged it with their own dance rituals and produced a variation which they still use today, a variation that actually includes a king character based on Moctezuma (Montezuma). This is performed on special occasions, though not often at Christmas as with their US Pueblo counterparts. It also has a slightly different name – matlachine.

The two female characters of the Pueblo matachine are called Malinche and Perejundia (or Abuela). The Perejundia is always played by a man in drag, and the Malinche is now usually played by a girl. They represent opposites. Malinche is a beautiful, young, innocent girl, while Perejundia is an ugly, bawdy and coarse old woman. The video above shows one of the few clear visual representations on YouTube of the bawdy Perejundia.

Usually, matachine dances are performed during Advent, most often on December 12th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrating the conception of the Virgin Mary (often referred to as Our Lady of Guadelupe). This is also the date which is generally considered as the start of Christmas in the Pueblo communities. In fact, several matachine performances have taken place this week. Because the celebration is religious and often performed inside churches, the Perejundia character is sometimes omitted. The video below is the matachine from two days ago in Laredo, Texas. You can see the Malinche played by a very young girl, and the old man character, but no Perejundia.

Prof. Brenda Romero of the University of Colorado, an expert on hispano-indigenous music, has noted that matachines among Pueblo communities have become quite inclusive. She says that gay men (and women, as can be seen in the video below) are actively involved. I may be assuming too much, and this is only my theory, but are some Pueblo gay men specifically drawn to playing the Perjundia in the same way that some gay men in the USA become drag performers? I have absolutely no evidence or proof of this, but it’s an interesting thought.

Whatever the gender identity of the person playing the Perejundia in the Christmas matachines, it is clear that there is a direct line of descent from medieval mystery plays to the commedia dell’arte, the Perejundia, the British pantomime dame and modern drag queens.

Next week we look at a Hellenic Christmas gift-giver and his association with a reluctant priest.

(Not Quite) 80 Gays Around the World - Recap

I haven’t continued the “(Not Quite) 80 Gays Around the World” series for a while. Before I continue, here’s a reminder to regular readers of the journey so far, and for those who are reading about my “80 Gays” series for the first time.

We began back in 2022 with –

1) Emperor Hadrian of Rome (76-138) on the 1,200th anniversary of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England which he ordered to be built. Continuing his tour of the empire after leaving Britain he met…

2) Antinous (c.111-c.130), a young Turkish lad who became his lover. The relationship lasted 8 years until Antinous’s death. In his grief Hadrian “created” a constellation in Antinous’s honour called Aquila. This represented Antinous as a new…

3) Ganymede, the boy lover of the Greek god Zeus. A modern retelling of the story of Ganymede and Zeus was written by…

4) Felice Picano (b.1944), a member of the Violet Quill Club, and group of gay writers who met in New York during 1980 and 1981. The most well-known of these today is…

5) Edmund White (b.1940), famous for writing “The Joy of Gay Sex”. His partner at the time, and another Violet Quill member, was…

6) Christopher Cox (1949-1990) who died of AIDS, as did another Violet Quill member…

7) George Whitmore (1945-1989). The Violet Quill Club came to an end after a meeting in which Whitmore read his story about a gay couple splitting up. It was the negative reaction to this story from fellow member…

8) Andrew Holleran (b.1944) that led to the collapse of the group. But, perhaps the most unexpected connection comes with the final two Violet Quill members,

9) Robert Ferro (1941-1988), and...

10) Michael Grumley (1942-1988). Together they set out to find Atlantis, which they chronicled in their book “Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search”. On his own Grumley researched legendary hominids such as Bigfoot, a famous legendary cryptid which featured as a lonely, lesbian creature in a novel by…

11) Samantha Leigh Allen, which didn’t win a Ferro-Grumley Award for lgbt fiction, an award created in 1990 named after Robert and Michael, which gives the winner a 2-week residency at the Art Workshop International, founded by…

12) Bea Kreloff (1925-2016) and…

13) Edith Isaac Rose (1929-2018) who founded the Workshop in 1981. The Workshop runs several courses in art and literature and is based in Assisi, the Italian town made famous by…

14) St. Francis of Assisi (c.1187-1226), founder of the Franciscan Order of Friars. Although Roman Catholic, a faith not known for its progressive lgbt+ stance, the Franciscans appointed an openly gay friar to a position of high authority in 2022 with the appointment of…

15) Brother Markus Fuhrmann (b.1971) as Minister Provincial (similar to a senior bishop) of the Province of St. Elizabeth in Germany. Brother Markus had previously been a pastor in Cologne, a city famous for its cathedral which claims to house the remains of The Three Kings from the Christmas story. The traditional names of the kings are…

16) Caspar, …

17) Melchior, and…

18) Balhasar. The kings are famous for presenting gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus at His Nativity. Balthasar is traditionally said to have presented myrrh, an aromatic resin from the tree of the same name. The tree itself was named after the mother of the Greek mythological character…

19) Adonis.

And there I left it. Without wanting to sound like a broken record and repeat myself, research for the Paris Olympics took over so much of my time that I didn’t have time to finish researching the rest of the “80 Gays”.

Now I am able to, but there’s another month or two to wait until after I publish the backlog of other articles that have built up. Rest assured, the series will return in January 2025. Among the links to look forward to are those that connect “Its Raining Men” to Flower Power, and puppetry to Benjamin Britten.

(Not Quite) 80 Gays Around the World: Part 5) Monks, Monarchs and Myrrh

Last time on (Not Quite) 80 Gays: The Art Workshop International was founded by 12) Bea Kreloff (1925-2016) and 13) Edith Isaac Rose (1929-2018) in Assisi, a city famous as the home of 14) St. Francis of Assisi (c.1187-1226), founder of the Franciscan order of friars who, in 2022, elected its first openly gay “bishop” 15) Markus Fuhrmann (b.1971).

There are two points I need to clear up. First, despite the title, friars are not monks. Basically, monks keep themselves to themselves in a monastery, while friars go out and minister among the outside community. I thought “monks” worked better in the title than “friars”.

Second, the Franciscan order of friars does not have bishops. That is the term I used because it is the most recognisable term used for someone of a comparable position in other Christian churches. Technically, all Franciscan friars are of equal position. Those elected to take overall charge of the affairs of the global Franciscan order (like an archbishop under the ultimate authority of the Pope) is called the Minister General. The world is divided into provinces (the equivalent of dioceses), and the friar elected to oversee each province is called a Minister Provincial (the equivalent of a bishop).

In June 2022, members of the chapter of the province of St. Elizabeth, the German “diocese”, gathered in Ohrbeck near Osnabruck to, amongst other things, elect their new Minister Provincial in succession to Father Cornelius Bohd, who had served his full term of office. The chapter elected 15) Father Markus Fuhrmann (b.1971). Just a few weeks beforehand he had come out as gay.

I wrote about the Franciscan stance on homosexuality last time on “80 Gays”. The issue of homosexuality in the Catholic Church was among several issues discussed in the Synodale Weg, or Synodal Way, a series of conferences held between 2019 and 2023 by the Catholic Church in Germany. Father Markus had always been a supporter of the Synodal Way and of changing some of the Church’s antiquated and corrupt practices, as was his predecessor. Needless to say, the Synodal Way attracted a lot of criticism from within and outside the Catholic Church in Germany.

Official logo the Synodal Way

During all of this controversy Father Markus came out as gay. He was not just an ordinary friar at the time. He was the Vicar Provincial (the next level down from a Minister Provincial) to his predecessor. Just as there was criticism about aspects of the Synodal Way, so there was criticism of Father Markus’s election. The fact that the province of St. Elizabeth elected an openly gay man as their guiding minister must mean that there is a change beginning to happen in the Catholic Church, at least in Germany.

Father Markus is the third Minister Provincial of St. Elizabeth Province. The province itself is relatively new, having been formed by the merger in 2010 of several smaller provinces. Prior to this, Father Markus was a pastor to the homeless in Cologne, the city at the centre of one of the former smaller provinces, the Province of Cologne and the Three Kings.

There’s a Christmas connection here. The Three Kings refer to those in the Bible story of the birth of Christ. But what are they doing in Cologne, you might be asking? The short story is that Cologne cathedral houses their reputed remains. They were brought there by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa from Milan. Before Milan they were in Constantinople, having been taken there by Emperor Constantine the Great’s mother in the 4th century. She had found them in the Holy Land. No-one today really believes they are genuine, but they help to focus the faith of devout Christians.

I’ve written before about the Three Kings. In my Advent series in 2019 I mentioned how modern scholarship is beginning to look at the Three Kings in a historical context. The earliest translations of the Bible didn’t refer to them as kings. This is a rank assigned to them in the Middles Ages to emphasise their status as important representatives from their countries, and because of several prophecies in the Old Testament.

It is speculated that the kings were in fact priests or astrologers. Taking into account that they are said to have come from “the east” suggests that they came from the areas now covered by Iran, Iraq and Syria. During the time of the birth of Christ these areas predominantly practised the Zoroastrian faith. It is widely believed that their priests were most often either androgynous, intersex, transgender or eunuch.

So, the Three Kings weren’t kings. We don’t know their names either. People of the middle ages liked to give names to anonymous characters in the Bible (such as Simeon Bachos). We still do it. We give names to things that don’t have them (children, genders, nations, inventions, animals, asteroids, etc.). Over the centuries the Three Kings have been given many names. Different early church communities gave different names, and some even said there were more than three kings. So, if other churches had been more influential we may be calling the kings by names such as Eshtanbozon, Zual, or Walastar.

The names that we are more familiar with today first appeared in the 6th century in a famous mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy. There, above images of the kings, are versions of the names which became the most universal – 15) Caspar, 16) Melchoir) and 17) Balthasar. Another reason why we assume there were three of them is because they brought three gifts, one each – gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Two of these gifts puzzled me as a child. They probably puzzled you as well. Gold is obvious, a precious gift. But what about the others? Frankincense is just incense, also a precious substance at the time and often presented to kings.

We can’t tell much about myrrh from its name, unless you know that is a resinous substance obtained from a thorny tree of the same name. It is used as a perfume, but also in embalming. Its significance as a gift to Christ is to represent His mortality as the only part of the Holy Trinity who could actually die.

The name myrrh is of Semetic origin and means “bitter”. It entered other eastern nations and languages, including ancient Greece. There a myth was created to explain the myrrh tree’s origin. It tells of a girl called Myrrha who fell in love with her father and tricked him into having sex with her, resulting in her pregnancy. Myrrha became remorseful and went into self-imposed exile. She begged the gods to help her out of her situation and they turned her into the tree that bears her name. As for the unborn child, the gods decided to release the child from the tree. This child grew up to be associated with sex, beauty, and fertility and have various gender-fluid relationships. His name was 19) Adonis.

Next time on (Not Quite) 80 Gays: We step into a garden and play some games.

(Not Quite) 80 Gays Around the World: 4) Art in Italy

Last time on “80 Gays”: Partners 9) Robert Ferro (1941-1988) and 10) Michael Grumley (1942-1988) co-wrote a book about Atlantic, the latter also writing about Bigfoot (the subject of a novel by 11) Samantha Leigh Allen), and after whom a literary prize is named which grants winners residency at the Art Workshop International founded by 12) Bea Kreloff (1925-2016) and 13) Edith Isaac Rose (1929-2018).

The Art Workshop International is a summer school offering courses in several creative arts – writing, painting, art history – while at the same time offering attendees the opportunity to experience the culture on a famous town in Italy. The second of this summer’s sessions ended a couple of weeks ago.

Several well-known lgbt artists and writers have been among the tutors during the 2-week courses, including 5) Edmund White, and Dorothy Allison (number 28 in my 2020 edition of “80 More Gays Around the World”).

The Art Workshop’s founders, 12) Bea Kreloff and 13) Edith Isaac Rose, met at the opening of an exhibition in 1980. There was an instant connection and they found kindred spirits in each other. They had a lot in common. They were both children of eastern European immigrants – Bea’s from Russia, and Edith’s from Hungary and from what is now Poland. Both of their fathers were in the clothing industry – Bea’s father was a tailor, and Edith’s father made women’s coats. And both Bea and Edith were married.

Bea Kreloff was born Beatrice Magit in 1925. In 1944 she married Bernard Krulovetsky, another child of east European immigrants. He soon shortened his name to Kreloff, and Bea kept her married name for the rest of her life. The couple had two sons.

Edith Isaac Rose was born Edith Ganansky in 1929. In 1950 she married Charles Leitelbaum (often mistakenly called Teitelbaum), again, a child of east European immigrants. They separated in the early 1980s.

In 1950 Bea and Edith were both studying art. Bea entered the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Afterwards she became a private art tutor whilst producing her own work. In the 1970s she became Chair of the Art Department at the Ethical Culture Fieldson School, Riverside, New York City. By this time she had separated from her husband and have moved with her sons into accommodation provided by the charitable organisation, the Westbeth Artists’ Residents Council in Manhattan.

Edith Isaac Rose graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1951. Moving to New York City a few years later she also became an artist and decided to drop her married name and adopted the first names of her parents, Isaac and Rose, for her professional work. Edith’s artwork became increasingly more influenced by social issues, such as political corruption and social inequality. She also expanded into other media, including embroidery. She used all media to produce a body of work in the 1980s, a series of works called “Daily Rage” which displayed which reflected her own left-wing opinions.

The year after Bea and Edith met at that exhibition, Edith left her husband and went to live with Bea. They remained together until Beas’ death in 2016.

The Art Workshop International which the couple founded in 1981 was established in the historic town of Assisi in Italy. Of course, this town is famous for its association with one man, whom we met two years ago, 14) St. Francis of Assisi (c.1187-1226).

Scholars are still discussing the nature of St. Francis’s sexuality. It may never be known. Within the Franciscan Order, which he founded, the attitudes towards homosexuality have changed as society’s attitudes have changed. As a Catholic organisation the Franciscan stance on homosexuality at the moment is “love the sinner, hate the sin”. When I began studying as a Methodist lay preacher several decades ago I began researching Christian doctrine on homosexuality – apart from atheists, no genuinely Christian denomination has ever declared homosexuality one of the sins, except Christian leaders who abuse their position of influence and express their own personal view and claim it is doctrine. Even Popes have done this.

Today, all Catholics are encouraged to treat members of the lgbt community with the respect due to all humans. Some of their doctrines may be homophobic. All organisations have the right to make their own rules which their members are expected to follow, that’s democracy. But change doesn’t always come from outside. The Catholic Church cannot change (in other words, make it more acceptable to those who aren’t Catholic) if there are no lgbt Christians within in to influence change. Even though the Franciscans do not yet accept same-sex marriage within its Order they don’t apply this to same-sex marriage outside it. Some Franciscan friars openly campaigned for same-sex marriage in the USA before it became legal.

Like I said earlier, most established denominations (I don’t recognise the many blatantly homophobic US independent evangelical churches as Christian) “love the sinner, hate the sin”, so there should be no surprise to learn there are lgbt+ Christians can, and have, become church leaders. That brings me on to our next individual, an openly gay Franciscan friar who is currently the equivalent of a Franciscan bishop, 15) Brother Markus Fuhrmann (b.1971).

Next time of “80 Gays”: Some right royal visitors bring gender variation to Cologne, with a sweet smell that leads to a transformation.