Christmas Preview

Those of you who read my blog last Christmas may remember my series called “The 12 Gays of Christmas”. This year I’m going to go one better and follow the lyrics of the famous Christmas song more closely and bring you “The 12 Gay Days of Christmas”.

For each of the gifts mentioned in the song I’ll give a queer interpretation by linking it to people in the lgbt community. As the song says, on “the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me …” a total of 78 gifts. By the end of the series I’ll have listed 78 people to go with them (actually I’ll list more, but you’ll have to wait and see exactly how many!).

You’ll see what I mean when we get started, which will be on Christmas Day itself and will continue every day until 5^th January 2013, when the twelfth and final gifts are given. I won’t give an introduction to the whole series every day, just an introduction for the gifts given on that day.

To whet your appetite here’s just a hint of what to expect. Among the Christmas people will be :

viral investigators,

an Esperanto blackbird,

a cavalry officer who preferred giraffes,

and my great-grand-Mother Goose.

Star Gayzing - One Man and his Snake

Almost exactly 17 years ago there was quite a bit of fuss in the British newspapers about the “discovery” of a 13^th sign of the zodiac. In a BBC television series called “Heavenly Bodies” a member of the Royal Astronomical Society revealed that between the constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius was another that crossed the ecliptic (what I like to call the zodiac line), the line that marks the sun’s progression through one constellation to the next. That extra zodiac constellation is Ophiucus.

It wasn’t a new suggestion, but it upset a lot of the tabloid newspapers because they relied on daily horoscopes to help keep regular readers and an extra star sign mucked things up! Ever since 1933 when the present constellations were made “official” anyone with a star map could see that Ophiucus crosses the zodiac line for themselves quite clearly (as can be seen in the accompanying map).

I won’t go into the slagging match that went on between astronomer and astrologers over the matter, so we’ll turn to the constellation itself.

Generally speaking, Ophiucus is represented on old star maps as a Greek man holding a snake in his hands – the constellation Serpens, divided into 2 (Serpens Caput, the serpent’s head, and Serpens Cauda, the serpent’s tail). Quite often this man is identified as Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, son of last month’s star subject Apollo. The snake entwined around Asclepius’s walking staff is still used as a symbol of healing (the 2 snakes entwined around a winged staff that you often see is a symbol of Hermes and has nothing to do with healing).

But if we go back to the origin of the name Ophiucus and its earliest depictions we’ll discover why I believe that identifying the constellation with Asclepius is wrong, and that it actually represents one of Apollo’s many male lovers.

The word Ophiucus means “snake bearer”. It seems that this area of the sky has had snake connections since the ancient Babylonians. In the 4^th century BC the constellation is described as a man wrestling with a giant snake around his waist, grasping it’s head and tail in his hands. Pictorial versions also show him like this. This means that the constellation representing the snake – Serpens – is divided into 2 with Ophiucus in the middle (see the map again – Ophiucus is in pink, Serpens in light green). So we must consider both constellations together.

In the legends of Asclepius there is no story of him wrestling or battling snakes, only observing them.

The most likely origin of Ophiucus and the snake comes from the Mediterranean island we now know as Rhodes. Legend says that the island was overrun with giant snakes or dragons. The people of Rhodes called their island Ophiussa, the Lands of the Snakes (“ophi” means “snake”). The dragon-snakes killed many people and soon the island was virtually uninhabited by humans. In their desperation the remaining islanders called upon Apollo to send them a hero who could kill the monsters.

Apollo sent young Phorbas of Thessalia. The legends say he was one of Apollo’s young lovers but they don’t go into any other detail. On his arrival on Rhodes Phorbas set to and killed all the giant dragon-snakes. In gratitude Apollo asked Zeus to put Phorbas in the night sky as the snake-battling Ophiucus.

To me this seems the most likely origin of Ophiucus and Serpens than the Roman-based Asclepius version. And as far as the 13^th sign of the zodiac is concerned – according to modern astrology we’re right in the middle of it now.

World AIDS Day

Photo by Neil Page. Courtesy of Neil Page Creative.

Perhaps no other disease has been misunderstood, researched or argued over in the past 30 years as much as AIDS. Thankfully, a lot more is known about it than even 10 years ago and the chances of living with AIDS in less pain is greater than ever before.

The Health Protection Agency released figures this week which reveals that rates of HIV patients in the UK has risen to about 96,000, with new diagnoses among gay men reaching an all-time high in 2011 at 3,010. This figure means that 5% of gay men in the UK are HIV+. The figure for London is higher, at 1 in 12 men.

These figures show that we must not get complacent about HIV and AIDS.

At first I though of compiling a brief timeline of the main events in HIV and AIDS research for today’s World AIDS Day, of how doctors and scientists discovered what it was, what it did, how it spread, and how to treat it. But the more I did my research the more confusing the task became. Not least of all were the medical terms that were difficult to understand without being in the medical profession, which I’m not.

Instead, I’m directing you to the Avert website. Over the past year I haven’t come across another history of HIV and AIDS research that treats the subject chronologically rather than retrospectively – only on rare occasions does it mention something happening in, say 1985, if it wasn’t discovered until 2005. I find it easier to follow the development of AIDS research as it unfolds, with no “spoilers”, just as the scientists were detectives  discovering key evidence to help solve the puzzle.

The Avert history of AIDS is the most comprehensive and readable version I have found. I hope you find it informative and useful.

Cult of the Rabbit God

Having started the month with a gay saint I’ll end with a gay god.

Homophobes have always criticised the lifestyle of us gay folk, usually claiming that we’re all at it like rabbits (chance would be a fine thing!) Which is rather ironic because in late imperial China the slang term for a gay man was “rabbit”.

This may be the reason why in Taiwan today Taoist men and women venerate a deity who appeared in a dream as a rabbit – or Tu Er Shen.

It’s difficult to determine which came first – the slang term or the deity. They may both date back to an old Chinese folk tale which was first written down in the late 18^th century in a collection of supernatural tales.

One of these tales was about a man called Hu Tainbao who lived in Fujian province. One day an imperial inspector arrived in the province, a very handsome man. Hu Tianbao lusted after him but couldn’t express his feelings in public because they were not of equal social status.

Instead Hu decided to spy on the inspector while he bathed in the hope of seeing him naked. After making a hole in the bathroom wall Hu Tianbao watched the official, but he was spotted. In desperation Hu declared his feelings for the inspector, at which the official ordered Hu to be beaten to death.

But the story doesn’t end there. About a month later one of the elders from Hu’s home village had a dream. In it a rabbit appeared claiming to be the spirit of Hu Tianbao. Apparently, the lord of the underworld had just appointed Hu as the deity who presides over same-sex relationships. In the dream the rabbit tells the village elder to build a shrine to Hu’s new godly status.

This was the legendary beginning of the cult of Hu Tainabao in the Fujian province that existed by the 18^th century. The main temple shrine was at Kangshan, a village just outside Fuzhou, the provincial capital. Presumably this was the home village of Hu Tianbao.

The instances of male marriages in the province were known and written about in imperial China but not officially approved. The imperial authorities tried to crack down on such practices. One imperial official called Zhu Gui wrote about the cult of Hu Tianbao after he was appointed to the province in 1765. He put himself forward as a champion of the people’s morals. In his “Prohibition of Licentious Cults” Zhu reported that “debauched and shameless rascals” prayed to a plaster idol of Hu to help them find “illicit intercourse”. These “rascals” then smeared pig’s intestines and honey over the idol’s mouth. Zhu removed the idol, and had it smashed to bits and thrown into the river.

After this the cult of Hu Tianbao went underground, was forgotten or even ignored. Perhaps it was because of this that a new legend arose saying that the villagers who built Hu’s shrine were sworn to secrecy. They couldn’t tell anyone about Hu or the reason for the shrine being there, except to those they knew wanted Hu’s specific help.

A few years ago a professor of Chinese history stated that the connection between Hu Tianboa and a rabbit deity Tu Er Shen was invented by the writer of the supernatural tales and that it didn’t exist beforehand. Perhaps Hu was invented as an alternative to the heterosexual Matchmaker God, or the Rabbit of the Moon – Tu Er Ye.

The Shrine of Hu Tianboa in Taiwan. Courtesy feastoffun.com

Today the Rabbit Deity – Tu Er Shen – and Hu Tianbao are remembered with a shrine in Yonghe City in Taiwan. It was set up by a Taoist priest some years ago, and regularly receives visits from male – and female – couples wanting Hu Tianboa to bless their relationships.

Kathleen Rose Winter - activist, athlete, author, actor

During my research into lgbt participation in the Olympics and Paralympics I recently came across the name of Kathleen Rose Winter. The online obituaries I read revealed not just a multi-sport para-athlete but a woman with an active and diverse life. I have put together this short life story of Kathleen Rose Winter as a celebration in this Paralympic year and Gay Games 30^th anniversary.

Kathleen Rose Winter was born in Chicago in 1956 into a mixed-heritage family. Her father Clifford Obanion, a former janitor of an apartment block, was African-American. Her mother Caroline Terzian came from an immigrant family from Armenia. This mixed-race heritage was a valued source of exploration into identity and provided Kathleen with the inspiration for an article in Windy City Times, Chicago’s lgbt newspaper. Kathleen’s cousin also used this heritage in her university dissertation in 2010. Kathleen’s mother seems to have remarried to a Mr. Winter, and Kathleen took his surname.

Kathleen was born with osteogensis inferfecta, a genetic condition usually known as brittle bone disease. Growing up in 1960s America with an ethnic background gave Kathleen an extra challenge, to overcome racial prejudice. Perhaps it is fortunate that she grew up in an era where the Black Rights and Gay Rights movements were becoming more vocal. This probably gave Kathleen the spirit and determination to speak out on racial, disability and sexuality issues throughout her adult life.

Kathleen was also fortunate in being a Chicagoan because that city had the only high school in the state that catered specifically for pupils with disabilities or illness. This was Spalding High School, facing the city’s Union Park where, no doubt, Kathleen would have seen fellow teenagers playing sports.

After graduating from high school Kathleen studied at the University of Illinois and at Roosevelt University, one of the most ethnically diverse universities in America. She earned a Master degree in psychology.

Over the next few years Kathleen had such varied jobs as a supply teacher and cab driver. Her experience as a wheelchair user gave her a commitment to raise awareness of the rights of people with all disabilities. She worked for a time as Access Living, a Chicago centre providing people with disabilities the chance to live as independently as possible, and she even worked in the Major’s Office for People with Disability. Kathleen’s active involvement in fighting for rights is seen in her successful legal action against the Chicago Park District over wheelchair access at Lincoln Park Conservatory.

In the 1990s Kathleen Winter mixed disability awareness with art by becoming president of the Disability Arts and Culture Centre in Chicago. As chairman of the Outreach committee she led efforts to make the Center’s work more well known and accessible to all disability groups.

Kathleen Winter meets Mrs Coretta King.
Photo by Tracy Baim. Courtesy of Windy City Times

Among her other activities was her participation in a musical called “The Plucky and Spunky Show”. This was a revue in which the whole cast was physically disabled and was performed to give the audience a new perspective on disabled people and their own view of them.

Kathleen was herself also a talented writer. She wrote for several lgbt and black publications in Chicago. Some of her work was performed by “A Real Read”, a black lgbt theatre group. Towards the end of her life Kathleen dabbled in the amateur comedy circuit.

Her first appearance in the Paralympics was in Barcelona 1992 competing in discus, javelin and shot put. By 1996 Kathleen had moved to wheelchair fencing and was ranked 4^th in the USA. At the Atlanta Paralympics she was knocked out in the first round of the epée finals by the eventual silver medallist.

For the Sydney 2000 Paralympics Kathleen joined the US powerlifting team. She had taken part in the 2^nd World Powerlifting Championships in 1998. Unfortunately Kathleen finished last in Sydney. Undeterred she carried on competing and finished her competitive career by winning a powerlifting gold medal at the 2006 Gay Games in her home city Chicago.

A life-long Christian Kathleen spent her childhood going to Catholic, Methodist and Baptist churches before deciding that organised religion offered no place for a disabled mixed-race lesbian. For years she didn’t attend church at all but kept her faith. With her partner Elandria Henderson, an activist for African-American lesbian rights since the 1970s, she began attending the Church of the Open Door, the first church for the African-American lgbt community in Chicago. Rev. Karen Hutt, a pastor at the church, co-officiated at Kathleen’s memorial service.

Kathleen Rose Winter died on 4^th May 2008 at the age of 51. As her obituary in the Windy City Times said, Kathleen’s spirit was never daunted by her physical restrictions. She used this spirit to educate the community into the reality that people with disabilities can play vital parts.

I am sure that Kathleen would be proud of the achievements of the Paralympians of London 2012 and by the increased recognition that disability is not a barrier to achievement.

Flower Power - Lavender

Today we deal more with the colour of lavender than the flower - the colour that has had more of an impact on the lgbt community.

A few other flowers have had their names given to colours, and lavender was first used as a colour name in 1705, according to “A Dictionary of Colour” published in 1930. Its adoption among the lgbt community is a little less precise, as is the shade and hue that is used. It is possible that lavender came into use because it is a pale version of violet or purple.

Lavender and violet (violet plants in particular) were used in the lesbian community from 1927, though violet has links back to the Ancient Greek poet Sappho. Also, in the 1920s the lavender plant and its scent had become attributed to effeminate men. Phrases like “streak of lavender” and “dash of lavender” were being used in popular culture, even being paraphrased by Cole Porter with these lines from his 1929 song “I’m A Gigolo” :

“I should like you all to know,

I’m a famous gigolo,

And of lavender, my nature’s got just a dash of it.

As I’m slightly undersexed

You will always find me next

To some dowager who’s wealthy rather than passionate”.

We can perhaps theorise about the development of the symbolic use of lavender in the gay community from the symbolism of purple and mauve in the Victorian period.

Purple has been associated with royalty since the Roman Empire. As such it became a colour that expressed the decadence and extravagance of the emperors. This association with decadence lasted right into the Victorian period when it became used (along with the yellow) to symbolise those of the flamboyant, aesthetic, art-loving circles epitomised by Oscar Wilde. Wilde himself referred to “purple hours”, his experiences with male prostitutes that helped to light up his otherwise grey life.

Because the Industrial Revolution was still flexing its muscles all through the period, these aesthetic, decadent art-lovers were seen as unmanly and un-macho. These men seemed to have no interest in the pursuit of Victorian ideals like industrial advancement or imperial colonialism and spent their time in what was considered feminine interests, like the arts. As a way of pointing out these un-Victorian men the decadent purple was dropped in favour of the paler lavender to symbolise unmanly interests of the aesthetes. From this it is a short step to link lavender with effeminate men and the old perception of homosexuals.

It was in the 1950s that lavender became firmly associated with the lgbt community, though it was 1960s America that saw its use most widespread before the popular adoption of the European pink triangle.

It is, perhaps, still in America that the use of the word and colour lavender has remained constant. The gay rights movement is now often referred to as a “lavender revolution”. Since then lavender has been attributed in more recent years to many events involving the lgbt community.

One other use of the word lavender which emerged during the 1970s is in the term “lavender marriage”. Ever since the silent days of Hollywood films there have been closeted gay leading men. Some of them were known to be gay within the studio system – the old system where actors worked for the film studios like regular employees. In an era where gossip about a leading actor’s sexuality could ruin his career and the studio’s, the movie moguls ordered gay actors to marry to keep up the appearance of a straight man. This was the lavender marriage.

Today there are hundreds of lgbt organisations which have lavender in their name and in their logo, most of them in the USA. I mentioned a few weeks ago in my memorial piece on Professor Philip Brett of the lgbt group at the University of California called LavenderCal.

In the UK lavender has more of a comical association with gay men. It doesn’t have the same cultural background as a use within activism as it did in 1970s USA, with groups like the Lavender Menace and Lavender Panthers. Perhaps the Victorian symbolism with effeminism has yet to fully disappear in the UK.

Extraordinary Lives - Princess Seraphina

To mark this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance today I want to bring to you the story of a cross-dresser who stood up for herself when threatened with exposure.

This is the story of Princess Seraphina, an 18^th century “molly” (a name given to cross-dressers and gay men at the time) who was extraordinary in that she appeared at the Old Bailey – not as a criminal but as a victim. In the 18^th century cross-dressers were seen as anti-social and often arrested just for wearing the clothes of another gender. In his years on the scene Princess Seraphina was never arrested.

Princess Seraphina was the alter-ego of John Cooper. No-one knows when he was born - it was probably before 1710, and his home town may well have been London.

The first record of Princess Seraphina comes in 1728. A notorious thief, highwayman and bigamist called James Dalton recalled the princess in his confessions published just before he was hanged. Dalton was told of a “wedding” between two mollies and mentions Seraphina as a “bridesmaid”. This was before October 1727 when Dalton was tried and convicted.

Dalton referred to Seraphina as a butcher. Cooper described himself in 1732 as a gentleman’s servant. This may have been his position with a retired Royal Navy captain called George Breholt. After a long and distinguished career Capt. Breholt entered the naval hospital at Greenwich. Cooper says he lived with Breholt at the hospital.

By the summer of 1732 Cooper was living with a Mr and Mrs Tull in Eagle Court off the Strand. He was a friend of Mr Tull and when he and his wife became ill with a fever, what was called a “salivation” in those days, Copper acted as nursemaid to them. He was lodging with them at the time of the trial.

One public event we know Cooper attended as Princess Seraphina was the grand re-opening in 1732 of the Vauxhall Gardens. A magnificent Ridotto al Fresco was staged – an extravagant open-air entertainment. It attracted many visitors, including the Prince of Wales, who could walk through the ornamental gardens, past statues, temples and arches. And it wasn’t only the fashionable ladies and dandies who dressed in their finest clothes. Princess Seraphina met several of his fellow mollies there all dragged up for the occasion. Seraphina herself wore a calamanco gown, a fine checked gown with a silky sheen through which was woven satin thread. He hoped this would help attract a gentleman or two who would dance with her (and no doubt a bit more as well). But all Seraphina ended up with was a couple of men who had no money (presumably they’d spent their last sixpence on the boat ride across the river, which was the only way to get to the gardens).

So what about the trial? Well, on the Whit Monday holiday, 29^th May 1732, the week before the Ridotto, John Cooper went out drinking – not as Princess Seraphina but as himself. In the early hours of Tuesday he was approached by one Thomas Gordon who struck up a conversation. After several pints Cooper and Gordon left. As Cooper described at the trial, as they passed an area in Chelsea Fields protected from view, Gordon threatened him with a knife and demanded he hand over his ring and that they swap clothes. Gordon threatened to accuse Cooper of trying to rape him if he went to the police.

Thomas Gordon’s version of events was slightly different. He claimed Copper approached him in the inn, and that he tried to kiss and grope him in Chelsea. It was Cooper, he claimed, who had demanded they change clothes.

Cooper went to the police and Gordon was put on trial for robbery in July 1732. Cooper appeared as himself throughout, though several witnesses did refer to him as Princess Seraphina, which caused some confusion among the judges.

Gordon’s witnesses included Mrs Margaret Holder, the keeper of the inn where the men had met. Her version of their meeting supported Gordon’s. It was also Mrs Holder who was the first to bring up the subject of Cooper being a molly.

Thomas Gordon was found not guilty.

And that seems to be the last we hear of Princess Seraphina. What do we make of the trial? Was Princess Seraphina telling the truth? Did Gordon rob him of his clothes and ring? A witness called by Gordon to them crossing Chelsea Fields said neither men looked like they were having a disagreement. Cooper had no supporting eye witness, only Mrs Holder, and her obvious disapproval of his lifestyle turned the emphasis away from the robbery and onto Cooper’s sexuality. Obviously, she had other motives – protecting the reputation of her inn.

One witness for Seraphina said the clothes he was seen wearing earlier that evening were a great deal smarter that the grubby clothes he swapped with Gordon. What would be the point of that? Only Gordon would have benefited. And why would Seraphina risk being charged with sodomy, a crime punishable by death if guilty, just for some clothes and a ring?

If you want to decide for yourself you can read a full transcript of the trial here.