A Queer Philosopher's Achievement : Francis Bacon

[Achievement – the name given in heraldry to the full pictorial representation of a coat of arms.]

One of my favourite historical lgbt people is Sir FrancisBacon (1561-1626). He was a true man of many talents – a statesman, a scientist, a philosopher and a writer. Before I go into his coat of arms you may like to read about his philosophical credentials in his entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Basically, Sir Francis Bacon was among the first champions of the belief in proper investigation, observation and experimentation of the natural world. He was also a leading statesman of his time and his coat of arms shown below illustrates that.

Francis Bacon was born in 1561, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, a prominent statesman at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. On 22^nd February 1568 Sir Nicholas and his brothers were granted a coat of arms which was inherited by their descendants including, of course, Sir Francis Bacon. Below is his full achievement of arms.

The shield show two coats of arms quartered together. In the top left and bottom right quarters are the arms of the Bacon family, and in the other quarters are the arms of the Quaplode family. The Quaplodes were a landed family in Norfolk whose heiress married into the Bacons. Their descendants inherited both arms in this configuration. This would also be the coat of arms used by Sir Francis’s older brother Anthony Bacon. Both used cadency marks to indicate which son of Sir Nicholas they were. Anthony, as the 4^th son, would have put a small bird called a martlet on his shield. Sir Francis, as 5^th son, put a small circle called an annulet on his. I have not shown this annulet in my painting because Sir Francis is the only member of his family who was entitled to use any of the other devices you can see.

What can we see that tells us that this is the specific coat of arms of Sir Francis Bacon and not anyone else in his family? We need to follow his political career to decode the design. With each new appointment the paraphernalia surrounding the shield changed. Originally Sir Francis would have used a shield, including his cadency mark, with a simple helmet like the one is shown in Michelle Dumaresq’s achievement. In 1603 Francis was knighted, which meant he changed his helmet for one with an open visor, as used by other knights such as Sir Elton John.

In 1617 Sir Francis was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. This high office of state would have enabled him to show a representation of the Privy Purse which contained the Great Seal below his shield. I’ve tried to find a good quality image of the Privy Purse he would have used to no avail, so I haven’t show it.

Sir Francis was appointed Lord High Chancellor of England and was created a peer of the realm with the title Baron Verulam. This was the highest position in the state that any member o f the lgbt community had held since Sir Piers Gaveston, King Edward II’s lover, was appointed Guardian of the Realm in 1307.

The Lord High Chancellor is still one of the highest offices of state. If you have ever watched coverage of the State Opening of Parliament you would have seen the Chancellor of the day hand the speech to the Queen from the steps of the throne in the House of Lords. You would also have seen an Usher carrying the ceremonial mace which is placed in front of the Queen. Sir Francis was entitled to show this mace, 2 of them, behind his shield.

On being created a Baron Verulam Sir Francis would have changed his helmet again. As a peer he used the more elaborate helmet with a gold barred visor you see here. Modern peers are entitled to place a coronet sitting on top their shield to show their rank of nobility. During his lifetime there was no coronet for a baron. But in 1621 he was promoted to a viscount with them title Viscount St. Albans. His boss, King James I, authorised the use of a coronet for viscounts, and this is the one I show.

Right at the top of the painting, on top of the helmet, is the crest. You may think that the boar is a pun on the family name of Bacon, bit it isn’t. The boar crest was actually that of the Quaplode family and in the grant to Sir Nicholas’s father in 1568 replaced the original Bacon crest which was a griffin. The family motto at the bottom translates as “Mediocrity is Stable”.

Sir Francis resigned as Lord High Chancellor in 1621 over a bribery scandal and the use of the maces behind his shield was stopped. However, I like the look of the maces and it reminds me that members of the lgbt community have been involved in the government of England for centuries.

Olympic Alphabet : G is for ...

GYMNASTICS

At first it might seem that there’s very little that lgbt gymnasts have contributed to the Olympic Games. After all, there’s only 4 known lgbt Olympic gymnasts (Karin Büttner-Janz, Kris Burley, Laís Souza and Rose Cossar), nowhere near the size of the figure skaters or equestrian riders that I’ve covered in the two previous Olympic Alphabet article.

But if you go back a hundred years to include the Danish gymnast Niels Bukh we see a different picture. I’ve written about Niels Bukh several times before, most recently in my “Around the World in 80 Gays” series. He formed the modern style of gymnastics and would have been the first known lgbt Olympian if he hadn’t been dropped from the Danish team at the 1908 London Olympics because he looked too butch! His influence is still felt today in modern gymnastics.

Karin Büttner-Janz is one of those lesser-known lgbt Olympians who actually holds some significant records. She holds the joint record for the most medals won by an individual lgbt Olympian at one games. At the 1972 Munich games Karin won 2 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze. She shares this record with Ian Thorpe, who won 3 golds and 2 silvers at Sydney 2000. Karin’s medal haul was the highest in the gymnastics events, though the great Olga Korbut won more gold medals (but not on her favourite apparatus, the asymmetric bars, which Karin won – see video below).

In the 1970s the Eastern bloc behind the “Iron Curtain” dominated world gymnastics. Karin represented her native East Germany from the age of 16 and took part in 2 Olympics, Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972. She won medals at both. She even has a gymnastic move named after her, the janz salto. Here’s a video of Karin performing her signature move in her gold-medal-winning routine at the Munich Olympics. It’s near the end when she leaps up from the lower bar and does a backwards somersault before grabbing the upper bar. Blink and you’ll miss it!

There wasn’t to be another lgbt gymnast at the Olympics for another 22 years. In fact, NONE of the remaining lgbt gymnasts were even born when Karin Büttner-Janz was competing (she retied in 1972).

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics the first and, so far, the only male gay gymnast competed. He was Kris Burley of Canada, though he wasn’t out publicly at the time. Kris didn’t make it past the qualifying rounds in the various apparatus in Atlanta but 3 years later at the 1999 Pan-American Games he won 2 bronze medals.

After his competitive career Kris worked in the entertainment and event management industry behind the cameras. He also did what quite a few gymnasts did – he joined Cirque du Soleil. More recently he curated a photographic exhibition called “Heroic Authenticity”.

Kris’s involvement in the Olympics continued during the 2010 Vancouver Winter games. His experience in event management landed him the job as Senior Manager at the receptions held by the Premier of Ontario. During the next games, the Sochi 2014 Olympics, he expressed his opposition to the boycott that many people called for (mostly from those who it wouldn’t have affected, and who showed blatant hypocrisy in not calling for boycotts of several other international sporting events that were held in Russia both before and after the Sochi Olympics).

Also competing for Canada is British-born Rose Cossar. She competed at the London 2012 games in rhythmic gymnastics and was the gymnastics team captain. This was her only Olympic appearance and she retired shortly afterwards. Since then she has come out and has become a leading voice for lgbt inclusion and acceptance in sport. To this end Rose supported the Pride House at last year’s Pan-American Games in Toronto, an event for which Kris Burley played a key role in securing as a member of the Toronto 2015 bid team.

Sometimes athletes retire from one sport to take up another. This is the case with our next lgbt gymnast. Laís Souza had won 3 bronze and 1 silver medals at the Pan-American Games of 2003 and 2007. She competed for Brazil at 2 Olympic Games. Her first was Athens 2004. In the team all-round competition at Beijing 2008 she was won an 8^th place Olympic Diploma. In 2012 Laís was again placed on Brazil’s gymnastics team. Unfortunately in the month between being selected and the start of the London games she injured herself in training and was forced to withdraw.

After retiring from gymnastics Laís turned to a totally different sport – aerial skiing. She was selected for the Brazilian skiing team in 2013. Sadly, as with London 2012, she was injured in training a month before competing at the Olympics. Her injuries prior to Sochi 2014 were severe and she was left paralysed from the neck down. Several months later she regained some sensation in her lower body and her slow recovery began. The Rio 2016 Olympic organising committee paid for Laís to receive English lesson while being treated in the USA, and the Brazilian government even granted her a lifetime pension. Laís’s recovery may never be complete, but she had become active in speaking to sports groups, as well as coming out, and when I last checked (December 2015) she was beginning to learn how to walk again. Laís’s competitive career may be over, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was given a place in the Olympic torch relay.

Although it is too early to say for sure, there’s likely to be more lgbt gymnasts at the Rio Olympics this summers, and we may even had 2 male gymnasts competing. Among the hopefuls are Jeffrey Wammes of the Netherlands, who just missed out on a place at London 2012, and America’s Josh Dixon. Both of these gymnasts are openly gay and they will be the first gymnasts to be so at the Olympics.

Before I sign off, there’s one more athlete to mention just briefly. One event included in the Olympic gymnastic programme is trampolining. Only one known lgbt trampolinist has competed at the Olympics, Australia’s Ji Wallace. The reason I haven’t included him fully today is because I intend to include him in my article for the letter J. I won’t reveal what subject will be covered by that letter, but the fact that it’ll be published on February 29^th – Leap Day – may be a hint!

Believe It Or Not : World Religion Day

It came as a surprise to me to discover that there was a World Religion Day. I was even more surprised to find out that it began over 50 years ago. And there’s also a World Philosophy Day in November and a National Day of Reason (held in the USA) in May, and I’ll cover those celebrations at those times.

We have to go way back to 1950 to encounter the first ever World Religion Day, and held on the 3^rd Sunday in January ever since – that’s today. It began in the USA and, believe it or not, wasn’t the brainchild of some evangelical Christian but of the leaders of one of the world’s lesser known major faiths (if that’s not a contradiction), the Baha’i faith.
In 1949 the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i faith in the US, probably having the horrors of World War II and the world’s slow readjustment to life post-Holocaust in mind, recognised that most religions had common spiritual goals even if they differed doctrinally. The Assembly came up with World Religion Day as a way of encouraging understanding of each religions’ differences and of working together to held shape a better world. (I’ll write more about Baha’i and some of its lgbt adherents in March.)

One of the illustrations which gives an idea of how much the world’s religions and beliefs are connected through history is the one shown below, designed by Simon E. Davies for the Human Odyssey Facebook page. It charts the origin and evolution of many world faiths. But an even more impressive illustration is one you can find here. I won’t even attempt to explain it – the work put into it must have been phenomenal.

My home county of Nottinghamshire became the centre of much attention last year because of religion and lgbt issues. The focus was on a gay Anglican priest who was refused a license to officiate as a hospital chaplain. He can still work elsewhere but the fact that he was gay and married was what made it headline news.

Also last year the UK’s Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement moved its HQ from London to Newark, a quaint market town just down the River Trent from Nottingham.

Many of my article over the past years can be included in the “religion” label. The myths and legends of Ancient Greece is littered with references to same-sex activity between the gods and mortals, and all the athletes and solider had same sex partners. In fact, you could argue that the Olympic Games were created solely for religious purposes.

Various historical characters have declared themselves to be gods. Most of the Roman Emperors did so, and one, Elegabalus, belonged to a hereditary priesthood to an ancient sun god called El-Gabal.

Last year I wrote a little about the Caribbean faith of Santeria which had it’s origins in the Yoruba culture and religion of west Africa as well as Catholicism. That article also touched on the subject of faith adopting and adapting the deities of older religions into their own pantheons. The debate on the acceptance of homosexuality in African Christian churches is very prominent at the moment with the world Anglican churches discussing the subject in Canterbury at this very moment.

I also mentioned several Roman Catholic Cardinals in that same series, “Around the World in 80 Gays”. While it may be politically correct to condemn the homophobic stance of the Catholic Church and the hypocrisy of some of its clergy, it should also be noted that there are many lgbt people of religious belief at work in the community today helping to change attitudes. There are many lgbt-orientated churches of many faiths, and many thriving lgbt groups within established faiths. So, Believe it or Not, the lgbt community has a vital place in religious life today.

Believe It Or Not : Sodom Revealed?

The theme for the UK’s LGBT History Month in February is “Religion, Belief and Philosophy”. The subject may not appeal to many people but throughout this year, as in previous years, I’ll base a lot of articles on it. I hope to show that the subject is as interesting, diverse and important as any other I’ve covered, and I’ll do that is a new series called “Believe It Or Not”.

Popular perceptions of religion in particular are often negative. One of the biggest negative influences religion has had on the lgbt community is its attitude towards gay sex (not to be confused with gay love, a concept accepted as honourable by many religions for centuries).

Nothing sums up this attitude to gay sex more than the name given to it by the early Christian church – sodomy. This word comes from the well-known Biblical story of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Surely there could be no better place to start this series than Sodom.

Just like Indiana Jones going in search of sacred artefacts historians and archaeologists have been hunting around for the actual site of Sodom. That’s not as pointless as it might seem at first. After all, Troy was regarded as a fictional city until it was uncovered, as was the palace of King Minos of Crete.

Sodom’s location has aroused interest for almost 150 years and still does. Several archaeologists have claimed to have found the ancient city. None of these claims have received as universal acceptance as the location of Troy has done, but they all reveal more about the ancient Middle East. Last November a new book was published looking at the geological evidence to locate Sodom.

I’m going to choose three sites which have been claimed as being the remains of Sodom. The first location is the traditional one, known to ancient writers such as Strabo, who lived at the same time of Christ, which probably means that Christ himself knew of it as well. A large hill composed almost entirely of salt at the southern end of the Dead Sea in what is now part of the Judean Desert Nature Reserve has had the Hebrew name Har Sedom since before Strabo’s time. He recorded that the hill was the location of Sodom. There’s even a pillar of salt called “Lot’s Wife” after the unfortunate woman who ignored the advice not to turn back and look at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as told in the Bible. There’s no archaeological evidence to show that Har Sedom, or Jabel Usdu in Arabic and Mount Sodom in English, is the site of the destroyed city.

The Dead Sea is renowned for its buoyancy properties. Its high salt content led the ancients to call it the Sea of Salt. To digress briefly, the Dead Sea features in an amusing story from the time of the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The bisexual future Emperor Titus, serving as an army captain, condemned a group of slaves to death. The slaves were taken in chains and thrown into the Sea of Salt. Titus probably didn’t know of the sea’s buoyancy properties and was startled when the slaves came bobbing back onto the shoreline like corks. Titus threw them back in several times and each time they came bobbing back. In the end he pardoned them all and set them free.

In the 1970s another candidate for Sodom was identified using archaeological means. Using location details In the Bible which places Sodom as one of the Cities of the Plain in the Valley of Siddim south of the Dead Sea archaeologists discovered several ancient destroyed settlements which hit the bill.

One of these sites, Bab edh-Dhra, was claimed as the site of Sodom, and another site, Numeira, as Gomorrah. Several pieces of evidence were brought forward in support of the claim. First is their location on the edge of the “the Plain” which geologists day was present in Biblical times. Secondly, botanical specimens indicate cultivation on irrigated land, as described in the Bible. The remains of fortifications indicate both Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira were important cities, as were Sodom and Gomorrah. Finally, both sites showed signs of being destroyed or abandoned in ancient times.

Not all historians agree that the evidence proves the sites are actually Sodom and Gomorrah. Specifically, they say that the archaeological evidence doesn’t indicate that the cities were destroyed at the same time as the Bible states.

Having searched south of the Dead Sea it came as a surprise last year when it was suggested Tall el-Hammam, north of the Dead Sea, was Sodom. There is a layer of ash containing fragments of human bones, and the area produces large amounts of desert glass, sand fused together by temperatures so high that they couldn’t have been made by any man-made process. The archaeologists go further as to suggest Tall el-Hammam was destroyed by a meteor airburst.

A meteor airburst isn’t as far-fetched as is sounds. You may remember that spectacular meteor crash in the Russian countryside a couple of years ago. That was a mere damp squib compared to what the archaeologists say caused the destruction of Tall el-Hammam, indicating it could have been the historical Sodom. An ancient clay tablet records such an event occurring in around the year 3123 BC. However, a meteor burst of that power would have destroyed many other cities as well as Sodom, and the Bible indicates that they weren’t.

Perhaps we’ll never know where the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah really are. Undoubtedly other theories will emerge in the coming years. For the time being, we must decide for ourselves whether to Believe It Or Not.

Just as modern film-makers delight in showing off their computer skills by filling their films with spectacular cgi effects, traditional artist and painters delighted in showing their own interpretation of death and destruction. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a particularly suitable topic for them to display their skills with a paint brush. This painting, by John Martin (1789-1854), is one of hundreds depicting the famous disaster.

Olympic Alphabet : F is for ...

FIGURE SKATING.

Figure skaters make up the largest group of lgbt Winter Olympians with a total of 18 skater plus another 2 reserves team members. As with the equestrians from the previous Olympic Alphabet article all the figure skaters in this group are male.

I’ve written quite a bit about lgbt figure skaters in the past, that’s because it’s my favourite Winter Olympic sport. I’ll just refer you back to some articles before I proceed. The sport of figure skating was popularised, if not invented, by Capt. Robert Jones. For a history of lgbt figure skating at the Olympics I refer you back to my 2012 “Olympic Countdown” series (click on “Olympics” in the label list). That gives a history up to Vancouver 2010. Several figure skaters have come out since then, as well as the Sochi 2014 games coming and going, and also additional research has been done. For the most part that previous history is still accurate.

Here are some facts and figures to compliment my “Olympic Countdown” series. Most of the figure skaters compete in the single’s competitions, and 6 compete in the pairs (these 6 are Luc Bradet, Randy Gardner, Lyndon Johnston, Rob McCall, Ryan O’Meara and Eric Radford).

The earliest participation in Olympic figure skating is as given in that earlier series, the American Ronnie Robertson (1937-2000), making his one and only Olympic appearance in Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956. He is also the first lgbt figure skater to win a medal, a silver.

The next identified skater is one of the greatest unknown athletes in history, the Czech skater Ondrej Nepela (19951-1989). More information is given here. To summarise, Ondrej holds several records in lgbt Olympianism. At his first games in Innsbruck 1964 he was only one week past his 13^th birthday, the youngest ever lgbt Olympian.

Ondrej ties with Brian Boitano for the record for the most competitive appearances, both having been in 3 Olympics. At Ondrej’s last appearance in Sapporo he became the first lgbt Winter Olympic champion. Brian Boitano also became Olympic champion in Calgary 1988.

The only other lgbt Olympic figure skating champion is the great John Curry. I have often mentioned that he is the first Olympian to be openly gay at the Olympics. Some people have queried this, mainly because he was outed by the media after his final Olympic competition in Innsbruck 1976. He accepted that his sexuality was common knowledge, he never denied it, though he deliberately down-played his customary flamboyance in his performance at the closing ceremony in case it caused any homophobic criticism. By any definition, John Curry was openly gay before the Innsbruck games closed. While it is certainly true that he never competed as an openly gay Olympian he remains the first out Olympic champion – he was the openly gay reigning Olympic champion until the following games in 1980 in which he didn’t compete.

Of the 20 competing and reserve skaters Ondrej Nepela was the only one not to be English-speaking. Paul Bonifacio Parkinson competed for Italy at Sochi 2014. His mother is Italian, which qualified him for the Italian team. He is Canadian by birth. Out of the 20 John Curry and Ondrej Nepela are not North American by birth. Canada pips the USA with 10 skaters to 8.

The games with the most competing skaters was Turin 2006 with 5. Only one of them, Jeff Buttle, won a medal (bronze).

The most medals won at a single games by lgbt figure skaters was in Calgary 1988 with one of each colour being won. Brian Boitano won gold and Brian Orser won silver in the infamous Battle of the Brians, and Rob McCall won bronze.

Calgary 1988 also had the most non-competing lgbt figure skaters. Angelo D’Agostino was a reserve for the American team. Toller Cranston performed in the closing ceremony, of which Brian Pockar was the Artistic Director and Choreographer. John Curry and Jeff Buttle were reserve skaters who went on to represent their nations fully and compete in later games. A reserve skater at Vancouver 2010, the American Adam Rippon, has yet to reach the main Olympic team.

Sochi 2014 almost saw the first openly lgbt figure skater compete (as mentioned above John Curry was outed after his final competition). Out Australian skater Bradley McLachlan just failed to make the reserve list, but you never know, he could still make it to the Pyeong Chang Olympics in 2018.

One name that is often overlooked when listing medal winners is that of the coach, trainer and choreographer. In figure skating there is a large number of lgbt coaches, etc., who have been equally responsible for producing Olympic champions (both lgbt and non-lgbt).

Top of the coaching list is Brian Orser, 2-times silver medallist himself, who has successfully coached 2 singles figure skaters to Olympic gold – Yu-Na Kim in Vancouver 2010, and Yuzuru Hanyu in Sochi 2014.

Whereas Brian Orser tops the lgbt Olympic figure skating coach list he doesn’t top the choreographer list. That honour goes to David Wilson. With Orser he shares the honour of helping Yu-Na Kim to the women’s singles gold medal in 2010. Wilson has choreographed many Olympic routines, including those that won Jeff Buttle his bronze medal in Turin 2006 and the silver medal he won at the 2005 World Championships.

The sport of figure skating lost many top athletes to HIV and AIDS. As I mentioned in my “Olympic Countdown” series in 2012 there was a lot of denial within the sport regarding the presence of HIV. It wasn’t until the death of Rob McCall in 1991 that it began to be discussed openly. Several national and international champions and leading skaters lost their battles with AIDS and Rob was in the process of organising an ice gala to raise funds for AIDS research when he too succumbed to the disease. His gala became his memorial.

One of the leading voices in the education of HIV and sexual health in the figure skating community belonged to Brian Wright (1959-2003), considered to be one of the best choreographers of his time. He didn’t choreograph any Olympic routines but he did come up with routines by future Olympic champions. He came out as gay in 1986 after he was diagnosed with HIV. In 1994 he was named Choreographer of the Year by the US Figure Skating Association.

I’m rapidly overrunning today’s article, so I’ll end with one more lgbt skater.

Out American skater Rohene Ward hoped to qualify for the Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006 games but his dream of becoming an Olympic skater came to nothing. However, he turned to choreography in 2007 and choreographed young Jason Brown to Junior Grand Prix gold and bronze in the Junior World Championships. Rohene choreographed all of Jason’s routines for the Sochi 2014 Olympics in which he won the bronze medal in the new team event.

Before I go I want to pay tribute to one of the greats of Olympic figure skating, Toller Cranston. His death last January at the age of 65 was a sad loss, and his passing was particularly felt in his native Canada. Here is a video from the Canadian lgbt media outlet Daily Xtra.

 

Remembering Lives of 2015

Some members of the lgbt community who had died over the past twelve months. This list is not exhaustive but merely reflects the range of achievements that their passings represent. They include the good, the bad and the fabulous. As has been the case for many years the number of transgender victims of violence is large and I could not possible do them just today. Ages are given immediately after the names. If no actual date is known the individual appears at the top of the monthly list.

JANUARY
Freyda Faivus (62), 1986 Gay Games double swimming silver medallist.
10^th      Taylor Negron (57), comedian, actor, writer.
18^th      Lowell “John” Evans (80), ex-ex-gay advocate.
18^th      Paul O’Grady (47), Australia’s first openly gay state MP.
22^nd     Kamrun, gay porn actor, on his 22^nd birthday.
24^th      Toller Cranston (65), US Olympic bronze medal figure skater.

FEBRUARY

1^st        Michael Mason (67), activist, editor of “Gay News”.
4^th        Koos van den Akker (74), fashion designer.
5^th        Niki Quasney (38), US same-sex marriage campaigner.
11^th      Jerry Hoose (69), Stonewall veteran, founding member of Gay Liberation Front (US).
13^th      Steve Strange (55), lead singer with 1980’s band Visage.
16^th      Robin Duff (67), 1^st openly gay parliamentary candidate in New Zealand.
27^th      Rev. Malcolm Boyd (91), civil and gay rights activist.

MARCH

Ike Cowen (97), leading member of Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
5^th        Dirk Shafer (52), Playgirl Magazine’s Man of the Year 1992.
10^th      Richard Gatzer (63), film director and writer.
16^th      Lesley Gore (68), 1960s popular singer.
16^th      Andy Fraser (62), bass player with 1970’s band Free.
25^th      Martyn Goff (91), founder of the Booker Prize for fiction.

APRIL

3^rd        Ariana Victoria Jacobus (29), writer and poet.
4^th        Jeane Dolan (52), Vice-President of Booz-Allen Hamilton security consultants.
8^th        Marc Naimark (54), lgbt sport campaigner and Gay Games volunteer.
15^th      Sydney Abbott (77), feminist writer and lesbian activist.
19^th      Martin Fisher (50), Professor of HIV medicine.

MAY

4^th        Debra Dunkle (60), psychologist, 1990 Gay Games double athletics champion.
10^th      Sam Ciccone (71), co-founder of the Gay Officers Action League.
15^th      John Jarvis-Smith, DSC (91), D-Day veteran.
17^th      Bill Kelley (72), activist, founder of the US National Gay & Lesbian Law Association.
20^th      Hon. Edward Adeane (75), ex-Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales.
22^nd     Nicole LaViolette (52), Ottawa law professor, multi Gay Games cycling champion.
29^th      Mario Cooper, leading AIDS educator and US Presidential adviser.
30^th      Jim Bailey (77), female impersonator and cabaret performer.
30^th      Adam Kizer (16), anti-bullying campaigner.

JUNE

6^th        Ronnie Gilbert (88), folk singer, founding member of The Weavers.
9^th        Pedro Zerolo (55), Spanish politician and lgbt activist.
27^th      Harvey McGregor (89), lawyer and Oxford don.

JULY

3^rd        Alan Green (75), drowned attempting to rescue fiancé Martin Winfield (59).
4^th        Daya Rani Kinnar (56), trans activist and India presidential candidate.
10^th      Roger Rees (71), actor.
15^th      Paul Shammin Cruikshank (50), an asteroid was named after him in November.
25^th      Robin Phillips (75), theatre artistic director.

AUGUST

3^rd        Chris Hyndman (49), Canadian designer and chat-show host.
6^th        Charles van den Berg (33), Mr Gay World 2010.
8^th        Alan Wakeman (79), founding member of Gay Liberation Front (UK), writer.
25^th      Colin Fry (53), television psychic.
26^th      Bryce Williams (41), journalist who shot ex-colleagues live on-air.
31^st      Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (88), motor museum founder.

SEPTEMBER

3^rd        Mahran Chestnut (25), gay porn actor aka King B, and reality tv show actor.
16^th      David Cook (74), original presenter of popular UK kids series “Rainbow”.
20^th      Jack Larson (87), actor, Jimmy Olsen in 1960’s tv “Superman”.
21^st      Honey Lee Cottrell (69), pioneering lesbian erotica photographer.

OCTOBER
1^st        Illtyd Harrington (84), ex-Deputy Leader of Greater London Council.
10^th      Blue Blake (52), gay porn actor, director and producer.
10^th      Wes Funk (46), novelist and broadcaster.
10^th      Kurt Cunningham (46), mental health campaigner, co-ordinator of 1987 March on Washington.
22^nd     John J. McNeill (90), leading figure in lgbt Christianity, writer.

NOVEMBER

1^st        Dorien Grey (81), mystery novelist, real name Roger Margason.
8^th        Robert Chetwyn (85), theatre director.
22^nd     Dimitri Kane (20), gay porn actor.

DECEMBER

6^th        Holly Woodlawn (69), trans actor and Warhol superstar.
7^th        Kenneth Partridge (89), fashion show and interior designer (for the Beatles).
21^st      Maj. Adrianna Vorderbruggen (36), 1^st out serving USAF soldier killed in combat.

Around the World in 80 Gays : Part 25 - A Vampire

LAST TIME : 75) Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) met 73) Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972) in 1882, almost 2 decades before her romance with 76) Olive Custance (1874-1944), who went on to marry Oscar’s former partner 77) Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945), and who were part of the literary circle surrounding Oscar’s mother, which also included 78) Bram Stoker (1847-1912).

78) Bram Stoker will forever be remembered as the creator of Count Dracula, the world’s most famous fictional vampire. His mother was a social campaigner in Dublin and was friends with Sir William and Lady Jane Wilde, 75) Oscar Wilde’s parents.

Bram’s sexuality has been discussed in several modern biographies of him. Even though he lived a perfectly standard heterosexual life some parts o f his earlier life lead some biographers to wonder if some same-sex attraction was present, present in particular some of his correspondence with the actor-manager Sir Henry Irving and the American poet Walt Whitman. Stoker was employed by Irving and his Lyceum Theatre Company and they were, indeed, very close. Whitman was one of Stoker’s heroes and after they met in 1884 Whitman was impressed by his Irish admirer. The author Fay Weldon has even gone so far as to label Stoker “a closet gay”.

Victorian perceptions of same-sex relationships were different to ours. Even 75) Oscar Wilde wouldn’t label himself as homosexual. Oscar actually had a relationship with the woman 78) Bram Stoker married. Florence Balcombe has a 2 year romance with Oscar in the mid-1870s. It ended when Florence announced she had become engaged to Stoker. They married in 1878.

One thing Bram Stoker and the Wilde’s all shared was a fascination for the supernatural. A new religion called Spiritualism was popular in Britain and Ireland at that time, and the Victorians loved ancient traditional myths and superstitions even though the society was nominally staunchly Christian. Lady Wilde published 2 books on traditional customs, superstitions and beliefs of Ireland and influenced Oscar in his creation of his own supernatural tales such as “The Canterville Ghost”. Bram Stoker, however, looked further afield for his inspiration for “Dracula”.

Our modern image of a vampire owes much to Bram Stoker. Until “Dracula” vampires were hideous zombie-like creatures (the modern movie zombie is a classic medieval vampire). Stoker turned the vampire into an aristocratic, elegant and charming gentleman who seduces his victims.

Stoker read and researched many vampire legends and came up with his fictional vampire’s name from the Romanian Prince Vlad III “Tepes” Dracula (d.1476). “Dracula” means “son of the Dragon”, Vlad’s father having been a Knight of the Order of the Dragon. So, if Bram Stoker made Prince Vlad the “father” of his Count Dracula then he surely chose 79) Countess Erzsebet (Elizabeth) Bathori (1560-1614) as his “mother”.

79) Countess Erzsebet Bathori has gone done in history as the world’s worst serial killer. She had more in common with the fictional Count Dracula than Prince Vlad. Erzsebet was of countly rank, Vlad wasn’t (he was a sovereign prince); Erzsebet came from Transylania, Vlad didn’t (he came form neighbouring Wallachia); Erzsebet drank human blood, Vlad didn’t (he just tortured and killed people); and Erzsebet’s bloodlust was in part sensual, Vlad’s wasn’t (he was just sadistic).

It is through the stories of Countess Erzsebet that a lot of the sexual and predominantly lesbian theme has entered modern vampiric culture. The great Hammer Films exploited this theme, aided by the Countess’s own lesbian activities, to include lesbian themes into their many vampire films. In 1971 they turned the Countess’s own story into the film “Countess Dracula”.

Hammer Films is now synonymous with gothic horror. It was a relatively small film studio and often worked on several films with the same actors and sets at the same time. Music is always a vital part of any horror film and Hammer had the distinctive talents of 80) James Bernard (1925-2001) on more than 30 of their films, including some of their most famous – 4 Dracula films, 4 Frankenstein films among them. He also wrote the music for “The Quatermss Xperiment”, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, “She”, “The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires” and “The Devil Rides Out”.

But it is James’s wartime work which helps us to complete our trip “Around the World in 80 Gays”.

After being conscripted into the RAF James found himself studying cryptography. He was sent to a top secret location, the government’s code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. There he was appointed to the team which has the task of decoding the Nazi’s Enigma codes, and the James Bernard’s colleague who is credited with cracking those codes was …

1) Alan Turing (1912-1954), the man with whom we began our 80 Gays journey back in January.

In celebration of the completion of our journey I’ve compiled the following meandering montage of images representing each of the 80 Gays.

I hope you have enjoyed this journey. It’s been great fun to put together. There are many other routes and diversions I could have made but I hope the final route has been diverse, informative and, above all, entertaining. Who knows, I may go “Around the World in Another 80 Gays” in 2017.

I’m taking a couple of weeks off now, while I concentrate on my final preparations for my talk and display for Nottingham University in February. I shall be back briefly in New Year’s Eve with my list of some in the people in the lgbt community who left us during 2015. I’ll be back on 11^th January 2016.

It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow, so let me take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas to you all and thank you very much for your continued interest.