Pioneer Preacher-woman

In these times when lgbt clergy are still regarded as unwelcome in the main denominations (even by extremists in the lgbt community itself) we should not forget that the same attitude has been given to female clergy. Ordained women are slightly ahead of lgbt clergy in terms of acceptance but many denominations still deny senior spiritual positions to women.

Ninety-five years ago today one woman died who was a pioneer of modern female lesbian ministry. Her name is Mrs. Phebe Anne Coffin Hanaford (1929-1921). Phebe’s profile on the LGBT-RAN website states very boldly that she “may be America’s earliest certifiable lesbian minister”. As with many lgbt people of her time the nature of her relationships with people are pieced together from snippets of surviving information and our interpretation of them. Phebe’s relationship with Ellen Miles, with whom she lived for 41 years and was referred to in the press as her “wife”, turns “may be” into “probable”.

So, who was Phebe Hannaford? Her ancestry was very illustrious. Her father was George W. Coffin, a descendant of the same family who are CydZeigler’s step-ancestors. The Coffins were Quakers who were accustomed to women leading worship meetings and this freedom to speak publicly played an important part in Phebe’s future. Even as a child Phebe was developing her preaching skills and is said to have stood on a box to preach to other children. She was highly intelligent and literate and she was writing for the local press by the age of 13.

When she was 8 she signed a temperance pledge, and the temperance movement was one of her main areas of campaign work. Through the movement Phebe became friends with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and joined them in another of their campaigns, women’s suffrage. Even though the suffrage movement suffered a split with Phebe on a different side she remained on very good terms with both Susan and Elizabeth. Well into her old age Phebe was invited to officiate at both of their funerals.

Phebe’s career as a preacher and minister began properly after her marriage. When she married Dr. Joseph Hanaford in 1849 she adopted the Baptist faith of her husband. In 1865, following the death of two siblings she became a Universalist.

The Universalist church opposed the general Christian doctrine that only few people can achieve salvation. The Universalists considered was, well, universal. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries Universalism encouraged scientific acceptance of the world and of reason above doctrine. By this means the church attracted many free-thinkers and campaigners for social justice.

It was in 1865 that Phebe preached her first sermon as a Universalist. Her own father had invited her to give two sermons in the schoolhouse where Phebe taught before her marriage. She didn’t become an ordained minister until after she was persuaded to enter the ministry by Rev. Olympia Brown, the first woman to be ordained as a Universalist minister. Phebe became an ordained minister in 1868.

Ministers were usually itinerant, being appointed to churches for a term of two to three years before moving on to another one elsewhere. Phebe’s first church was in Waltham, Massachusetts, and she later went to New haven, Connecticut. There she was appointed chaplain of the state legislature. She then moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1874 before returning to New Haven in 1884 and retiring in 1891.

In retirement Phebe lived in New York with Ellen Miles. She carried on with her social rights work, still campaigning for female suffrage and temperance.

Even though Phebe had not lived with her husband since her first appointment as an ordained minister she didn’t lose contact with the family. She participated in the ordination of her son as a Congregationalist minister, and officiated at her daughter’s wedding. In fact, some of the press tried to smear her reputation by claiming that Phebe always demanded that couples she married took the surname of the bride not the groom.

Edith Miles died in 1914 and Phebe moved in with her grand-daughter in Rochester. She was always in good health and in her old age expressed the desire to live to be 100 years old. Unfortunately, this was not to be, but she almost made it. On this very day in 1921, Phebe died at the age of 92.

Out Of His Tree: International Mr. Leather

This past weekend saw the grand final of the International Mr Leather (IML) 2016 contest, and go congratulations to all the finalists and the new International Mr. Leather, David “Trigger” Bailey of New Jersey. As a way of celebration we are looking today at the ancestry of the very first winner of the International Mr Leather title in 1979, David Kloss, who by a strange fluke, has a lot of New Jersey ancestry.

David Shelley Kloss IV (b.1949) is an amateur genealogist himself and has traced much of his own family and that of his husband Remi Collette, a fellow Leather title holder. Much of the information given here will be gleaned from David’s own research.

The majority of David’s ancestry comes from Pennsylvania and New Jersey with European roots in Germany, England and Scotland.

The Kloss family originate from Saxony in Germany. The family name was written with several spellings in the early days in America and today there are descendants who spell their surname Closs, Klose and Close (there’s no link to Glenn Close, unfortunately, or the supermodel Karlie Kloss as they are different families – Glenn English, Karlie Danish).

Melchior Kloss, with his wife Margaretha and baby son Ernst, arrived in the American Colonies in 1738 on the ship “Glasgow”. They settled in Pennsylvania. Ernst grew up and in 1760 married Catharina Suter, another German immigrant, and died in 1805. In 1776 he enlisted in the Revolutionary Army with his 70-year-old father.

Ernst’s great-grandson Daniel Kloss (1832-1910) married Margaret Shelley (1843-1933), thereby bringing that family name into their descendant’s. Their eldest child was baptised David Shelley Kloss and is the first of four successive generations to bear that name, right down to the first International Mr Leather himself.

This first David Shelley Kloss (1860-1950) was a banker and he is credited with providing trusted banking for the businesses of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, which enabled that town to prosper and grow. His second wife was a half-Dutch school teacher called Jenny Burley. Her ancestry goes back to 1766 when her ancestor Isaac Burley arrived in Pennsylvania from New Jersey. Family legend says that the Burleys were descended from the Elizabethan statesman Lord Burghley. No proof has been found for this, and personally I think it’s very unlikely.

However, Burley by name and burly by nature, apparently. Several generations of the family, all of them direct ancestors of IML David Kloss, were quite tall and well-built, something like rugby players or American football players I suppose. Jenny’s grandfather, for instance, is documented as being 6 feet 6 inches (2 metres) tall and weighing 245 pounds (17 and a half stones; 111kg). IML David Kloss no doubt inherited his physique from the Burleys.

David Shelley Kloss jr. (1898-1971) worked in the oil industry. He married Helen Pearson (1910-1972). The research put online by IML David Kloss has little on her ancestry so I did a bit of digging around myself. I found that Helen’s grandfather William emigrated to the USA in 1863 from England. He married a Scottish girl called Jennie Mclaren and lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Helen’s mother, Goretta Davis (1876-1955) was the daughter of David L. Davis, a farmer of Readington, New Jersey. The Davis’s had owned the farm there since before the 1840 US census.

David Shelley Kloss III (1924-1998) was a US Merchant marine and Coast Guard. He served on USS Algol and USS Cavalier in the 1940s after the war. He married twice. His second wife was Gaile Killian, a grand-daughter of British-born Pennsylvania State Senator George Gray. David’s first wife was Marion Morris Smith (1922-1973). The first International Mr. Leather, David Kloss IV, is their son.

Mrs. Marion Kloss’s mother was a Woodward. Her ancestry can be traced back to John and Lydia Woodward of Chester County, Pennsylvania, who were found guilty of “fornication before marriage” by their Quaker church. This is actually not all that uncommon when you look at records of other towns in that period. Just about every county had such a couple in the late 1600s because the church was very strict, much more strict than they were in England. John Woodward later served as a Revolutionary soldier.

We now come to one of those cases where online genealogies can be deceptive and you have to double-check everything. Some family historians (not including David Kloss) have John and Lydia Woodward’s son marrying Elizabeth Piles Drane. Digging deeper I found that the Elizabeth in question was actually one of his cousins called Elizabeth Woodward. It’s a double-edged sword, though, because by establishing the real identity of Elizabeth we rid David Kloss of a descent from King Edward I of England through the Drane family. He may still have one through one of the family lines that hasn’t been traced yet.

However, I can add to David’s family tree by revealing that his mother is descended from a Nottinghamshire family with presidential connections (though he might want to keep it quiet when I tell him which president!). David’s 8 times great-grandfather was Robert Pennell (1640-1727) of Balderton, a village about 20 miles from Nottingham near the River Trent. Robert was a Quaker who emigrated to America and left many descendants. Perhaps the most famous/infamous of David Kloss’s distant cousins who descend from Pennell is President Richard Nixon.

That’s it for now. Again, congratulations to David “Trigger” Bailey and all the finalists of the International Mr Leather contest over the weekend, and best wishes to the very first, David Shelley Kloss IV.

Astrology, Sex and a President

The UK has only one royal family. The USA has 44! Well, perhaps not “royal” but certainly treated like royalty. The families of each US president, not to mention those of most other republics, acquire a special status. Think of the Kennedys. Gossip columns relish the tittle-tattle of presidential families. One US presidential family that has died out, the last dying in 1972, has deprived modern gossip-mongers and celebrity-chasers of covering the life one of the most extraordinary lgbt people. He was named after his father and Presidential grandfather and was called Chester Alan Arthur III, but he chose to go by the name of Gavin Arthur (1901-1972).

Gavin Arthur was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was the heir to his Presidential grandfather and his millionaire father. This year’s Irish Rebellion (briefly described in my article in April about Sir Roger Casement) links Gavin to the Irish Republican Movement. Even though he was only 15 at the time the Rebellion had a lasting effect on Gavin. He went to Ireland after leaving college in 1922 and spent four years campaigning for Irish independence, buying arms and providing bail for jailed rebels.

During his Irish year Gavin travelled across to England to meet someone whose writings he had come to admire while at Columbia University, Edward Carpenter, one of the pioneers of the gay rights movement before that term existed. Carpenter was to become Gavin’s mentor. They ended up bed together (despite some academics who have tried to disprove it and fail).

In the early 1930s he and his wife (he was married 3 times) moved back to the US. Gavin’s second wife was Esther Murphy Strachey, the ex-wife of a cousin of Lytton Strachey the gay Bloomsbury writer. In California Gavin co-founded Moy Mell (the Gaelic for “Pasture of Honey”), an anarchistic utopian arts commune. It became an enticing retreat from the Great Depression. This commune attracted many bohemians, free-thinkers, mystics, drop-outs and rebels to its dunes (it was a shoreline settlement of tents and shacks).

Influenced in part by his mother, who had a keen interest in eastern spiritualism (in the 1920s they both belonged to the Tantric Order of America), Gavin’s interests began to turn to the stars. After working as a gold prospector, teaching in San Quentin State Prison, selling newspapers and finishing his bachelors’ degree Gavin before finding fame as an astrologer.

Whether you believe in it or not, there is no question that Gavin’s part in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s and his astrology are indivisible.

Think of the popular social changes of the 1960s. The Swinging 60s, the hippie culture, and sexual freedom developed alongside the gay and civil rights movements. Gavin Arthur had a role in all of them. The Summer of Love in San Francisco developed from the “Human Be-in” held at Golden Gate Park in 1967. Gavin produced an astrological chart to help the organisers to determine the date to hold the vent so that it would have the most lasting effect. It was a huge success.

The Human Be-In was a catalyst for many other civil and community rights events. You could argue that it was the fore-runner of lgbt Pride events.

Gavin is also said to have used astrology to predict the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a prediction that brought him to the attention of the Human Be-In organisers and sealed his reputation as an astrologer.

Gavin’s part in the gay right movement also included a theory about sexuality. I’ll write more on this in the future in more detail. For now, here’s a brief description of what Gavin called the “Circle of Sex”.

Gavin knew Alfred Kinsey, the American sexologist who devised a 7-part scale of human sexuality. Gavin used this, and advice and ideas from Kinsey, Edward Carpenter and German sexologist pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld, to come up a 12-scale circle of sexuality. Gavin placed his sexual types in a clock-face, and just as the hands of a clock more round in continuous circles, Gavin said sexuality was the same with each type having another on either side which is more heterosexual or homosexual. It was an idea which first came to Gavin when he was living in Ireland in 1924. He and his first wife placed the names of 300 of the friends and acquaintances on cards and arranged them into the first Circle of Sex based on their interpretation of their friends’ sexualities. It wasn’t until 1967 that he published his theory.

Gavin Arthur died in 1972 in a veteran’s hospital in San Francisco. From his silver spoon heritage to his Golden Gate twilight years Gavin sought to find his own way that wasn’t dependent on his illustrious family. He succeeded. Today he is known more for his gay rights and sexology activism, and his Presidential ancestry has become mere trivia.

Olympic Alphabet : O is for ...

OLYMPIA

For today’s look at the contribution the lgbt community has made to the Olympics we go back to its origins in Ancient Greece and Olympia.

There are so many lgbt associations with Olympia that it is perhaps best to adapt one of my other mini-series themes and present a “City Pride” guide to the site. In this way it may help any of you who visit the site to appreciate its same-sex heritage better.

One thing to keep in mind, as I’ve said before, is that our modern interpretation of homosexuality is different to the same-sex activity that was part of Ancient Greek culture. Although many men engaged in sex with younger men and boys they would never define themselves by our term of “gay”.

Every athlete was expected to have sex with another man or boy, and that includes all the Olympic champions. As such the ancient Olympics was full of same-sex practices.

The ancient site of Olympia is familiar to us today through the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame which has signalled the start of the torch relay since 1936, making the torch relay 80 years old this year (more will be said about this on the actual 80^th anniversary).

The map below isn’t a true representation of what exists in physical form at the Olympia site but indicates the location of ruins of buildings. Ancient Olympia didn’t have a flag and the one shown is of the former municipality to which Ancient Olympia belonged prior to 2011. It isn’t known if the present municipality has its own flag.

1) The Gymnasium : The training area for the athletes of the running and throwing events during the games.

2) The Palaistra : The training area for the fighting and jumping events during the games.

3) The Prytaneion : The base of the officials responsible for the ritual sacrifices on site. The victory feasts for the Olympic champions were held here.

4) The Philippeion : Built by King Philip II of Macedonia after his victory at the Battle of Chaeronea over the Sacred Band of Thebes, an army made up of entirely of same-sex partners. The building was complete by Philip’s son Alexander the Great.

5) The Temple of Hera : In little niches in the main columns were painted the portraits of the champions of the Heraia, the local version of the Olympics held just before the main games. Here was housed the disc of Iphitos one which was inscribed the Olympic truce. On a gold and ivory table laid the olive wreaths which were to be awarded to the Olympic champions.

6) The Nymphaion : The water supply built by Herodes Atticus and his wife Regilla in 160 AD. The semi-circular walls contained statues of Herodes and his family.

7) This is where the modern Olympic flame is kindled from the rays of the Sun. From here the priestesses parade to the stadium (no. 8).

8) The Zanes : Here was a line of bronze statues of athletes. They weren’t there because of the athlete’s prowess but because they were found guilty of cheating, cowardice or bribing the judges. Corruption in sport isn’t new!

9) The Stadium : The athletic track where the ancient games took place, and where the modern Olympic flame is use to light the first torch in the Greek stage of the relay.

10) The Theekoloen : This is probably where I would be working if I was living all those centuries ago. It was the home of the priests, but also of “tour guides” who showed visitors, dignitaries and pilgrims around the site during the games.

11) Phidias’s workshop : The most celebrated sculptor of his day, Phidias created the statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, here. On the little finger of Zeus’s hand he carved “Pantarkes is gorgeous” in celebration of his lover who was an Olympic wrestler.

12) The Temple of Zeus : The most sacred and venerated site at Olympia. The Olympic champions were crowned with the olive wreaths from the Temple of Hera in here. Phidias’s statue of Zeus dominated the interior.

13) The Bouleuterion : The base of the “organising committee” of the ancient Olympics and where judging disputes were examined.

14) The Villa of Nero : Built specially for the Emperor Nero when he competed at the Olympics.

Finally, there was also an Olympic Village in ancient times. Athletes had to arrive at Elis near Olympia one month before the games to compete in a kind of Olympic trials event. The organisers chose the best athletes to compete at the real Olympics. Athletes who were not selected were regarded as great as the selected athletes, while selected athletes who pulled out of the Olympics during competition were humiliated. One story about these “Olympic trials” I really like is of a huuuuuuuuuuge wrestler turning up. As soon as he took his clothes off to train all the other wrestling entrants pulled out of the competition!

Clothes Maketh the Man

On this International Museum Day I want to reflect on someone in the museum service I had the pleasure of working with. I’ve worked in several historic buildings and museums over the past 28 years – Epworth Old Rectory, Gainsborough Old Hall and Nottingham Castle. I’ve worked with a lot of interesting people and have taken even more interesting visitors on guided tours (from 200 Methodists bishops to the Dandy Warhols).

My last museum job was in 2005 at the Museum of Costume and Textiles here in Nottingham (pictured below). Since then my connection to the world of heritage has concentrated on lgbt history.

My last “boss” was a man I wish I had talked with more often. He had the official title of Keeper of the Costume and Textiles Collection of Nottingham City Council. His name was Jeremy Farrell (1947-2008), and a more gently soul I have rarely met. When I worked with him he was based in the costume museum, his baby, so to speak, which opened its doors to the public 40 years ago this June. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived the museum had been closed for several years. More of that later.

Jeremy William Farrell was born in 1947 and studied modern history at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1970 he was appointed to the Costume and Textiles position in Nottingham.

At one time Nottingham was world-renowned as a leading centre of textile manufacture. Many innovations originated here. The framework knitting machine was invented nearby in 1589. In the 1770s Sir Richard Arkwright built the world’s first cotton mill just a few hundred metres from where I now live (it was a gay bar in the 1990s and early 2000s called The Mill and its interior kept the original wooden floorings, brickwork in the walls, and massive iron support beams – it’s now luxury apartments). Then lace-making factories were built in the surrounding streets. These mills and the machines were the target of the Luddites, championed by Lord Byron. The machines have gone, the factories are now apartments, studios and multi-storey car parks, but the area is still called The Lace Market. Nottingham lace is still sought after, though not much is made here any more.

With this rich heritage it was natural that Nottingham should have its own museum dedicated to textiles. The politicians at Nottingham city hall preferred not to. When Jeremy Farrell took up his post as Keeper the collection was housed at Nottingham Castle. Very little of it was on display amongst the many decorative and fine art galleries. Jeremy decided that a new museum would showcase the collection better.

After a lot of persuasion Jeremy convinced the city council to create the museum of costume. The photo above is of the Georgian terraced houses just across the road from Nottingham Castle that was chosen for the new museum. The first galleries were open to the public in June 1976. The museum was completed in 1983.

The layout remained virtually the same when I began working there in 2005. There were three floors, and 6 of the rooms were recreated in period style, each displaying costumes from that period. They also exhibited items from the decorative and fine arts collections to make the rooms look more authentic. In some of the other rooms were cases and cabinets which displayed everything from parasols to plimsolls, and from lace collars to corsets. On the top 2 floors were the offices, workrooms and stores where Jeremy was based.

The museum was extremely successful, and through Jeremy’s hard work and eye for a significant addition the collection grew very quickly into one of the most important costume and textile collections in the country.

Jeremy was also a writer of definitive books on umbrellas and parasols, and socks and stockings. He wrote many articles for textile publications.

In 2003 the museum was forced to close because it couldn’t be adapted for complete wheelchair access. As a Grade II listed building a lift could not be built. This was a hard blow to Jeremy. However, the collection remained on display and the museum was only open by prior arrangement for schools and academic groups. It had become a ghost of its former self. Nottingham city council also decided to go back to the old days and have the costumes at the Castle Museum. At that time I was working at the Castle and it was generally felt, though not openly expressed, that the city’s Labour politicians weren’t interested in preserving heritage (they preferred to spend it on a massive new HQ for themselves, and the city’s 5^th art gallery). This was the same Labour council who several years before wanted to ban Robin Hood because having a robber as a hero gave the city a bad image!

The council tried to convince people that they were going to rehouse the costume collection in a new purposely-designed building, but everyone knew they weren’t interested.

When I arrived at the Costume Museum there were only 3 people working there – Jeremy himself, his partner David working as a volunteer, and a university intern. It never had any other full-time staff was always staffed by employees borrowed part-time from other council sites.

My work with Jeremy was to re-catalogue the collection. Much of the work had already been done but it was also slow work. Thousands of index cards had to be put onto computer. Jeremy quickly recognised my skills in research and gave me the extra task of doing additional research into the owners and families of the items in the collection. I was able to re-attribute several items which led to them being re-dated by Jeremy.

Jeremy’s kindness at what was a difficult time for me can never be over-emphasised. He never had a bad word to say about anyone and never judged them. I spent many hours with Jeremy up in the top attic stores re-boxing and examining hundreds of items. With every box Jeremy had a story to tell about its contents. His partner David often expanded on these with his own extensive knowledge.

I left Nottingham City Council and its museum service in November 2005 (not from choice). I tried to keep in touch with my former colleagues and it was on a regular visit to the Castle in 2008 that I learnt that Jeremy had died suddenly from cancer.

Jeremy Farrell will be remembered by all of us who worked with him as the kind of person you don’t want to leave. There was always something you wanted to go back and talk to him about, and he never disappointed. He told me so much that I’ve forgotten most of it. But what he taught me about the history of costume and textiles, in Nottingham specifically, was priceless.

Queer Philosophical Achievement

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

This is the first Irish achievement of arms I’ve featured in this series. It belongs to Gerald Heard (1889-1971), a prolific writer in genres as diverse as philosophy, detective fiction and science correspondence.

His role in the development of modern philosophy began in 1929 with his book “The Ascent of Humanity”, though his most significant work in said to be “The Five Ages of Man” published in 1963. This influenced the “consciousness development” movement. Gerald moved to the USA in 1937.

Gerald Heard, born Henry Fitzgerald Heard, was a junior member of the landed gentry in Ireland. It is said that the first Heard went to Ireland with Sir Walter Raleigh in 1579. The family coat of arms was confirmed by the Ulster King of Arms in 1734 to Gerald’s direct ancestor, John Heard (1690-1763) of Kinsale, County Cork. A confirmation usually means that the family had been using a coat of arms unofficially without heraldic authority. It appears that the Heard family had used these arms since shortly after their arrival in Ireland. The Ulster King of Arms found no reason to prevent them from using them so gave John a confirmation rather than a grant of new arms.

Those strange black objects you see on the shield are called water bougets. They represent leather water bags that were hung around traveller’s necks, sometimes hanging from a stick that the traveller carried on his/her shoulder. This is a very old heraldic device and has become more elaborate over the centuries until, in some case, it is unrecognisable as a couple of water bags hanging from a stick.

When these arms were confirmed to John Heard in 1734 he had been elected Sovereign of Kinsale. This wasn’t a regal title but a civic office originally appointed by the burgesses of the port of Kinsale. The Sovereign was in charge of collecting taxes that were to pay for repairs to the town walls in the 1300s. In 1482 the Sovereign was also appointed Admiral of the Port. Although the official explanation for the design of this coat of arms has not survived we can, perhaps, guess at why the antelope in the crest has a coronet around his neck. Was this an extra detail granted by the Ulster King of Arms to indicate John’s office as Sovereign of Kinsale?

The design of these arms are very traditional, but it could have looked a lot different if the Heards were granted a brand new coat of arms several decades later when one of the family, Sir Isaac Heard, was Garter King of Arms. Isaac was only 4 years old when John Heard had his arms confirmed, and Isaac was to become one of the most famous, and notorious, heralds in British history. Notorious, because he championed “landscape heraldry”.

Heraldry should really be simple and symbolic. Sir Isaac produced heraldry which was more realistic and more akin to historical illustration. For instance, he was responsible for added a depiction of the Battle of the Nile to Nelson’s coat of arms. Sir Isaac himself could have been used the arms confirmed to his cousin John but instead designed something new. To represent his own rescue from drowning at sea, Sir Isaac adopted a coat of arms showing Neptune rising from a stormy sea pulling a wrecked ship out of the waves. Mind you, Sir Isaac did have his good days. In 1801 when the United Kingdom was created he had the idea of adding St. Patrick’s Cross to the Union Jack of Great Britain adopted by “Queen” James I.

Back to our subject for today, the philosopher Gerald Heard. Gerald is descended from the second son of john Heard. On the shield I have placed a red crescent to indicate this. This is called a cadency mark, and English/Irish heraldry has for many centuries assigned a crescent (in any appropriate colour) to a second son. Gerald, however, was actually the 3^rd son of an only son of the eldest of a 2^nd son of this 2^nd son of John Heard. Technically, all of this needs to be represented on a coat of arms, but as you can imagine all those cadency marks would be a bit confusing.

So, how could I depict Gerald Heard’s full achievement of arms without cluttering it up with cadency marks? After all, all the male line and female heirs descended from John Heard’s second son would inherit this coat of arms as well. One method I’ve used through this series, something permissible under heraldic license, is to put the Rainbow Pride flag colours on the back of the motto scroll, which I’ve done. But I wanted to indicate Gerald’s arms specifically in an additional way.

Gerald had no personal military honours or awards that could be shown hanging from the shield so I went back to his academic career. Even though he worked at several universities I thought the most appropriate choice would be the college from which he obtained his degree, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. The only part of Gerald’s full achievement of arms where I could show this is on the mantling, the fabric glowing from the helmet. It’s using artistic and heraldic license again, but I thought I’d colour the mantling in the colours of Gonville and Caius College - black and light blue.

I hope you like today’s heraldic achievement. Several regular readers have sent me messages to say how much they enjoy these articles, and I’ve even had several commissions offered to me (all of which I’ve turned down – I prefer this to be a hobby, not a career). Next time I’ll celebrate International Heraldry Day with another Heraldic Alphabet.

Star Gayzing : Twins, Triplets and Enormous Eruptions

Five of the major planets have been known about since ancient times. The others have been discovered by scientific observations since 1781 when Uranus was found. The names of the people who discovered these planets were well-known in their lifetimes, even the discoverer of the demoted dwarf planet Pluto became a celebrity when he found it in the 1930s.

But, unless you look it up, would you know who discovered the most recent asteroids, comets or satellites? Since the development of better technology the discovery of extra-terrestrial objects has rocketed out of all proportion compared to what has been discovered on Earth. In fact, there’s so many interstellar objects that most of them don’t even have names yet, only reference identity codes (a topic I’ll return to later this year).

One lgbt astronomer has made some important discoveries in recent years and very few outside the scientific world have heard of him. His name is Franck Marchis (b.1973).

With so many astronomical discoveries being made all the time we may be forgiven for not being aware of Franck Marchis’s own discoveries. French-born Marchis earned his PhD in planetary science from the University of Toulouse in 2000. During his studies at La Silla Observatory in Chile he participated in the development of a technique called adaptive optics. This is a technique which enables ground-based telescopes to compensate for the atmospheric distortions which can blur the images of space.

After his PhD he got a postdoctoral position at the University of California Berkeley. It was using the adaptive optics system that Franck and his team discovered the biggest volcanic eruption ever seen. It was on Jupiter’s moon Io, a moon more or less the same size as our Moon.

One of the biggest surprises when the Voyager spacecraft reached Jupiter in the 1970s was the sight of Io. Even the scientists, who are always saying their view of the solar system is right because it’s based on scientific principles, were surprised. Io turned out to be the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Its position in the satellite system of Jupiter creates pressures which constantly pull at the moon. In February 2001 Franck and his team spotted a particularly large volcanic eruption on Io. Measurements indicated that the lava spurted several miles into the sky at great speed. The lava settled to cover an area bigger than London or Los Angeles. If Io was our own Moon the sight would have been spectacular and would have lit up the sky, even during daytime. It was the biggest volcanic eruption ever seen.

Using adaptive optics can also be used to discover small objects. Franck has used this technique to discover more moons, this time orbiting asteroids. When Pluto was being demoted there was a debate on how to define a planet. Some said that planets were objects which orbit the Sun and are big enough to have moons. Pluto had a moon so it was planet, they said. It was pointed out that some small asteroids had moons as well.

In 2005 Franck Marchis discovered a second little moon around one asteroid, an asteroid called Sylvia. Perhaps companion would be a better description than moon. This meant that Sylvia became the first known triple asteroid. The already known companion-moon was called Romulus, and Franck’s new one was named Remus (in full, 87 Sylvia II Remus). In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of Sylvia. The photo below is an actual image of the triple asteroid taken by Franck Marchis.

Since then he has discovered four moonlets that make up three more triple asteroids, and several twin asteroids (see here for the discovery by Franck and fellow gay astronomer Mike Wong of a moonlet around the asteroid Hektor).

In 2007 Franck Marchis’s achievements were recognised when he actually had an asteroid named after him, the name being published just two days before his 24^th birthday. AND it was discovered by La Silla Observatory where Franck conducted most of his thesis research. Actually, today, 12 May 2016, is quite special, because today Earth reached its closest point to asteroid 6639 Marchis. It is orbiting in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter at almost twice the distance from the Sun as we are.

All this talk of twins neatly links Franck Marchis to another significant achievement. Last November he and his husband won a legal battle to have their adopted twin sons officially recognised in the Czech Republic, where his husband Jindra and the twins come from. Destiny or synchronicity (I don’t believe in coincidence)? The twins were born on the same day that Franck and Jindra got married! Czech law did not allow adoption by gay couples, but Franck’s case changed all that, paving the way for more gay adoptions in that country.

Franck Marchis (left) and husband Jindra Vackar (right)

with their twin sons Viktor and Etian Marchis-Vackar.

Photo by Steve Underhill.

STOP PRESS : Two days ago (28 June 2016) the Czech Supreme Court finally overturned the complete ban on lgbt couples and individuals adopting children. The case of Franck Marchis and Jindra Vackar was the one which pioneered the ruling.