A Hundred Years on the Wing

Last week the UK celebrated the centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1st April 1918. It was formed by the unification of the army’s Royal Flying Corps with the navy’s Royal Naval Air Service.

There have been many lgbt aircraftmen and women who have served in the RAF. Since 2007 the RAF has been listed in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index. In 2011 it joined the Top 100. This is a far cry from the years before 2000 when being openly lgbt in any of the armed services in the UK meant an immediate discharge.

There were lgbt personnel in the pre-RAF air services. Most notable was the singer-songwriter Ivor Novello (1893-1951). He is most famous for writing the sentimental song popular during World War I, “Keep the Home Fires Burning” (more of which in a few months time during the “Around the World in Another 80 Gays” series). On the outbreak of the war he joined the Royal Naval Air Service. He trained as a pilot but crash-landed on both of his first two solo flights. Because of this he was transferred to the Admiralty as a clerk. From there he seems to have been transferred to the new Air Ministry when the RAF was formed.

As I wrote last year I have had a number of RAF personnel in my family, more than in any other of the defence services. In celebration of the RAF centenary and the contribution of lgbt pilots and ground crew I’ve put together the chart below. It lists selected lgbt RAF personnel from the past 100 years in descending order of military rank. I have yet to identify appropriate personnel for all ranks, particularly the top ranks. The individuals listed as placed in the highest rank they achieved.

Other RAF personnel I have previously written about include Wing Commander Derek Jackson, and Wing Commander Ian Gleed. My representation of Air Commodore Lionel Charlton’s coat of arms is here.

A Common Wealth of Sport

The year of big multi-sport events continues. Hot on the heels of the Winter Paralympics comes the Commonwealth Games which have just begun in the city of Gold Coast, Australia.

For most nations with British heritage (and now several nations with none) these are our very own Olympics. Unlike other sporting events, such as the Pan-American games, there has never been any involvement from the International Olympic Committee. It has a character of its own.

In a few sports the Commonwealth Games offers some athletes the only chance to compete in a major international multi-sport festival, a chance that doesn’t occur in the Olympics because their sport is not included. Squash, netball, powerlifting and lawn bowls are just a few sports in the Commonwealth Games that don’t appear at the Olympics. Also, para-athletes compete at the same games and don’t have a separate games.

While some critics put down the Commonwealth Games by claiming that the top international athletes aren’t present (by which they mean there aren’t any US athletes) there’s still many Olympic champions and top athletes who do compete. One third of the world’s population live in Commonwealth nations. A high proportion of the top Commonwealth athletes are also lgbt Olympic medallists. Of the 46 known lgbt athletes who have competed in the Commonwealth Games 34 are Olympians, and 18 of those have won Olympic medals. There is no evidence that the Commonwealth Games don’t feature the best in the world.

Here is my list of known lgbt Commonwealth Games athletes. This is list is far from complete as I have a lot more research to carry out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/130Nv8FmhfCUyGWqj1RbKtWYiaOXsjfeK/view?usp=sharing

There are 11 openly lgbt athletes competing this week (all mentioned in the list), including the first ever transgender athlete, Laurel Hubbard, competing in weightlifting for New Zealand. Transgender athletes have often had a difficult time being accepted into their sport. The inclusion of Laurel Hubbard was challenged by the Australian Weightlifting Federation, but the Australian Commonwealth Games association accepted her and gave her official accreditation to compete.

The question of gender verification is also still a difficult process for some athletes. One of the most high profile cases of a currently competing athlete was that of South Africa’s Caster Semenya a decade ago. She had been subjected to a very public scrutiny of her gender. Despite this she went on to win a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She makes her Commonwealth Games debut this week. Caster has the honour of carrying her national flag at the opening ceremony, a duty she has undertaken at both of her Olympic opening ceremonies, such has been the support the South African athletic federation has in her. She is the only lgbt athlete to carry her flag at an Olympic and a Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

On the subject of flags, the Commonwealth Games, like the Olympics, has its own flag. Last time, in Glasgow 2014, one of the athletes given the honour of carrying it into the stadium was Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe. This was just a few months after he came out publicly as gay, and he received one of the loudest and longest cheers when his name was announced.

Recently Ian Thorpe’s place at the top of the lgbt Olympic medal table was pipped by Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst. Ian’s place at the top of the lgbt Commonwealth Games medal table is unlikely to be beaten in the foreseeable future. He has 10 gold medals. The athletes in 2nd and 3rd place retired long ago and will never overtake him. Diver Tom Daley in 4th place is the highest placed multi-gold medallist still competing. Tom has 3 Commonwealth gold medals, and only if he wins all gold medals currently available to him (men’s platform, men’s synchro platform and mixed synchro platform) at every Commonwealth Games up to 2026 when he’ll be 32, will he overtake Ian Thorpe’s record.

In second place on the medal table with 7 gold medals is another Australian, track athlete Raelene Boyle. Like Ian Thorpe Raelene has taken place in an opening ceremony. In 1982 when the Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane she was the final runner in the Queen’s Baton relay. Raelene has also taken part in an Olympic opening ceremony, bringing the torch into the stadium at the Sydney 2000 games.

The Queen’s Baton relay is the equivalent of the Olympic torch relay, and the final runner is the equivalent of the Olympic cauldron lighter. The baton relay celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and usually begins at Buckingham Palace and sets off on its journey to the opening ceremony. The Gold Coast baton left the palace in May 2017. In the crowd watching the ceremony was a spectator at the entrance to the Mall with a Pink Jack draped over the barrier. Once again, Ian Thorpe gets a mention now, as he held the baton aloft on the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge at the beginning of January.

Unlike the Olympic torch relay the Queen’s Baton relay has included one section that was specifically organised to honour the local lgbt community. On 1st May 2014 the Queen’s baton was in Toronto as part of the Glasgow games relay. The main section was called the Relay of Inclusion. It was 1½ kilometres long and ended at the Toronto Pride House with a large reception. Those who ran on the Queen’s Baton Relay of Inclusion included:

Michelle DuBarry (Russell Alldread), a legendary drag queen,
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawks, Metropolitan Community Church minister,
Toni Greaves, para-athlete,
Tedd and Garry Kónya, lgbt sports and community activist,
E. J. (Anikay-Keesic) Kwandibens, fitness instructor and Two Spirit activist,
Kinnon Ross MacKinnon, transgender powerlifter,
Junic Wokuri, Director of Freedom and Roam Uganda.

Elsewhere in the Commonwealth lgbt rights are a big problem. Many countries still use the old 19th century legal system an laws introduced by former European colonial powers that criminalised homosexuality.

One nation that was part of the French colonial empire, Cameroon, joined the Commonwealth in 1995 (two other non-British Empire nations have also done so, Rwanda and Mozambique). Thierry Essamba was one of Cameroon’s top athletes, winning a gold medal in the hurdles at the 2013 Central African championships. One month before the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games he was suspended from his national team because of rumours of his homosexuality. As a result his family disowned him and he became depressed and attempted suicide. The worldwide athletics community was largely supportive of Thierry. It was hopes that he would compete at the Gay Games held in Cleveland just after the Commonwealth Games finished but the Federation of Gay Games refused to fund his travel expenses because they didn’t want to put him at the head of a long waiting list of other lgbt athletes. Thierry’s gold medal time at the Central African championships would have earned his a gold medal at the Gay Games as well.

While Thierry Essamba was denied the chance to compete for his country at the Commonwealth Games, Laurel Hubbard has succeeded. The presence of lgbt athletes, and a Pride House, at international multi-sport events will only be a positive step towards full inclusion and a good influence on those nations who still discriminate in sport.

Homohoax : The Forgery That Launched a Career

A Sleeping Cupid, a popular statue in Renaissance Italy, copied hundreds of times. Did Michelangelo’s statue look like this? It resembles sketches he made.

April Fool’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world on this day. In a world where fake news is all around us it is sometimes difficult to recognise what if fact and what is fiction. The best April Fool’s hoaxes are those that we know are fake but still fall for them. Two famous April Fool hoaxes in the UK come from the BBC – the spaghetti tree harvest (1957) and the flying penguins (2008).

The lgbt community is not immune to producing or receiving hoaxes. I’ll write about several of them throughout the rest of the year. What I won’t write about are the dozen or more claims made in recent decades by lgbt people who have deliberately faked anti-gay abuse or discrimination.

This first article recounts a hoax from 1496 that established Michelangelo as one of the greatest artists who has ever lived. For an artist who produced the masterpiece of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo preferred sculpture. The Renaissance was at its height and he had the good fortune to study at the sculpture studio in Florence, the epicentre of the Renaissance world. The ruler of Florence, Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de’ Medici, became his patron and the teenaged budding sculptor became acquainted with all the top thinkers and artists of his age.

In 1492 Lorenzo de’ Medici died and a period of political and moral uncertainty emerged in Florence with the rise of the ultra-conservative and puritanical Bible-thumping monk Girolamo Savonarola, one of the few people who makes the Westbury Baptist Church sound lgbt-friendly! Michelangelo thought it best to leave Florence, for any connection to Lorenzo de’ Medici was suddenly seen with suspicion.

Michelangelo only had a taste of the life he was to acquire. He was now in danger of returning to the life of a struggling sculptor looking for a wealthy patron. It was at this point that a fake made his fortune.

The year is 1496. Michelangelo continued to sculpt and came up with a classical-style figure of a sleeping cupid. Lorenzo di Pierfrancisco de’ Medici, a cousin of Lorenzo “the Magnificent”, saw it and commented that if it was deliberately “aged” it would easily pass as an ancient statue that could fetch a high price. Kerching!

At this point the facts get a bit fuzzy. Some accounts from the time say that Michelangelo took on the aging process himself, burying the statue in acidic soil for several months. Some accounts say it was art dealer who sold the statue who did it. This art dealer, Baldassari di Milanese, was a typical middle-man who took the biggest cut of the sale.

Whoever did the aging of the Sleeping Cupid statue it ended up being bought by Cardinal Raffeallo Riario for 200 ducats. Michelangelo received only 30 and Baldassari kept the rest. The cardinal was convinced the statue was genuine.

A year later the cardinal became a bit suspicious. He had heard rumours of convincing fake ancient statues coming out of the studios in Florence and he despatched agents to make enquiries. They managed to track Michelangelo down who admitted to the forgery. The cardinal was both angered and curious. Angered that had been conned, and curious that such a young artist such as the 20-year-old Michelangelo could produce such a convincing fake.

Michelangelo said he could prove he had great talent. He asked the cardinal to watch as he made a drawing of his own hand. Impressed by the result the cardinal invited Michelangelo to Rome and agreed to become his patron (some accounts say it was the cardinal’s agents who watched him sketch his hand).

As for Baldassari di Milanese, he was forced to pay back the 200 ducats he received from the cardinal. Fortunately, Michelangelo was allowed to keep the 30 ducats he had received. It was Baldassari who was the only loser in the whole affair.

Michelangelo’s reputation rocketed after that. Within five years he been commissioned to produce two of the world’s greatest masterpieces – the “Pietá” and “David”.

As for the Sleeping Cupid, it was later part of the prestigious collection of the d’Este family, the rulers of Mantua. It was then sold with the rest of the d’Este collection in London. The cupid was bought by King Charles I who put it on display in Whitehall Palace. Unfortunately, Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire in 1698 and so, too, probably, was Michelangelo’s Sleeping Cupid.

At least for Michelangelo his forgery only helped to establish his career. In July I’ll write about another gay man who’s fakery only helped to destroy his.

Flower Power : Botanical Crowning Glories

With so many international sporting festivals this year (Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Commonwealth Games, Gay Games, Asian Games, Youth Summer Olympics, among others) athletes’ attention turns to winning medals. The ancient Greek games from which so many of them take their inspiration didn’t have medals. Instead they had various prizes, and those that didn’t had victory crowns made from sacred plants as their only reward.

We saw some acknowledgement of these victory wreaths at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, both in the form of the games logo (above) and in the olive wreaths presented to the medallists on the victory podium.

Only the winners of the ancient games were awarded victory wreaths. There was no prize for coming second or third. All of the athletes, regardless of which shrine the games were being held, has trained the same way. Athletes joined a gymnasium as a boy of about 12, and were immediately sought out by an older athlete as a training and sexual partner. It gives a whole new slant of the term “gym buddy”. That is why there was always a statue of Eros in every gym. Without repeating what I’ve written many times before Eros was associated with male same-sex activity more than with any other kind.

The ancient Olympics were the most famous and most prestigious games. Olive trees grew in the grove around the temple of Zeus at Olympia and were considered sacred to him. One myth recounts that Herakles brought the first olive tree to Olympia after one of his many adventures and planted it at Olympia to honour his father Zeus. Herakles is also said to have founded the Olympic Games and was the first to present the victors with a wreath of olive branches.

Before we look at the other floral victory wreaths let’s look at which games awarded them. The Olympic games were the most important of the four Panhellenic games. These were the games that were open to all Greeks regardless of which city state they came from. The other games were held in specific years of the Olympiad.

An Olympiad is a period of time, not an event. It lasted four years and the Olympics were held in the first year, as the modern games still are. If you’ve wondered why the 2018 Rio Olympics were referred to as the games of the 31st Olympiad even though they were only the 28th games that have been held, that’s the reason why. The World Wars prevented games from being held for the 5th, 12th and 13th modern Olympiads.

Here is a table of the ancient Panhellenic games and where and when they were held. 

Olympiad	Name	Location
Year 1	Olympic Games	Olympia
Year 2	Isthmian Games (April-May)	Corinth
	Nemean Games (July)	Koutsoumadi (modern day Archaia Nemea)
Year 3	Pythian Games	Delphi
Year 4	Isthmian Games (April-May)	Corinth
	Nemean Games (July)	Koutsoumadi (modern day Archaia Nemea)

In the second year of the ancient Olympiad two Panhellenic games were held. The first was the Isthmian Games held at the temple of Poseidon at Corinth. The victors of these games were awarded wreaths of pine fronds. The pine tree was sacred to Poseidon, the god of the sea, because it was used for building ships. Like the flora used for the other victory wreaths pine was considered a vital part of the local economy and culture and held sacred significance.

During the 5th to 1st centuries BC the Isthmian pine wreath was temporarily replaced with one made of celery. No, not the crunchy salad celery but the leafy wild celery from which it was cultivated. I can’t get the image of a hunky naked Greek athlete standing on a victory podium with a wreath made of stick of celery on his head! It’s like something out of the abysmal “Horrible Histories” alleged children’s educational television series. But while the Isthmian Games regained the pine wreath the Nemean Games always awarded wild celery victory wreaths.

Wild celery was considered to be unlucky to the ancient Greeks. So why would anyone use it to celebrate victory? The reason goes back to one of the myths about the creation of the Nemean Games. An oracle had told a local king that his son, Prince Opheltes, should never touch the ground until he had learned to walk. One day the Seven Against Thebes, a group of legendary heroes who led an army against the usurper of the Theban throne, rested for a while in the foothills of the Arkadian mountains. There they met a nursemaid carrying the baby Prince Opheltes. The nursemaid offered to fetch some water to refresh the heroes and laid the baby down onto a bed of wild celery, ensuring that he couldn’t touch the ground. It wasn’t high enough to stop a snake from slithering up to the baby and killing it. This seemed like a bad omen to the Seven heroes and to bring good luck in their mission they held funeral games in the baby prince’s honour at the place where he died. Funerals were always occasions where sport played a major part in Greece, so this was not unusual. Victory wreaths made from wild celery were given to the victors. That’s one of the myths of the Nemean Games and celery. The modern revival of the Nemean Games still has wild celery wreaths as the only reward for the victors.

The fourth of the Panhellenic Games was the Pythian Games held at Delphi in honour of Apollo. These games awarded the most famous victory wreath of them all – the wreath that has given its name to the best of other endeavours. The laurel wreath.

The honour of being appointed a Poet Laureate or a Nobel laureate originate in the ancient award of a laurel wreath (the word “baccalaureate” comes from a different source). The reason is because of the original contests held at the Pythian Games. I’ll write more about this later this year as part of my “Around the World in Another 80 Gays” series, but, briefly, the Pythian Games originated as song and poetry contests. Apollo was god of music and poetry and Delphi was his most important shrine. Sport was added to the games a few centuries later.

The laurel was sacred to Apollo. The myth goes that he and Eros argued over who had mastery over archery. Eros secretly created two arrows, one of gold and one of lead. He shot the gold arrow at Apollo, giving him an overwhelming feeling of sexual passion. Eros then fired the lead arrow at a nymph called Daphne, giving her an overwhelming revulsion to sex. Apollo pursued Daphne relentlessly, ignoring the nymph’s protests. In desperation Daphne called upon the gods for help and they turned her into the first laurel tree. Apollo’s passion was not diminished and he declared his eternal devotion to the laurel. Since then Apollo was always seen wearing a laurel wreath on his head. Therefore the Pythian Games awarded laurel wreaths to the winners of the poetry and song contests in honour of Apollo.

I like the idea of presenting floral victory wreaths. Like the 2004 Athens Olympics it’s a nod to those ancient games which have inspired so many modern games. At least it’s more likely to be welcomed than having all-male naked sport with same-sex couples is likely to be.