80 More Gays Around the World: Part 18) Fighting Against AIDS and Art

Last time on “80 More Gays”: Geophysicist 47) Allan Cox (1926-1987) provided proof of continental drift which had been suggested in studies of plants and lichens by 48) Elke Mackenzie (1911-1990), a member of the secret Operation Tarabin sent to the Falkland Islands, where the long-running Anglo-Argentine dispute over them is continued by 49) Gustavo Mellela (b.1970), the most recent openly gay provincial governor since 50) Jared Polis (b.1975).

50) Jared Polis was elected Governor of Colorado on 6th November 2018. Even though 49) Gustavo Mellela is the most recent openly gay governor to take office (as the Argentine Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the Southern Atlantic Islands) Jared is still the most recent who was openly gay when running for office. Before becoming governor Jared was a member of the US House of Representatives.

Jared Polis is Colorado born and bred. Though he is entitled to live in the governor’s mansion in Denver he has chosen to live there only during legislative sessions. The mansion was built in 1908 as the home of a tycoon’s widow. In 1957 it came into the possession of the Boetcher Foundation and they offered it to the state of Colorado. On New Year’s Eve 1959 the then Governor, Stephen McNichols, accepted the gift and it has been the governor’s official residence ever since.

The Governor's Mansion, Denver, Colorado.

Jared Polis is not the mansion’s first gay residence. The son of Governor McNichols spent some of his childhood there. His name is 51) William Hart McNichols (b.1949). Although his immediate family background is in politics, William chose to study art and religion. His dream was to illustrate religious books for children. Since 1982 he has illustrated many books for the Paulist Press and other Christian publishers.

William was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1979. When AIDS began its devastating effect on the gay community Father William volunteered at the St. Vincent Medical Centre in New York as a chaplain in the AIDS hospice team.

In 1986 he came out publicly. Two factors influenced his decision which, in those days, could easily have meant being fired, both as a chaplain and as a priest. The first influence was his desire to minister to AIDS patients who had a deep-seated suspicion against the church and felt uneasy talking to a priest. He felt that as an openly gay priest he could help to overcome the unease. The second influence was publicity at that time around sexual abuse by priests. By coming out Father William wanted to present a positive gay Christian figure. Both the hospice and the church agreed to let him continue his ministry.

During his AIDS hospice ministry Father William created many religious images, in particular in the style of traditional icons for which his is now famous. In 1990 he went to study icon writing (the official term for icon painting) from Robert Lentz, a renowned icon writer another openly gay Catholic. The result was a series of commissions for Father William to produce icons for churches and clergy. Some of his work, and that of Robert Lentz, has depicted aspects of gay life and gay role models. Many examples of their work can be found online.

Although a Catholic, Father William has excelled in an art-form synonymous with the Eastern Orthodox Churches. But icons were not always popular. In the 9th century the Orthodox Church was split in a controversy that had been going on for some time. Some priests believed icons were idolatrous, forcing their way into churches and smashing every icon they saw (recent attacks on statues of people with links to slavery illustrates the same degree of passion). Other priests supported the use of icons as a means of obtaining a closer communication with Christ. The icon destroyers were called iconoclasts, and the supporters were called iconodules. Eventually, icons were banned and iconodules such as 52) St. Methodios I of Constantinople (d.847) were persecuted.

Methodios was arrested in 821. He was tortured and his jaw and teeth were smashed and after that he wore a cloth bandage abound his jaw for the rest of his life, as depicted in the icon below. He was then banished to solitary confinement on an island.

St. Methodios I of Constantinople

When the infant emperor Mikhael III succeeded to the throne in 842 the tide turned. Mikhael, by the way, was number 39 in my first “80 Gays” series. The regent, Mikhael’s mother Theodora, re-introduced icons and Methodios soon found himself being appointed Patriarch of Byzantium, the highest religious office in the Orthodox Church. His appointment and the return of the icons was marked with a magnificent procession through Byzantium on 11th March 843. This day is still commemorated as the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Methodios still had his opponents who tried to discredit him. He was accused of sexual assault by the mother of one of his iconoclast enemies. At a tribunal Methodios stripped in front of the judges revealing himself to be intersex. His male sexual organs were not developed enough for him to perform any sexual activity and he was exonerated. Methodios claimed that he had been miraculously transformed by divine intervention during his solitary confinement. This is recalled in his medieval biography which, like most lives of saints from that period, was highly apocryphal to emphasise the saints’ holy character. It is more likely that Methodios was born intersex.

Methodios’s term of office ended with his death in 847. He is venerated as a saint in both the Orthodox and Catholic churches. His successor as Patriarch was a eunuch called Ignatius. The Orthodox Church didn’t reject gender variations from high office of state, church or army.

The Byzantine military had several intersex, third gender or eunuch commanders. One of the greatest of these was 53) Narses (c.478-c.573).

Next time “80 More Gays”:  The blues and greens riot, the blues and buffs go to war, and we get buried on a field of puns.

My Happy 9th Anniversary!

Well what can I say? I’m posting my 1,000th article today, though I have to admit that it is by design. I planned this year’s schedule specifically so that I could reach the magic 1,000 on this day, my 9th anniversary.

When I began my blog way back in 2011 I never thought I’d reach the start of my 10th year. It was never an intention to carry on after a couple of years. What changed my mind was the ever increasing number of readers and followers I built up over the months. It is with gratitude that I thank each and every one of you who read my blog, even if you get here by accident.

I’ve noticed a few changes over the years. My first articles were quite short. This was because I wanted to get as much information out there as possible, and I didn’t really make a plan for the future until I saw how the blog was received. It wasn’t long before I came up with the idea of doing an intermittent continuing series of articles on various subjects. The first was a series on the Greater Panathenean Games, which came about through a talk I was giving to a gay men’s support group here in Nottingham.

There was also the London Olympics, and I was beginning research into lgbt Olympians and lgbt participation in the games. London 2012 gave me the impetus to do more research. This is when I compiled my first list of lgbt Olympians. As I mentioned a few days ago, the list is rapidly approaching the 400 mark (another name has been added since then, a rower).

This research led to me becoming a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, the organisation affiliated to the International Olympic Committee and recognised as the “official” body for research into the Olympics.

On many occasions I have let my own personal interests influence what I write – it is my blog, after all. These interests have included family history, heraldry, and vexillilogy (flags).

I can understand why some people don’t think these subjects are significant to lgbt history, but just look at the Rainbow Pride flag and the many gender and sexuality flags there are out there. My next flag article will be on World Vexillology Day on 1st October when I’ll write about a special project that has collected over 100 of them.

Heraldry may seem to be an archaic subject, but if that is the case why have there been more coats of arms granted and adopted in the past 50 years than in the previous 500? My heraldry articles have also attracted comment and requests. I’ve been asked to do commissions, but I’ve turned them down because I know that there are better heraldic artists out there. Several armigers (people who have a coat of arms) have also contacted me to ask if I could include their coat of arms in my annual Heraldic Alphabet. I’ve been glad to.

In June I was contacted by the Australian Heraldry Society who were including an article on lgbt heraldry in their members’ journal. I like to think that my articles influenced their own. They wanted to include my original representation of Sir Elton John’s coat of arms which I produced for this blog, to which I gladly consented.

My family history research has also been appreciated by readers. In particular I’d like to mention my debunking of the Mail on Sunday’s claim of an American royal claimant to the British throne. The claimant in question contacted me to thank me for my research into his family. This led directly into research for my “Game of Gay Thrones” series. Initially I thought this would be a one-off article but I’ve found enough lgbt claimants and pretenders for a fifth article next year.

Another result of my genealogical research was an approach from the sister of a recently deceased lgbt Olympian who wanted to include my research in the biography of her brother that she was writing.

While writing my blog I have researched many subjects that I had absolutely no interest or knowledge of beforehand. This is best illustrated in the three “80 Gays Around the World” series I have produced. I would never have researched the colours of the uniform worn by the American Revolutionary soldiers if it hadn’t been for sculptor Anne Seymour Damer’s political activities, for example.

As well as covering well-known events and reviving forgotten stories my blog has given me a chance to recognise that not all lgbt history you read or hear about from activists is necessarily true. They only tell you what they want you to hear.

When I started this blog I was led to believe from lgbt activists that: 1) Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person elected to public office in the USA (there were 3 openly lgbt public officials elected in Illinois before him); 2) drag queens started the Stonewall Riot (they didn’t, they weren’t there until the riot was well under way – they’ve said so themselves); and 3) New York City held the first modern Pride March (if you ignore the Candelora parade in Italy dating back to 1256, the first Pride march was in Chicago).

I also get a little upset when people write themselves into someone else’s history. That second point is an example. Yes, drag queens were at Stonewall, but they didn’t start it or play a more significant part than anyone else. They have enough pioneering history of their own without pushing someone else out of theirs. The first self-identified drag queen in America was a gay, freed black slave. His story and struggles are more relevant to them and so many human rights issues of today in the USA than leading the Stonewall riots.

Whatever we think about historical events, whatever side or angle we take, our opinion of history is only formed by contemporary attitudes. We are all involved in making history, our own and our predecessors. Recent events have brought forward many revisionist views of our past and its people. Added to this is the work of academics and archaeologists who present new information which also change our views. A phrase I’ve often used when talking to friends is “history is always changing” and no-one can guarantee that what we think today will be acceptable in the future.

We live in a time where more of the past is revealed, recorded and accessible than at any other. Debate and controversy over what happened in the past helps us to understand the lives and attitudes of the people who lived there. It is also very easy for politicians and militants to manipulate history to promote their own agenda because there will always be someone who’ll listen.

I hope that my blog has been honest, not covering up or changing history to suit my own agenda, if I ever have one. I’ve tried to cover the good and bad in lgbt history, and I will continue to do so for another year. There have been a handful of mistakes and wrong information, I admit, but I’ve tried to correct them. Overall I think I’ve provided a fresh look at our lgbt heritage.

Please continue to read my blog and, once again, thank you for you interest.

The Spartan Harvest and the Naked Chase

Even though our attention should have been on the Olympics at the moment we should remember that there were other festivals in ancient Greece. I’ve covered several of these festivals with sporting connection in some of my early articles.

In the first months of my blog I wrote about the Greater Panathenean Games. Just before the London Olympics I wrote about the Hyakinthia festival. This was the second of the three main festivals held in Sparta. The first was the Gymnopedia. The third was held during the last month of the Spartan calendar, just around now, and was called the Karneia. It is this festival about which I write today.

All three festivals were held in honour of the patron god of Sparta, Apollo, whose part in a gay love triangle formed the origin myth of the Hyakinthia. Even though all three festivals eventually included some sport the main emphasis, as in the Olympics, was on the cult of the patron god. To understand the involvement of the main participants in the Karneia we will look at who was excluded from the other two.

The responsibilities of Spartan men was to fight for the state, and marry and father the next generation of Spartan soldiers. There were several groups in the community who were considered to be un-Spartan, inferior and were denied rights and respect. These groups included men who dropped out of education (dominated by military training) before completion, freed slaves and their children, non-Spartans living in Sparta and their children, men who had shown cowardice in battle, and unmarried men over the age of 30 with no children. This last group is known as the agamoi.

It seems there was a change in attitude towards the agamoi over the centuries. The historian Plutarch writing at the turn of the 1st century says that the Spartans wouldn’t allow the agamoi to participate in or attend the Gymnopedia festival games. The reason he gave was that the Spartans believed the sight of so many athletic young men would be too much of a temptation for the agamoi. This seems at odds with the acceptance of the boy-adult same-sex relationships (up to the age of about 30) common to Greek culture at the time. These agamoi may be the nearest we can get in ancient Greece to men closest to our present definition of gay – same-sex relationships that remained physical past the age of 30.

The agamoi were, however, allowed to compete in their own games – in the middle of winter where even in Sparta the temperature could go below zero. And they were expected to compete naked just like the athletes in the summer games. In addition they had to perform dances and songs that ridiculed their status. During other events the agamoi were expected to give up their seats to anyone on demand (never by request). Another task enforced upon the agamoi was the financing and organising of the Karneia festival.

We know less about the Karneia than we do about the Hyakinthia and Gymnopedia. It may have begun as a harvest celebration, as it was held during the harvest season. There are several origin myths, including being based on the foundation of Sparta, or the commemoration of the assassination of a local seer. A fourth origin story involves the worship of an ancient ram god called Karneios.

Whatever it’s origin the Karneia festival became scared to Apollo who became known as Apollo Karneia. In this incarnation he was depicted with ram’s horns, as shown in the ancient coin below.

Although Plutarch wrote that the agamoi were ridiculed it seems that at other times they were respected within the community. Some of the earliest agamoi appear to have been servants to the priests in the temple of Apollo Karneios. Five agamoi from each of the Spartans tribes were selected by lot to organise the Karneia festival, and they held this post for four years.

Like other festivals, there was of truce. This was not for a desire for peace but, as in the Olympic truce, a chance for soldiers to participate in their sacred games without the enemy attacking. Attack during the games and you are attacking the gods. This is the reason the Spartans arrived late to the Battle of Marathon – they were at the Karneia and would not fight.

The main element of the Karneia was a race, more of a chase really. It had the long name of staphylodromoi. Split the word into two and you get an indication of the harvest aspect of the earliest Karneia – staphylo (grape), dromoi (runner). One agamoi was chosen as “bait” and garlanded with a ribbon. Running naked through the streets of Sparta he would pray to Apollo Karneia to bestow good fortune on the city. Running a little behind him, also naked, were a group of other agamoi (or, in some sources, unmarried younger men in their 20s) who had to catch the “bait”. If they did, the prayers of the “bait” would be answered. As the name of the race suggests, the original “bait” runners had bunches of grapes rather than a ribbon that the others had to snatch.

One part common to most festivals were song and dance contests. Not Fred Astaire-type songs and dances but ritual lyric poems with or without musical accompaniment, and rhythmic movement. Hellanikos of Lesbos, a writer from the 5th century BC, compiled a list of winners of the song contest.

What appears to be a later addition to the Karneia is a more military component. Nine military tents were erected near the temple and nine agamoi, again selected by lot, were served a meal in each of them.

The Karneia lasted for nine days, though how those days were filled is uncertain. The staphylodromoi was probably held on the first day. There could have been different types of song and dance contests most of the other days. The military tents may have been towards the end. Undoubtedly there would have been animal sacrifices made by the priests and the king, and the non-agamoi Spartans would have feasted and worshipped every day.

So, there seems to be two different attitudes to unmarried men over the age of 30 in Sparta. Or perhaps the agamoi were ridiculed and despised throughout the year, banned from the Gymnopedia and forced to play sport naked in the middle of winter, but at the Karneia they were tolerated and respected because they were providing a sacred service to the community. I know which I would rather have taken part in.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 17) Going South

Last time of “80 More Gays”: 44) Jack Larson (1928-2015) was the co-star of the 1950s television series about Superman, who was revitalised with the 1978 film for which 34) Neal Pozner (1955-1994) designed a promotional magazine before redesigning Aquaman, a superhero from Atlantis whose supernatural culture was a vital influence on the Theosophical belief of 46) Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934), and a continent that was proven not to exist in the Atlantic by geomagnetic evidence provided by 47) Allan Cox (1926-1987).

47) Allan Cox is one of the scientists who proved that continental drift existed. Very few other scientists believed in it at the time, despite evidence dating back 50 years. In an article I wrote back in 2013 called “Rock Solid Couple” I mentioned that Allan Cox was lucky to be mentored by one of the few scientists in the 1950s who believed in continental drift. Looking back on that article I don’t think I properly explained the process, but Allan proved that the changing magnetism preserved in rock proved that the earth’s crust was splitting apart. Once scientists began to realise that Allan and other continental drift supporters might be on to something they began research into plate tectonics.

Before Cox published his research palaeontologists had long recognised that fossils of the same species of animal were found on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Originally they believed there was an ancient intercontinental landmass over which the animals travelled which had long since been submerged, not unlike Atlantis (thus science suggesting its possible existence).

The evidence of plant species evolving on continents that may once have been connected was suggested by a British botanist called 48) Elke Mackenzie (1911-1990). Although not explicitly expressed Mackenzie noted that the same species of lichens existed on different continents in her 1942 doctoral thesis which dealt with lichens from the Antarctic and South Atlantic. Her massive contribution to the study of lichens is marked in the botanical names of several species that are named after her, including Buella lambii and Verrucaria Mackenzie-lambii.

You’ll notice that these species are called “lambii”. This is because they were named before Elke began to transition to female in 1971. She was baptised Ivan Mackenzie Lamb. During her career Elke was Assistant Keeper at the British Natural History Museum, Professor of Cryptogamic (i.e. spore-reproducing) Botany at the National Institute of Tucumán (Argentina), and Director of the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany at Harvard, among other appointments. Elke retired from her Harvard post in 1973 and turned to translating German botanical texts. She died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 1983.

Elke’s work on lichens could fill several articles but it is her Antarctic studies which takes us on our next path of connections.

During World War II there were fears that Nazi u-boats were targeting shipping in the southern hemisphere. The British government were also worried that there were signs that neutral Argentina was sending ships to uninhabited South Atlantic islands that were recognised in international law as British territories.

The British response was to launch a secret expedition to reassert British sovereignty of those territories, disguising it behind a real scientific research expedition called Operation Tabarin. The ship had a crew of 27 Canadian Arctic seaman, and among the handful of scientists was botanist Elke Mackenzie. Once in the South Atlantic Operation Tabarin proceeded to establish bases on several islands to deter Argentine settlement, carrying out their scientific research all the time. Elke wrote a book about the operation and her part it in called “The Secret South”.

Operation Tabarin succeeded in deterring Argentinian reprisals for the time being, but once the war was over Argentina and Chile signed a defence agreement over Antarctic land claims. From Operation Tabarin came the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, now called the British Antarctic Survey.

Antarctica (the continental ice shelf) showing the disputed territories. The area within the pie segment is the British Antarctic Territory. The area in pink is the region claimed by Chile, and area in red in claimed by both Chile and Argentina

Those of us who live in the UK are constantly aware of the dispute over territorial claims in the South Atlantic, most famously over the Falkland Islands, or Malvinas as the South Americans call them. The legal and historical roots of this dispute are themselves debated, and I won’t go into them here. But the dispute is very much alive. Just seven weeks ago the Argentine government proposed new measures to protect and enforce their territorial claims to the Falklands and British South Atlantic and Antarctic possessions. One of the initiatives is the establishing of a National Advisory Council of Malvinas Policy. A member of that council is the current provincial governor whose area covers the Falklands/Malvinas, Argentina’s first openly gay governor 49) Gustavo Mellela (b.1970).

Gustavo Mellela’s full title (in English) is Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the Southern Atlantic Islands. Although this province is the least populated in Argentina it covers the largest area, the majority of it being in the Atlantic Ocean. Its Antarctic territory covers most of the British Antarctic Territory (the rest is claimed by Chile, who also claims most of the Argentine territory).

Gustavo is not the first openly gay governor in that particular part of the world. In 2016-17 the Commissioner (governor) of the British Antarctic Territory was John Kittmer, also openly gay.

Gustavo Melella was elected Governor of Tierra del Fuego in June 2019, taking up office in December. He didn’t run for office as an openly gay candidate, and came out publicly shortly afterwards. He had previously been Mayor of Rio Grande.

I don’t think Gustavo has a very high opinion of us Brits. In 2014 when he was Mayor of Rio Grande he signed a twinning agreement with Algeciras, the city which faces Gibraltar across the Bay of Gibraltar. Now, I’m sure you’re aware that Gibraltar is another British possession. In a very undiplomatic move Gustavo signed the twinning agreement on the anniversary of the 1982 Argentine occupation of the Falklands.

Until Gustavo came out publicly a year ago the most recent openly gay provincial or state governor was the Governor of Colorado in the USA, 50) Jared Polis (b.1975).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: We discover that being in the governor’s mansion is truly iconic, which leads us to some really smashing Byzantines.

Queer Olympic Achievement

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

There are not that many lgbt Olympians who are entitled to a coat of arms, as far as my research has shown. There’s Francilia Agar (included in my first Heraldic Alphabet article) and Dan Veatch (in my 2016 article). Another is Mark Chatfield (1953-1998), and I thought I’d do his full achievement to celebrate what should have been the Olympics this week. Here is it –

Mark Webster Chatfield represented the USA in swimming at the 1972 Munich Olympics, coming 4th in the 100 metres breaststroke final. However, he broke the Olympic record by winning his heat, a record which lasted until the final. He was a Pan-American Games champion, and went on to train and compete with the West Hollywood Aquatics gay swimming team. He won 6 gold medals at the 1990 Vancouver Gay Games. He died in 1998 from lymphoma.

The coat of arms I’ve illustrated is based on those used by his direct ancestors, the three Chatfield brothers, George, Thomas and Francis, mentioned in my article about William Plaine, the first colonist to be executed for sodomy in America. These are the arms of the middle brother, Thomas Chatfield (1620-1686), as recorded in “Crozier’s General Armory”, edited by William A. Crozier and published in 1904.

The Chatfield brothers were the great-great-grandchildren of Richard Chatfield (1500-1586) of Chichester, England. He is the person to whom the coat of arms were originally granted in 1564. A complete line of descent is documented from him down to Olympian Mark. As well as the three brothers who settled in America there’s another Chatfield, their grandfather’s brother Thomas, who married in the Netherlands and had descendants there, the Chatvelt family, who used the same coat of arms (as recorded by Jean-Baptiste Rietstap in his “Armorial Général” published in 1861). Over the centuries the arms have been represented with slight alterations.

Sometimes you can guess how old a coat of arms is by its design, usually because a lot of Heralds had distinctive styles or the period had a specific artistic look. The earliest coats of arms had simple shapes and lines, or perhaps a lion or eagle. What the Chatfield arms said to me when I first saw it was “Tudor”. This is because of the band across the top, called a chief. Originally the chief was a plain band but in the Tudor period in England heralds began to place various objects on them more frequently. Of course, this is not an assumption that can be made every time you see a chief with objects on it, but in this case I just happened to be right.

The griffin is a traditional heraldic beast (the term used to describe mythical monsters and hybrid animals in heraldry). On a side note, the griffin in English heraldry is always female. The male griffin (always named as such) is unique to English heraldry and is the same eagle-lion hybrid but has no wings and is covered in tufts of sharp spines.

Another heraldic beast is featured in the crest, an antelope. It’s not a natural antelope, but a heraldic depiction of one, with straight serrated horns, a down-turned horn on its nose and sharp fangs. This resulted from medieval heralds drawing something they’d never seen but heard vague descriptions of.

Two different mottos have been recorded for the Chatfields. The one shown above translates as “Faithful to the end”. Crozier records another, “Que sera sera”. Like all the colours and objects in the full achievement we have no explanation for the choice of motto.

Although directly descended from Richard Chatfield, Mark is not from a senior line and, technically, would have to include all the cadency marks indicating which son of which son, etc., he descends from Richard. This could produce a very overcrowded coat of arms obscured with dozens of cadency emblems. People in this situation often ignore cadency and may change the colours or quarter their arms with any they inherit from heraldic heiresses (as in the case of Michele Duramesq’s ancestors). Also, a person could display an unaltered coat of arms with any medals or badges of chivalry they possess hanging below the shield. This last example is the one chosen by a famous actor, a junior member of his family, in the photo of his arms which he sent to me many years ago.

It is this last example which influenced my choice for Mark Chatfield. With no state heraldic authority in the USA I would not be breaking any heraldic convention by incorporating Mark’s Olympic medal into his full achievement.

In 2017 the World Olympians Association created an initiative which awarded the post-nominal letters of OLY after the name of living Olympians, past and present. The award is not automatic and athletes have to apply personally. Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh are a couple of lgbt Olympians who have been granted the OLY.

At the moment there’s no provision for deceased Olympians to receive the letters. I think they should be given them automatically. In the absence being able to refer to him as Mark Chatfield OLY I’ve chosen to incorporate the Munich Olympic participation medal beneath his shield (all Olympians get a participation medal). The medal has no ribbon or chain so I’ve created a ribbon in the official Munich Olympic colours.

I hope you like my painting of Mark Chatfield’s achievement. It’s a design I find very appealing, distinctive and eye-catching, all the requirements of a perfect coat of arms, and a fitting tribute to Mark’s contribution to lgbt participation at the Olympic Games.