Around The World In 80 Gays : Part 8 - A Revolution

Last Time : 19) Hillary Goodridge and 20) Julie Goodridge were among the first same-sex couples to marry in the USA in 2004. The first lesbian couple to marry in the world were 21) Helene Faasen and 22) Anne Marie Thus in the Netherlands in 2001. So far the only lesbian world leader to marry is 23) Johanna Sigurdardottir.

23) Johanna Sigurdardottir (b.1942) became the world’s first openly lgbt Head of Government in 2009. She also became the world’s first Head of Government to marry a same-sex partner. As Prime Minister of Iceland Johanna led the coalition government that legalised same-sex marriage in that country, and when the law came into effect on 27^th June 2010 Johanna was one of the first to marry.

Johanna Sigurdardottir’s appointment as Prime Minister of Iceland was a result of the financial crisis which almost took Iceland into anarchy. The then Prime Minister had pursued an economic policy which the banks couldn’t sustain and in October 2008 the Icelandic banks collapsed.

Naturally, the Icelandic people were shocked and wanted answers from their government, and demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister. There were protests throughout Reykjavik and outside parliament. Protests often centre around one voice standing up for the community. In October 2008 the voice which led the protests belonged to a gay entertainer called 24) Hordur Torfason (b.1945).

24) Hordur Torfason is a well-known figure in Icelandic entertainment. He is an actor, singer-songwriter and musician. When the first protests were taking place Hordur went along to add his support. The size of the crowd was unexpected and the organiser of the protest felt out of his depth. Hordur stepped in and took the lead. He was no stranger to activism, as I’ll explain later, and his experience and authority, not to mention his experience of standing in front of an audience, focussed the protestors.

For weeks Hordur stood in front of the parliament building leading the protests, which got larger and larger. These became known as the Pots and Pans, or Kitchenware, Revolution because of the use of pots and pans to make noise during the protests. The Prime Minister resigned and the Opposition parties formed an interim coalition government. It was they who appointed Social Affairs Minister 23) Johanna Sigurdardottir as Prime Minister on 1^st February 2009. A full election on 25^th April affirmed her position as the world’s first elected lgbt Head of Government.

As I said earlier, 24) Hordur Torfason was no stranger to activism. Way back in the 1970s he was involved in workers’ rights. He was a pioneer of the gay rights movement in Iceland, setting up the organisation now called Samtokin78.

He was also active in protests against the deportation of an African asylum seeker. Despite being progressive in same-sex marriage legislation Iceland has a less than progressive track record on accepting asylum seekers. It has one of the lowest acceptance rates in Europe.

It wasn’t until 2013 that refugees were accepted on the grounds of protection from abuse and imprisonment because of sexual orientation. Several lgbt asylum seekers have gone to Iceland from African states. Samtokin78 has been active in persuading the Icelandic government to grant them asylum. Not all have been successful.

Numbers of lgbt refugees from Africa have increased in the past few years as African governments bring in anti-gay legislation. Nigeria in particular has seen many lgbt asylum seekers arriving in Europe as a result of the increasing stand against homosexuality and the 2014 laws which criminalised same-sex marriage, gay organisation, and displays of open affection in public.

The reason given by African politicians for criminalising homosexuality, not only in Nigeria but across the continent, is their claim that homosexuality is “un-African” and a “white man’s disease”. Many studies and surviving native traditions prove them wrong. The case of 15) Xica Manicongo, a West African slave in 16^th century Brazil can be referred back to as an illustration of this point.

But gender and sexual variation wasn’t just part of the culture, it was part of native African religion. A number of deities in the Yoruba religion of Nigeria had gender variations. During the centuries when thousands of Yoruba captives were enslaved and shipped to the Americas, as Xica Manicongo was, their religions went with them. Their deities formed the basis of new beliefs in the New World as the slaves adapted to their new environment.

Anthropologists have made many studies of this inter-continental evolution of the traditional Yoruba religion. One of the leading academics in this field was a Cuban ethnologist, herself a refugee for a time, called 25) Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991).

Next time we look at how the Yoruba deities from Nigeria connect the Eurovision Song Contest to voodoo.

Forensics Shows the Finger to Freedom

The reports last month of two gay murderers getting married in an English prison got me thinking about lgbt murderers in general. And there’s been quite a few of these over the centuries. We still remember the names of gay serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, Denis Nilsen and John Wayne Gacy. One-off murderers are not so well remembered, so I was not surprised to find that I hadn’t got either of the jailed newly-weds on my lgbt database. I do now.

Several years ago I wrote about the murder of the gay man Grenville Carter which took place just 100 feet from where I was living. He was murdered by a homeless bisexual drifter. This isn’t the only murder by a member of the lgbt community in Nottinghamshire. I’ll write about a particularly sensational case later in the year. Today I want to mention another case where a gay man’s conviction for murder was questioned by forensic science.

I’m a big fan of those television programmes about real crimes and how they were solved and crime dramas like “CSI”. So I was particularly interested in this case which was big news in Nottingham at the time.

Way back in April 2007 the body of a little old lady called Mrs. Hilda Owen was found in her home in north Nottinghamshire by her neighbour. That neighbour was Peter Smith.

Peter Smith worked in the government employment agency in nearby Mansfield. He knew Mrs. Owen fairly well and had helped her with odd jobs after the death of her husband the previous year. Smith used his knowledge of the social benefits system to advise Mrs. Owen on pensions and health care allowances. He also suggested she make a will and helped her to write it.

On 1^st March 2007 Smith visited his neighbour and found her dead on her living room floor. She had been attacked by someone with a claw hammer. Smith called the police. At first he was treated as chief witness, but after a forensic investigation of Mrs. Owen’s house found no evidence of anyone having been in the house other than her and Smith he was charged with murder. They found boot prints, and bloody fingerprints on a door handle, at the crime scene. No-one else was ever a suspect.

The prosecution at the murder trial at Nottingham Crown Court claimed that Smith was thousands of pounds in debt and had changed Mrs. Owen’s will to name him as sole beneficiary. The boot prints and the fingerprints were the only pieces of physical evidence. The majority of the other evidence against Smith was circumstantial and based on his financial and personal circumstances.

Peter Smith had lived with his boyfriend Adam Dixon for several years and they shared ownership of their home. When the relationship ended Dixon moved out and sold his half of the house to Smith. At the murder trial Dixon was called as a prosecution witness. He told the court of Smith’s spending sprees which had contributed to his debt problems. He also believed that Mrs. Owen never wanted to make a will and it was Smith who insisted on it. Another witness, a former colleague of Smith’s at the employment centre, said that Smith had applied for a carer’s grant on Mrs. Owen’s behalf. As far as she could tell Smith spent it on himself and none of it on Mrs. Owen. Yet another witness, a closeted gay married man who knew Smith, said Smith told him he would soon own Mrs. Owen’s house just days before she was found murdered.

All this circumstantial evidence and the prints led the jury to find Peter Smith guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Moving on to 2011 and forensic technology had improved. Smith had appealed against his conviction, the main point of contention being the accuracy of the fingerprint evidence.

The main argument was that there was no proper identification of the prints and that the methods used to identify Smith as the owner of the prints was below the standard required by law. The fingerprint officer originally said that there wasn’t enough detail to make an identification. He re-examined them after Smith was charged. More advanced equipment had been acquired in the meantime, giving him the authority to make the re-examination. This time, he claimed, he could see similarities between the bloody fingerprints and Smith’s so he identified them as his. But he made no notes during his re-examination, and had made no diagrams or illustrations for the trial showing what these similarities were.

At the original trial Smith’s defence were going to call an independent fingerprint expert to challenge the print evidence. Unfortunately, even though the expert was highly experienced, UK courts did not recognise her American qualifications in fingerprint identification, and these qualifications were to be questioned in cross examination to discredit her authority. So she was not called to give evidence.

By the time of Smith’s appeal trial forensic science had advanced further and the fingerprints were examined by other officers and experts. They could not give any positive identification even with the new techniques.

The Court of Appeal heard Peter Smith’s case and went though the fingerprint evidence and all the methods used for identification. The judges were critical of the original fingerprint officers’ methods and his presentation of the evidence at the murder trial. As the fingerprints were the main evidence used by the prosecution, the Court of Appeal decided that there was not enough to prove they belonged to Smith and upheld his appeal. Smith’s conviction for the murder of Mrs. Hilda Owen was quashed in November 2011. Peter Smith was a free man.

The murder of Mrs. Hilda Owen is still unsolved.

Queer Achievement : An English Queer Dynasty

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

Happy St. George’s Day.

Today’s heraldic article is a bit different. It looks at a whole queer family.

There can’t be as many families with so many closely related lgbt members who exemplify all things English than the Benson family. The head of the family was an Archbishop of Canterbury, his widow lived with the daughter of his predecessor, one of their sons wrote the words to the patriotic song “Land of Hope and Glory”, and another wrote as series of quintessentially English humorous novels. In fact, it is widely believed that the Archbishop was the only truly heterosexual member of the family. Here’s the family tree, followed by the family coat of arms (I must apologise for the quality of the scan. I had to buy a new scanner recently and it doesn’t produce images of a quality I’d like) :

I’ll give you a quick tour of the family achievement before moving onto one specific member. The shield bears a version of the Benson coat of arms that dates back to about 1700. Archbishop Benson made several alterations. On the original arms there were three identical black trefoils in a row across the shield. The Archbishop replaced the middle one with a quatrefoil and put the trefoil into the mouth of the white bear in the crest. Another alteration was to double the red bars, increasing them to 4 in total. These arms were inherited by all his children.

On top of the helmet is the crest of a bear, but even though it might look a polar bear it isn’t. In heraldry white is called argent and is meant to represent the metal silver, as does the white on the shield. White is often shown in book and magazine illustrations because real silver is difficult to print. In really posh, elaborate, official documents silver leaf would be used to make the bear’s head, and I can’t afford any silver leaf! The same goes with yellow – it should really be gold leaf!

If I had to choose one member of the Benson family to present for the main heraldic illustration it has to be that of Monsignor Robert Benson, simply because it is the most visually striking and so unlike any previous achievement I’ve drawn. Here it is :

Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest of Archbishop Benson’s children. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England by his father in 1895, but he converted to Roman Catholicism. He was then ordained a Catholic priest in 1904 and became a Supernumerary Private Chamberlain to the Pope in 1911, giving him the title of Monsignor.

As an ordained priest Robert wasn’t entitled to use a helmet and crest, either as an Anglican or a Catholic. Instead, in both cases, he would have used an ecclesiastical hat called a galero. The Catholic Church had strict rules about how many tassels a priest could show dangling from the galero, and about what colour the galero should be. Monsignor Benson’s position as a chamberlain entitled him to use a black galero with 6 violet tassels on either side.

Monsignor Benson also received two orders of chivalry from the Pope, though he could only display one in his coat of arms. That was the insignia of a Knight Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. There are several insignia which are used. The first is the red badge of the order which is a large red cross and 4 smaller crosses all behind the shield. The other insignia and the shield obscures most of the small crosses. Around the shield in the black ribbon of the order, and from it is suspended the gold and enamel badge of the order fastened to a bow.

Monsignor Benson had another honour from the Pope, that of a Knight Commander with Star of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. As an ordained priest he would not be entitled to show this on his coat of arms though he could wear it’s insignia alongside that of the Holy Sepulchre on his clothing.

The Benson family is such an interesting family, that I’m sure I’ll return to them some time in the future.

Out Of Their Trees : Coffee Helps To Clear The Soup

Most families have a mystery. The biggest mystery, of course, is not knowing who your ancestors are. Even if you do, there’s often more unanswered questions. Today we begin with one of them in the family of Cyd Zeigler. We’ll also discover that his ancestry means he can pay for a coffee in Starbucks with a $100 bill and justifiably get away with it!

Cyd Zeigler is one of the world’s leading commentators on lgbt participation in sport. He is co-founder of Outsports, the website on which several leading athletes over the years have chosen to come out.

One of the Zeigler family mysteries concerns the background of Cyd’s grandfather Norman F. Zeigler (1925-1992). He was a foster child in the 1920s and no-one really knows anything about his family. Despite months of research I haven’t been able to uncover the full story. All I know is that at the age of 4 Norman was living with Cyrus C. Williams and his wife Bertha in Orleans, Massachusetts. The Williams’s had arrived in the US from Canada the year before and Norman is referred to as their “lodger”. Norman was still living with them in 1935 and 1940. The census records the birthplace of each individual, but Norman’s parents are always referred to as “unknown”, which indicates he was an orphaned before 1930. Considering he lived with the Williams’s for over 15 years we can assume that “lodger” really means “foster child”. Unfortunately I haven’t had access to any foster records in Massachusetts so can’t say any more than that.

For now the ancestry of Norman Zeigler remains a mystery. That of his wife, however, is far from being mysterious. In fact, its surprises more than make up for it.

Norman married Amy “Honey” Ryder (1939-2005) and had 5 children. Amy was the daughter of Almond Gage Ryder and his wife Wilhelmina Pye. Even though Wilhelmina was born in the USA her parents were born further afield – in Finland. Both of her parents came from near Helsinki, and both emigrated to the States in different years and they met and married in Massachusetts in 1899. The original family name was Pyy.

Almond Gage Ryder came from true colonial stock and from some of the most prominent founding families of Nantucket, indeed the USA itself. Almond’s mother was a member of the Ellis family (sadly, not the same family that gave its name to Ellis Island, the port of arrival of the Finnish Pyy family). Her direct ancestor (Cyd’s 9 x great-grandfather) was Lt. John Ellis (d.c.1676), a Mayflower passenger – but not THAT Mayflower. There was a later ship of the same name on which John sailed from London in 1629 (the same ship that brought Thomas Blossom, ancestor of Barack Obama and Rufus Wainwright).

In 1644 Lt. Ellis married Elizabeth Freeman, daughter of the first Assistant Governor of Plymouth Colony, rather hastily probably as she was already pregnant. In August they were brought before a court on a charge of fornication and having a child too soon after marriage. John was sentenced to a public whipping which his wife was to witness. All very different from their parents’ Puritan beliefs.

Lt. Ellis’s grandson Ebenezer moved to Nantucket in the early 18^th century and his family intermarried many times with other prominent Nantucket families. The early history of Nantucket is tangled up in a complex web of family relationships, with siblings marrying siblings, cousins marrying cousins, cousins marrying siblings, men marrying their dead wife’s sister, etc. In fact, the highly respected American genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts, who has appeared in several UK and US editions of “Who Do You Think You Are?”, has called this family web “Nantucket Soup”.

One of these interrelated families were the Folgers. I’m sitting here in a city centre café bar drafting this article with a cup of coffee in front of me. If I was in America it could well be a brand of coffee founded by J. A. Folger in 1860, who, like, Cyd Zeigler, is descended from Peter Folger (d.c.1689) of Nantucket. Folger’s coffee isn’t that well known in the UK, unlike the name of another of Cyd’s ancestral Nantucket families, the Starbucks. The coffee connection in this case isn’t direct, however, as Starbucks is named after a character in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, though in turn he was named after the real family.

Back to Peter Folger. His wife Mary actually gets a mention in “Moby Dick”, where another surprising family connection is revealed. One of Peter and Mary's children was called Eleazer. He was another of Cyd’s 9 x great-grandfathers, and he had a sister called Abiah (sometimes called Abigail). She married twice. Her second husband was a tallow chandler called Josiah Franklin. They had ten children, including (I guess you might be ahead of me) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), the great statesman, inventor, scientist, colonial activist and a Founding Father of the USA. Yes, the man on the $100 note is Cyd Zeigler’s ancestral first cousin. Perhaps Cyd inherits his sense of lgbt rights from this side of the family more than any other.

And that was going to be it. I was ready to write this article when I received confirmation of research into Cyd Zeigler’s ancestry on his mother’s side. I haven’t had time to do more than a brief look, but it reveals more surprises.

Cyd’s family were aware of a French-Canadian connection, but I don’t think even they realise how far back it goes. French colonial ancestry is as well documented as that of colonial New England, so it didn’t take long to trace Cyd’s ancestry back through Quebec to the early French settlers in the 17^th century and even back to France in the 15^th.

I need to do more a detailed search to say more, but I can tell you that Cyd is descended from some of the most important families in Canada (even today), including the Fortins and Cloutiers. So I’ll end on this tantalising snippet – through his mother Cyd Zeigler is related to Madonna, the Duchess of Cornwall, Celine Dion, Jack Kerouac and Angelina Jolie.


POSTSCRIPT : Perhaps I should also mention Cyd’s distant cousinship to Herman Melville, whose own queer identity is much discussed. Both are descended from Nantucket founder Tristram Coffyn (1605-1681), a member of one of the interrelated families that make up the “Nantucket Soup”. The funny thing is, Benjamin Franklin is one of very few Nantucket Americans who ISN’T descended from Tristram Coffyn! Its all very confusing.

Legacies

This past month has seen the passing of two influential lgbt people, Ike Cowen and Marc Naimark. I don’t usually write tributes after someone’s death but as I had personal connections to them both I hope you won’t mind if I do so today.

Ike Cowen (1917-1915)
Harold E. Cowen was one of the pioneers of the UK’s Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). Not only was he a co-founder of the CHE but Ike, as he was always known, also co-founded the Association of Law Teachers and became its Secretary. Law was Ike’s profession. He lectured in law at Sheffield Hallam University, and it was law which brought Ike permanently to teach in Nottingham in 1969.

Ike was no stranger to Nottingham. He served in the RAF during the last year of World War II and was stationed at RAF Wymeswold about 20 miles away in Leicestershire. He gave a lecture on Air Force law at what was then the Nottingham Regional College of Technology, now part of Nottingham Trent University.

Even though he recognised his homosexuality during the war he thought it was “just a phase” and that marriage might “cure it”. He married his American wife Peggy when stationed in Egypt. They had a son but the marriage didn’t last and they separated after his move to Nottingham. When his son was 18 Ike decided to come out to him. On a night out in a pub Ike announced he had something to say. “If it’s about you being gay,” his son said, “everybody at school knows. I’ve known for ages”.

Ike became involved in the formation of the CHE through people like Nottingham journalist Ray Gosling. With his legal training Ike wrote CHE’s first constitution and became its Legal Officer. In 1975 he drafted a bill on Sexual Offences Reform for the CHE which they presented to MPs. Even though it was praised in Parliament it was not adopted.

In 2000 Ike was interviewed by Nottinghamshire Gay and Lesbian Switchboard for their millennium history project. Ike was frank about his gay life, both in and out of the RAF, and provided much information on Nottingham’s gay community in the 1960s.

Ike’s legacy remains with the CHE and is part of the history of sexual reform acts in the UK. In 2007 I helped to found Nottinghamshire Rainbow Heritage. One idea which came from me was to present Certificates of Recognition to people and organisations in Nottinghamshire who have played significant parts in lgbt history in the county or nation. Ike was the first name I nominated. He was too frail to attend the presentation ceremony but my colleagues presented it to him in his home.

Ike would have celebrated his 98^th birthday on May 6^th. He died on 19^th March 2015.

Marc Naimark (d.2015)
Last weekend the world of lgbt sport lost one its most dedicated advocates. Marc’s involvement with the Federation of Gay Games began in 1998 and continued through to the end with his involvement in preparations for the 2018 Gay Games to be held in his adopted home city of Paris (Marc was originally from Michigan). Marc enthused others around the world and encouraged them to pursue their dreams.

As well as his contribution to the Gay Games Marc will be remembered as a leading voice in the establishment of Pride House International. Several unofficial and small-scale volunteer groups had set up lgbt centres in Olympic host cities during the course of the games (Barcelona and Sydney), but the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics saw the creation of a formal Pride House organised by several local lgbt groups which was recognised by the Vancouver Olympic organising committee. Marc offered much support to the London 2012 Pride House.

His was one of many voices which called for a fully international response to the Russian anti-gay legislation prior to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. This became Pride House International which created many Pride Houses around the world during the course of the Sochi games. Today Pride House International is a thriving organisation and is planning to be present at most major international sporting events around the world.

My first contact with Marc was in 2012 when I compiled my first list of lgbt Olympians. He was very enthusiastic about it and asked if he could publish it on the Gay Games blog. Of course I said yes, and he encouraged me to send the list to other organisations. After that Marc became one of my few Facebook friends.

Marc also showed a keen interest in this blog and several times asked if he could put some of my articles on the Gay Games blog, especially ones which centred on the Gay Games, and I never turned down his request.

Marc’s active support in many lgbt sporting events was immense. Each one will feel his loss. Perhaps the biggest legacy he leaves me is a celebration of lgbt sport and the Gay Games.

Coded Lives : The Hanky Code

One of the most well-known of all the lgbt codes which helped to keep gay lives secret except from those “in the know” is the hanky code. Many people will have heard of it and know something about it, but these days fewer people actually know the original code and how to use it. Just how popular it is today is hard to say, though it seems to be popular on the internet and as a “theme” night in many clubs.

It’s an easy code to use even if its not easy to fully remember, because like gender and sexuality flags the code has expanded to include just about every sexuality and sexual interest there is. All you have to do if you’re out on the town and clubbing is make sure you’ve got the right colour hanky in the correct pocket. Imagine the embarrassment all round if you were a bit colour blind and a man sees the colour of your hanky and invites you to join him in some “action” you’d never do in a million years.

There are much too many hankies in the code to reproduce here today, so let’s try to find out where and when it originated. This has been a problem for researchers for many years. Being a secret code no-one wrote it down when they started using it, it was all learnt by memory and word of mouth.

There hasn’t been a definitive study of the history of the hanky code, as far as I can tell. This is my personal interpretation of the evidence and information I’ve found and is my own theory. I don’t claim this to be an authoritative theory and hope others will conduct a proper study in the future.

There’s no real doubt, however, that it began in the USA. Perhaps the heyday of the hanky code was in the decades of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. This period coincided with greater activism for lgbt rights. As underground gay bars across America began to become more visible communities coalesced along defined sexualities and sexual interests.

The hanky code may have begun as a secret code among gay men looking for casual sex in any location, mostly public spaces, but when the 1940s leather culture began to grow the lgbt community developed its own subculture of leather/BDSM which still flourishes today. The hanky code was seen most frequently in the leather bars and clubs as an open system of finding sexual partners.

But the hanky code has never been just about the leather community. It was used and seen in many gay bars across America and Europe. It is probable that the code is an amalgamation of several earlier gay codes. The most recent of these being the use of keys fastened onto belts (I don’t suppose it mattered if they were actually ever used to unlock anything). Keys fastened on the left (front or back) indicated that the wearer was a dominant sexual partner, and keys on the right indicated a passive partner. This system was used a lot in the early biker/leather/bdsm subculture.

The left/right position is echoed in the older practice of tying a bandana or handkerchief around the neck or head. When positioned to the left or right the knot indicated the dominant/passive nature of the wearer.

The hanky code may have developed from these with hankies rather than keys gradually being used in back pockets.

Going further back into the 19^th century we may find the ultimate origin for the hanky code with the early Wild West cowboys. The stereotypical image of the American cowboy has etched its way into popular culture through Hollywood films, and into the lgbt culture through the Village People.

The history of gay men in the American frontiers has been emerging in recent years as a potential gold mine (pardon the California Gold Rush allusion) for historians and the lgbt cowboy-loving and rodeo subcultures. I don’t think this is the right occasion to go into the history of gay cowboys and the like, as I want to concentrate on the hanky code.

When we picture a Wild West cowboy we often see them sporting a knotted handkerchief or bandana. This was an essential item of clothing in the dusty arid states where dust storms were frequent. Worn over the nose and mouth it stops them choking, and we often see cowboy villains wearing it so when they hold up the stage coach.

The California Gold Rush was a particularly male-dominated environment. Very few women travelled that far west unless it was to settle properly. Even the saloons had very few barmaids and female entertainers. In this environment social events such as dances were often all-male occasions and men would dance with each other. The need for female company was ever present and some men who couldn’t afford a prostitute often turned to other men for sexual comfort.

Most of the sexual activity was undoubtedly situational and casual and not truly “gay” in nature. But there is never a society totally devoid of true homosexuality, and recent research has shown that the Wild West was no exception.

I can imagine how the hanky code could have begun. With sodomy in the US outlawed at the time gay men had to be sure how far they could go with another man. It was very confusing, because research has also shown that close physical contact, affectionate hugs and sharing beds for the night, etc., was common in all sections of society in the 19^th century.

I can imagine a gay cowboy meeting another gay cowboy for casual sex and realising there are more like them around. But to keep their sexuality secret they developed a code, and the hanky/bandana/key code may have originated as a means of spreading the “knowledge” among the secret community of gay men in the West. Once gay cowboys knew how to recognise another by the way they wore their hanky/bandana/key more diverse meanings of colour and which side they were worn developed.

As I say, that’s only my theory and is based on the very few facts that we know. Perhaps we never will know.

The Leather Women Return

Two years ago I wrote a brief history of the International Ms Leather (IMsL) contest. Reading it again recently I thought it could do with being expanded upon. So, to celebrate this year’s IMsL contest taking place this week in San Jose here is a bit more about it’s origins.

In 1987, in the run-up to the first IMsL contest, lgbt bars and clubs in major US cities held their own contest to choose their representative for the new title. Many of these were held in men’s bars as there were not that many female leather bars around at that time. What there WAS around at the time was a growing sense of identity and community among female leather/SM enthusiasts.

Several members of the IMsL steering committee were no strangers to the world of title pageants. Chuck Renslow was owner of the International Mr Leather franchise, and Patrick Toner had been International Mr Leather 1985. Another committee member, Gayle Rubin, was involved in the organisation of perhaps the earliest female leather contest.

Gayle Rubin was co-founder of Samois, the first women’s leather/SM group in the USA, formed in San Francisco in 1978. I only mentioned Samois briefly in my earlier article, and because Samois and its members have been such a significant influence on the development of the female leather and SM communities, let’s take a closer look at its history.

Samois was formally founded on 13^th June 1978 when a group of lesbian leather enthusiasts met in San Francisco. Most of the founder members had attended a previous leather group called Cardea, including the leading lights of Samois, Gayle Rubin and Pat Califia.

Gayle Rubin is a cultural anthropologist. Throughout her university studies she wrote and spoke on feminist and women’s issues. In 1970 whilst at the University of Michigan studying for her doctorate, Gayle co-founded a feminist group called Radicalesbians.

In 1975 Gayle wrote an essay titled “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex”, which was to play a large part in feminist debates during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In particular the essay encouraged female SM practitioners to define their own identity and place in SM culture in the face of opposition from radical feminists who denounced SM as degrading to women.

With this background in feminist theory Gayle moved to San Francisco and began to study the leather culture among gay men for her dissertation. She joined the female leather scene just as the Cardea group was disbanding and she met Pat Califia. Between them they came up with the idea of the first independent female leather/SM group that became Samois.

Pat Califia had been active in the SM community in San Francisco since the early 1970s. Just as Gayle’s “The Traffic in Women” essay was creating debate Pat was urging lesbian SM practitioners to stand up for their rights to express themselves. There was no female-only SM bar or club in San Francisco, and out of the debates arose the female support group called Cardea. Pat became one of its first members.

In 1978 Pat and Gayle co-founded Samois. Their aim was to create a social, support and activist group, and to raise awareness of SM practice. Education was part of this programme of awareness and Pat and the Samois group wrote several articles and books detailing lesbian SM practices.

Three years later, still battling against the anti-pornography feminist lobby, Samois decided to emulate their male counterparts by organising the first female leather contest. This was held on 5^th September 1981in a lesbian bar called Ollies and attracted several hundred attendees. Unfortunately, I can’t find any record of the winner’s name, the first Ms Leather.

Samois was at the height of its popularity. But just a few months later and the pressure began to take its toll. The unexpectedly high production costs (in both money and time) of publishing a ground-breaking book of SM writing by group members, the pressure of combating constant anti-SM criticism, and internal differences within the committee, all contributed to the slow demise of Samois.

Fortunately, by now Samois had created a large network of female lesbian and supportive members that ensured that lesbian leather/SM would continue. The community was now becoming a nationwide movement and new local groups were being formed.

This was a crucial time for the whole leather/BDSM community. The emergence of AIDS was to effect them as much as anyone. A lot of SM practitioners were reluctant to adhere to safe-sex messages that its most prominent members were promoting. Most practitioners were straight and they saw AIDS as a “gay man’s disease”. The gay male SM community quickly adapted to the new threat and led the promotion of safe-sex practices in BDSM.

In San Francisco the community was fundraising for AIDS charities since the early days of the epidemic. In 1986 nurse Joann Lee and Alan Selby, owner of a popular leather store, gathered together a group of enthusiasts to form the first committee for the International Ms Leather contest. Gayle Rubin, co-founder of The Outcasts, the successor to Samois, agreed to become a member.

As with the earlier Ms Leather contest held by Samois a full list of entrants of the first IMsL is difficult to locate so I’m unable to name the pioneers of either contest. Only the winners’ name of the first IMsL is known – Judy Tallwing McCarthy.

Whoever wins IMsL this coming weekend she will join a distinguished and diverse group of women whose work for the SM community will always be respected.

Around the World in 80 Gays : Part 7 - A Marriage

Last Time : The murders in Boston of 16) Rita Hester and 17) Chanelle Pickett led activists like 18) Nancy Nangeroni to organise vigils which paved the way for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Boston also paved the way in same-sex marriage legislation with a court case headed by 19) Hilary Goodridge and 20) Julie Goodridge.

19) Hilary Goodridge (b.1956) and 20) Julie Goodridge (b.1958) were one of 7 same-sex couples in long-term relationships whose applications for marriage certificates were refused by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in March and April 2001. Julie lived and had studied from Boston University and ran an investment consulting firm. Her family name was Wendrich, and after being in a relationship with Hillary (formerly Hillary Smith) for about 8 years she and Hillary changed their surname to Goodridge after the birth of their daughter.

The Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed a lawsuit against the Department of Public Health with the Goodridge’s names a lead plaintiffs (a list of the other plaintiffs can be found in the Wikipedia entry). The court decided against the plaintiffs but GLAD appealed and on 18^th November 2003 the appeal went in their favour. The appeal court decided it was unconstitutional for same-sex couples to be denied marriage.

All of the plaintiffs in the case got married on the day same-sex marriage in Massachusetts became legal. Hillary and Julie were married in the headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston where Hillary was a director of their funding programme.

2001 was a significant year in the history of same-sex marriage. On 14^th January two couples were married in Toronto, Canada. However, as I explained in my article on Toronto last year both marriages were challenged by the court and they were not legally validated retrospectively until 2003.

The first legally unchallenged same-sex marriage took place on 1^st April 2001 in the Netherlands. They came about as a result of the world’s first same-sex marriage act that was passed on 21^st December 2000.

Inside Amsterdam’s city hall 4 couples arrived for a mass wedding conducted by the mayor, Jon Cohen. Three couples were male and one was female. As the married couples mentioned so far have been female I’ll continue the trend and look at the first lesbian couple to marry with the full authority of the law. Their names are 21) Helene Faasen (b.1967) and 22) Anne-Marie Thus (b.1970).

In true romantic style Helene and Anne-Marie Thus met on a blind date in 1988. They joined the other couples in Amsterdam city hall in front of television and media cameras as well as families and friends. It was a huge media event and the ceremony was broadcast live immediately after the chimes of midnight finished striking the end of 31^st March 2001.

Mayor Cohen conducted all 4 marriages ceremonies simultaneously, with all of the couples becoming legally married at exactly the same moment. A special cake was baked for all of them – a large pink cake on which stood the little figures of 3 male groom couples and 1 female bride couple.

At the time of their marriage 21) Helene Thaasen and 22) Anne-Marie Thus were the parents of a baby boy. A year later they also had a daughter. Throughout the 14 years that they have been married Helene and Anne-Marie have avoided too much publicity, always portraying themselves (and other same-sex couples and families) as just an ordinary family. Anne-Marie has been involved in several lgbt family groups over the years and is currently a board member on the Network of LGBT Families Associations. Helene is a notary with her own business partnership in Amsterdam.

With same-sex marriage still being such a political football in many countries it is always good news when an lgbt politician announces his/her intention to marry his/her partner. Most of the countries that permit same-sex marriage have lgbt politicians who have married their partners. At the moment, though, there have been no married lgbt Head of State, but there has been (and still is) an lgbt married Head of Government and, like the other couples mentioned so far, is female.

In 2009 Iceland appointed the openly lesbian MP 23) Jóhanna Sigurðardottir (b.1942) as its Prime Minister. The following year the Icelandic coalition government introduced same-sex marriage. Jóhanna was among the first to marry. Next time I’ll tell you how she was appointed as Prime Minister as a result of West African asylum seekers.

The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Going Orange With Gluttony

In February I began this sinful series with the Deadly Red Sin of Anger, symbolically represented in Medieval folklore by the colour red, the top stripe of the Rainbow Pride flag. Today we move one stripe down to orange. In medieval Christian folklore Orange was assigned to the sin of gluttony. I find it amusing that the colour used for gluttony is named after food (the colour was named after the fruit, not the other way round), and with tomorrow being Easter Day when the long weeks of fasting during Lent come to an end what sin could be more appropriate? So what parts of lgbt heritage can we find that illustrate the Deadly Sin of Gluttony?

First of all, let’s define “gluttony” as it applies to sin. The most obvious definition is “over-eating”, as exemplified in the character of Mr. Creosote in Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”. Mr Creosote eats so much that he explodes. Sinful gluttons would get their punishment in Hell, of course, and the particular punishment Medieval popular folklore believed gluttons received was, appropriately, to have lots of little horned demons force-feeding them with rats, toads and snakes (whether until they too exploded or not isn’t certain).

But over-eating is only one of several definitions that the Medieval church put forward. Here are 6 definitions of gluttony listed by Pope Gregory the Great (d.604) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274):-
Eating before proper meal times,
Desiring luxury foods,
Adding seasoning and sauces to meat,
Having too much to eat,
Eating too eagerly and quickly,
Eating food that is too elaborately prepared.

Judging by that list, every food programme on television can be called sinful to the Medieval mind!

In later centuries gluttony came to be equated with any sort of over-indulgence, whether it was spending, gambling, playing, working, or just enjoying yourself too much. During Britain’s only period as a republic under Oliver Cromwell every activity except work and prayer was seen as sinful! But let’s get back to food.

Let’s get sinful and see who those evil lgbt agents of the devil are, who tempt good folk like us into sin with their elaborate, delicious, pleasing, yummy, and often too expensive, food. In other words, let’s look at some lgbt chefs and cooks.

I’ll begin with James Beard (1903-1985) who, as far as I have been able to tell, is the only lgbt chef who has a culinary award named after him. He was, according to Thomas McNamee in his 2012 book on Beard, a man who sums up everything the old sin of gluttony represented: “Beard, a man of stupendous appetites – for food, sex, money, you name it…” wrote McNamee.

James Beard was one of the first media personalities in the food world. He had one of the first regular cookery programmes on American television and championed good American food as well as French cuisine. Although he is not that well-known outside America his influence was enormous. After his death the James Beard Foundation was formed which offers scholarships in the culinary arts.

Every May the Foundation presents awards to chefs, venues and organisations who have been significant in the food industry in the past year. Some of these winners are openly lgbt, including 3-times winner Corby Kummer, Art Smith (writer and ex-chef to Oprah Winfrey), and restaurateurs such as Clark Fraser and Mark Gaier.

Cookery programmes are very popular on tv, otherwise there wouldn’t be whole channels dedicated to the subject. This means that many lgbt chefs have become familiar faces, due mainly to the increase in cookery contest shows and “reality” programmes. The most recent “celebrity” to come out is Rudy Tandoh, a contestant of 2013 series of “The Great British Bake Off” who came out 2 days ago.

In my youth I watched a lot of cookery programmes, and the lgbt chefs I remember watching regularly were Robert Carrier, Richard Cawley and Ross Burden. Even Rabbi Lionel Blue would occasionally don a cook’s apron and rustle up some food on breakfast tv. Later there was “Greg and Max”, the first openly gay partners to have their own cookery series on British tv in the 1990s.

One programme I’ve always enjoyed is “Ace of Cakes”. In recent years the increase in same-sex unions and weddings has seen many couples being turned down from cake makers because of their homophobia. Duff Goldman, the genius behind the fantastic “Ace of Cakes”, has recently teamed up with the afore-mentioned Art Smith to form the 101 Gay Weddings Campaign. The aim is to promote same-sex marriage by helping 101 lgbt couples to produce their dream wedding. 

Although I can never call myself a chef I have dabbled in the profession myself. While I was duty manager at a hotel for 4 yeas I prepared food and room service meals for the many guests, including (shamelss name-dropping) Lady Gaga, Colin Firth, Ian Thorpe, Sven Goran Erickson, Gok Wan, the entire South African, Indian and England cricket teams, and the Chinese Ambassador to the UK.

At the hotel’s restaurant there was (and still is, I believe) an openly gay colleague, a chef called Thomas Buhse. Because of the popularity of cookery programmes Nottingham hosts its own food and drink festival every year. Last year Thomas, as a chef from the leading restaurant in the city, was invited to co-present a demonstration with a local butcher Johnny Pusztai. And what were they billed as? “The Gay Chef and the Merry Butcher”. Here's a promotional video.



I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry, and there’s another 4 hours before lunch time!

A Corrupting Influence?

Tomorrow is International Children’s Book Day. A couple of years ago I wrote an article celebrating Tove Jansson, one of the winners of the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award. When the next award is announced next year I’ll look at some of the other lgbt writers and illustrators who have either won that award or have been nominated for it.

Many children’s books have been written in recent years using lgbt issues as the main subject. Quite often these books have been banned from public libraries and denounced by some misguided, self-appointed guardians of children’s morals as being corrupting influences. These books are a subject deserving of an article on its own.

Today’s article is about general children’s fiction (novels, picture books, verse) which have no lgbt content but have been written by lgbt authors. Tove Jansson, and indeed Hans Christian Andersen, is a perfect example of what I mean. Other writers I’ve mentioned in this blog have been J.M. Barrie and Edward Lear. Two other lgbt writers I’ve mentioned before, Lionel Charlton and Dan Billany, wrote adventure books for boys.

Some of the greatest characters in children’s literature have come from the pens of lgbt writers. Of those created by the writers above there are the Moomins, the Little Mermaid, the Ugly Duckling, Peter Pan and the Owl and the Pussycat. I haven’t heard of any serious denunciation of any of them being a corrupting influence on children. On the contrary, most of them have been used to illustrate the issues that life brings to us all.

There is another addition to the pantheon of famous characters from children’s literature that have come from the pens of lgbt writers – Mary Poppins. Unfortunately, all that most people know about Mary Poppins, created by P. L. Travers, is what was created by Disney. P. L. Travers was never really happy with the musical comedy version that Walt Disney came up with. Had she lived to see the Disney studio’s recent film “Saving Mr. Banks”, a fictionalised version of the events surrounding the creation of the Mary Poppins film, Travers would probably be equally unhappy. But we’re not talking about the film today, but books.

What we can see is that lgbt writers have been writing for children since the genre’s evolution from folk tales and nursery stories. Hans Christian Andersen was a pioneer in this cross-over. The Victorian era has been seen as the Golden Age of children’s literature (though I’d argue that we’re in one now). Andersen’s classics were aimed at a younger audience, but most of Victorian literature was aimed at older children.

The Victorian era was very moralistic and optimistic. Classics such as “Oliver Twist” brought the plight of the poor working classes to the front of fictional writing. Philanthropists and politicians championed the rights of the poor and a rosy view of a society where people believed that everyone was capable of going from “rags to riches”.

One American writer who built a career on writing “rags to riches” stories for children was Horatio Alger jr. (1832-1899). Alger’s novels were incredibly popular in the late 1860s and early 1870s. He wrote many books telling essentially the same story, so you can imagine that after a while they became stale and “samey”. They did, however, contribute to the 19^th century concept of the American Dream.

The Victorian era produced female lgbt writers as well. One of the most well-known in the USA was Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929). Although better known as the writer of the words to the patriotic song “America the Beautiful”. Katherine wrote books of verse and edited several volumes on folk and fairy tales. One character she made popular was Mrs. Santa Claus. I’ll return to Katherine Lee Bates in my Advent series in December.

At the beginning of the 20^th century there were very few lgbt writers of children’s literature. There was, however, an explosion of new illustration. Not all writers of literature are artist. For example, the bisexual author Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952) wrote many picture books which were illustrated by other artist. Other writers emerged during the mid-20^th century who illustrated their own work, such as Tove Jansson and Maurice Sendak.

In recent years the value of children’s literature has been highlighted, most recently in its success of the Harry Potter books and their contribution to literacy. Many children have started reading literature as a result. Each generation has provided influential children’s authors, both lgbt and straight, and their books have provided enjoyment to millions. How can anyone say any that books by lgbt authors corrupt children any more than those written by straight authors? Even though I’m in my 50s I still get great enjoyment out of reading children’s classic literature. I urge every adult to not abandon children’s books just because you are no longer a child. So pick up a kid’s book tomorrow.