Heritage Spotlight : Homing In On Stonewall

On this anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969 I’m going to look at the iconic area that means so much to the lgbt heritage of the USA. Starting with Greenwich Village I’ll home in on Christopher Street and finally the Stonewall Inn itself. This will not be a history of the inn after the 1969 riots but a look back to discover that the lgbt legacy of the area goes back beyond the 20th century.

We’ll start in pre-colonial times. The Native American nation called the Lenape named the area of present-day West Village Sapokanican. The Lenape nation covered much of colonial New England. They were notable in that they didn’t conform to the traditional gender roles in Native American society. If a woman wanted to be a warrior she could. If a man wanted to stay at home to tend to agriculture he could. This was not usually the case in other east coast tribes.

Sapokanican was a marshy area on the coastal edge of the Lenape’s vast territory. It included Manhattan, which is an Anglicised version of the Lenape name. The Dutch were the first European colonists to arrive. One of colonists was Everardus Bogardus, an ancestor of pioneering gay activist Harry Hay (as explained here). Another colonist named his Manhattan estate Greenwijck. The British arrived in 1664 and Greenwijck became Greenwich.

The legacy of Sir Peter Warren (1703-1751) is the one which still dominates Greenwich Village and the area around Christopher Street. Warren was an Irish admiral whose ships protected the American colonies from the French. His most successful encounter with the French was his participation in the capture of Louisville, Nova Scotia, in 1745. In gratitude the Governor of New York gave him a tract of land to add to the 300 acres he had bought in 1741 after marrying a previous governor’s daughter. The present Christopher Street marks the southern boundary of Warren’s estate. On the 1766 map below I’ve encircled the location of the Warren mansion with a red circle. The original line of Christopher Street is indicated by the red line.

Here we encounter our earliest lgbt link to colonial Greenwich Village. Sir Peter Warren was able to establish his naval career, and thus lay the foundations of his Greenwich Village estate, through the influence of his mother’s family. Their rise to prominence in the Irish navy was influenced by an earlier ancestor who was Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In turn, the Chancellor got his appointment through the influence of his own mother’s family, the Beauforts, who were the senior male-line descendants of the “Queen” of England, Edward II. Sir Peter Warren’s marriage brings more lgbt connections. His wife was a grand-daughter of Stephanus van Cortlandt, another of Harry Hay’s ancestors.

After the death of Lady Warren in 1771 twenty years after Sir Peter’s the estates were split into three parts, one each to their two surviving daughters and one grand-daughter. The daughters married aristocrats. Charlotte, the eldest, married the 4th Earl of Abingdon, and here I have a personal connection. The earl was born and raised in an old medieval manor house in Lincolnshire now called Gainsborough Old Hall. I worked there as a tour guide for 6 years in the 1990s and am a life member of the Friends of the Old Hall Association.

Sir Peter’s second daughter married Charles Fitzroy, Baron Southampton, a 3-times great-grandson of the other “Queen” of England, James I. The youngest daughter married a lowly colonel called William Otis Skinner. They both died before the Warren estate was split up but their daughter got their share.

All three family names or titles of the Warren daughters and grand-daughter – Abingdon, Fitzroy and Skinner – became names of streets or areas in Greenwich Village. Today only the first of these names remains in the form of Abingdon Square. Skinner Street was later renamed Christopher Street. As for Sir Peter Warren’s house, it eventually ended up in the ownership of Abraham van Nest (1777-1864) and it was demolished after his death, making it the last remaining rural area in Greenwich Village to be lost. The illustration below shows the mansion as it looked in van Nest’s lifetime. The site, if you know New York at all, is the block bounded by West 4th Street, Bleecker Street, Perry Street and Charles Street (which was renamed Van Nest Street until 1936).

But where did the Christopher name come from? Has it got any connection with the Warren estate? Yes, it does. In 1787 when the estate was being split up a portion was bought by Richard Amos, a trustee of the estate. This portion passed to his heir Charles Christopher Amos in 1799. Though it is stated on various websites that Charles Christopher Amos began naming streets after himself it is more likely that they were named later on. Amos Street is now called West 10th Street.

The original structure of the present Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street (No. 53, the taller half) dates from 1843 when it was built as stables for Mr. A. Voorhis. The Voorhis, or Voorhees, family were prominent in the Dutch colonies and into the present century. There was a family of wealthy silversmiths called Voorhis living at the eastern end of Christopher Street. They gave their name to an apartment block which was demolished in 1913-14 to make way for the 7th Avenue subway. Across 7th Avenue is Christopher Park in which the Stonewall National Monument stands.

The lower half of the Stonewall Inn was built in 1846 as stables for Mark Spencer whose mansion was just behind it. The Voorhis half continued to be stables until it was joined with the Spencer half in 1930. Very soon afterwards it appears to have been converted into a small tearoom called Bonnie’s Stone Wall Inn. No-one has discovered who this “Bonnie” was. Whether it was the owner’s actual name or a nickname we don’t know. A look at the 1930 and 1940 US census for Christopher Street didn’t provide me with any clues. Neither is it certain why the name “Stone Wall” was used. It is certain, however, that it has nothing to do with the Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

Eventually Bonnie’s Stone Wall Inn became just Stonewall Inn. The mysterious Bonnie and the curious Stonewall name, added to the venue’s prohibition and mafia heritage, helps to create a legendary reputation that survived the riots of 1969. It remains a site of importance to national as well as lgbt heritage.

City Pride : Madrid

Since last Friday Madrid has been hosting World Pride 2017 which will culminate in the grand Pride Parade at the weekend. The city is also hosting EuroPride 2017 at the same time. Madrid has previously hosted EuroPride in 2007 and it was on the strength of that success of that event that the city was chosen to host World Pride.

On the map below I’ve selected several locations that are associated with the lgbt heritage of Madrid. It’s a very simplified map again so I wouldn’t recommend you use it as a means of getting around the city, just a general guide.

CHUECA DISTRICT – This is Madrid’s “Gay Village”, the main centre of the lgbt community and night life. It is named after the Spanish composer Federico Chueca (1846-1908). Chueca started to become the gay village in the 1980s when many young lgbt people came here looking for cheap housing. It was an area that was suffering economically, but once the gay community took hold many gay rights demonstrations were held in the area and these led to Chueca to become a focus for further lgbt activism. Many lgbt people were attracted to the area and it was revitalised. The first Pride event was held in 1997 and has grown into the world event in this its 20th anniversary year.

1) PLAZA PEDRO ZEROLO – This is the social heart of the Chueca lgbt community. It is named after the politician and activist of the same name. Pedro Zerolo (1960-2015) was President of the Federación Estetal de Gays y Lesbianas, and on the Board of Directors of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. In 2003 he was elected a Madrid city councillor. For several years he had been campaigning for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and played a large part in the discussions leading to the Act which finally granted it in 2005. Pedro was among the gay first people to marry their partner. Following Zerolo’s death from cancer Madrid city council agreed to the suggestion from the lgbt community to have Plaza Vazquez de Mella renamed in his honour.

2) ROOM MATE HOTEL CHAIN (x4) – If you’re ever in Madrid you could stay at one of these hotels. The chain was founded in 2005 by Enrique “Kike” Sarasola, the first male Spanish athlete to come out as gay, which he did in 2002. Kike represented Spain in equestrian 3-day eventing and show jumping in 3 consecutive Olympic Games starting with Barcelona 1992. He won a bronze medal at the 2001 European Championships. Kike was one of the first Spanish celebrities to marry his partner Carlos Marrero after same-sex marriage was legalised in Spain, with Pedro Gonzaléz, a former Prime Minister of Spain, as a guest. Since founding Room Mate with his husband Kike has expanded the chain into the USA, Mexico, Italy and Turkey. He was awarded the Medal of Merit for Tourism and Innovation in 2015. Just in case you’re wondering, no I haven’t been paid to promote Kike’s hotels. There are other equally excellent hotels in Madrid.

3) PRIDE PARADE ROUTE – This year’s World Pride route begins at Plaza Atocha next to the main railway station in Madrid which brings in visitors from all around Spain. The parade then proceeds north along Paseo del Prado and ends at the Plaza Colon, named after Christopher Columbus, where the world’s largest Spanish flag has flown since 2001. The route passes the three of the most important museums and galleries which host many works by lgbt artists. The most famous of these museums, 4) the PRADO MUSEUM, has created a tour of works by lgbt artists in its galleries.

5) PLAZA JACINTO BENAVENTE – Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922. He was a renowned playwright during the first half of the 20th century and, like other homosexual writers in Spain at the time, was unable to express his sexuality for fear of arrest. Benavente was elected a members of the Spanish Royal Academy. Plaza Jacinto Benavente was created out of several smaller ones and named after him in 1926. Across the city in the Parque de el Retiro is the 7) JACINTO BENAVENTE MEMORIAL created in 1962.

6) PALACIO DE LAS CORTES – Members of the Spanish parliament are Members of the Cortes and sit in the Palacio de las Cortes. The elected members of the lower house sit as the Congress of Deputies. The first openly lgbt Deputy was Jerónimo Saavedra (b.1936) who represented Las Palmas in the Canary Islands from 1977. He came out in 2000. He also holds the record as the first known lgbt Spanish government minister (1993-6), the first lgbt President of an autonomous Spanish region (Canary Islands 1983-7 and 1991-3), the first openly lgbt mayor in Spain (Las Palmas 2007-11) and the first openly gay members of the Senate, the upper house of the Spanish parliament (1996 and 1999-2003). The first openly lesbian Deputy in the Cortes is Ángeles Álvarez (b.1961). She was elected to the Cortes in 2011 after many years as a women’s rights campaigner and a Madrid city councillor. Angeles was the first lesbian in Madrid to marry her partner after same-sex marriage was legalised in 2005. The civil ceremony was conducted by fellow city councillor Pedro Zerolo (see no. 1).

8) PLAZA TIRSO DE MOLINA – This city square celebrates the life of a Roman Catholic monk who created the world’s most famous womaniser. Tirso de Molina (1579-1648) was a prolific writer by his own admission, claiming to have written over 300 plays. Many of these are lost but the most famous surviving one features the womaniser Don Juan, whose name has been given to womanisers ever since. As Father Gabriel Tellez (his real name) he was a member of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, or the Mercedarians. He lived at the Order’s Madrid monastery which stood in this site until demolished in the 19th century. He later became Father Superior in two other Mercedarian monasteries in Spain. During this period the Mercedarians gained a reputation for sodomy. Several Mercedarians were accused or convicted of sodomy. Tirso himself may have had some homosexual leanings, according to academics who have studies his surviving plays. We’ll never know for sure, but his plays written before he became ordained have many female lead characters and deal with several issues on gender roles.

Death in the Low Countries

As we in the UK approach next month’s 50th anniversary of the partial discrimination of male homosexuality it is easy to forget that in other countries female homosexuality was a crime as well. Ever since King Henry VIII forced through the 1533 Buggery Act there has been no official condemnation of lesbian activity in England and Wales. The same cannot be said of other nations during the same period.

There have been a number of academic studies of female sexuality and court cases involving accusations of lesbianism in recent years. Unfortunately, there is less detailed information of many of these cases because of different attitudes towards female sexuality generally over time and across Europe. Records also show a wide variety of punishments given to convicted female sodomites, as lesbians are referred to in these records.

Many studies centre on the late medieval and early modern period, roughly corresponding to the early years of the Reformation and the expansion of Protestantism. Before we go further it should be pointed out that the laws and punishments were given out by the civil authorities not the church, either Catholic or Protestant. As with today’s legislation it is the politicians not the clergy that make laws. That’s not to say that the church had no influence, but there is little if no evidence that the Church punished male or female sodomy during the period we are looking at. If they were it was because they were found guilty of heresy not sodomy. Their power to punish was gradually removed by the civil authorities until they were banned.

Medieval Catholic prelates and philosophers had always written about same-sex activity but had concentrated on what men do. Relatively little was written about what women do. This is partly to do with the medieval attitude to women in general. The world was much more male-dominated than we think it is today. Sex was considered as an action a man has with a woman or another man. It was a phallocentric world where women were the objects of sexual activity, on the receiving end of sex. After all, medieval men reasoned, women didn’t have the necessary physical appendage for sex!

What is remarkable, however, is that some medieval writers mention the existence of what we would now term intersex females, though these writers seem to regard these as belonging to “foreign” or “exotic” nations, not European.

Although such religious luminaries as St. Paul, the Venerable Bede and St. Thomas Aquinas included female same-sex activity in their definitions of sodomy there were few actual laws against it, unlike male sodomy. It was, however, covered quite comprehensively in the rules of female enclosed religious orders – convents, nunneries, and so on. In the 13th century several Catholic Councils issued some principals that were intended to prevent female same-sex activities in these orders. These principals included prohibiting nuns from sharing beds, not visiting each other’s cells at night, and having lamps lit throughout the night in dormitories. The only punishments seems to have been penance before the altar. For women outside religious communities the civic authorities imposed harsher punishment.

In places like Orléans (France), Treviso (Venetian Republic) and Bamberg (Germany) laws against female sodomy were passed. In Portugal from 1499 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1532 female sodomy was punishable by death. Among the very few women recorded to have been executed for same-sex activity were Katherina Hetfeldorfer in Speyer (a Free Imperial City) in 1477, and Françoise Morel in Geneva in 1568.

The area of present Benelux, the Low Countries, was the most vigorous in arresting and punishing sodomites of all genders during the 15th and 16th centuries. Almost 300 people were tried in the civil courts of which 25 were women. Of those 25 women 15 were executed. In several cities as many as 5 or 6 women were executed on the same day.

One explanation put forward as to why the medieval Low Countries were so keen to punish sodomites was the relative freedom its female citizens enjoyed compared to the rest of Europe. Women had access to the same education as men, and the same employment opportunities. Many women joined trade guilds and had independent incomes. As a result they had no need to find a husband in their teenage years to provide stability. They could marry later, in their 20s, and in the Low Countries many women did just that. This meant there were fewer women available for young men to marry, and fewer opportunities for sex. What else could either gender do but be celibate into their 20s or have situational sex with someone of their own gender? It’s an interesting theory.

The case of medieval Low Countries is an exception in the history of the persecution of female same-sex activity. The idea that women “don’t do that sort of thing” prevailed until well into the early 20th century. People often say that lgbt heritage is hidden history. The records of lesbians and female same-sex attraction is even more so and those studies looking at the court cases of medieval women helps to bring them into the open.

Xtremely Queer : Climb Every Mountain - Part 2

In April I wrote about a handful of gay climbers from the early pioneering days of modern mountaineering in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today I’ll continue with another handful who began their climbing career before World War II.

The first climber today was among the first female mountaineers, Freda du Faur (1882-1935). She was the subject of my first “Xtremely Queer” article back in 2015 so I’ll direct you there rather than repeat myself.

The next climber, George Mallory (1886-1924), is one of the more well-known mountaineers. Mallory’s sexuality has been debated for several decades. The supporting evidence comes from letters written during his time at Cambridge University. He was closely associated with the group of artistic and literary students who were later called the Bloomsbury Group. The majority of these students were gay, lesbian or bisexual. George Mallory knew all of them and joined in their out of class socialising. His good looks and athletic physique drew the attention of many male and female admirers, particularly as he was not averse to taking all his clothes off in front of his friends. Mallory writes in his letters about being infatuated with fellow student James Strachey who was far more interested in pursuing Rupert Brooke to return his affection.

Throughout his life Mallory exhibited homoerotic sensibilities – he posed nude for photographs as well as appeared naked in front of male friends. Though he married and had children and was a perfect husband and father he probably felt that his first love was the mountains. It was a bug that had hit him in 1904 when studying at Winchester College. A climbing mentor was Geoffrey Winthrop Young whom I mentioned in my previous mountaineering article.

It was Mount Everest for which George Mallory’s name will always be most associated. Several reconnaissance climbs and summit attempts over several years culminated in the ill-fated 1924 expedition on which he and climbing partner Andrew Irvine died. No-one knows for sure if they made it to the summit and perished on the way down, or perished before they got there.

Another Everest mountaineer was Wilfrid Noyce (1917-1962). Several connections link Noyce and Mallory. Both were protégés of Geoffrey Winthrop Young, both taught at Charterhouse School, both climbed Everest and both were married. While there is no conclusive evidence of homosexuality one way or the other for either men they both enjoyed the company of gay and lesbian members of the Bloomsbury Group and also enjoyed the homoerotic naked swimming parties with some of the male Bloomsbury members hosted by Young at his Welsh mountain retreat.

Wilfrid Noyce was a member of the historic successful first summit of Everest in 1953. Noyce was responsible for the equipment, some of which were, no doubt, pioneered by Oscar Echenstein and his occultist friend Aleister Crowley, as I mentioned last time. Noyce stayed on South Col while Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing summited. Bad weather set in as they arrived back at South Col and Noyce’s own planned summit attempt was abandoned.

One final tragic link between Noyce and Mallory is that they both died on mountaineering expeditions. After Everest Noyce continued to climb. In 1962, after reaching the summit of Mount Garmo in the Pamir Mountains in present-day Tajikistan Noyce and his companion Robin Smith slipped on the ice on the descent and they fell to their deaths.

The final climber in this succession of lgbt mountaineers is John Menlove Edwards (1910-1958). His climbing career was predominantly on British peaks. Nevertheless, he is regarded by many as the finest British climber of the pre-World War II era, or at least the finest climber of British mountains. He pioneered many new routes up peaks and often went for those that other climbers avoided as being just plain “uninteresting” yet still quite challenging.

Edwards’ first successes and new routes were in Snowdonia in Wales when he was barely into his 20s. His physical strength gave him an advantage and he quickly became the rising star of British climbing. Despite this he always seemed to be uncertain of his own abilities and was rather introverted. Very few climbers ever accompanied him on his climbs, and these included Wilfrid Noyce on several occasions. Edwards’ self doubt was exacerbated by his recognition of his homosexuality. As a qualified psychiatrist he must have queried his motives to push himself to the limit as a means of tackling his sexual feelings.

Although he was no fan of the most extreme Alpine or Himalayan mountaineering he pushed himself to the limit in other ways besides tackling new and difficult British ascents. Several times he set off in a boat and rowed from the mainland to uninhabited off-shore islands, the most distant of these taking a day to row there before taking another day to row back.

In his 40s John Menlove Edwards became more mentally afflicted. He underwent electric shock treatment in a mental hospital and made two suicide attempts. It was a third attempt that took him from our world.

The sad fate of John Menlove Edwards and the losses of Mallory and Noyce on the mountains are exceptions rather than the norm in mountaineering. Throughout the history of modern mountaineering, from the later Victorian era onwards, many lgbt climbers have taken up the challenge to push themselves to the extreme. Even though many of them were not openly gay or lesbian, or left no conclusive proof that they were, they have provided inspiration to many lgbt mountaineers to push themselves to the limit in the 21st century.

An Independent Campaign

Among the many on-going campaigns in the lgbt community is that of the recognition of same-sex marriage. It’s a campaign that is gradually being won nation by nation, territory by territory.

It is a campaign for same-sex marriage which gave birth to the world’s first “independent” lgbt nation, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, on this very day in 2004.

More accurately it is designated a micro-nation, the name given to any region (specifically one with a very small land mass) which declares itself independent from the nation to which it formerly belonged. It establishes its own constitution and form of government. These micro-nations are not officially recognised by their former national governments or by international consensus. It seems that official recognition can only be legal if there is a formal diplomatic presence, such as an embassy, consul or government representative, from a foreign sovereign state in the micro-nation’s territory.

Various reasons are given for the founding of a micro-nation. Generally these reasons are political and revolve around a specific issue, such as that of same-sex marriage and the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands. But it is not unknown for someone to declare their bedroom independent and operate as an online nation and still be listed as a micro-nation. There’s even an international organisation of micro-nations.

The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom was founded in response to the Australian government’s Marriage Amendment Act introduced on 27th May 2004. This Act gave the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. The lgbt community in Australia campaigned hard to get politicians to vote against this definition. When it looked likely that their campaign would have no effect some members of the community decided on a more unusual method of campaign.

But it was not just about marriage rights. There was the wider concern of partnership rights generally. Hospital visiting, inheritance, adoption and other issues that depend on “next of kin” rights were denied to lgbt couples because their same-sex partnerships were not recognised by law. This included the rights of those who were legally married in other countries because their marriages were not recognised by the Australian government.

There is a part of the United Nations charter which states that any oppressed group of people who inhabit an external territory of a nation has the right to self-government and independence. What those activists decided to do was set up their own independent nation of gay inhabitants.

So how did these activists establish a new nation? First of all, international law requires an actual physical geographical location. With precedents established by previous Australian overseas territories such as Papua New Guinea, the activists chose the Coral Sea Islands Territory as their new nation. They then formed a Board of Administration and elected a leader, Dale Parker Anderson (b.1965). His own ancestral connection to the territory is explained here.

But it wasn’t Dale’s descent from English royalty that made him decide to become an emperor. It was because of an old Australian law which says that it is treason to stop a de facto prince from claiming his throne, in this case the Coral Sea Islands Territory. Emperor Dale had been democratically elected leader who had declared himself a sovereign prince with the title of emperor (as Napoleon Bonaparte had done several centuries earlier n France). If Emperor Dale had been a President of the Gay and Lesbian Republic of the Coral Sea Islands the Australian government could charge him and his citizens with treason.

When the Australian government seemed to dismiss their claims of independence the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom declared war on Australia on 13th September 2004.

The Coral Sea Islands are a number of small islands and coral reefs which cover over 780,000 square kilometres off the east coast of Australia. None of the islands were inhabited except for a weather station. The largest island, Cato Island, was chosen as the main settlement for the new inhabitants. It was on that island that the national flag, the Rainbow Pride flag was raised on 14th June 2004.

The following YouTube video gives a good all-round explanation of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom.

In the years since his kingdom was established Emperor Dale has relinquished his duties as sovereign. Whether than means he has abdicated or not is debatable! The kingdom’s online presence remains. It has a Facebook page, and its website is part of the Equality Campaign, a continuing campaign for same-sex marriage conducted jointly by Australian Marriage Equality and Australians For Equality.

The question in my mind is what will happen when same-sex marriage is granted? Will the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands join Yugoslavia and Sikkim in the pages of history? Will it revoke its independence and declaration of war on Australia by hosting a huge celebratory party (in Brisbane, I hope, as there’s not really enough room on the islands themselves!)?

Heraldic Alphabet 2017

Well, it’s that day again – International Heraldry Day. Once again I’m bringing you the coats of arms of some members of our lgbt community. And, once again, it’s not a full alphabet because I still haven’t found any coats of arms for people whose surname begins with “X”. It has also been difficult finding appropriate arms for the letters Q, U and Z. But at least it leaves us with an even number.

This year’s list is the usual mixture of nationalities and periods. One regret is that I haven’t found any arms of transgender people this time. Hopefully I can make up for it next year.

The arms shown are also a mixture of personally granted arms, inherited family arms and arms of office, which I’ll indicate in the text below. This year I’ve chosen not to show the marital arms (i.e. arms of the husband) of married women.

Without any further ado here’s this year’s Heraldic Alphabet.

A) Clementina “Kit” Anstruther-Thomson (1857-1921): writer (inherited).
B) Lady Eve Balfour, OBE (1899-1990): agriculturalist (inherited).
C) Sir Roger Casement (1864-1910): Irish nationalist (inherited).
D) Mrs. Anne Seymour Damer (1749-1828): sculptor (inherited).
E) Lius Escobar y Kirkpatrick, Marquess de Las Marismas (1905-1991): actor (inherited).
F) Judith Furse (1912-1974): actor (inherited).

G) Princess Vera Gedroitz (1876-1932): surgeon, poet (inherited).
H) Gerald Heard (1889-1971): writer and historian (inherited).
I) Colin Inglis (b.1957): Lord Mayor of Hull 2011-12 (arms of office, city of Hull).
J) Pope Julius II (1443-1513): (inherited, family of Della Rovere).
K) Count Diedrich von Keyserlingk (1689-1745): Prussian court chamberlain (inherited)
L) Charles W. Leadbeater (1854-1834): Presiding Bishop, Liberal Catholic Church (personal grant).

M) Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923): writer (inherited).
N) John Newman (1801-1890): Roman Catholic Cardinal (personal grant).
O) Connell Hill O’Donovan: Mormon historian (inherited).
P) Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494): philosopher (inherited).
R) Christine Root: Mayor of Horwich 2013-14 (arms of office, town of Horwich).
S) Francis Spellman (1889-1967): Cardinal Archbishop of New York (personal grant).

T) Patrick Trevor-Roper (1916-2004): activist and eye surgeon (inherited).
V) Sir George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628): statesman (inherited).
W) Dame Ethel Walker, DBE (1861-1951): artist (inherited)
Y) Geoffrey Winthrop Young (1878-1958): mountaineer (inherited).

Will History Repeat Itself Tomorrow?

The UK goes to the voting booths in a general election again tomorrow only two years after the previous general election. At the 2015 election the UK voted in more openly lgbt politicians to a national parliament and government than any other country at any time. That number has increased by seven in the two years since. 

The following MPs have come out as lgbt since 2015, further consolidate the UK’s position.
            Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party, SNP)
            Nick Gibb (Conservative)
            Justine Greening (Conservative)

            Nia Griffith (Labour)

            Mark Menzies (Conservative)

            David Mundell (Conservative)

            William Wragg (Conservative).

 

The illustration of Big Ben’s clock tower (left) was first used in my article “An Outing to Westminster” in 2015. Each square represents one elected Member of Parliament. The pink squares represent the openly lgbt MPs. I have updated it to include the seven more recent out MPs.

 

In 2015 there were 155 known openly lgbt candidates standing for election. Today there are 151. All of the 39 lgbt MPs who were elected in 2015 are standing for re-election tomorrow.

 

In 2015 there were four transgender candidates, none of whom were elected. This time there are seven.

 

Northern Ireland increases its lgbt candidates by 400%. That sounds great when written as a percentage, but only one lgbt candidate stood for election in 2015. Northern Ireland will also see a new party enter the lgbt political scene. The SDLP will field its first two openly gay candidates tomorrow.

 

The table below gives a visual comparison of the openly lgbt candidates from 2015 and 2017. One square represents one candidate. The section in the middle represents the candidates who were elected in 2015 and the seven MPs who came out since. Those seven candidates are represented with triangles.

 

The parties in the table are represented by the following letters:

CONS (Conservative)

LAB (Labour)

LIB DEM (Liberal Democrat)

SNP (Scottish National Party)

GRN (Green Party)

UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party)

PC (Plaid Cymru)

ALL (Alliance Party of Northern Ireland)

SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party).

 

Although there has been fewer incidents of openly homophobic campaigning amongst candidates this year there has been one notable lgbt candidate who pulled out of the election last moth. Jack Monroe, a prominent author and journalist who identifies as non-binary (there are two non-binary candidates still in the race for Westminster), withdrew because of death threats which caused great stress. Monroe was standing as a candidate for the National Health Action Party.

 

On a related election note, last Friday the Republic of Ireland joined Luxemburg in having an openly gay head of government, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who now joins a very exclusive group. Even though the UK leads the world on elected MPs there is no hint that there will be an openly lgbt Prime Minister in the foreseeable future.

The Queen's Honourable Companions

On the same day that King George V created the Order of the British Empire (see the previous article) he created another honour which celebrates its centenary today. It’s an honour that is not as well known, is more exclusive and is given to some of the finest artists, scientists, politicians, actors and prominent people in the country. It is called the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH).

Like all UK honours, with the exception of the Knight Bachelor, the numbers of living Companions of Honour are restricted to a specific number. In this case to 65 living members (excluding even fewer honorary members). People who become a Companion of Honour don’t get a title but add the letters CH after their name.

Because there have been far fewer Companions of Honour than recipients of the Order of the British Empire it makes it easier for me to list all the lgbt members from its very creation. Generally speaking the appointments to the Order are made in the New Year and Sovereign’s Birthday Honours lists (January and June respectively), as all of the following have.

NAME	BORN/DIED	PROFESSION	APPOINTED
Vita Sackville-West	1892-1962	writer	1 Jan 1948
E. M. Forster	1879-1970	novelist	1 Jan 1953
Benjamin Britten	1913-1976	composer	1 Jun 1953
W. Somerset Maugham	1874-1965	writer	10 Jun 1954
Sir Osbert Sitwell	1892-1969	writer	12 Jun 1958
Alan Lennox-Boyd, later 1st Viscount Boyd	1904-1983	MP, Secretary of State for the Colonies 1954-9	1 Jan 1960
Sir Frederick Ashton	1904-1988	dancer and choreographer	14 Jun 1970
Sir Maurice Bowra	1898-1971	Classical scholar	1 Jan 1971
Sir John Gielgud	1904-2000	actor	11 Jun 1977
Sir Michael Tippett	1905-1998	composer	16 Jun 1979
Sir Alec Guinness	1914-2000	actor	11 Jun 1994
A. L. Rowse	1903-1997	historian	1 Jan 1997
David Hockney	b.1937	artist	14 Jun 1997
Peter Brook	b.1925	theatre director	13 Jun 1998
Sir Howard Hodgkin	1932-2017	artist	1 Jan 2003
Sir Ian McKellen	b.1939	actor and activist	1 Jan 2008
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies	1934-2016	composer and conductor	1 Jan 2013

As you can see from this list there are more lgbt Companions of Honour from the arts than any other profession. This is disproportionate to the composition of professions in the complete list. The complete list contains many more politicians and statesmen than any other group. The oldest member on the list is Peter Brook, who is also the 3rd oldest of all the current Companions.

The Companion who enjoyed the honour for the shortest period was Sir Maurice Bowra. He was appointed a CH in the New year Honours list of 1972 and died the following July. Historian A. L. Rowse was appointed CH in New Year 1997 and he died the following October.

Between 1960 and 1962 there were 6 living lgbt Companions of Honour, the first 6 listed above. Between 2013 and 2016 there were 5, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies being the last appointed of those 5, and the first to pass away.

At present there are only 53 Companions of Honour. Whether it will have the full component of members is unlikely in the foreseeable future.