Out Of Their Trees : Shared Genes For Jeans Day

There are two commemorative days today and I didn’t know which to celebrate with an article. Should it be Bi Visibility Day? Or Jeans for Genes Day? In the end I decided to celebrate both by writing about the ancestry of bisexual model Cara Delevingne and her shared genes with Michelle Dumaresq.

Jeans for Genes Day was created to raise awareness and funds for research into genetic conditions in children. Cara Delevingne has spoken of her own struggles with psoriasis, a skin condition which has some genetic component and effects many youngsters.

Cara has a varied ancestry, quite a lot of it from privileged backgrounds. This ranges from the British aristocracy to working class entrepreneurs who made a fortune manufacturing soap. But today I want to concentrate on one specific line of descent because it links to my “Queer Achievement” article on Michelle Dumaresq.

Cara Delevingne and Michelle Dumaresq are 7th-cousins. Both descend from John Dumaresq (1732-1814) of Jersey in the Channel Islands. In the heraldic article on Michelle I gave an illustration of her family coat of arms which were created by the marriage of John Dumaresq to Rachel Bandinel. Below is a family tree showing how Cara and Michelle are both descended from John.

Today I though I’d look at the two people in red on the family tree. Lt.-Col. Henry Dumaresq and his cousin Lt. Perry Dumaresq laid the foundations of the family which still live in Australia and Canada respectively.

Henry Dumaresq (1792-1838) was a highly respected soldier. He fought in many battles, including the Battle of Waterloo where he was shot by a musket ball which became permanently lodged in his lung. Undaunted he carried on with his order to pass a message personally to the Duke of Wellington, whereupon he collapsed. Two years later, at the age of 25, he reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

On leaving active service Henry went to New South Wales, Australia, as private secretary to his brother-in-law Lt.-Gen. Ralph Darling who had been appointed governor. Darling was an efficient governor but unpopular. He was accused of nepotism and Henry Dumaresq suffered attacks in the press because of his family connection. One article led to Henry fighting a pistol duel with the newspaper’s editor. In 1829 Henry sold his military commission and settled permanently in Australia. He owned a large estate and bred race horses. His health, however, was never great due to the musket ball in his lung. This was to be the cause of his death at the age of 45.

Henry Dumaresq’s cousin, Michelle’s ancestor, was a naval officer, Lt. Perry Dumaresq (1788-1839). While his cousin was fighting in the Battle of Waterloo Perry was stationed in what is now Canada patrolling the east coast of North America on the look-out for ships carrying supplies and money destined for the US government, who were at war with the UK at that time. After the war his naval background helped him to get a job in the customs office of Nova Scotia, a post previously held by his father which also helped.

Perry was ambitious and sought civic office. He continued to service in the customs office, but twice he persuaded the colonial government to divide an existing county into two and he took up a senior judicial posts in the new counties each time. By the second time, though, he was becoming ill and he died two years later at the age of 51.

Both Henry and Perry Dumaresq served their communities in senior positions. Both helped to establish their family’s connections in the countries in which they settled, and their descendants continued to serve their communities with distinction. Michelle Dumaresq’s ancestors continued Perry’s service right down to her own father who was a member of the Cariboo Regional District council. Cara Delevingne’s ancestors continued Henry Dumaresq’s military service in Australia and married into influential British political dynasties right down to today – through the Sheffield family she shares a set of great-grandparents with Samantha Cameron, wife of the ex-UK Prime Minister.

Cara Delevingne and Michelle Dumaresq carry on the service to the community begun by their ancestral cousins and both continue to speak on various causes. As well as her support of psoriasis sufferers Cara has developed a range of sweaters for Girl Up, a charity which supports the health and education of girls in developing countries. Michelle campaigns for inclusion of transgendered people in sport.

Lord Montagu - The Modest Pioneer

When I was young one of the highlights of UK television every autumn was coverage of the annual London to Brighton vintage car rally. The sight of those old cars chugging along the British roads beside modern cars was something which appealed to me. One of the characters who always appeared was Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. He was famous as the creator and owner of the National Motor Museum at his stately home. He appeared on lots of programmes throughout the years, sometimes popping up on chat shows and quiz shows as a celebrity guest. Lord Montagu died last month at the age of 88.

What I didn’t know as a child was that this famous “old car man” was famous for something else, and it was something which was successfully “ignored” by the scandal-seeking media of the 1970s. In 1953 Lord Montagu was one of the main protagonists in a landmark court case that paved the way for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in the UK (homosexuality itself was not illegal).

The trial was labelled The Montagu Case because Lord Montagu was the only high profile member of the three men who were accused of conspiring to “commit unnatural offences” against two RAF pilots who had been invited to join them on Lord Montagu’s estate. The trial was front page material.

Lord Montagu had opened his motor museum three years earlier and he was one of the bright young stars of the heritage industry (he was 27 when he was arrested, and many years later he was to become Chairman of English Heritage). His arrest sent many closeted gay men into their secret stores of love letters and diaries and many stories of the hidden history of lgbt Britain were destroyed in fear of a possible “witch hunt”.

In March 1954 the all-male jury found Lord Montagu and his two companions guilty and they were given prison sentences. All through the trial Lord Montagu protested his innocence, whether through fear or belief that homosexual acts were nothing to be criminalised isn’t clear.

What the trial highlighted to all levels of society that even those in the highest echelons were not immune to imprisonment. Mostly significant it gave liberal-thinking politicians the impetus to have the whole legal position of homosexual men discussed and addressed properly. Parliament created an inquiry into the possible reform of the law, not only for gay men but also sex-workers and prostitutes. Heading the inquiry was John Wolfenden, whose own son was gay, and even today the Wolfenden Report is one of the well-known reform commissions in the UK. It recommended the decriminalisation of homosexual acts and the age of consent. However, it took Parliament another ten years before there was any change in the law. For his contribution to the inquiry John Wolfenden was knighted and later he was created a life peer.

By 1967 when homosexual acts were decriminalised Lord Montagu was back on his stately home running his famous motor museum. He was beginning to become a media celebrity and his role in the landmark Montagu Case was never mentioned.

While the others convicted with him in 1954 became more prominent campaigners Lord Montagu chose not to become an activist. Not every lgbt person wants to become an activist, which other lgbt activists sometimes unjustifiably demand of them. Montagu wanted an ordinary life where his sexuality was not an issue. In that respect he was not unlike most of us today who wish for a society where our sexuality isn’t an issue and we are treated the same as everyone else.

For many years Lord Montagu refused to speak about his sexuality or even deny his bisexuality, which is why I’ve written this tribute to Lord Montagu today, Celebrate Bisexuality Day.

Many in the lgbt community accused him of bi-phobia for not admitting his sexuality publicly. He always came across on the television screen as a modest man, never one to shout about himself, and I can’t imagine he would ever have been comfortable discussing any sexuality. It wasn’t until he was persuaded to write his autobiography in 2000 that Lord Montagu spoke about his bisexuality. He acknowledged that the Montagu Case was instrumental in the reform of lgbt legislation in the UK.

On this Celebrate Bisexuality Day let’s raise a glass and drink a toast to the late Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, the modest pioneer.

Celebrate Bisexuality Day

Happy Bisexuality Day everyone. I hope all you bi people out there are celebrating your contribution to the  world in style. To get you in the mood, go to this fantastic list of famous bisexuals from the American Institute of Bisexuality.

Flower Power for Bisexual Pride Day

In June, during my short series on lgbt flags for Pride Month, I briefly mentioned the trillium flower (above) that appears on the Mexican bisexual flag.

Flag of the Ontario Francophones - French-speaking
Canadians - which uses the province's trillium emblem.

The trillium flower has more than one symbolic meaning. Its most popular and significant use at the moment is as the official floral emblem of the Canadian province of Ontario, chosen by an Act of Parliament in 1937. The flower is native to most of the temperate regions of North America and the white trillium adopted by Ontario grows mainly in the eastern region.

In recent years the trillium has been put forward as a symbol for bisexuality. The precise origin of this idea is unknown, but it was certainly in circulation in 1999 when Michael Page, co-founder of BiCafe.com, stated on the BiCafe website that the trillium was becoming widely used. Apart from the Mexican bisexual flag (created in 2001) I haven’t found any use of the trillium as a bisexual symbol.

So why should the trillium, a relatively unknown flower, be a suitable symbol for the bisexual community? Perhaps the best reason stems (pardon the pun) from its biological nature. The trillium is a member of the order of plants to which the lily belongs – the Liliales order.

All plants in Liliales have male and female parts on the same flower. The early botanical scientists in the 19^th century were the first to coin the word “bisexual” for these flowers. In the following centuries the word began to be used in biology when studies of some animal embryos showed no differentiation in gender.

Early in my Olympic Countdown series I explained how it was chromosomes that determined human gender. In botany no such chromosomal effect to gender development occurs, making the trillium and the other lily species bisexual from the moment of fertilisation. In terms of human development the term that is the best equivalent would be intersexual or bi-gender, both these terms only being used after birth.

It seems to have been first used in relation to human biology in 1804. It began to be used in relation to sexual preference at about the same time as the concept of the modern homosexual was first developed in the 1860s.

The Mexican Bisexual flag

Perhaps the geographical restrictions of the trillium plant to North America and parts of Asia prevents its universal appeal, but there are other bisexual species in the Liliales order around the world that are closely related to the trillium that could be used, perhaps the lily itself.

Happy Bisexuality Day

If you’ve been to a Pride event anywhere in the world in the past few years you may have seen this flag.

It’s the Bisexuality Pride flag, and today is Bisexuality Day.

This month also sees the 30^th anniversary of the founding of the first organised bisexual group in the UK – the London Bisexual Group. The anniversary was celebrated at the annual BiCon which was held in Leicester earlier this month.

Bisexuality is one of the “labels” that have been around a long time. It was first used in the natural sciences in the 17th century to define organisms – plants as well as animals - that had both male and female parts. Bisexual was first used in human terms from the middle of the 19th century to describe the undifferentiated male and female condition found in the early embryonic state.

Even though bisexuality (as we use the word today) was being practised and groups like the Bloomsbury Group of artists and writers were formed, it wasn’t a word used by them. It wasn’t until the 1940s that it came to mean the recognition of sexual attraction to men and women.

Like homosexuality, once a separate named identity was defined people formed specific bisexual groups, and soon they revealed the discrimination there was against them. The bi activism echoed the gay rights movement in its intent, though it was felt that bisexuals were being discriminated against by both the gay and straight community. Many bisexuals felt driven away and isolated and felt they were being overlooked.

Bisexual rights groups grew during the 1970s, and a varied array of groups and organisations appeared around the world. It wasn’t long before international bisexual conferences were being held.

Like most developing communities, bisexuals identified their own specific issues and problems but had no overall unity. Partly because of this Wendy Curry, Michael Page and Gigi Raven Wilbur, bi activists in the US, founded the internet site BiCafe.com, now one of the major bisexual sites in the world.

Michael Page went on to create the Bisexual Pride flag for BiCafe’s first anniversary party on 5^th December 1998, and the following year, with Curry and Wilbur, created Bisexuality Day.

Like other celebrations Bisexuality Day is not just for bisexuals but for everyone to celebrate. After all, unlike football where club rivalry borders on tribal warfare, it doesn’t matter if you’re not “in the team” you can still “enjoy being at the match”.