80 More Gays Around the World: Part 12) Don't Ask

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 31) Barbara Love (b.1937) competed in the US swimming trials for the 1952 Olympics, in which 32) Marjorie Larney (b.1937) competed before being involved in the anti-Vietnam War  protests in which 33) David Mixner (b.1946) took a leading role, who was later joined in another campaign by 34) Leonard Matlovich (1943-1988).

While 33) David Mixner was organising the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam 34) Leonard Matlovich was recovering from the injuries he received after stepping on a land mine in Da Nang in central Vietnam. This was during his second tour of duty as a sergeant in the US Air Force.

Leonard Matlovich is best remembered for being a pioneer in the fight for the acceptance of lgbt personnel in the US armed forces. For most of his military career he was regarded as an exemplary sergeant. He was described in 1974 by Major Donald D. Baines as “one of the most outstanding NCOs I have had the pleasure of working with during my Air Force career… Matlovich is an absolutely superior NCO in every respect and should be promoted to Master Sergeant well ahead of his contemporaries”.

The military honours of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich.

Sadly, the opposite happened. At the time Matlovich was beginning to recognise that he was homosexual. In March 1974 he read an interview in “Air Force News” with 35) Frank Kameny (1925-2011), an openly gay ex-serviceman who lost a Supreme Court case to overturn his discharge from the US Army Map Service. He had become an activist and supporter of other personnel who had been discharged.

Leonard contacted Frank who confessed that he had been hoping to find a serving openly gay military personnel with a perfect record to create a test case on the ban on lgbt people in the armed services. Matlovich’s air force record was perfect and he agreed to be that person. Matlovich wrote a letter which he handed in to his commanding officer on 6th March 1975 containing an admission of his homosexuality.

The result was an administrative discharge hearing and a formal honourable discharge. The subsequent appeals, campaign and fame of Leonard Matlovich, which included being the first openly lgbt person on the front cover of “Time” magazine, is well covered on the internet, so I needn’t go into it here. But let’s go back a step to David Mixner.

Despite being anti-war Mixner joined Bill Clinton’s campaign to become President of the USA in 1992. Mixner had experience in political campaigns and was persuaded to join Clinton’s race to the White House because he was a personal friend and because Clinton had promised to increase funds for AIDS research and to lift the ban on lgbt military personnel.

When Clinton was duly elected his policy on AIDS funding included the establishment of vaccine research, as mentioned in my immediately preceding article. His promise to end the ban on lgbt military personnel turned into “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, which was effectively nothing. Mixner led several protests against what he thought was Clinton’s betrayal.

The “Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask” policy was repealed by President Obama on 22nd December 2010. At the signing ceremony Frank Kameny was seated in the front row of the audience. As well as being a leading campaigner for the ending of the military ban Frank was also a co-founder of the Mattachine Society in 1961. The society organised protests and pickets outside US government buildings which were to inspire Craig Rodwell (mentioned here) to create the Annual Reminder, the forerunner of the modern Pride march. I’ll write more about that next month.

Even with people like Frank Kameny, Leonard Matlovich and David Mixner making advances in lgbt inclusion in the armed forces in the USA opposition still exists, particularly with the Trump administration and transgender personnel. While there may no longer be any military discharges for homosexuality it has a long history that goes all the way back to the American War of Independence.

The first recorded instance was in 1778 with the case of 36) Frederick Gotthold Enslin (c.1740- after 1778). Englin arrived in America from Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1774. In 1777 he enlisted into Col. William Malcom’s Regiment of the 3rd Pennsylvania Brigade. The regiment was stationed at Valley Forge. Also there was Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794), who turned the army into a formidable fighting force. During the following winter George Washington arrived with his army to lead the war from there.

Less than a year after enlisting Lt. Frederick Enslin was reported to Col. Malcolm by a solider who had seen him having sex with another soldier. Enslin reported the witness for slander and the case eventually went before the commanding officer, Lt.-Col. Aaron Burr.

This is the same Aaron Burr who later became Vice President of the USA under President Thomas Jefferson. He had a famous feud with another Founding Father, the bisexual Alexander Hamilton, who was also at Valley Forge as an aide to Washington (Hamilton, von Steuben and Enslin all at Valley Forge at the same time!). The Burr-Hamilton feud was finally settled in a duel in which Burr killed Hamilton.

A fairly accurate artistic impression of the camp at Valley Forge in 1777-8, taken from the “Assassin’s Creed” videogame.

The outcome of Burr’s investigation into Frederick Enslin’s slander case was not in doubt. The case was thrown out and he was found guilty of perjury and the original charge of homosexuality. A report was then handed to George Washington who agreed with the verdict and ordered Enslin to be dismissed and, literally, drummed out of the army. The soldiers of Valley Forge gathered to see Enslin marched out of the camp to the accompaniment of pipes and drums.

No-one knows what happened to Enslin after that. His final known act was to be the first soldier discharged from the US military for his homosexuality. He was actually very lucky, because had his trial taken place in his native Netherlands he would have been executed.

Over a century earlier another Dutch colonial was burnt at the stake for his homosexuality. His name was 37) Joost Schouten (c.1600-1644).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: We go looking for trade in Japan, reacquaint ourselves with the Dog Shogun, and return to give thanks.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays : Part 16) Some More Spanish Firsts

Previously : 31) Julia Lemigova (b.1972) was the first national ex-beauty pageant winner to come out as lesbian, while the first reigning pageant winner to come out was 32) Patricia Rodriguez (b.1990) as Miss Spain 2014, to be followed 2 years later by Mr Spain 2016, 33) Daniel Rodriguez (b.1993), both from the Canary Islands, which also has a political lgbt first achieved by 34) Jerónimo Saavedra (b.1936).

34) Jerónimo Saavedra came out publicly in the wake of his partner’s tragic death in a road accident in 2000. He never considered himself “in the closet” as such because his sexuality had been known to many people he knew since he was in his 20s. His relationship with his partner was acknowledged in the public death notices of his partner in August 2000. At the time of the bereavement Jéronimo was approached by the author Fernando Bruquetas de Castro to write the prologue to his book “Outing in Spain: Spaniards Come Out of the Closet”. In his prologue Jéronimo acknowledged his late partner and felt that the time was right to make a declaration in print about his sexuality.

After living through the dictatorship of Gen. Franco, Jerónimo Saavedra was one of many thousands of gay men who had grown up being discriminated against and criminalised. A natural move for many who wanted political change was to join the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE). Jerónimo joined the PSOE in 1972 and became General Secretary of the Canary Socialist Party in 1977.

Jerónimo’s political career contains a number of significant firsts for a member of the lgbt community in Spain. Some of them are dual or triple firsts in that one appointment contains several different firsts. Only the final two listed appointments were achieved as an out politician. All the others are retrospective, and all are elected positions. First a word of explanation about the make-up of Spanish regions. Spain is divided into a number of Autonomous Communities, each of which are subdivided into a number of provinces. Here is the list of Jerónimo’s firsts:

1977 – First lgbt member of the Spanish parliament.
1982 – First lgbt interim President of an autonomous community.
1983 – First lgbt President of an Autonomous Community.
1983 – First lgbt President of the Canary Islands Autonomous Community.
1993 – First lgbt member of the Spanish Senate.
1993 – First lgbt member of the Spanish government.
1993 – First lgbt minister in the Spanish government.
2007 – First lgbt Mayor of the capital of a province.
2007 – First lgbt Mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Jerónimo Saavedra was first elected to the Cortes, the Spanish parliament, on 15th June 1977 in the first free elections to be held in Spain since 1937. This was made possible by the death of gen. Franco in 1975. With more democratic and liberal politics becoming the standard many regions around Spain sought some form of self-government. The Canary Islands was one of them and Jerónimo threw himself into negotiations to turn them into one of the newly formulated autonomous communities.

This campaign to establish autonomy for the Canaries began during Franco’s dictatorship. In 1978 Jerónimo became Vice-President of the board formed to negotiate this autonomy with the Spanish government. The Canary Islands was granted autonomous status in August 1982 and Saavedra was appointed as the interim President of the Canary’s government until elections were held the following year. In those election Jerónimo was voted in as their first president.

In 1993 Jerónimo was voted onto the Spanish Senate. However, he relinquished the position a few days later to join the government as Minister of Public Administration. Part of his work in this ministry was to oversee the process giving autonomy to the final two regions, the African enlaces of Ceuta and Melilla. In 1999 he was re-elected to the Spanish Senate, and it was a Senator that he made his written acknowledgment of his sexuality in the book “Out in Spain”.

Since leaving national politics in 2003 Jerónimo has continued to be active in the Canary Islands. In 2007 he was elected Mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria becoming the first openly lgbt mayor of a provincial capital in Spain.

The Canary Islands provides another politician who was a significant first in Spain, and we travel back to the island of Tenerife.

Tenerife is the birthplace of actor and activist 35) Carla Antonelli (b.1959), the stage name of Carla Delgado Gómez. Like Jerónimo Saavadra she was a member of the PSOE. Carla was appointed as the Canary Islands co-ordinator of PSOE’s Federal Transsexual/GLBT Group.

In 2004 the Spanish government introduced same-sex marriage. Other lgbt rights were slow to follow. There was no law to allow transgender people to change official documents which registered their gender. Carla Antonelli was still a man in the eyes of the law. She threatened to go on hunger strike until the government had introduced a gender identity law. Within months the Gender Identity Law was passed and Carla became the first person in Spain to legally correct the gender on all official documents.

This is not the only first achieved by Carla Antonelli. She began to take a more active role in politics. In 2011 she was elected to the assembly of the Madrid Autonomous Community becoming the first transgender person in Spain to be elected to a governing legislature (note: the first transgender Spaniard to be elected to public office was Manuela Trasobares who was elected as a town councillor in 2007).

ransgender politicians have been increasing in numbers in recent years, whether in local, regional or national elections. Several transgender candidates have been unsuccessful in their campaigns to be elected. In the UK the first known transgender candidate seems to have been Alexandra MacRae who failed to be elected in 1992. But we have to cross to the other side of the world to find the first successful transgender candidate to be elected to a national parliament. Her name is 36) Georgina Beyer (b.1957).

Next time : We go Down Under to see how a politician changed a nation’s attitude to sex and get an indigenous perspective.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays : Part 15) An Island of Beauty

Previously : 28) Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) and 29) FannyAnn Eddy (1974-2004) are jointly commemorated in the human rights organisation the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation, co-founded by 30) Joey Joleen Mataele, who also founded the Miss Galaxy pageant modelled on the western beauty contest, in which the earliest known lgbt contestant was 31) Julia Lemigova (b.1972).

31) Julia Lemigova was not out as lgbt when she competed in the Miss USSR 1990 pageant. The Soviet government had banned beauty pageants in 1959. It was during the Perestroika era under more democratic leadership that these contests were revived.

The first national Soviet female beauty pageant, called Miss Moscow Beauty, was held in 1988. The following year it was renamed Miss USSR. Julia Lemigova entered the pageant in 1990 and came second. However, the winner was “dethroned” when she got married, making Julia the new Miss USSR 1990. She thus became eligible to enter the Miss Universe 1991 pageant in Las Vegas. On that occasion she came third.

Her move to France after the Miss Universe pageant developed into something that was other than glamorous. In 1997 she met banker Edouard Stern and began a relationship which resulted in the birth of a son, Maximilien. Maximilien was in the care of his father when he suffered a fatal brain injury. He was only 6 months old. There may never be a satisfactory explanation, but conspiracy theories abound, involving Stern’s bank, suppressed autopsy results and a disappearing nanny.

After her son’s death Julia Lemigova became a successful international businesswoman with several cosmetics companies to her name. In 2009 she became the girlfriend of tennis legend Martina Navratilova. They became engaged in a very public manner at the US Open tennis tournament in 2014 and were married later that year.

As far as can be determined Julia Lemigova was the first former national beauty pageant winner to reveal a same-sex relationship. There have been several others since then, the most recent being last month - Diedre Downs Gunn, Miss USA 2005.

There have been a handful of openly lgbt reigning national pageant queens. The first was 32) Patricia Yurena Rodriguez (b.1990). It was as the reigning Miss Spain 2013 that she came out as lesbian. Her titles cover a range of several years. They are:

Miss Tenerife 2007,
Miss Spain 2008 (and entry into Miss World 2008)
Miss Tenerife 2013, and
Miss Universe Spain 2013 (and entry into Miss Universe 2013).

Patricia was unable to enter Miss Universe 2008 because was under the 18-year-old age limit (Spain was represented by her runner-up). Later in the year, after she passed her 18th birthday, Patricia represented Spain in the Miss World pageant.

Patricia’s young age went in her favour five years later when, usually for female pageant contestants after so many years, she was again voted Miss Tenerife 2013. By this time the Miss Spain pageant had been divided into two, one pageant for Miss World and the other for Miss Universe. Patricia Yurena Rodriguez won the Miss Universe Spain pageant with entry into Miss Universe 2013 to be held in Moscow.

Sadly, we have to bring some ugliness into all this beauty by introducing two politicians who, unfortunately, are still around – Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Putin was responsible for the laws against homosexuality which not only saw protests at Miss Universe but also at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics held two months later.

The only reason Miss Universe was being held in Moscow was because Donald Trump, who owned the Miss Universe organisation at the time, had commercial links in Russia. It’s too complicated to go into, but it’s a fact that the venue of Miss Universe 2013, half of the judges, and several contestants who were selected by businessmen and not by the public, had business links to Trump.

The compere of the previous two Miss Universe pageants was American openly gay broadcaster Andy Cohen. He had also compered several Miss USA pageants, but he refused to host Miss Universe 2013 because of the anti-gay laws. Trump found a replacement, another openly gay American broadcaster, Thomas Roberts. Recently, Roberts made a public apology and regretted agreeing to act as pageant host in view of more recent Trump-Putin-Russia revelations.

That’s enough political ugliness. Let’s return to beauty. Patricia Yurena Rodriguez, Miss Universe Spain, was voted the first runner-up (i.e. second) in Miss Universe 2013 in Moscow. Less than a year later she came out on Instagram becoming the first reigning national pageant queen to do so.

Spain is unique in that it is the only nation who has had both a male and female lgbt national pageant winner. What’s more remarkable is that they both held the same regional title.

33) Daniel Rodriguez (b.1993) (no relation to Patricia as far as I know) won the Mr Tenerife title in 2016. In June 2016 he won the Mr International Spain pageant (again, there’s two Spain pageants; Mr International is the male equivalent of Miss Universe). Just days later, still in the media circus that follows the pageant finals, he came out as gay. This was deliberate. He had wanted to show that a gay man can enter and win any national pageant title. However, his reign was short. Daniel wasn’t happy with the way the Mr International Spain organisers were using him in their promotions and he resigned in October 2016.

It’s not only national pageants that Tenerife and the Canary Islands can boast to have the first lgbt representatives. The islands can also boast five political firsts in Spain, all of them achieved by just two people, the first person holding four of them. His name is 34) Jerónimo Saavedra (b.1936).

Next time : From an Atlantic island to a national capital and international activism.