Olympic Countdown

The Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 sees the first significant presence of lgbt athletes, albeit none of them “out” at the time. From 1984 the number of lgbt athletes would increase until it peaked in Sydney in 2000. Because of this it will be difficult to include full details of all of them in my posts. I’ll give as many of them a name check as possible, but I’ll concentrate on medal winners and significant events.

After the boycott of the Moscow Olympics its no surprise that Communist countries boycotted the LA games. It’s well-known that eastern European countries gave athletes performance-enhancing drugs purely to win more medals and promote “healthy Socialist” propaganda. Most of the drugs were steroids and testosterone given to female athletes, most of them unaware they were being drugged.

In 2000 the president of the East German Olympic Committee was put on trial with others, and they were convicted of “intentional bodily harm of athletes”. One of these was shot putter Heidi Krieger. By the time of the trial he had undergone gender reassignment and was known as Andreas Krieger. Even though he had questions about his sexuality as a child he firmly believes that being pumped full of steroids denied him the right to discover his sexuality naturally. Despite not appearing at the Olympics because of the LA boycott Krieger won the European Championships in 1986 and the gold medal forms part of the Heidi Krieger Medal, awarded each year to the German athlete who has done most to promote anti-doping in sport.

In Los Angeles 2 American lgbt athletes became Olympic champions. Harriet “Holly” Metcalf was a member of the US rowing 8 team that won gold, and Greg Louganis returned to be the first diver since 1928 to win gold in both springboard and platform.

A member of the US swimming team, Bruce Hayes, won his first titles the year before at the US Championships, the World University Games and the Pan American Games. In the Olympic 4x200m freestyle relay Bruce found himself swimming the same final leg against the legendary German swimmer Michael Gross. The US were ahead as Hayes and Gross entered the water. Gross overtook before the final turn. Bruce’s trademark fast finish put them equal at the finish line. In a world record time, and only 0.04 seconds ahead, Bruce Hayes won gold for the US team. “It was an honourable defeat”, said Gross.

Bruce has continued to swim in US Masters competitions, and in 1994 became the first Olympic champion to become Gay Games champion. Since then he has won a further 15 Gay Games gold medals, competing at every games since 1994. He also kept his Olympics connection by being Assistant Competition Manager for Swimming at the Atlanta 1996 games. In 2002 Bruce was appointed as one of the inaugural Gay Games Ambassadors.

On track and field in 1984 we have the first lgbt couple to compete at the same games, West German athletes Sabine Braun and Beate Peters. Neither won a medal but did win diplomas – 6^th place heptathlon diploma for Sabine and 7^th place javelin for Beate. This was the first of 5 Olympic appearances at the summer games by Sabine, the most by any female lgbt competing athlete.

For the 1984 games tennis made its return to the Olympics, the first time since 1928, as a demonstration sport. Several top tennis players competed, including Gigi Fernández.

Finally, one gay athlete made his Olympic debut in 1984. Equestrian Robert Dover, a member of the US dressage team, has completed in 6 Olympics, the most by any lgbt athlete.

Since this article first appeared a lot of new information has been revealed and new research has been carried out. This article should be seen as a mere snapshot of the information known at the date of its publication. Several facts may now be outdated or inaccurate. 

Swimming With Olympians

When I began researching the ancestries of lgbt Olympians I didn’t know I’d be related to any of them. What has intrigued me in my research is that of the 4 lgbt Olympians I know I’m related to, all of them are swimmers!

For several years I’d known that I was related to Daniel Veatch and Francilia Agar Schofield. We all descend from the Beaufort family who were great-grandchildren of King Edward II, that well-known “Queen” of England. Dan Veatch’s ancestry is mentioned briefly in my Christmas post on Sir Noël Coward.

More recently I discovered I was related to 2 more lgbt Olympic swimmers – Mark Chatfield and Susan Gray McGreivy. All 3 of us descend from Richard Gawkroger Platts of Sowerby, Yorkshire, who was buried in 1575.

The unusual surname Gawkroger originates from a place-name. The “roger” comes from “rocher” which is a Yorkshire dialect word for a rock or crag, and “gawk” is dialect for “left”. So Gawkroger could mean “the rock on the left” – perhaps on the left of a prominent landmark or road. When surnames began to become hereditary in the late Medieval period one family adopted a surname from the place where they lived. They lived near the “rock on the left” in the Halifax area. So they became the Gawkroger family. This seems to have been around 1400.

The Gawkrogers also owned property called Platts farm, and this they began to use as a surname as well – Gawkroger Platts – to distinguish themselves from cousins who lived near Sowerby bridge, the Gawkroger Briggs family.

My ancestor Michael Gawkroger Platts’s cousin Mary married John Prescott of Halifax in 1629. Mark Chatfield and Susan McGreivy descend from this couple (as do both Presidents Bush, and astronomer Perceval Lowell and his lesbian sister, the writer Amy Lowell).

John and Mary Prescott had emigrated to Barbados by 1638, and by 1640 had moved to New England and became the founding settlers in a place they named Nashaway (after the local native tribe). Other settlers wanted to rename the town Prescottville in the family’s honour, but the local council decided to name it after John’s place of birth in England, Lancaster.

By profession John was a blacksmith, quite a good one apparently because he had his own suit of armour, presumably one he made for himself. This he wore during attacks from the Nashaway tribe. As with many other colonial settlements on native lands Lancaster came under attack, so John Prescott would have worn his armour a lot, especially in 1675 and 1676. This was when the Nashaways attacked the settlers quite violently, pillaging the town and killing men, women and children. Among the victims were John and Mary Prescott’s son-in-law Lt. Jonas Fairbanks, and 2 of their grandsons. Another grandson, 6-year-old Jabez, was lucky to survive, and he is ancestor of Susan Gray McGreivy.

The eldest daughter of John and Mary Gawkroger Platts Prescott was called Mary. She married into the Sawyers of Connecticut and was ancestor of Mark Chatfield. Other settler ancestors of Mark were Stephen Gates (ancestor of Bill Gates), and John Fobes (ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales).

With research never reaching an end I await further revelations of my blood relationship to famous people.

Putting the Record Straight on - Shakespeare

Today is St. George’s Day, perhaps the only national day in the world which isn’t celebrated with a public holiday by its own country! It also happens to be the anniversary of the birth and death of England’s most famous playwright William Shakespeare.

I’m not convinced by any declaration of Shakespeare’s sexuality. The question about whether he was gay, bisexual or neither is more disputed than that of King Richard the Lionheart.

The whole theory behind Shakespeare being gay/bisexual seems to rest on flimsy evidence to say the least. First, his plays are presented by some pro-gay scholars as examples of cross-dressing fantasies he had. They ignore tha fact that plays in his time didn’t allow female actors and all female characters were played by boys. It was accepted in Tudor times, just as cross-dressing in panto is today. So, does that mean that everyone who wrote a pantomime has cross-dressing fantasies? Or that the writers of “Tootsie” or “Mrs. Doubtfire” are gay?

But the main evidence put forward for Shakespeare’s sexuality are his sonnets, his 20^th sonnet in particular. Alan Bray, a respected gay scholar and historian, trashed the gay Shakespeare theory in 1995. Looking at the conventions of Shakespearean England, with its culture of emotional bonding between men (the Bromance of its age) and male bed-sharing (commonplace before the 20^th century), there’s nothing in Shakespeare’s writing to indicate his own sexuality.

It seems that just because people imply a homosexual theme in someone’s writing it doesn’t mean it’s actually there. After all, Elton John has written many, very overt, straight love songs, so that obviously means he is definitely NOT gay. Right?

Star Gayzing - Taurus

You could say today’s post is a lot of bull. The constellation of Taurus presents a gay cowboy’s dream of a herd of possible lgbt links. The constellation itself was pictured as a bull by the Babylonians, the fathers of all our western star mappers.

The Taurean bull has been identified with several legendary creatures which are connected in some way, and all of them are associated with Crete, home of the ancient Minoan civilisation that worshipped the bull. The Cretan Bull itself has no gay legends, but the main male protagonists in his story do. And – surprise, surprise -  they’re all ancient Greeks!

There are several different versions of the story of the Cretan Bull. Here’s mine.

Europa was a beautiful Phoenician princess. Zeus lusted after her and decided to abduct her. He created a tame white bull whose coat shone so brightly that Europa was instantly captivated. She climbed onto the bull’s back, at which point it leapt into the sea and swam to the island of Crete, where it deposited Europa in front of Zeus. There they spent several years together, with Europa giving birth to 3 sons, the eldest of whom was King Minos.

The Cretan Bull was given to Poseidon, the chief god of Crete, who ordered Minos to sacrifice the bull in his honour, but Minos couldn’t bring himself to kill it and sacrificed another in its place. Poseidon was furious. As punishment he put a spell of bestiality on Minos’s wife Queen Pasiphae.

Pasiphae fell in love with the Cretan Bull and persuaded the court inventor to construct a wooden heifer in which she could hide so that the bull could mate with her. The result of this mating was the famous Minotaur. In shame Minos asked the inventor to create a labyrinth in which to keep the creature prisoner.

Once again Poseidon asked Minos to sacrifice the Cretan Bull. Again Minos refused. This time Poseidon sent the bull mad and it rampaged across the island, trampling on crops and destroying harvests. There was only one man who could tame the beast – Hercules.

As one of his Twelve Labours Hercules was sent to capture the bull. Using cunning and strength he subdued the beast and transported it back to Athens to prove to his master that his labour was completed. The Cretan Bull, now tame again, was allowed to roam free in the countryside.

Several years later the son of King Minos went to compete at the Athenian Games (the precursor of the Panatheneaean games) and won every contest. This made the king of Athens very angry and had the prince killed. Minos immediately declared war on Athens, defeating them and forcing them to send an annual tribute to Crete of 7 boys and 7 girls to be fed to the Minotaur.

The story of how Theseus killed the Minotaur is well known. Beforehand, having been brought up away from his homeland, Theseus arrived at his father’s court in cognito. His father was suspicious of him at first. As a test he sent Theseus to capture and sacrifice the Cretan Bull. This he did with no great difficulty, and so the beast that was such a great symbol of the Cretan culture met its. In its honour Zeus placed the Cretan bull in the sky as the constellation Taurus. Theseus then revealed who he was and he volunteered to go to Crete and killed the monstrous son of the Cretan Bull, the Minotaur. And so the symbol of the bull that was so great in Cretan culture met its end at the hands of an Athenian, somewhat symbolic of the rise of the state of Athens filling the gap made by the decline of Crete.

That’s the myth, now the queer angle.

In mythology King Minos was the first man to have sex with another man. As I’ve said several times in the past same-sex activity wasn’t taboo in ancient Greece. One myth says that Minos was also the kidnapper of young Ganymede. This particular myth first appears long after the Minoan civilisation collapsed. Ganymede’s abduction is now generally regarded as having being by Zeus (see my post on Aquarius).

Even if Minos wasn’t the lover of Ganymede, several myths say he was the lover of Theseus. After Minos’s initial anger at killing the Minotaur he mellowed towards the hero, and after Theseus abandoned Minos’s daughter Ariadne (who helped him to escape from the labyrinth) he married Minos’s other daughter. This is when the two are said to have been lovers.

Then we come to Hercules. Well, where do I start? Perhaps it’s best not to. Hercules has his own constellation, and I think I’ll keep his gender identity crisis for another time.

Olympic Countdown

Since this article first appeared a lot of new information has been revealed and new research has been carried out. This article should be seen as a mere snapshot of the information known at the date of its publication. Several facts may now be outdated or inaccurate.

Between the 1980 and 1984 Olympics a new Olympics emerged. It was the brainchild of US Olympian Tom  Waddell. After his participation as team doctor for the Saudi team in 1976, Tom returned home to San Francisco where he and his boyfriend came out publicly in the October 1976 issue of “People” magazine. They received much abuse from fellow Olympians, but it gave Tom the determination to show that gay men CAN do sport.

It was while attending a gay bowling match that the spark of an idea of the Gay Olympics occurred to Tom. He travelled around the US drumming up support and enthusiasm and very soon a group was formed to arrange the first games in 1982. But before they could begin the US Olympic Committee sued the group over the use of the word “Olympic” (where have I hear that before?). Tom protested that they had ever objected to the Police Olympics, the Dog Olympics, or the Porn Olympics, so why pick on the Gay Olympics?

Legal proceedings started, and with less than 19 days before the games began all references to “Olympics” had to be blacked out of posters and publicity. The legal battle was to last until 1987 by which time the Gay Olympics had been renamed the Gay Games. From such an unpromising start grew a movement which is still going strong, and still holds the world record for the most competitors in a multi-sport event (over 4,000 more than the biggest Olympics).

In this 30^th anniversary years of the Gay Games I’ll bring more of its history in August.

Two Winter Olympics for the price of one now. At the 1984 Sarajevo and 1988 Calgary games the same 3 gay ice skaters appeared – Rob McCall, Brian Orser and Brian Boitano.

Rob McCall was a pairs figure skater who was Canadian champion 7 years running from 1981. Performing with Tracy Wilson in the Sarajevo Olympics of 1984 Rob won an Olympic Diploma for their 8^th place. At the Calgary games inn 1988 they took the bronze medal.

In 1990 Rob was diagnosed with AIDS. He kept this secret because US law at that time banned anyone with HIV/AIDS from entering the USA and Rob wanted to continue touring in ice shows and competitions. Rob died in 1991 aged 33. Even as his health deteriorated he planned an AIDS benefit called “For Skate the Drama”. It was also to become his tribute event.

At that time there was a lot of denial within the sport. Many skaters either disbelieved there were many HIV+ skaters, or chose to ignore what effect AIDS would have on their sport. With major skaters dying of AIDS more and more skaters chose to show their open support by appearing at the AIDS benefit.

One skater who performed at “For Skate the Drama” was American Brian Boitano. In 1978 he had won a bronze medal at the World Junior championships. One place behind was Canadian Brian Orser. The two were to become Olympic rivals, both competing in Sarajevo in 1984 and Calgary in 1988.

Boitano won silver in 1984 while Orser took an Olympic Diploma in 5^th place. At the World Championships over the next 4 years they dominated the medals, alternating gold and silver positions 3 years running. At the 1988 Olympics the media hyped up the “Battle of the Brians”. Going into the final free skating section the 2 Brians were effectively tied – whoever won this section won gold. Orser made one mistake and missed a jump, giving Boitano the gold medal.

No doubt this was a disappointment for Orser. But at least he had had the honour of carrying his national flag at the head of the home team in the parade of athletes at the opening ceremony. Orser’s participation in Olympic skating has continued. At the 2012 Vancouver games Orser coached the gold medallist Yu-Na Kim.

Boitano’s career, however, went in several directions. Sports-wise he returned to the Olympics in 1994. On the tv he earned cult status in caricature form on “South Park”; he won an Emmy for his role in “Carmen on Ice”; and has fronted 2 series of his own cookery programme.

Before we leave the 1988 Calgary games there’s some more lgbt names to mention. Former Olympian Brian Pockar was artistic director of the closing ceremony at which k d lang made her first Olympic performance, and Nat Brown was the coach and head technician for the US ski team.

I’ll return to the warmer climes of the summer games next times with a look at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Birmingham's Rhinestone Rhino

A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Birmingham City Council was putting £10,000 towards a diamante-studded statue of a rhinoceros that is going to mark the entrance to the city’s gay village.

I’ve been aware of the rhino as an lgbt symbol for several years but didn’t really look into it all that much. Birmingham’s rhinestone rhino got me more interested. So here’s what I’ve found out.

The purple rhinoceros first became a symbol of the lgbt community in December 1974. It was the idea of 2 gay rights activists living in Boston, Massachusetts, called Bernie Toale and Tom Morganti. The rhino was chosen, Toale said at the start of the campaign, because it was a very misunderstood animal, not unlike the gay community at the time. He pointed out that when threatened or angered the rhino would fight ferociously. Again, this summed up the gay community.

Even though the rhino is often called purple the original design was actually a slightly lighter lavender in colour, a widely used colour in the community (the reason why will be given in a Flower Power post later in the year). The heart was added as a symbol of love and humanity.

The rhino appeared on posters Toale designed to raise awareness of gay issues around Boston, and it appeared on the walls of the Boston underground system and public advertising spaces. After a while the cost of the campaign got too much and since they couldn’t afford to pay Boston’s public service advertising rates the posters stopped being printed. It seemed for a while that the purple rhino would disappear for good.

Even though the original purple rhino faded into the history books it was often referred to in later publications and, more recently still, websites. This breathed new life into the rhino and brought it out of Boston and into the wider world. It was picked up by a few lgbt groups and organisations, and if you Google “purple rhino” a long list of these will appear. In 2009 it was even suggested as an alternative to the Rainbow Pride flag (pictured below).

The Birmingham rhino came about through a competition. The Birmingham LGBT group and lgbt businesses in the gay village in the city felt that a distinctive sculpture would enhance the revitalisation of the city centre. With various grants and remaining funds from the council’s revitalisation budget, a competition was organised.

The winning idea came from Robbie Coleman. It will be a larger-than-life-size rhino encrusted with diamante to represent the city’s great jewellery heritage. Diamonds were also used by the Mattachine Society, a gay rights movement set up in the USA in the 1970s.

It remains to be seen whether the Birmingham rhino become a tourist attraction in its own right. But it makes me wonder if a gay village in any other city has a sculpture at its entrance.

Unlucky For Some

I hope you’re not superstitious. Today is Friday 13^th, a supposedly very unlucky day. Some people have said that it originated in the Last Supper. They say that 13 people were present and one the next day, Good Friday, Christ was crucified. The obvious flaw in that is that the Last Supper took place on Thursday, so it should be Thursday 13^th that is unlucky.

What has more credibility is the story surrounding the suppression of the Knights Templar. I dealt with them before in relation to their supposed homosexual activity, but today I want to concentrate on the man who persecuted them – King Philippe IV of France (1268-1314).

King Philippe was one of those homophobes who used accusations of homosexuality for personal and political benefit. Anyone he had a grudge against was declared homosexual at some point – his son-in-law, the Templars, and even the pope – and there were a lot of people who didn’t like him, so there was no shortage of people to accuse.

Philippe’s obsession with gaining more power began before he succeeded to his throne. The year before his father died he married the reigning Queen of Navarre and began calling himself King of Navarre. He then took control of the queen’s French provinces of Champagne and Brie (I wonder if he had some nice black grapes to go with them!).

Next he set his sight on French provinces belonging to the English crown. Snubbed by King Edward I for refusing to act as subservient Duke of Aquitaine, King Philippe seized Edward’s French provinces precipitating a war that ended with the engagement of his daughter Isabel to Edward’s son Edward. This was to provide another excuse to accuse someone of sodomy – the one and only time he might have got it right.

In 1308 the wedding-coronation of the 12-year-old Princess Isabel to 24-year-old Edward (by now King Edward II) was notable in that Edward spent his wedding night with his boyfriend Piers Gaveston and gave him most of the French wedding gifts. This time King Philippe didn’t need to invent evidence.

Philippe then wanted more money as well as land. First he expelled all the Jews from France, seizing their assets. Then he levied a 50% tax on the French clergy, prompting Pope Boniface VIII to issue a papal bull preventing Philippe from seizing church property as well. Philippe called an assembly of his supporters in the clergy, bishops and nobles and had Boniface arrested and deposed. Philippe took this opportunity to spread rumours of the Pope being gay to discredit him as well.

With his own puppet Pope Clement V installed King Philippe then turned on the Templars, the wealthiest holy order in Europe. So, on Friday 13^th 1307, again using accusations of sodomy, he began arresting every one of them simultaneously, thus bringing to an end the power of the Knights Templar. His papal pal Clement V dissolved the order for good on 3^rd April 1312 – 700 years ago last week.

The last Grand Master of the Templars went to his death at the stake in 1314 cursing both King Philippe and Pope Clement. Ironically, a month later Clement died in torment from some unspecified illness, and Philippe was killed in a hunting “accident” 8 months later.

So, if Friday 13^th is unlucky for the Knights Templar, it certainly didn’t turn out well for King Philippe IV of France or Pope Clement V either.