Chain Males : Part 2

We’ve looked at femalemayors. We’ve looked at Lord Mayors. Now let’s have a look at male mayors, and there have been many gay, bisexual or male-identifying mayors. In fact, I’ve had to split them into several groups. I’ll deal with British, European and US male mayors in the coming months. Today we’ll look at the known male mayors from our community from the rest of the world.

Below is a world map with the cities and municipalities in which gay/bisexual men have served as mayor. I have chosen not to include those who were Deputy or Vice Mayor, but have included one Municipal President, which is a mayoral equivalent. On the map I’ve used official logos, flags or coats of arms of the municipalities though I need to say something about the arms of Wanganui, New Zealand. The arms I’ve shown is the one used by the city unofficially from 1905 and were in use when Charles Mackay served as mayor. It is the arms of the Petre family after whom the city was originally named. An official coat of arms for Wanganui city was granted in 1955.

As with the previous mayoral lists there are no lgbt mayors known to have served in Africa.

Here is the list of mayors :

CANADA

Réal Ménard (b.1962), Mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve since 2010.

Glen Murray (b.1957), Mayor of Winnipeg 1998-2004.
Ted Nebbeling (1944-2009), Mayor of Whistler 1990-96.
Maurice Richard (b.1946), Mayor of Becancour 1976-85, 1995-2013.

CHILE
Claudio Arriagada (b.1955); Mayor of La Granja 1992-2012.

EL SALVADOR
Hugo Salinas (b.1963), Mayor of Intipucá 2009-12.

MEXICO
Benjamin Medrano Quezada (b.1966), Municipal President of Fresnillo 2013-15.

PHILIPPINES
Arnold James Ysidoro, Mayor of Leyte City 1998-2004, and since 2010.

AUSTRALIA
John Fowler (b.1954), Mayor of South Sydney 2000-4.
Julian Hill (b.1973), Mayor of Port Philip 2000-2.
John Hyde (b.1957), Mayor of Vincent 1999-2001.
Ralph McLean (1957-2010), Mayor of Fitzroy 1984-5.
Bruce Notley-Smith (b.1964), Mayor of Randwick 2007-9.

NEW ZEALAND
Charles Mackay (1878-1929), Mayor of Wanganui 1906-20.

The earliest openly gay mayor on the list is the last-named Charles Mackay, although to be fair he was outed during the legal case that followed his shooting of a blackmailer. The blackmailer was seriously wounded, and Mackay was convicted of attempted murder. He was removed from his mayoral office and spent 18 months in jail.

The earliest mayor to be openly gay when elected to office was another antipodean, Ralph McLean of Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia in 1984. Of all the others on the list only Claudio Arriagada, Mayor of La Granja in Chile, was not openly gay during his term of office. He came out the year afterwards.

As well as Charles Mackay of Wanganui the other mayors have points of interest. Here are a few. While was Réal Ménard was MP for Hochelega he competed at the 1st World Outgames in 2006 winning a silver medal in wrestling; Ted Nebbeling was the Canadian Minister of State for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games; Glen Murray and his partner were the subjects of a 1992 documentary film about gay parents and adoption; Claudio Arriagada was twice President of the Chilean Association of Municipalities, the mayor’s mayor or super-mayor, you could say; Hugo Salinas had lived in the USA since 1993 and hadn’t set foot in his native El Salvador until he began his successful mayoral campaign, which he began just a stone’s through from the White House. All of our mayors have stories to tell, as do all of those I’ve listed in the past and will list in future articles.

I’ll finish by going back to my previous “Chain Males” article on Lord Mayors. With all the research and activity going on before and after the UK General Election in June one piece of news slipped past me. In May the City of Westminster appointed as openly gay man as its new Lord Mayor, Councillor Ian Adams. That makes him the 6th lgbt Lord Mayor in the UK and the second in Westminster. Westminster had the first known lgbt Lord Mayor in the UK, Robert Davis in 1996, though he wasn’t openly gay at the time.

The next Chain Males article will feature the gay and bisexual mayors in the USA.

Q-dunnit? Who Grabbed St. Patrick's Jewels?

One hundred and ten years ago this week Ireland was rocked by a crime that is still unsolved. It was a crime that sent shockwaves into the British royal family and uncovered a secret world that existed in the heart of the Irish capital.

See if you can answer the question people have been asking for over a century – who stole the Irish Crown Jewels?

Let’s start with the background and story of the crime and then we’ll look at the suspects.

The Irish Crown Jewels were actually the insignia of the Order of St. Patrick, Ireland’s highest order of knighthood, and were part of the British crown jewels. They consisted of a magnificent star badge and an equally magnificent jewelled chain collar and pendant badge. All glittered with hundreds of Brazilian diamonds, rubies and emeralds. They have been estimated to be worth over £4 million today.

A Star of the Order of St. Patrick. This is smaller than the
one stolen from Dublin Castle but no less magnificent

The jewels were kept at Dublin Castle and only brought out on ceremonial and state occasions, and only worn by the sovereign’s representative, the Viceroy and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as Grand Master of the Order. However, on the afternoon of 6th July 1907 St. Patrick’s Jewels, along with several other jewelled collars belonging to Knights of St. Patrick, were gone.

An alarming prelude to the theft was that in the early morning of 3rd July when the office cleaner arrived the entrance door to the Herald’s Office at Dublin Castle was open. The police guard had checked the door at 7.30 p.m. the night before and it was firmly locked. No-one had been seen entering the castle grounds.

What came to light in the aftermath of the theft was the revelation that there was a secret homosexual ring centred at the castle. This ring included the people responsible for the safety of St. Patrick’s Jewels as well as the future Duke of Argyll who was married to the king’s sister Princess Louise, and Lord Haddo the son of the Viceroy and Lord Lieutenant.

Rumours of a gay clique at Dublin Castle first emerged after an Irish nationalist hinted at such in a newspaper article in 1884. None of our suspects had any link to the castle at that time but the rumours stuck. The homosexuality of several of the suspects, once revealed, only served to perpetuate the rumours of gay orgies in the castle itself.

St. Patrick’s Jewels were locked in a safe in the Dublin Castle library. There were only two keys, both kept by Sir Arthur Vicars. One he wore on a chain on his person all the time and the other was locked in a drawer in his bedroom. The jewels were seen in the safe when Sir Arthur last opened it on 11th June.

Access to the library was only through the main entrance to the Office of Arms. There were seven keys to the entrance door. They were held by Sir Arthur, his secretary, Pierce Gun Mahoney, the office Messenger, the night inspector, the Board of Works overseer, and the office cleaner. We can eliminate the overseer as a suspect because he hadn’t been at the castle since March. Police also eliminated the cleaner and secretary.

As for access to the library during working hours any official visitor or member of staff could slip unnoticed into the cellars whenever the office messenger, the only person whose office was on the ground floor next to the library, went upstairs to Sir Arthur’s office. He/she could also easily leave unnoticed the same way. As for the night-time, a skylight that led into all office areas could be easily opened unnoticed from ground level. None of the military or police guards who were there 24 hours a day noticed anything suspicious.

The police questioned everyone at the castle about their whereabouts on the night of 2nd-3rd July when the entrance door was found open, and on 5th-6th July, the night before the theft was discovered.

So, who are the main suspects? From the brief reports I’ve given below can you decide “Q-dunnit?”

SIR ARTHUR VICARS : Ulster King of Arms, Ireland’s chief herald and genealogist and the man ultimately responsible for the safe-keeping of St. Patrick’s Jewels. He was diligent in his duties, but when he was told on 3rd July that the entrance door had been found unlocked he didn’t seem concerned. On 6th July he gave his safe key to the office Messenger who then discovered the safe open and the jewels gone. Sir Arthur never gave his key to anyone. Sir Arthur had an intimate (possibly physical) relationship with Francis Shackleton whom he invited to live with him (in separate bedrooms) in his house some half-hour carriage drive from the castle. He was also known to show off St. Patrick’s Jewels to anyone he thought might be interested, contrary to his required duties. He seemed genuinely shaken when the jewels were found missing. ALIBI : On 2nd July he was having dinner with a friend and wouldn’t have had time to go from his home to the castle and back without being seen by the guard. On 5th July he checked the premises, locked the office and went home. He didn’t return until 11.30 the next morning.

FRANCIS SHACKLETON : Dublin Herald, a mainly honorary and ceremonial title (Sir Arthur’s co-second in command). Younger brother of the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. Francis and Sir Arthur had known each other for years and Shackleton lived with Sir Arthur when performing his ceremonial duties in Dublin. Being appointed Dublin Herald helped to regain his reputation which had been tarnished after he resigned from the army after some hushed-up scandal. He could easily have secretly copied one of Sir Arthur’s safe keys when staying with him in Dublin. ALIBI : Francis hadn’t been in Ireland since May.

PIERCE GUN MAHONEY : Cork Herald, again mainly an honorary and ceremonial title (Sir Arthur’s other co-second in command). He was Sir Arthur’s nephew and visited him at home many times. He could also have easily secretly copied any of the keys. ALIBI : Mahoney had left Dublin in April for health reasons and didn’t return until 4th July.

FRANCIS BENNETT-GOLDNEY : Athlone Pursuivant, the lowest rank of herald, and yet again an honorary and ceremonial title. As such he could afford to have a full-time career in England as the Mayor of Canterbury. He first met Sir Arthur through a mutual friend, the gay sculptor Lord Ronald Gower. Without trying to influence your judgement, it was revealed after Bennett-Goldney’s death that he had been pilfering various items from the Canterbury archives. ALIBI : Like Shackleton, Bennett-Goldney had not been in Ireland since May when he stayed with Sir Arthur and Shackleton at their home and worked with them at the castle. Could this have given him any chance to secretly copy one of the keys?

RICHARD GORGES : Musket instructor at the Curragh military barracks near Dublin. He was Francis Shackleton’s lover. He was literally booted (i.e. physically kicked) out of his regiment for being found having sex with a young boy, one of many it later transpired. Sir Arthur refused to accept Gorges onto his staff or into the castle because of it. This may have had some connection with Shackleton’s own hushed-up exit from the army. This meant that Gorges would not have access to any keys – unless Shackleton had secretly made copies and Gorges “acquired” them during one of their regular hook-ups in Dublin. ALIBI : Supposedly he was in Curragh barracks on both of the evenings the police were looking in to. We’ll never know. He was never questioned. Interestingly, when he was arrested for manslaughter a few years later he confessed to the theft of St. Patrick’s Jewels. No-one believed him!

Those are the suspects. A Viceregal Commission of Investigation was conducted. Sir Arthur Vicars refused to take part arguing that only a public enquiry would reveal the truth. He was probably right. Twenty-two witnesses were called to give evidence, and the commission turned into a trial against him. Sir Arthur was found guilt of negligence in his duties and fired as Ulster King of Arms. To his dying day he accused Francis Shackleton on the theft.

Various historians have named one or more of the above suspects at one time or another. The current consensus is that Shackleton and Gorges worked together to steal the jewels. But what do you think? On the very brief evidence I’ve given do you think they are guilty? Or was is Sir Arthur all along?

Pride in Canada

Today is Canada Day and this year the nation is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

I have a personal affection for Canada. My paternal grandfather lived in a village called Newton Brook near Toronto (now one of the suburbs) until 1911. Two of his brothers remained and I have relatives in Toronto to this very day. On my mother’s side of the family her great-uncle emigrated from England to Winnipeg and I have relatives who still live there as well.

To celebrate Canada Day and this season of Pride it is the right occasion to have a look at the origin of the Pride movement in Canada. Most of the cities in Canada have annual Pride events that originate in their current format from the 1980s. But there were nationwide Prides going back as far as 1972.

As with the Pride movement in the USA the Canadian movement began with a landmark event. In the US it was the Stonewall Riots of 1969 which led to the first Christopher Street Gay Freedom March of 1970, recognised as the first New York City Pride. Just six weeks before the Stonewall Riots Canada passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act which decriminalised homosexual activity. It received royal assent on 27th June, the day before Stonewall. However, this did not stop harassment and discrimination.

Groups of activists formed across the country. Now that they were decriminalised they could be more open in their demands for equality and protection from discrimination. One of the earliest groups was Toronto Gay Action. They planned marches on the provincial government building in Toronto and the national government building in Ottawa to call for their full rights. To promote these marches, and to gather the lgbt community together openly for perhaps the first time, they organised a “gay picnic” at Hanlan’s Point in Toronto on 1st August 1971.

The Gay Pride March took place on 20th August 1971 and the march in Ottawa took place on 28th August. They may not have much in common with modern Pride events but they can be regarded as the first in Canada, having both been promoted as “Pride” marches and laying the foundations of the more familiar ones that followed.

The next event was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Ottawa march. It was called Gay Pride Week and was held from 19th to 27th August 1972. It was much more recognisable as a Pride. It included another picnic, art exhibitions, film screenings, a dance, an interfaith service and a rally. Over 200 people took part in the march.

Other Canadian cities began to organise their own similar events. By the time the second anniversary of the Ottawa march came around in 1973 a nationwide celebration of Gay Pride Week took place in several cities – Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montréal, Winnipeg and Saskatoon. Most followed a similar format with rallies, exhibitions, films and picnics. Not all of them had marches but all had the same goal of calling for action against discrimination and for equal rights.

For several more years Gay Pride Week was held. It wasn’t long before local concerns in the lgbt community dominated the protests and awareness of discrimination. In several cities police raids on gay venues sparked anger and demonstrations. Subsequent Gay Pride Week events were superseded by new Prides with new dates being chosen, often to coincide with the US Pride events commemorating the Stonewall Riots in June or the local police raids. These new Canadian Prides are the ones most often regarded as the first in their respective cities, overlooking the pioneering Gay Pride Weeks. They may have different organising committees but their aims were the same.

Today all Canadian provinces have Pride events, even Nunavut which surely hosts the coldest Prides in the world (though not necessarily the most northern, that honour goes to Scandinavia, though I am willing to be corrected).

With so many Prides taking place across Canada on different dates it feels that the national unity felt in those early Gay Pride Weeks has been lost. But don’t despair. A new Pride is rising.

Way back in 2004 Fierté Canada Pride (FCP) was formed bringing together volunteers from many cities across the country. In 2015 FCP felt confident enough to propose a new national Pride to be hosted in a different city once every four years. The proposal was accepted by its member and the first Canada Pride is set to be held in Montréal in a few day’s time on 11th-20th August.

I wish all my Canadian friends and family a happy 150th anniversary and hope that all your Prides are a success, especially the new Canada Pride. I hope that it will inspire other countries to adopt regular national Prides of their own.

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.