Woman of Peace

The International Day of Peace logo and portrait of Jane Addams

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Jane Addams in 1860. In 1931 she received the Nobel Peace Prize for “her social reform work” and “leading the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom”. Later this month the annual International Day of Peace takes place. Not only that, but it’s the 40^th anniversary of the first one in 1982. It was instituted by the UN General Assembly, originally to be held on the third Tuesday in September but since 2002 has been fixed on 21^st September.

Jane Addams was elected President of the Women’s Peace Party, the original American group who formed the International League of Peace and Freedom, on its foundation in 1915.

Jane was an extremely popular public figure in America due to her work in social welfare and education. Her main establishment at Hull House in Chicago helped many poor and immigrant families, and it helped Jane to have the influence to lobby for protective legislation for women and children.

She opened a day-care centre at Hull House for the children of working mothers and provided playgrounds, nurseries, a library, a summer school for women, and worked with prostitutes and drug users. Hull House became the most famous social welfare establishment in America by 1914.

Despite this Jane’s personal popularity took a nosedive because of her strong pacifism. She apposed America’s involvement in World War One and, like other pacifists, was denounced as a traitor. Undaunted Jane led members of the Women’s Peace Party to The Hague in 1915 for an International Congress of Women. With a smaller group of women she toured the capitals of all the European warring nations, risking attack from all sides of the conflict, urging all the leaders to seek peace.

After the war Jane’s health prevented her from continuing much of the active work of the peace movement, though she remained as president of the Women’s Peace Party which formed the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom in 1921. Jane’s popularity began to return in the 1920s, and she received the Nobel Peace Prize  in 1931.

In recent years the question of Jane Addams’s sexuality has been addressed by Hull House Museum, the site of Jane’s first social welfare centre. For many years scholars have been acknowledging Jane’s close relationship with fellow reformer Mary Rozet Smith, and many of them have been referring to it as a lesbian relationship. In 2007 the museum’s curator, Lisa Lee, decided to run a project in which visitors were asked to decide on the wording of a caption beneath a portrait of Mary Rozet Smith in the museum referring to this relationship.

The project raised a few eyebrows in more stuffier academic circles, but it would be remiss of historians not to consider the possibility that the highly successful close working relationship between Jane and Mary was not influenced by a romantic connection. Jane and Mary spent 30 years together, travelling together, and working together. In the words of Victoria Bissell Brown, author of “The Education of Jane Addams”, Jane couldn’t have done much without Mary. Mary was her emotional support, Victoria states, and Jane “needed a wife – and she had a great wife” in Mary Rozet Smith.

So what did the visitors to the museum suggest for the caption on Mary’s portrait? From a choice of “companion”, “partner” or “life partner”, “partner” was the preferred term. The caption goes on to mention the “deep emotional attachment and affection” Jane and Mary had for each other.

Heritage Spotlight

In the UK this week thousands of museums, stately homes, heritage sites, parks and historic buildings are throwing their doors open to the public free of charge. Some of them do so anyway, but this week sees lots of places that aren’t usually accessible to the general public (e.g. private homes, old schools or business premises) open to celebrate these two Heritage Open Days.

History has always been a vital part of the UK’s tourist industry, and “heritage” is big business. The National Lottery was quick to pick up on this when it began and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was formed.

Over the years the HLF has funded many projects with an lgbt theme. I became involved in one myself when I was approached by the HLF in 2007. They had seen an absence of lgbt heritage projects coming forward for funding in the area of the country where I lived and went looking for possible projects themselves.

During a week-long exhibition for LGBT History Month the HLF asked if they could help fund a project based on my lgbt tours of Nottingham. I thought of something bigger, and with the help of David Edgley of Nottingham Switchboard co-founded Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage. I also designed the logo (below). The lottery funding ended earlier this year, but I’m pleased to say the project is continuing thanks to grants and funding from elsewhere.

The HLF has given grants to other lgbt heritage projects around the UK over the years. Here are just a few, and the groups who received them :

Before Stonewall: Memories of the LGBT Community (Gay and Lesbian Arts and Media, Brighton)

Diverse-City (Manchester Joint Health Unit)

Gay Birmingham Remembered (Birmingham Pride Community Trust)

Get Involved (LGBT Youth Scotland)

LGBT Community Heritage (Intercom Trust)

Out the Past (Marketing Manchester)

Our Story, Liverpool (Unity Theatre, Liverpool)

Queer Arts, Artists and Culture (QueerupNorth)

Towards the end of the 20^th century a lot of lgbt groups and organisations began to record and collect their own history and heritage. The first of these were in the USA, and there is a thriving lgbt museum industry there, more so than in the UK where there is no permanent lgbt museum.

With this in mind I intend to start a new series on lgbt museums and heritage projects around the world. I’ll feature one a month in “Heritage Spotlight”. Hopefully I can persuade someone from the featured museum or project to write something for me. Not only will I look at general lgbt history but also some of the more specialised ones (e.g. the Leather Museum and Holocaust memorials). Even the most interesting websites and blogs may be featured.

And this is where you can help. I know which ones I want to feature, but I’d like to know which ones you want to see. So if there’s an lgbt museum, project, exhibition, website or blog that you have come across which you think needs a bit more attention drop me an email

Sporting Legacy

History is all about living off the legacy that someone has left behind them, whether it is a political one, a cultural one, or a technological one. One of the reasons London won the 2012 Olympic Games was because of its determination to leave a sporting legacy. The motto of the games is “Inspire a Generation”. What it really needs to do is inspire ALL generations.

The main emphasis on this legacy has been to encourage more people to take up new sports. Of course, not everyone is interested in sport. A friend of mine didn’t see any of the Olympics, and some readers of this blog may have been put off this year by my Olympic Countdown series popping up every week. I don’t have any real interest in sport myself. I’m more interested in the athletes and their achievements.

The physical legacy – the sporting venues used in the Olympics – is also very important. Some of these were specifically designed to be temporary (some of them built and demolished before the IOC permit the architects to take any credit).

Throughout the period from when London won their bid in 2005 the Federation of Gay Games has worked with the London organising committee to encourage more lgbt athletes to compete at high levels. There’s still a long way to go before some sports and countries are comfortable with lgbt team-mates, and one legacy of these games may be a change of attitude.

The London organising committee has already shown its commitment to supporting the work of the Gay Games by backing London’s bid to host the 2018 Gay Games, using some of the 2012 venues for its competitions.

But I think those of us whose bodies are getting too creaky to do sports can think about what sort of legacy we can leave. I suppose my research into lgbt participation in the Olympic Games is part of my legacy. As far as I am aware I was the first to research this specific topic, and I have been pleased that it has been well received.

I adapted my Olympic Countdown series into a continuous narrative that was made available online through Pride House 2012, Outsports and the Federation of Gay Games. It is my hope that other people will begin their own research and develop what I have started. Like the 2012 motto I hope I can inspire.

I think the time is right for us in the lgbt community to make the best of this opportunity to highlight to the world the amazing contribution lgbt athletes have made, and can make, to sport.

Happy Birthday Gay Games

With the world looking at London tomorrow for another sporting opening ceremony, today we celebrate another one which was a pioneer in the world of lgbt sport. Today is the 30^th anniversary of the first day of the first Gay Games. It was held in San Francisco from 28^th August to 5^th September 1982, and was the brainchild of American gay Olympian Tom Waddell who competed at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

The Federation of Gay Games, who now runs the 4-yearly event, are celebrating with aweekend of special events on 20^th/21^st October, and I’ll be saying more about the games then.

Until October I’ll present some bits of information about the Gay Games, beginning with a list of games held so far.

1982    San Francisco

1986    San Francisco

1990    Vancouver

1994    New York City

1998    Amsterdam

2002    Sydney

2006    Chicago

2010    Cologne

Way back in my Olympic Countdown series I gave a chart showing the comparison in athlete numbers at the Gay Games and the Olympics. I think its worth reproducing it again with revised figures and the London 2012 figures.

A few lgbt Olympians have competed at the Gay Games, and become gold medal-winners. The first Olympic champion to become Gay Games champion was swimmer Bruce Hayes. At the 1990 Gay Games he won 7 gold medals, and another 9 at the 1994 Gay Games.

The lgbt Olympian with the most Gay Games medals is Peter Prijdekker. He moved to the UK from the Netherlands after his Olympic appearance in 1972 and joined London’s Out to Swim club. Over 4 Gay Games Peter has won a total of 18 gold medals, 5 silvers and 6 bronzes.

The Federation of Gay Games have a group of Ambassadors from all walks of life, including the following Olympians: Judith Arndt, Michele Ferris, Bruce Hayes, Greg Louganis, Matthew Mitcham, Leigh-Ann Naidoo, Petra Rossner, Blake Skjellerup and Ji Wallace.

Finally, the Gay Games are open to all and is not elitist like the Olympic Games. People from all walks of life, ages, and fame have taken part. Here’s a short list of some notable Gay Games athletes, some of whom may be familiar to you :

Betty Baxter, Olympian (1 gold, 1 silver, volleyball, 2 Gay Games)

Geert Blanchart, Olympian (silver, in-line skating 1998)

Keith Boykin, former White House aide (gold, wrestling 2006)

Glenn Burke, professional baseball player (athletics 1982; gold, basketball 1986)

Rhona Cameron, comedian (bronze, swimming 1998)

Mark Chatfield, Olympian (6 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze, swimming 1994)

Scott Cranham, Olympian (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze, diving 1990)

Richard Fairbrass, singer (cycling 1998)

Gregory Grove, aka gay porn actor Matthew Rush (bodybuilding 1998; bronze, bodybuilding 2002)

Christian Haren, the “Marlborough cigarette man” (bodybuilding 1986)

James Hormel, US Ambassador (1 gold, 2 bronze, tennis, 3 Gay Games)

Joel Mangs, aka gay porn actor Brad Patton (2 gold, figure skating 2002)

Rev. Denver NeVaar, aka Sister Who of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (bodybuilding 1990)

Chuck Palanhuik, author of “Fight Club” (gold, discus 1990)

George Takei, Star Trek star (gold, athletics 1998)

Esera Tuaolo, professional US footballer (gold, flag football 2006)

Dan Veatch, Olympian (13 gold, swimming,1998)

Tom Waddell, Olympian and founder of the Gay Games (3 gold, athletics 1982 and 1986)

Star Gayzing - Virgo

You’d have thought that with the name and popular image it has Virgo’s history would be straight forward. In fact, several sexualities or gender identities have a link to this constellation.

Once again we begin with the ancient Babylonians. They represented the constellation as their goddess Sala holding an ear of barley. The appearance of the constellation signalled the beginning of the sowing season, and this idea was continued the by Ancient Greeks. They often depicted Virgo as their own corn goddess Demeter. Other goddesses, including Astraea and Dike, have been assigned to Virgo, but the name of its main star, Spica (which means “ear of grain”), gives away its origin as an agricultural constellation.

Until recently Virgo was usually pictured as a winged woman, very much in the manner of an angel. Our idea of what an angel looks like originated with the Babylonians (via Greece). Last Christmas I explained how angels are non-human, gender-neutral, eternal spirit beings, so having one to depict a constellation whose name means “virgin” seems appropriate considering they never have sex.

One of Virgo’s other stars also has a seasonal agricultural meaning. Positioned on what was once Virgo’s “right wing” (see star map) is the star Vindemiatrix (originally Vindemiator), which means “grape gatherer” and is so-called because its appearance before dawn marks the start of that years’ wine vintage.

The legend behind the name Vindemiatrix involves one pair of the many same-sex lovers in Greek mythology – Dionysos and Ampelos. Their story could easily be told in my Flower Power series, but with its emphasis on grapes and the vine it’s probably more Food and Drink than Flower Power. So I’ll tell you it here instead. It’s a story retold in the epic poem “Dionysaica” by Nonnus. It immediately precedes the story of Kalamos and Karpos. This is how it goes.

As usual it was love at first sight. Dionysos was out hunting when he met Ampelos, a young Phrygian teenager with long curly hair. Some versions of the myth (and some Greek pottery, as seen on the plate pictured below) say Ampelos was a satyr, one of Dionysos’s Pan-like attendants. They spent so much time together, playing sports and games, that the satyrs began to get jealous. When they were apart Dionysos’s heart ached and he dreamt of the boy every night.

The wrestling match between them, given in Nonnus’s “Dionysaica”, rivals the homoerotic bout in “Women in Love” by D. H. Lawrence. Ampelos entered into these fun and games enthusiastically, but it was to lead to his death.

There are two different myths concerning Ampelos’s death. The oldest says that he climbed a tree to pick grapes from a vine and fell to his death. From this he earned the name Vinedmaitor and was placed as a star in the night sky by Dionysos. Ampelos is Greek for “vine”, and Vindemiator is Latin for “grape gatherer”. So the myth may have been created to suit the star’s appearance as a sign of the new vintage.

The version given by Nonnus says that Ampelos climbed onto a bull’s back to impress Dionysos with his bravery. In his youthful exuberance he called up to Selene the moon goddess boasting of being her equal in taming cattle (the moon and bulls have always been linked in Greek mythology). Selene decided to teach the boy a lesson and sent a gadfly to sting the bull. Ampelos was thrown high into the air and smashed his skull on hitting the ground. As if that wasn’t enough the bull then gored the body with its horns.

Dionysos went into pangs of deep grief and it was only Eros who could console him by recounting the story of Kalamos and Karpos.

Extraordinary Lives - Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu: Part 2

Two days ago I commemorated the 250^th anniversary of the death of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Today is the 300^th anniversary of her marriage and we take a look at her extraordinarily complicated love life.

After a romantic attachment to Anne Wortley, something which was common in her time for young ladies of her age, Lady Mary escaped marrying her father’s choice of husband by eloping with Anne’s brother Edward Wortley Montagu. Their actual marriage is not recorded, but letters written on their anniversary suggest hey were married on 23^rd August 1712. Some biographers have said that the love letters Mary wrote to Anne were really aimed at Edward, ignoring the possibility that a woman could have any romantic affection for another.

On their return from the British embassy in Constantinople in 1718, after 6 years of marriage and 2 children, the couple lived mostly apart. They would spend less and less time with each other though they corresponded regularly. Lady Mary oversaw her daughter’s education and edited the many letters she wrote on her travels, which were later published.

Mary made new friendships, including the Duchess of Marlborough (confidante and rumoured lover of Queen Anne), and the Prime Minister’s family. Another friend was John, Lord Hervey. Hervey was a politician and court dandy, and someone whose effeminacy was a constant source of satire in the press and theatre.

Hervey fathered 8 children yet appears to have been openly bisexual and had affairs with a few aristocrats of both sexes. Just as today’s idea of homosexuality was different in the 18^th century, so too was bisexuality. In fact, the word bisexuality hadn’t been invented (except for use in botany) so neither he nor Lady Mary would have used that word to describe their sexuality. High society in their time certainly didn’t see anything wrong in having a wife and boyfriend or, to a lesser degree, a husband and girlfriend – as long as it was celibate.

Lord Hervey’s ambiguous sexuality led Lady Mary to write that there were 3 kinds of people – men, women and Herveys. Their friendship became complicated with the arrival in London of Count Francesco Algarotti. Lady Mary and Lord Hervey immediately fell head over heels in love with him, and Algarotti encouraged them both. It was an unusual love triangle. When Algarotti returned home to Venice the lovelorn couple sent constant letters to him expressing undying devotion, and urging him to send more letters back. You can imagine the hours they would have spent on Twitter if they’d had it! Algarotti did his best to reply regularly, but he had other affairs to deal with, most notably that with a young man from Milan!

In the end Lord Hervey gave up. Lady Mary, however, decided the best course of action was to go to Venice and marry the count, hoping to get as much distance between herself and her current husband and their troublesome son as possible. Count Algarotti in the meantime had visited Berlin and fell under the spell of the man who was to become King Frederick the Great. After visiting Hervey in England, Algarotti moved to Germany to become Frederick’s court chamberlain.

Lady Mary realised nothing may come of her plans to marry Algarotti. The next few years of her life were spent travelling around Europe. In 1741 she and Algarotti became reacquainted and were able to draw a line under their affair. Mary was now largely living alone, apart from a female servant. She moved from one new home to the next, and kept in touch with her daughter, her estranged husband and friends through many letters.

Mary was now in her 70s and becoming ill with cancer. Her husband died in 1761 leaving a will which was contested by their disinherited son. This was the reason for Lady Mary’s last visit to England.

One her arrival in London Lady Mary was treated like a celebrity. Very few women of her time enjoyed such a status as she did. People wanted to visit Lady Mary Wortley Montagu because of who she was and what she had done and not because of her husband’s achievements. Lady Mary was too ill to enjoy the attention and hoped to return to the continent. She died in London on 21^st August 1762.

What Lady Mary left as a legacy was her introduction of inoculation which led to the development of vaccination and the eradication of smallpox, and her letters and travel writings (including her “language of the flowers” writings). She also left a reputation, dating from the time when she went against her father’s marriage plans, as a woman with an independent and adventurous spirit. Despite her desertion of England in pursuit of Count Algarotti and several small upsets at court Lady Mary retained the affection of the London social scene that lasted long after her death.

Extraordinary Lives - Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu



Lady Mary in Turkish dress

In a year stuffed full of anniversaries two are celebrated this week, and both concern Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu.

Lady Mary has been mentioned before in my blog, most significantly as the inspiration behind my Flower Power series.

The anniversaries which we commemorate this week are:

1) the 250^th anniversary of her death today, and

2) the 300^th anniversary of her marriage in two days time.

Because of these two anniversaries I’m going to post one article on each day.

Lady Mary was born in 1689 in London, the daughter of the 1^st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull. After her mother’s death in 1692 Mary was raised by her grandmother, partly at the family mansion in Nottingham and partly at the family’s country estate in Sherwood Forest. In her father’s libraries Lady Mary absorbed information and started writing and gathering a wide-ranging circle of contacts.

The background to Lady Mary’s romantic attachment to Anne Wortley and her marriage to Edward Wortley Montagu is given here. The marriage was not particularly successful, even though it produced two children (the daughter becoming wife to a future British Prime Minister). At first the couple were huge socialites moving in royal circles. Mary befriended many of the literary greats of the day, including Alexander Pope and John Gay.

In 1715 Mary caught, and surprisingly survived, smallpox, though it left her face scarred for life. A year later Edward was appointed Ambassador to the Porte (Constantinople) and he and Lady Mary set off on the overland journey to Turkey.

Along the way there were many perils. On the narrow mountain tracks along the River Elbe their carriage travelled non-stop through the night. As the horses galloped along the ledge the carriage drivers fell asleep. Alarmed by the speed and closeness to the edge of the ravine, Lady Mary shouted to awaken the drivers and they narrowly escaped the fate of many previous travellers who had plummeted to their deaths.

Having then crossed the frozen Danube, Lady Mary and Edward carried on through deep snow, often fitting crude skis to their carriage wheels.  They sought overnight hospitality from remote peasant families to whom a bed and bath were virtually unknown. Dense woods surrounded the route, and packs of wolves shadowed the travellers.

But worse was to come as the travellers passed through the site of the Battle of Carlowitz. The battlefield was strewn with rotting corpses of men and horses.

Their arrival in Constantinople couldn’t have been more of a contrast – greeted by the Sultan’s emissaries and taken to opulent apartments. Lady Mary threw herself into Turkish culture as much as any western woman was allowed. Having survived smallpox she was fascinated by the method of inoculation she saw practiced by the Turks. When she came back to England in 1720 she suggested the technique to doctors to prevent the spread of the disease here.

It was a good move because a smallpox epidemic soon overcame England. To convince others of her trust in the technique Mary had her own children inoculated, and the children of the Prince of Wales. Lady Mary found herself on the receiving end of a lot of tabloid criticism, an attitude which spread quickly among society. They despised Mary for putting her own children at risk by using a new medical technique. Even clergy denounced her in sermons. Little did they realise that she was actually saving their lives and helping to lead to the eventual eradication of smallpox. Such was the power of the press.

On the subject of her children, it is true that they were a dysfunctional family. I’ll be returning to this subject in the next article of Lady Mary in two days time, when we’ll learn of the failed marriage, a troublesome son, and an unusual love triangle.