#GLBT Poetry

[tea-ddie]

"Personality Kid"

This zine consists of two parts: 1) Photographs from the Lorraine Hurdle Papers, which can be found via the GLBT Historical Center's Digital Collections. 2) Speculative poetry in reaction to the photographs. Poetry was typed on a vintage typewriter. Photographs and poetry were printed using a risograph machine and presented in an envelope as the final zine.

[lesboevils]

with pride month approaching and my old archival links post being broken into several annoying sections. here are some useful starting places on lgbt history.

disclaimer: most of this has to do with usamerican history / are in english my apologies, this is just what i had on hand. if you have more please feel free to add them or dm them to me.

the act up oral history project

the lesbian herstory archives

the transgender archives of the university of victoria

the digital transgender archives

glbt historical society

lgbtq digital collaboratory

anything that moves

the bisexual manifesto (1990)

samuel proctor oral history project

a full master post of lesile feinberg's works (stone butch blues included ) by @genderoutlaws

the queer zine archive

dyke march compilation

paris is burning ( documentary )

how to survive a plague ( documentary )

united in anger: a history of ACT UP ( documentary )

screaming queens ( documentary )

the celluloid closet ( documentary )

one institute

audre lorde's poetry collection

aqurives

bi women's quarterly (1/2)

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 14

c.530 – Venantius Fortunatus (d.circa 600/609) was a Latin poet and hymnodist in the Merovingian Court, and a Bishop of the early Catholic Church. He was never canonised but was venerated as Saint Venantius Fortunatus during the Middle Ages.

Born in Treviso, near Ravenna in Italy, he spent his time as court poet to the Merovingians. After visiting the tomb of St. Martin of Tours at St. Hilary at Poitiers, he decided to enter a monastery.

He continued to write poetry, some of which have a permanent place in Catholic hymnody, for instance the Easter season hymns "Vexilla Regis" and the "Pange Lingua" (Sing, O my tongue, of the battle). Three or four years before he died he was made bishop of Poitiers. Although never canonized, he was venerated as a saint in the medieval church, and his feast day is still recognized on 14th December each year.

Like Paulinus of Nola, St Venantius's poetry also includes some decidedly secular verse of the romantic sort. That this celebrates male love is clear from its inclusion in the Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse.

"Written on an Island off the Breton Coast" You at God's altar stand, His minister And Paris lies about you and the Seine: Around this Breton isle the Ocean swells, Deep water and one love between us twain. Wild is the wind, but still thy name is spoken; Rough is the sea: it sweeps not o'er they face. Still runs my lover for shelter to its dwelling, Hither, O heart, to thine abiding place. Swift as the waves beneath an east wind breaking Dark as beneath a winter sky the sea, So to my heart crowd memories awaking, So dark, O love, my spirit without thee.

Fortunatus died in the early 600s. He was called a saint after his death, but was never formally canonized.

1901 – King Paul of Greece (d.1964) reigned as king of Greece from 1947 to 1964. He may have been bi-sexual.

Paul was born in Athens, the third son of King Constantine I of Greece and his wife, Princess Sophia of Prussia. He was trained as a naval officer. On 9 January 1938, Paul married Frederika of Hanover at Athens. They had three children.

Before his marriage he is alleged to have invited the homosexual literary muse, Denham Fouts, on a cruise of the Aegean Sea, perhaps because they were lovers. However, Fouts's friend John B. L. Goodwin said Fouts often made up stories about his life, and literary critic Katherine Bucknell thought many of the tales about him were myth.

During most of World War II, when Greece was under German occupation, he was with the Greek government-in-exile in London and Cairo. From Cairo, he broadcast messages to the Greek people.

Paul returned to Greece in 1946. He succeeded to the throne in 1947, on the death of his childless elder brother, King George II.

David Lewis (L) with Producer Irving Pichel

1903 – David Lewis (d.1987 ), born David Levy, was a Hollywood film producer who produced such films as Dark Victory (1939), Arch of Triumph (1948), and Raintree County (1957).

He was also the longtime companion of director James Whale from 1930 to 1952. Although they were separated at the time of Whale's death in 1957, Lewis later released the contents of Whale's suicide note.

Lewis was portrayed in the 1998 film Gods and Monsters by David Dukes.

1915 – The American actor and dancer Dan Dailey was born on this date (d.1978). Dailey was born and raised in New York City and appeared in vaudeville before his Broadway debut in 1937 in Babes in Arms. In 1940, he was signed by MGM to make movies and, although his past career had been in musicals, he was initially cast as a Nazi in The Mortal Storm. However, the people at MGM realized their mistake quickly and cast him in a series of musical films.

He served in the United States Army during World War II, was commissioned as an Army Officer after graduation from Signal OCS at Ft Monmouth, NJ, after which he served with distinction until the war ended. Then returned to more musicals. Beginning with Mother Wore Tights (1947) Dailey became the frequent and favorite co-star of movie legend Betty Grable. His performance in their film When My Baby Smiles at Me in 1948 garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1950, he starred in A Ticket to Tomahawk, often noted as one of the first screen appearances of Marilyn Monroe, in a very small part as a dance-hall girl. In 1953, Dailey starred in Meet Me at the Fair. One of his notable roles was in There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) which featured Irving Berlin's music and also starred Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, and Johnnie Ray.

In 1950 the notorious "Confidential" Magazine (the National Enquirer of its day) printed a picture of him wearing female clothing. His studio, 20th Century Fox, rushed to repair the damage; gossip columnists were told that Dailey had simply been snapped on his way to a fancy dress party. But Andre Previn, the composer, tells in his biography No Minor Chords how Dailey turned up drunk and in female clothing for the press screening of It's Always Fair Weather in 1954. In the mid '70s, gossip columnist Joyce Haber was on television promoting a novel about Hollywood. Asked to dish some gossip, she mentioned that one of the top dancer-actors was a closet transvestite with a costly and beautiful wardrobe that many women would envy.

He had three failed marriages with women, but also was known to hang out in Gay bars. After the suicide of his only son, he was an embittered alcoholic. He died three years later, just after he playing boyfriend Clyde Tolson in (the unintentionally hilarious *and bad*) The Private Files of J.Edgar Hoover (1977). He appeared in over 60 films in his career.

1932 – George Furth (d.2008) was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.

Born in Chicago with the name of George Schweinfurth (he dropped the "schwein" on becoming an actor).

Furth made his Broadway debut as an actor in the 1961 play A Cook for Mr. General, followed by the musical Hot Spot two years later. He was also known for his collaborations with Stephen Sondheim: the highly successful Company, the ill-fated Merrily We Roll Along and the equally ill-fated drama, Getting Away with Murder. Furth penned the plays Twigs, The Supporting Cast and Precious Sons, and wrote the book for the Kander and Ebb musical, The Act.

Company has been revived many times over the years, sometimes updated to the Aids era, although requests from producers to give the show a homosexual slant were turned down by the unmarried Sondheim and Furth, although both of them were gay.

Frequently cast as a bespectacled, ineffectual milquetoast, Furth appeared in such films as The Best Man, Myra Breckinridge, Hooper, Blazing Saddles, Oh God!, Shampoo, The Cannonball Run, Young Doctors in Love, Doctor Detroit, Bulworth and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His many television credits include Tammy, McHale's Navy, Ironside, I Dream of Jeannie, That Girl, Green Acres, The Monkees, Batman, The Odd Couple, Bonanza, Happy Days, All in the Family, Murphy Brown, L.A. Law, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Murder, She Wrote, Little House on the Prairie, Love, American Style, Adam-12, F Troop and the made-for-TV film The Scarlett O'Hara War, in which he portrayed famed film director George Cukor. He was a regular in the cast of the short-lived 1976 situation comedy The Dumplings.

He adapted his play Twigs as a 1975 television production, starring Carol Burnett. He also worked as a voice actor in several episodes of the animated television series The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda for Hanna-Barbera Productions.

One of Furth's last writing projects was a foray into an area where he had not previously endeavored. Furth penned the lyrics for a musical revue, with music by Doug Katsaros. Furth and Katsaros shaped the work with San Francisco director Mike Ward into "The End - a new musical revue". The piece was performed at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center during the summer of 2004 and was billed as a "Pre-U.S. Tour Workshop Production". The piece was reworked twice, with the title changing to Last Call and Happy Hour, respectively.

Furth died on August 11, 2008 at the age of 75. The exact cause of death is unknown, although he had been hospitalized for a lung disease at the time.

1955 – Hervé Guibert (d.1991) was a French writer and photographer. The author of numerous novels and autobiographical studies, he played a considerable role in changing French public attitudes to AIDS. He was a close friend and lover of Michel Foucault.

Guibert was born in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, to a middle-class family and spent his early years in Paris, moving to La Rochelle from 1970 to 1973. In his teens Hervé Guibert lied about his age to work at the magazine 20 ans eventually leading to a job with Le Monde. After working as a filmmaker and actor, he turned to photography and journalism. In 1978, he successfully applied for a job at France's prestigious evening paper Le Monde and published his second book, Les aventures singulières (published by Éditions de minuit). In 1984, Guibert shared a César Award for best screenplay with Patrice Chéreau for L'homme blessé. Guibert had met Chéreau in the 1970s during his theatrical years.

Guibert's writing style was inspired by the French writer Jean Genet. Three of his lovers occupied an important place in his life and work: Thierry Jouno, director of an institute for the blind whom he met in 1976, and which led to his novel Des aveugles; Michel Foucault, whom he met in 1977; and Vincent Marmousez, a teenager of fifteen who inspired his novel Fou de Vincent.

In January 1988 Guibert was diagnosed with AIDS. From then on, he worked at recording what was left of his life. In June the following year, he married Christine, the partner of the late Thierry Jouno, so that his royalty income would eventually pass to her and her two children. In 1990, Guibert publicly revealed his HIV status in his roman à clef "À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie" (published in English as To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life). Guibert immediately found himself the focus of media attention, featured in newspapers and appearing on several television talk shows.

Two more books also detailing the progress of his illness followed: Le Protocole compassionnel (published in English as The Compassionate Protocol) and L'Homme au chapeau rouge (published in English as The Man In The Red Hat), which was released posthumously in January 1992, the same month French television screened La Pudeur ou l'impudeur, a home-made film by Guibert of his last year as he lost his battle against AIDS. Almost blind as a result of disease, he attempted to end his life just before his 36th birthday, and died two weeks later.

1960 – Bob Paris, American bodybuilder and Gay rights advocate, born; The former Mr. Universe, and International Federation of BodyBuilders professional bodybuilder, Bob Paris is a writer, public speaker and civil rights activist. He acknowledged his sexuality in the July 1989 issue of Ironman magazine and has graced the covers of scores of magazines worldwide. After Paris officially came out as a Gay man in the media, he and his then-partner, Rod Jackson, became involved in marriage equality advocacy, started successful non-profits, lectured on a wide variety of Gay civil rights issues, and made many television, radio, newspaper and magazine appearances. The two separated in 1995. Today, Paris lives with his spouse of eleven years, Brian, on an island near Vancouver, British Columbia. Bob and Brian were legally married after Canada equalized the marriage laws in 2003.

In addition to his writing career, Bob Paris remains a committed civil rights advocate as well as a motivational speaker, model and actor. In 1998, he made his New York stage debut, starring at Carnegie Hall opposite Bea Arthur, Sandy Duncan and Tyne Daly in the Broadway musical, Jubilee as the character Mowgli. He is one of the subject of photographer Herb Ritts' gorgeous book, Duo. His official website is: http://www.bobparis.com/

1966 – James Earl Hardy, born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, is an American playwright, novelist, and journalist.

Generally considered the first to depict same-sex love stories that take place within the hip-hop community, his writing is largely characterized by its exploration of the African-American LGBTQ experience.

Hardy's best-known work is the B-Boy Blues series. The B-Boys Blues series comprises six novels and one short story. B-Boy Blues was adapted into a play in 2013 and into a film, directed and co-written by Jussie Smollett, in 2021.

Hardy attended undergraduate school at St. John's University and afterward went on to graduate from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1993. From 1992 to 1994, he wrote for Entertainment Weekly as a music journalist.

1968 – Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli-English chef, restaurateur, and food writer. He is the co-owner of six delis and restaurants in London, as well as the author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Ottolenghi (2008), Plenty (2010), Jerusalem (2012) and Ottolenghi Simple (2018).

Ottolenghi was conscripted into the Israeli Defense Forces in 1989, serving three years in IDF intelligence headquarters. He then studied at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students of Tel Aviv University, where in 1997, he completed a combined bachelor's and master's degree in comparative literature; his thesis being on the philosophy of the photographic image. While working on his thesis, Ottolenghi served as a night copy editor for Haaretz.

In 1997, Ottolenghi and his then-partner Noam Bar moved to Amsterdam, where he edited the Hebrew section of the Dutch-Jewish weekly NIW and considered getting his doctorate in comparative literature. Instead, he moved to London to study French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu.

Ottolenghi met his partner Karl Allen in 2000; they married in 2012 and live in Camden with their two sons, Max and Flynn. In 2013, Ottolenghi "came out as a gay father" in a Guardian essay that detailed the lengthy process of conceiving Max via gestational surrogacy, an option that he believes should be more widely available to those who cannot conceive naturally.

Ottolenghi served as a pastry chef at three London restaurants: the Michelin-starred Capital Restaurant, Kensington Place, and Launceston Place in Kensington New Town. In 1999, he became head pastry chef at the artisanal pastry shop Baker and Spice, where he met the Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi, who grew up in Jerusalem's Old City. Ottolenghi and Tamimi bonded over a shared language—Hebrew—and a joint "incomprehension of traditional English food".

His debut cookbook Ottolenghi was published in 2008 and has sold over 100,000 copies. Six volumes have followed: the all-vegetable cookbooks Plenty (2010) and Plenty More (2014); Jerusalem (2012); Nopi (2015); the dessert cookbook Sweet (2017); and Ottolenghi Simple (2018).

Ottolenghi's bestselling cookbooks have proven influential, with The New York Times noting that they are "widely knocked-off for their plain-spoken instructions, puffy covers, and photographs [that Ottolenghi] oversees himself, eschewing a food stylist". In 2014, the London Evening Standard remarked that Ottolenghi had "radically rewritten the way Londoners cook and eat", and Bon Appetit wrote that he had "made the world love vegetables".

1988 – The movie version of Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy" opened in New York.

1989 – Amini Fonua is a Tongan competitive swimmer.

Fonua was born and raised in Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand to Tongan lawyer Sione Fonua and British-born mother Julie. He holds dual Tongan and New Zealand citizenship. His family includes two other sisters.

Fonua's swimming career began at the Roskill Swimming Club based at Cameron Pool in Auckland, coached by Sandra Burrow from 1999–2007. He broke numerous Auckland and New Zealand Age Group Records under Burrow's tenure. He then moved to West Auckland Aquatics in 2007, and was coached by Donna Bouzaid. In the Fall of 2008, Fonua enrolled at Texas A&M on a swimming scholarship. While at Texas A&M he was a peer voted Team Captain, Big XII Conference Champion, NCAA All-American, and recipient of The Aggie Heart Award. He graduated with a Telecommunication and Multi-Media degree, with a Minor in Creative Writing in May 2013.

He was the first Tongan swimmer to win a gold medal in international competition, when he took gold in the 50 metre breaststroke at the 2010 Oceania Swimming Championships.

In preparation for the 2012 London Olympics Fonua was trained by New Zealander and designated head coach for Tonga, Jon Winter. He served as his nation's flag-bearer in the 2012 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations. As a swimmer at the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's 100 metre breaststroke, failing to reach the semifinals.

Fonua made an international comeback at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. He created history by becoming the first ever Tongan athlete to ever win 3 Gold medals at a Pacific Games by sweeping the Breaststroke events, setting 2 Games Records in the process (50 m and 100 m Breaststroke). He is the only Tongan athlete in history to ever hold dual Oceania and Pacific Games titles.

Fonua is openly gay and an advocate for LGBT rights.

1993 – In Denver Colorado, Judge Jeffrey Bayless ruled Amendment 2 unconstitutional. The amendment to the Colorado state constitution sought to eliminate all gay rights laws in the state and prevent any more from being passed.

[briarmoon]

Hugs are Rainbows

Hugs are the color of rainbows –

Red embraces affection and love,

Respecting the blood of life.

Orange holds and offers healing

In times of sickness and strife.

Yellow touches like the Sun’s warmth

And the glowing guidance of the Moon.

Green nestles Mother Nature’s creatures

And everything that grows and blooms.

Blue cradles with comfort and spirituality,

Providing solace during times of sadness.

Indigo squeezes with sincerity and integrity

Clutching with celebration and gladness.

Violet cuddles, kindling kindred spirits’ passions.

When they are hugs, rainbows happen.

 © Copyright 2020, By Briar Moon

[wordcrawler]

I come from being given permission to dream but choosing to wake up instead.

Dean Atta, The Black Flamingo

[creative-inlet-blog]

A L L - O F - I T - I S - Y O U

[theleakypen]

All right, friends, because I just reblogged another post reminding people about queer history, let me tell y'all a story.

When I was seventeen years old, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a film class for queer youth and adults. I don't remember how I found out about this opportunity, but I'd just finished high school and had already decided to take a year off before going to college, and had just spent half a year immersing myself in poetry slams and slowly, slowly finding out about more and more queer community available to me in my city. I think I'd just started attending meetings at the polyamory org, too, hosted at the GLBT Center in the city. This was in the late aughts, btw. A little over a decade ago.

So I joined this class. The youngest member of the class was fourteen, the eldest was... I wanna say in their 40s? I never actually asked anybody their ages. And as I said, I was seventeen, fresh out of high school.

Our classroom was the computer lab in one of the recreation centers run by the city's Parks and Rec department.

For a month in the summer, we met at the picnic table outside this computer lab, unable to use the computers with the video editing software on them, because someone in the chain of command in the city had decided that it was inappropriate for adults and minors to be behind a closed door together.

(As an aside, the law that was passed in the St. Petersburg Oblast' the fall after I studied abroad there, was for "banning homosexual and pedophile propaganda". I'll let y'all draw your conclusions.)

Eventually, the organization behind the film class won and we were able to have a normal class. I learned so much! My film (and those of my classmates) got to be in a real actual film festival that people saw! (I am mildly embarrassed when I think about the film itself, because it's my old work and I have learned so much, about myself and about craft and politics and life, since then, but that's not important. What's important is that I had this opportunity.) The first nonbinary people I met who used "they" pronouns and neopronouns were in the class. I learned about the history and present of certain neighborhoods in my city because of my classmates and teachers. It took me years after that to grow better politics, tbh, but the seeds of so much of who I am now were planted that summer and fall.

And because someone decided that queer elders were a danger to us, it almost didn't happen.

So when I see young queer people on this site and others spitting on our history, spouting the same old lines about queer adults being predators, it makes me so mad I want to scream. We had to fight to be in the same room as our elders, those who lived. This is recent, this is now. Stop doing our oppressors' work for them.

[sfplhormelcenter]

We're just two days away from our Art and Activism in The Bay panel discussion with Valentin, Cathy, and Lenore -- three essential Bay Area-based artists and community organizers who have been documenting and advocating for our LGBTQIA community since the 1980s.

Artist Bios: Valentin Aguirre is originally from Logan Heights, San Diego—he moved to the Bay Area for college in 1986 and found a vibrant Gay Latinx community mobilizing against AIDS. He is also the Co-Chair of the GLBT Historical Society, and curator best known for the groundbreaking Latinx queer history exhibit, “Making a Case for Community History”.

Cathy Arellano’s poetry collection I LOVE MY WOMEN, SOMETIMES THEY LOVE ME was published by Kórima Press in Fall 2017. In 2016, Kórima published Arellano's SALVATION ON MISSION STREET, poems and stories about love and loss within her family from the 1960s to the 2000s. SALVATION won the 2017 Golden Crown Literary Society’s Debut Author Award.

Lenore Chinn is a San Francisco born and based artist who focuses on the depiction of a broad spectrum of people in all their diversity and color. Portraiture is at the core of her visual art practice whether it is painting or photography.

[365daysoflesbians]

Portraits of a young Elsa Gidlow, circa 1920s.

Elsa Gidlow  was a lesbian poet, philosopher, and woman of letters. Her book On a Grey Thread (1923) was the first collection of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America, and her autobiography, Elsa: I Come With My Songs (1986) was the first lesbian autobiography whose author did not publish under a pseudonym. After her death, her papers were gifted to the GLBT Historical Society.

[autumnsvoice87]

Purple Memory

I sat upon a rock

Watching the river waves

Flow upon the shore

I watched as love walked by

Hiking upon a forest path

My stomach churning

Like the waves flowing by

I say a prayer to mother earth

To give thanks for providing

The beautiful day

upon which I view

Soon love walked up to me

And presented a purple flower

The hue being light lavender

And my heart filled with glee

An act of giving thoughtfully

So simple yet so cherished

Alas the love I feel Is unrequited

Tis a gift of friendship

And nothing more

Yet I cannot help

That love has my heart Asunder

I accept and smile happily

And with humility

Knowing generally love

Still thinks of me

Thus I am not forgotten

In this vast world of cruelty

The purple flower's long petals

Dry out and fade away

But the act of kindness

Lingers on imprinted forever more

[juliekrose]

Happy Pride!

Check out @irisbleufic​‘s poetry collection The Sting of It, which won the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Gay/Lesbian (GLBT) and is available at https://tolsunbooks.com/shop/the-sting-of-it-pre-order

[rose---child]

a joke about sailormoon bringing openness to queers lead me to this thanks wikipedia

1903 – In New York City on 21 February 1903, New York police conducted the first United States recorded raid on a gay bathhouse, the Ariston Hotel Baths. 34 men were arrested and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges; 7 men received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison.

1906 – Potentially the first openly gay American novel with a happy ending, Imre, is published

1910 – Emma Goldman first begins speaking publicly in favor of homosexual rights. Magnus Hirschfeld later wrote "she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public.

1912 – The first explicit reference to lesbianism in a Mormon magazine occurred when the "Young Woman's Journal" paid tribute to "Sappho of Lesbos[7] "; the Scientific Humanitarian Committee of the Netherlands (NWHK), the first Dutch organization to campaign against anti-homosexual discrimination, is established by Dr. Jacob Schorer.

1913 – The word faggot is first used in print in reference to gays in a vocabulary of criminal slang published in Portland, Oregon: "All the faggots [sic] (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight".

1917 – The October Revolution in Russia repeals the previous criminal code in its entirety—including Article 995.[8][9] Bolshevik leaders reportedly say that "homosexual relationships and heterosexual relationships are treated exactly the same by the law."

1919 – In Berlin, Germany, Doctor Magnus Hirschfeld co-founds the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sex Research), a pioneering private research institute and counseling office. Its library of thousands of books was destroyed by Nazis in May 1933

1921 – In England an attempt to make lesbianism illegal for the first time in Britain's history fails

1922 – A new criminal code comes into force in the USSR officially decriminalizing homosexual acts. 

1923 – The word fag is first used in print in reference to gays in Nels Anderson's The Hobo: "Fairies or Fags are men or boys who exploit sex for profit."

1923 – Lesbian Elsa Gidlow, born in England, published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States, titled "On A Grey Thread."

1923 – The word fag is first used in print in reference to gays in Nels Anderson's The Hobo: "Fairies or Fags are men or boys who exploit sex for profit." 1923 – Lesbian Elsa Gidlow, born in England, published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States, titled "On A Grey Thread." 1923 – The word fag is first used in print in reference to gays in Nels Anderson's The Hobo: "Fairies or Fags are men or boys who exploit sex for profit."1923 – Lesbian Elsa Gidlow, born in England, published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States, titled "On A Grey Thread."

1937 – The first use of the pink triangle for gay men in Nazi concentration camps.

1938 – The word Gay is used for the first time on film in reference to homosexuality

1941 – Transsexuality was first used in reference to homosexuality and bisexuality.

1945 – The Holocaust ends and it is estimated that between about 3,000 to about 9,000 homosexuals died in Nazi concentration and death camps, while it is estimated that between about 2,000 to about 6,000 homosexual survivors in Nazi concentration and death camps were required to serve out the full term of their sentences under Paragraph 175 in prison. The first gay bar in post-World War II Berlin opened in the summer of 1945, and the first drag ball took place in American sector of West Berlin in the fall of 1945.[26] Four honourably discharged gay veterans form the Veterans Benevolent Association, the first LGBT veterans' group.[27] Gay bar Yanagi opened in Japan

1946 – Plastic surgeon Harold Gillies carries out sex reassignment surgery on Michael Dillon in Britain.

1951 – Greece decriminalizes homosexuality.

1956 – Thailand decriminalizes homosexual acts.

1957 – The word "Transsexual" is coined by U.S. physician Harry Benjamin; The Wolfenden Committee's report recommends decriminalizing consensual homosexual behaviour between adults in the United Kingdom; Psychologist Evelyn Hooker publishes a study showing that homosexual men are as well adjusted as non-homosexual men, which becomes a major factor in the American Psychiatric Association removing homosexuality from its handbook of disorders in 1973. Homoerotic artist Tom of Finland first published on the cover of Physique Pictorial magazine from Los Angeles.[36]

1965 – Vanguard, an organization of LGBT youth in the low-income Tenderloin district, was created in 1965. It is considered the first Gay Liberation organization in the U.S

1967 – The Advocate was first published in September as "The Los Angeles Advocate," a local newsletter alerting gay men to police raids in Los Angeles gay bars

1970 – The first Gay Liberation Day March is held in New York City; The first LGBT Pride Parade is held in New York; The first "Gay-in" held in San Francisco; Carl Wittman writes A Gay Manifesto;[56][57] CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) is formed in Australia;[58][59] The Task Force on Gay Liberation formed within the American Library Association. Now known as the GLBT Round Table, this organization is the oldest LGBTQ professional organization in the United States.[60] In November, the first gay rights march occurs in the UK at Highbury Fields following the arrest of an activist from the Young Liberals for importuning.

1974 – Chile allows a trans person to legally change her name and gender on the birth certificate after undergoing sex reassignment surgery, becoming the second country in the world to do so.[86] Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay American elected to public office when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan city council; In New York City Dr. Fritz Klein founds the Bisexual Forum, the first support group for the Bisexual Community; Elaine Noble becomes the second openly gay American elected to public office when she wins a seat in the Massachusetts State House; Inspired by Noble, Minnesota state legislator Allan Spear comes out in a newspaper interview; Ohio repeals sodomy laws. Robert Grant founds American Christian Cause to oppose the "gay agenda", the beginning of modern Christian politics in America. In London, the first openly LGBT telephone help line opens, followed one year later by the Brighton Lesbian and Gay Switchboard;[citation needed] the Brunswick Four are arrested on 5 January 1974, in Toronto, Ontario. This incident of Lesbophobia galvanizes the Toronto Lesbian and Gay community;[87] the National Socialist League (The Gay Nazi Party) is founded in Los Angeles, California.[citation needed] The first openly gay or lesbian person to be elected to any political office in America was Kathy Kozachenko, who was elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in April 1974.[88] Also in 1974, the Lesbian Herstory Archives opened to the public in the New York apartment of lesbian couple Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel; it has the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.[89] Also in 1974, Angela Morley became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award, when she was nominated for one in the category of Best Music, Original Song Score/Adaptation for The Little Prince (1974), a nomination shared with Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, and Douglas Gamley. The world's first gay softball league was formed in San Francisco in 1974 as the Community Softball League, which eventually included both women's and men's teams. The teams, usually sponsored by gay bars, competed against each other and against the San Francisco Police softball team

1977 – Harvey Milk is elected city-county supervisor in San Francisco, becoming the first openly gay or lesbian candidate elected to political office in California, the seventh openly gay/lesbian elected official nationally, and the third man to be openly gay at time of his election. Dade County, Florida enacts a Human Rights Ordinance; it is repealed the same year after a militant anti-homosexual-rights campaign led by Anita Bryant. Quebec becomes the first jurisdiction larger than a city or county in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the public and private sectors; Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Vojvodina legalise homosexuality.[citation needed] Welsh author Jeffrey Weeks publishes Coming Out;[99] Original eight-color version of the LGBT pride flagPublication of the first issue of Gaysweek, NYC's first mainstream gay weekly. Police raided a house outside of Boston outraging the gay community. In response the Boston-Boise Committee was formed.[100] Anne Holmes became the first openly lesbian minister ordained by the United Church of Christ;[101] Ellen Barrett became the first openly lesbian priest ordained by the Episcopal Church of the United States (serving the Diocese of New York).[102][103] The first lesbian mystery novel in America was published; it was Angel Dance, by Mary F. Beal.[104][105] The National Center for Lesbian Rights was founded. Shakuntala Devi published the first[106] study of homosexuality in India.[107][108] Platonica Club and Front Runners were founded in Japan.[95] San Francisco hosted the world's first gay film festival in 1977.[109] Peter Adair, Nancy Adair and other members of the Mariposa Film Group premiered the groundbreaking documentary on coming out, Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, at the Castro Theater in 1977. The film was the first feature-length documentary on gay identity by gay and lesbian filmmakers.[110][111] Beth Chayim Chadashim became the first LGBT synagogue to own its own building.[78] On March 26, 1977, Frank Kameny and a dozen other members of the gay and lesbian community, under the leadership of the then-National Gay Task Force, briefed then-Public Liaison Midge Costanza on much-needed changes in federal laws and policies. This was the first time that gay rights were officially discussed at the White House 

1980 – The United States Democratic Party becomes the first major political party in the U.S. to endorse a homosexual rights platform plank; Scotland decriminalizes homosexuality; The Human Rights Campaign Fund is founded by Steve Endean; The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.[120] Lionel Blue becomes the first British rabbi to come out as gay;[121] "Becoming Visible: The First Black Lesbian Conference" is held at the Women's Building, from October 17 to 19, 1980. It has been credited as the first conference for African-American lesbian women.[122] The Socialist Party USA nominates an openly gay man, David McReynolds, as its (and America's) first openly gay presidential candidate in 1980.[123]

1987 – AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power(ACT-UP) founded in the US in response to the US government's slow response in dealing with the AIDS crisis.[142] ACT UP stages its first major demonstration, seventeen protesters are arrested; U.S. Congressman Barney Frank comes out. Boulder, Colorado citizens pass the first referendum to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.[143][144] In New York City a group of Bisexual LGBT rights activist including Brenda Howard found the New York Area Bisexual Network (NYABN); Homomonument, a memorial to persecuted homosexuals, opens in Amsterdam. David Norris is the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the Republic of Ireland. A group of 75 bisexuals marched in the 1987 March On Washington For Gay and Lesbian Rights, which was the first nationwide bisexual gathering. The article "The Bisexual Movement: Are We Visible Yet?", by Lani Ka'ahumanu, appeared in the official Civil Disobedience Handbook for the March. It was the first article about bisexuals and the emerging bisexual movement to be published in a national lesbian or gay publication.[145] Canadian province of Manitoba and territory Yukon ban sexual orientation discrimination.

1990

Equalization of age of consent: Czechoslovakia (see Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Decriminalisation of homosexuality: UK Crown Dependency of Jersey and the Australian state of Queensland

LGBT Organizations founded: BiNet USA (USA), OutRage! (UK) and Queer Nation (USA)

Homosexuality no longer an illness: The World Health Organization

Other: Justin Fashanu is the first professional footballer to come out in the press.

Reform Judaism decided to allow openly lesbian and gay rabbis and cantors.[148]

Dale McCormick became the first open lesbian elected to a state Senate (she was elected to the Maine Senate).[149]

In 1990, the Union for Reform Judaism announced a national policy declaring lesbian and gay Jews to be full and equal members of the religious community. Its principal body, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), officially endorsed a report of their committee on homosexuality and rabbis. They concluded that "all rabbis, regardless of sexual orientation, be accorded the opportunity to fulfill the sacred vocation that they have chosen" and that "all Jews are religiously equal regardless of their sexual orientation."

The oldest national bisexuality organization in the United States, BiNet USA, was founded in 1990. It was originally called the North American Multicultural Bisexual Network (NAMBN), and had its first meeting at the first National Bisexual Conference in America.[150][150][151] This first conference was held in San Francisco in 1990, and sponsored by BiPOL. Over 450 people attended from 20 states and 5 countries, and the mayor of San Francisco sent a proclamation "commending the bisexual rights community for its leadership in the cause of social justice," and declaring June 23, 1990 Bisexual Pride Day.

The first Eagle Creek Saloon, that opened on the 1800 block of Market Street in San Francisco in 1990 and closed in 1993, was the first black-owned gay bar in the city.

1993Civil Union/Registered Partnership laws:Repeal of Sodomy laws: Australian Territory of Norfolk IslandDecriminalisation of homosexuality: Belarus, UK Crown Dependency of Gibraltar, Ireland, Lithuania, Russia (with the exception of the Chechen Republic);Anti-discrimination legislation:End to ban on gay people in the military: New ZealandSignificant LGBT Murders: Brandon TeenaMelissa Etheridge came out as a lesbian.The Triangle Ball was held; it was the first inaugural ball in America to ever be held in honor of gays and lesbians.The first Dyke March (a march for lesbians and their straight female allies, planned by the Lesbian Avengers) was held, with 20,000 women marching.[156][157]Roberta Achtenberg became the first openly gay or lesbian person to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate when she was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity by President Bill Clinton.[158]Lea DeLaria was "the first openly gay comic to break the late-night talk-show barrier" with her 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show.[159]In December 1993 Lea DeLaria hosted Comedy Central's Out There, the first all-gay stand-up comedy special.[159]Before the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy was enacted in 1993, lesbians and bisexual women and gay men and bisexual men were banned from serving in the military.[160] In 1993 the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy was enacted, which mandated that the military could not ask servicemembers about their sexual orientation.[161][162] However, until the policy was ended in 2011 service members were still expelled from the military if they engaged in sexual conduct with a member of the same sex, stated that they were lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and/or married or attempted to marry someone of the same sex.[163]Passed and Came into effect: Norway (without adoption until 2009, replaced with same-sex marriage in 2008/09)US state of Minnesota (gender identity)New Zealand parliament passes the Human Rights Amendment Act which outlaws discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or HIVCanadian province Saskatchewan (sexual orientation)

1998Anti-discrimination legislation: Ecuador (sexual orientation, constitution), Ireland (sexual orientation) and the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island (sexual orientation) and Alberta (court ruling only; legislation amended in 2009)Significant LGBT Murders: Rita Hester, Matthew ShepardDecriminalisation of homosexuality: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa (retroactive to 1994), Southern Cyprus and TajikistanEqualization of age of consent: Croatia and LatviaEnd to ban on gay people in the military: Romania, South AfricaGender identity was added to the mission of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays after a vote at their annual meeting in San Francisco.[182] Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays is the first national LGBT organization to officially adopt a transgender-inclusion policy for its work.[183]Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay or lesbian non-incumbent ever elected to Congress, and the first open lesbian ever elected to Congress, winning Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district seat over Josephine Musser.[184][185]Dana International became the first transsexual to win the Eurovision Song Contest, representing Israel with the song "Diva".[186]Robert Halford comes out as being the first openly gay heavy metal musician.[187]The first bisexual pride flag was unveiled on 5 December 1998.[188]Julie Hesmondhalgh first began to play Hayley Anne Patterson, British TV's first transgender character.[189]BiNet USA hosted the First National Institute on Bisexuality and HIV/AIDS.[190]

sorry its long just these i didnt know half of all this and thought we should all know 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBT_history,_20th_century

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 22

1823 – The American author, abolitionist, and soldier Thomas Wentworth Higginson was born today in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d.1911). The Higginson clan was quite pedigreed. Thomas was a descendant of a Puritan minister, a member of the Continental Congress, and the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism. During the Civil War, he served as colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally authorized African-American regiment, from 1862-1864. Following the war, Higginson devoted much of the rest of his life to fighting for the rights of freed slaves, women and other disenfranchised peoples.

Higginson has largely been forgotten to history except in the last few years when Brenda Wineapple's book White Heat was published to great accolades. In the book Wineapple posits an intense relationship between Higginson and his penpal, the poet Emily Dickinson. They only met twice but the title of Wineapple's book suggests a more intimate relationship. Interestingly (or not) Wineapple makes no mention in her book of William Hurlbert, the handsome Southern journalist that Higginson was just crazy about. A very telling omission because Higginson's famous "Letter to a Young Contributor" (the Atlantic essay that Dickinson first responded to and started their correspondence) alluded to "Cecil Dreeme," the very queer title character in Theodore Winthrop's 1861 novel by the same name. Dreeme was based on Hurlbert, of whom Higginson once remarked: "I never loved but one male friend with passion—and for him my love had no bounds—all that my natural fastidiousness and cautious reserve kept from others I poured on him; to say that I would have died for him was nothing." Now there's some "White Heat."

In Higginson's book Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870) he exhibits an erotic fascination with black skin and bodies: "I always like to observe [black soldiers] when bathing,—such splendid muscular development, set off by that smooth coating of adipose tissue which makes them, like the South-Sea Islanders, appear even more muscular than they are. Their skins are also of finer grain than those of whites, the surgeons say, and certainly are smoother and far more free from hair."

Whitman scholars like Ken Price have noted that Higginson's later attacks on the gay aspects of Whitman's poetry may have been a case of "pot calling the kettle black" given the "tonalities" in Higginson's writing and relationships.

1896 – Myron Brinig (d.1991), one of the first Jewish-American writers of his generation to write in English rather than Yiddish, was also one of the first to create homosexual characters. Between 1929 and 1958 he published 21 novels. A homosexual himself, he remained publicly closeted all of his life, a stance he thought necessary, not only for his writing career, but also for his place in American society.

Born in Minneapolis, Brinig moved with his family to the rough and tumble mining town of Butte, Montana when he was three. Like many Jewish immigrants to the far west, his father opened a dry-goods store that catered to the needs of copper miners.

Brinig grew up working in the store, and sold candy in brothels and newspapers in bars. He saw first-hand Butte's horrific labor problems, particularly its long strikes and the mayhem the Anaconda Copper Company committed in breaking those strikes.

In 1914 at age 17 Brinig left Butte to study at New York University, where he took writing courses with the poet Joyce Kilmer.

In 1917 Brinig's education was interrupted by military service. When he returned to New York City in 1919, instead of going back to school, he found a job at the Zanuck film studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey reading novels and stories in search of script material. Except for rare visits to his family he never returned to Montana, perhaps because he knew that he could never live even secretly as a homosexual in Butte.

Brinig published his first novel in 1929. Madonna Without Child is a character study of a woman obsessed by someone else's child.

That same year Farrar & Rinehart published Singermann (1929), the story of Moses Singermann, his wife Rebecca, and their six children. It is a story of what the new Amercian freedom does to the family's traditional Jewish values. It is here we first meet Harry and Michael, the two gay Singermann brothers.

This Man Is My Brother, the sequel to Singermann in which Brinig continues the story of the two gay brothers, was published in 1932..

In 1933, in Taos, New Mexico, he met the modernist painter, Cady Wells, the scion of a wealthy eastern family. He and Wells would live together as lovers for the rest of that year and most of the next.

In 1935 Brinig moved to San Francisco without Wells and for the first year since 1929 did not publish a novel. But he resumed writing in 1936 and created his best-seller, The Sisters (1937), which begins in Butte and climaxes with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Warner Brothers bought the film rights to The Sisters. Directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, the movie was released in 1938. It was a box office success, and with the money he made from the movie, Brinig returned to Taos and bought a house where he lived for the next 16 years.

But Brinig's later novels sold poorly. Publisher Stanley Rinehart dropped Brinig from Rinehart's list. It was quite a blow. In 1955, in an effort to save his career, Brinig sold his house in Taos and moved back to Manhattan.

Brinig, unfortunately, also received neglectful treatment from the literary historians of the American labor movement. Walter Rideout in his The Radical Novel in the United States: 1900 to 1954 never mentions Wide Open Town, Brinig's novel about a famous Butte strike with a graphic lynching scene of a Wobbly organizer. Under the heading "Strike Novels," Rideout discusses several awful Communist Party propaganda novels but not Wide Open Town.

The decisions to ignore Brinig were conscious. These critics understood that Brinig was a homosexual and that several of his characters, while not designated as such, were homosexuals. Rather than deal with these facts they chose to ignore Brinig and his work, perhaps out of embarrassment or homophobia.

Brinig died on May 13, 1991 at the age of 94. He had witnessed his own literary disappearance, first from bookstores, then libraries, and then the public's memory.

Yet the last third of his life was a happy time. For 35 years he lived with the man he loved, had many friends for whom he played the piano, and with whom he frequented a First Avenue bar, appropriately called The Closet, where he could be himself.

1899 – Gustaf Gründgens (d.1963), one of Germany's most famous and influential actors of the 20th century, intendant and artistic director of theatres in Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg. His career continued undisturbed through the years of the Nazi regime, but the extent to which this can be considered as deliberate collaboration with the Nazis was hotly disputed.

Born in Düsseldorf, Gründgens after World War I attended the drama school of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and started his career at smaller theaters in Halberstadt, Kiel, and Berlin. In 1923 he went to the Kammerspiele in Hamburg, where he also appeared as a director for the first time, co-working with the author Klaus Mann, son of Thomas Mann, and his sister Erika Mann. Gründgens, who meanwhile had changed his first name to "Gustaf", married Erika in 1926. However, they divorced three years later.

In 1928 he moved back to Berlin to join the renowned ensemble of the Deutsches Theater under director Max Reinhardt. Apart from straight theatre, Gründgens also worked with Otto Klemperer at the Kroll Opera, as a Kabarett artist and also as a movie actor, most notably in Fritz Lang's 1931 film M, which decisively added to his popularity. From 1932 he was a member of the Prussian State Theatre ensemble, first scintillating as Mephistopheles.

Gründgens' career proceeded after the Nazi Machtergreifung: in 1934 he became "Intendant" of the Prussian State Theatre; though constant attacks on his homosexual orientation made him ask the Prussian Minister President Hermann Göring for his discharge after the Night of the Long Knives. Göring rejected the request and instead appointed him a member of the Prussian state council to ensure his immunity.. In 1941, Gründgens starred in the propaganda film Ohm Krüger and also in Friedemann Bach, a film he also produced. After Goebbels's total war speech on 18 February 1943, Gründgens volunteered for the Wehrmacht but was again recalled by Göring, who had his name added to the Gottbegnadeten list.

Imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD in 1945, Gründgens was released thanks to the intercession by the Communist actor Ernst Busch, whom Gründgens himself had saved from execution by the Nazis in 1943.

From 1936 till 1946, Gründgens was married to the famous German actress Marianne Hoppe. The wedlock was widely seen as a lavender marriage.

Posthumously, Gründgens was the subject of a novel entitled "Mephisto" by his former brother-in-law Klaus Mann, who had died in 1949. The film version was a huge commercial and critical success winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981.

1938 – Martin Sherman is an American dramatist and screenwriter, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Bent (1979), which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. Sherman is an openly gay Jew and has lived and worked in London since 1980.

Sherman wrote Bent for Gay Sweatshop, a company devoted to using theater to raise consciousness, but the theater's artistic director—recognizing the work's wider significance and potential—encouraged him to "give this play to the world." It opened at London's Royal Court Theatre to popular and critical acclaim and established Sherman as a playwright to be taken seriously.

The first play to depict the brutal treatment of gay men by the Nazi regime and their incarceration in concentration camps, Bent concerns the fates of three men caught up in the rising oppression of the era.

Although historian Nicholas de Jongh calls Bent "one of the most significant plays produced in the post-Second World War theatre" and the Royal National Theatre included Bent in its list of the 100 most significant plays of the twentieth century, Sherman had a great deal of difficulty finding backers for the work.

Like Bent, Sherman's other plays often focus on characters who feel they can ignore the world around them, only later to be brought up short by the consequences of their ignorance.Although most of his screenplays for movies and TV all have gay elements and appeal, Sherman's most explicitly gay-themed screenplay (other than for Bent) is the one he wrote for Nancy Meckler's Indian Summer (also known as Alive and Kicking, 1996), which explores the growing relationship between an HIV-positive dancer and an older AIDS counselor.

In 2003, he was commissioned to write a new book for the American premiere of The Boy from Oz, based on the original Australian libretto by Nick Enright. The musical, starring the charismatic Hugh Jackman, set for itself the rather daunting task of telling the life story of Peter Allen (using his music and lyrics) from cradle to grave. Sherman unflinchingly tackled Allen's complicated bisexuality. His work on The Boy from Oz earned Sherman a Tony nomination for best book of a musical.

Sherman has no regrets about being a pioneer, but he does not want to be limited as to his subject matter. As he told The Advocate in 2000, "At the time I wrote Bent it was important to declare yourself as a gay writer. It seems to me that we have now reached this point, which I think is extremely healthy, where I can write about anything."

1959 – Johann de Lange, born in Pretoria, South Africa, is an Afrikaans poet, short story writer and critic. He is renowned for being one of the foremost gay writers in Afrikaans, his most controversial book being Nagsweet ("Night sweat").

He debuted in 1982 with a collection of poetry titled Akwarelle van die dors ("Aquarelles of thirst") for which he was awarded the Ingrid Jonker prize in 1983. This was followed by Waterwoestyn ("Water desert") in 1984, Snel grys fantoom ("Quick grey phantom") in 1986, Wordende naak ("Changing") in 1988 which was awarded the Rapport Prize for Poetry, Nagsweet ("Nightsweat") in 1990, Vleiswond ("Flesh wound") in 1993 and Wat sag is vergaan ("That which is soft perishes") in 1995.

After a silence of 13 years he published a new volume of poetry Die algebra van nood ("The algebra of need") in 2009, which was awarded the Hertzog Prize for Poetry in 2011. In 2010 a selection from his poetry was published under the title Judasoog ("Judas eye").

1960 – The American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on this date (d.1988). Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Puerto Rican woman and a Creole man. Because of his heritage, and his visits to Puerto Rico, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish and English by the age of eleven, and was able to read and write in all three languages. He showed artistic abilities at an early age but struggled in school, finally dropping out of high school.

In 1974, Jean-Michel moved to Puerto Rico with his family, who lived there for two years. It was there he experienced the first of many homosexual encounters; on one occasion he was orally raped by a barber. Upon the family's return to America, Jean-Michel dropped out of school and frequently ran away from home. At the age of 15, he absconded from his father, who caught him having sex with a male cousin and tried to kill him. Basquiat was a bi-sexual. His first sexual encounters were gay, and as a teenager he ofter worked as a gay street hustler, though later in his life he had many famous and infamous relations with women, including Madonna.

In the late 1970s Basquiat began spray-painting graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan, working under the pseudonym SAMO. When the Village Voice published an article about the graffiti, the artist ended the project by inscribed "SAMO IS DEAD" on the walls of SoHo buildings in 1979.

He started appearing on live public-access cable show and performing with noise rock bands. Finally in 1980, Basquiat participated in his first major show and received coverage in Artforum magazine, which brought Basquiat to the attention of the art world. This led to his joining a gallery in SoHo and showing regularly and an invitation to meet Andy Warhol who became a collaborator.

By 1985 he was appearing on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in recognition of his success as a leading artist of the period. After Warhol died on February 22, 1987, Basquiat became increasingly isolated, and his heroin addiction and depression became more severe. He died of a heroin overdose in his art studio on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27.

Basquiat's work has undergone major and influential exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Brooklyn Museum. On May 15, 2007 an untitled Basquiat work from 1981 sold at auction in New York for US$14.6 million. In 1996, seven years after his death, a biopic titled Basquiat was released, directed by Julian Schnabel, with actor Jeffrey Wright playing Basquiat. A 2009 documentary film, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, directed by Tamra Davis, was first screened as part of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

1967 – In Canada, Federal Justice Minister (and future Prime Minister) Pierre Trudeau proposed amendments to the Criminal Code which would relax laws against homosexuality, declaring that:

"It's certainly the most extensive revision of the Criminal Code since the 1950s and, in terms of the subject mater it deals with I feel that it has knocked down a lot of totems and over-ridden a lot of taboos and I feel that in that sense it is new. It's bringing the laws of the land up to contemporary society I think. Take this thing on homosexuality. I think the view we take here is there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. I think that what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code. When it becomes public this is a different matter or when it relates to minors this is a different matter."

1989 – Benjamin Brian Castro, better known by his stage name Sebastian Castro, is a Peruvian-Asian American actor, singer, visual artist, and YouTube sensation. He is an international celebrity, with a large following in Southeast Asia.

Castro is most widely known for his viral gay-themed music video "Bubble". Garnering over a million hits in its first couple months, "Bubble" brought Castro fame across South East Asia, most visibly in the Philippines and Thailand.

Castro starred in the role of Sebastian in the acclaimed 2013 Hong Kong movie Voyage, set across Europe and Asia, and filmed in the English language. In one scene, he undresses in front of his girlfriend, and his penis and testicles are shown on camera. The film was directed by Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung (known as Scud), who also commissioned Castro to produce some original artwork for the film.

Born in Long Island, New York. At age 17, Castro was disowned by his parents for being gay. He financed his education independently. He studied in Savannah College of Art and Design, before withdrawing early to focus on his acting and singing career.

On February 14, 2013, Castro's first music video "Bubble" appeared on YouTube, garnering over 700,000 views in its first month. Bubble further popularized the dance craze "Bubble Pop," particularly in the Philippines. The music video was Sebastian Castro's "coming out." Prior to releasing the homo-erotic Bubble music video, Castro was not publicly open about his sexuality.

2000 – Joshua Bassett is an American actor, singer and songwriter. He is known for his starring role as Ricky Bowen in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Bassett was born and raised in Oceanside, California, and was home-schooled.

His first introduction to musical theater was at age 7, over a decade before he starred as Ricky in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, when he was in a community theater production of High School Musical as J.V. Jock No. 2. Since then, Bassett has starred in over 30 musical productions.

He moved to Los Angeles when he was 16 years old to start acting, living in his car for some time to get by.

Bassett sings and plays piano, guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, and some saxophone. On May 10, 2021, he came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community during an interview.

In December 2021, Bassett disclosed that he experienced sexual abuse as a child and teen.

2010 – President Obama signs the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

OC Transpo winter service begins Sunday, December 22

[briarmoon]

Sugarbear

Tim, Ollie and Pete claimed this spring –

Death never takes a vacation day

Aren't three sacrifices enough

To let my Daddy stay?

I know Sugarbear has rolled the dice one too many times.

Alas, somehow my honey is still here

Holding me close beneath the grove of pines.

As I unleash my despair,

The nearby lilac bush emits

Its alluring fragrance into the air.

Yet, her essence fades quickly in southern New Hampshire

Come the end of May.

A lifeless robin bobs aimlessly in our koi pond

Rippling the water and shimmering with golden rays.

The diminishing sun casts a low light

Onto my anguished weeping;

I feel the warmth of twilight

Caressing my morose cheeks.

Baltimore Orioles in the branches sing to me

As my Sugarbear's embrace provides comfort

In the whispering spring breeze.

It feels incredible to release

The fear growing inside of me –

This momentary peace is freeing

Even though Death's sickle is still reaping

What we sow. Sugarbear, please don't rip out the sunflower seedlings

To make room for more summer squash and cucumbers.

Why tempt fate when Grim already knows our number?

© Copyright 2020, By Briar Moon

[wordswim]

diminution

when the mountain was small it wasn’t a volcano ash and soot trees lined it the rain gently touched its slopes lava flowed birds chirped and celebrated over head leaves sprouted then it blocked out the sun with its enormity fields of wild flowers stones hurled with tyrannic force judgeless at once oceans boiled it was only a small hill they looked over their shoulders and would never know

[granvarones]

Solidarity is a way of life, not a theoretical debate. It is found in action, not simply intent.

Trans people of color have been targeted by white supremacy since before 1442. I have often written about the connection between colonization, white supremacy, and transphobia as well as transphobia’s direct link to the genocide of Indigenous people across the globe by colonizers.

The same system of white supremacy colonizers used to attempt to rewrite the truths of science to justify the brutalizing and killing of Indigenous peoples, is the same exact system they are using now. So, it comes as no surprise that an administration of white supremacist and Nazi sympathizers would try to uplift a bill that would in essence attempt to control the laws of science to justify their state sanctioned violence once again. White supremacy is predictable, and its tactics are not only tired, and violent but the same they have been using since white people birthed it.

But I ask, what would make an administration like this believe that they could get away with attacking Trans people with no repercussion? The answer must be that they are aware of the transphobia (spoken and unspoken) that exist in the fabric of this country.

Cis people still control the access of Trans People and given that transphobia is ingrained in the fabric of this Country, we cannot have conversations about the successes within representation and there have been many in just this year alone, without also discussing power dynamics which once again places cis people as judge and jury and makes Trans people subject to their whims.

Solidarity is a way of life, not a theoretical debate. It is found in action, not simply intent.

So, let’s talk about the incredible year we have had with Trans representation. “Pose”, the breakout darling of all of our hearts, boasted the largest cast of Trans People of Color to date on any television screen. The CW purposefully has the first Trans superhero scheduled to appear on network television show. Yance Ford became the first Trans filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar, while snagging the Emmy, and Daniela Vega’s star turn in “A Fantastic Woman” helped to garner the movie to an Oscar Award.  Multiple novels, poetry collections, academic tomes, and biographies by TGNC Authors, authors such as Venus Selenite,  Xemiyulu Manibusan Tapepechul, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Akwaeke Emezi just to name a few.

We cannot have conversations about visible Trans people without also discussing those who are not and cannot be visible. Trans people are still disproportionately affected by structural oppression. While we marvel at Trans celebrities and gag at their brilliance, we must also acknowledge there are living breathing Trans people (including many of these Trans celebrities of Color) still suffering from the effects of structural oppression.

And I ask the question, how do you show up for Trans people when we are not the latest headline?

Solidarity is a way of life, not a theoretical debate. It is found in action, not simply intent.

Some cis people will say “We got out there”. “We protested beside you”, “we stood against this human right violation” and I reply to them what good is your protest if your praxis is lacking.

Cis people, you must do more, and this includes having to do more than simply vote in what is seen as Trans interest. We must remember while discussing legislation is important, the law has no emotion and we are often subject to the interpretation of it by cis judges.

If the fabric of this country is to change, the way in which you engage Trans people have to reflect the way you say Trans people should be treated.

Ask yourself, how are you showing up for Trans People you don’t know, and how are you showing up for those you do.  

Solidarity is a way of life, not a theoretical debate. It is found in action, not simply intent.

One of my major concerns is we are living in an era where people have a pension for a microwave engagement with human rights. The next hot button issue takes precedent over a holistic approach to liberation.

How many of us can name what happened to our girls and if our cries for bringing them back didn’t die out the minute a new headline hit the press? How many cis people who claimed to “stand with the trans community” actually have trans people in leadership positions in their companies or organizations? How many are dedicated to, not only, listening to but also paying a thriving wage to Trans people of color? How many are invested in holding the education system accountable to end bullying not only by other students but the system itself? How many are dedicated to investing in the works, dreams and manifestations of Trans Artist? How many apologized to Trans women of color who have been warning us this was coming? How many are willing to offer reparations for the privileges they enjoy privileges paid by Trans People’s oppression? How many are willing to learn new ways of being in community with Trans People? How many “cis allies” are willing to move from a reactionary place that centers them as cis saviors of the Trans community to comrades willing to risk what is comfortable for what is right?

Solidarity is a way of life, not a theoretical debate. It is found in action, not simply intent!

Written by: Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi 

Twitter: @ladydane​

Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author (Yemaya’s Daughters, Brew, Baltimore: A Love Letter, Wither, Remains: A Gathering of Bones, Keeper, Bone, The Blood of A Thousand Roots, Incarnate, and For Black Trans Girls Who Gotta Cuss A Motherfucker out When Snatching an Edge Ain’t Enough: A Choreo Poem, Solace), Teacher, Choreographer, Oracular Consultant, Spiritual Life Coach, Priestess, Speech Writer, Writing Coach, Advocate,  Healer,  playwright (For Black Trans Girls, Guilty,Absalom, and Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem which will be receiving a world premiere at Theater Alliance in May 2019). She is also is the book writer and lyricist for Roaring the Musical, which is about a Black Trans Singer and her family in the 1920s Harlem.

In 2015, Lady Dane received an emerging Leader Award for her work with the D.C. Trans Community and is the GLBT History Project’s 2018 receipt of the Mujeres en el Movimiento Arts Award. She is the first Trans woman of color to be nominated for a Helen Hayes Award (2016), in DC to publish a work of Fiction (Yemaya’s Daughters (2013)), and chosen for Theater Alliance’s Hothouse Festival, having her play Absalom read at the Kenney Center’s Prelude Festival.