#VII - Sturm und Drang | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

camisoledadparis · 3 months ago

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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 … January 12

1564 – Queen Elizabeth I reinstates the buggery law in England which makes sodomy illegal.

1706 – Pennsylvania eliminates the castration penalty from its sodomy law.

1751 – On this date the Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement Jakob Lenz was born (d.1792). Lenz is remembered as the most creative and original of Goethe's Strasbourg friends and, because of failures in his personal life, as a figure of pathos. The son of a Lutheran pastor who received a theological education at the University of Koenigsberg, Lenz was a religious thinker who saw himself as prophet as well as poet.

In 1771 in Strasbourg, he met the young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who at this time happened to be in Strasbourg, and whose acquaintance Lenz made, as well as that of Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling. Goethe now became Lenz's literary idol, and through him he made contact with Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Kaspar Lavater, with whom he corresponded.

In the following year, 1772, Lenz accompanied his literary masters to the garrisons of Landau, Fort Louis and Wissembourg. He also fell in love with Friederike Brion, once the beloved of Goethe, but his feelings were not reciprocated.

Recent scholarship has has revealed Lenz's relationship with Goethe. In books like Karl Hugo Pruys' "The Tiger's Tender Touch: The Erotic Life of Goethe" and Alice Kuzniar's "Outing Goethe and His Age" Lenz's full character and sexuality has been revived. Lenz was deeply in love with Goethe. Indeed he wrote countless love letters to the writer in which he professed his desire to be Goethe's wife.

Historians of Goethe have always been puzzled by an incident in Goethe's life. In April 1776 Lenz followed Goethe to the court of Weimar where he was at first amicably received. But in early December, on Goethe's instigation, he was expelled. The exact circumstances are not recorded; Goethe, who broke off all personal contact with him after this, refers only vaguely in his diary to "Lenz's idiocy" ("Lenzens Eseley"). Historians seem puzzled by this strange rejection of Lenz. A clearer reading of their relationship or Lenz's desires for Goethe make the situation a bit more clear. The rejection may have been a break in their relationship or a spurning of Lenz's attentions.

1856 – John Singer Sargent American portrait painter, born (d.1925) was the most successful portrait painter of his era, as well as a gifted landscape painter and watercolorist. Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to American parents. He studied in Italy and Germany, and then in Paris under Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran. Among the artists with whom Sargent associated were Dennis Miller Bunker, Carroll Beckwith, Edwin Austin Abbey (who also worked on the Boston Public Library murals), Francis David Millet, Wilfrid de Glehn, Jane Emmet de Glehn and Claude Monet, whom Sargent painted.

He developed a life-long friendship with fellow painter Paul César Helleu, whom he met in Paris in 1878 when Sargent was twenty-two and Helleu was eighteen. Sargent painted both Helleu and his wife Alice on several occasions, most memorably in the impressionistic Paul Helleu Sketching with his Wife, 1889. His supporters included Henry James, Isabella Steward Gardner, (who commissioned and purchased works from Sargent and sought his advice on other acquisitions) and Edward VII, whose recommendation for knighthood the artist declined.

Sargent was, as they say, "extremely private regarding his personal life," though the painter Jacques-Émile Blanche, who was one of his early sitters, said — after his death — that Sargent's sex life "was notorious in Paris, and in Venice, positively scandalous. He was a frenzied bugger." Was the bugger refernce as in "buggery"?. As homophobic scholars put it, "the truth of this may never be established." Some have gone so far as to boldly suggest that Sargent was homosexual. He had personal associations with Prince Edmond de Polignac and Count Robert de Montesquiou (the model for Des Esseintes in Huysman's A Rebours, and even more famously, the Baron de Charlus in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, and, in real life, if you will, Prince Polignac's life-long lover, as well), two of the most notorious homosexuals of the age.

Sargent's male nudes reveal complex and well-considered artistic sensibilities about the male physique and sensuality; particularly evident in his portrait of Thomas E. McKeller but also in Tommies Bathing (both above), nude sketches for Hell and Judgement, and his portraits of young men, like Bartholomy Maganosco and Head of Olimpio Fusco .

There were friendships with women, as well, and a similar sensualism informs his female portrait and figure studies (notably Egyptian Girl, 1891). The likelihood of an affair with Louise Burkhardt, the model for Lady with the Rose, and the first wife of author J.R. Ackerley's father is accepted by Sargent scholars. Sargent's friends went so far as to wonder if he and Burckhardt had formed a romantic attachment. His enthusiasm while creating the picture of her probably instigated the rumors, but a mutual friend learns from Sargent in 1882 that "he does not care a straw for her." Despite numerous friendships with women throughout his life, this is the only episode to cause associates to doubt his status as a "committed bachelor." His sensuous, unparalleled appreciation of male beauty leaps off the canvas to this day.

1941 – On this date the pioneering British bluesman Long John Baldry was born (d.2005). Born John William Baldry in England, he grew to 6' 7" which resulted in the nickname "Long" John. Gifted with a deep, rich voice, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing blues in clubs.

In the early 1960s, he sang with the seminal band, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, with whom he recorded the first British blues album in 1962, "R&B at the Marquee." At stages, future Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Brian Jones played in the band. The Rolling Stones supported Baldry in their first concert at the Marquee Club. Later, Baldry was the announcer introducing The Stones on their US-only live album, "Got Live if You Want It!," in 1966.

Baldry became friends with Paul McCartney after a show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in the early 1960s, leading to an invitation to play on one of The Beatles 1964 TV specials. In 1963, Baldry joined the Cyril Davies R&B All Stars with Jimmy Page on guitar and Nicky Hopkins playing piano. He took over in 1964 after the death of Cyril Davies. It became Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and Geoff Bradford on guitar. Stewart was recruited after Baldry heard him busking a Muddy Waters song at Twickenham station after Stewart had been to a gig at Eel Pie Island.

In 1965, the Hoochie Coochie Men became Steampacket with Baldry and Stewart as male vocalists, Julie Driscoll as the female vocalist and Brian Auger on Hammond organ. After Steampacket broke up in 1966, Baldry formed Bluesology featuring Reg Dwight on keyboards and Elton Dean, later of Soft Machine, as well as Caleb Quaye on guitar. Dwight adopted the name "Elton John" (taking his first name from another member of the band, Elton Dean, and his surname from Baldry).

In 1967, he recorded a pop song "Let the Heartaches Begin" that went to number one in Britain, followed by a 1968 top 20 hit titled "Mexico", which was the theme of the UK Olympic team that year. "Let the Heartaches Begin" made the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

Baldry was openly gay during the early 1960s when homosexuality was still criminalised and medicalised. Baldry supported Elton John in coming to terms with his own sexuality. In 1978 his album Baldry's Out announced his formal coming out, and he addressed sexuality issues on A Thrill's a Thrill, a song on the LP.

Bluesology broke up in 1968, with Baldry continuing his solo career and John forming a songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. In 1969, Elton John tried to commit suicide after relationship problems with a woman. Taupin and Baldry, who was by now openly Gay, found him, and Baldry talked him out of marrying the woman, helping make John comfortable with his sexuality. The song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" from "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" was about the experience.

In 1971, Elton John and Stewart each produced one side of "It Ain't Easy" which became Baldry's most popular album and made the top 100 of the US album charts. The album featured "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll" which became his most successful song in the US. John's first tour of the US was this time. Baldry's 1972 album "Everything Stops For Tea" made the lower reaches of the US album charts.

After time in New York City and Los Angeles in 1978, Baldry settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he became Canadian. He toured the west coast, as well as the U.S. Northwest. Baldry also toured the Canadian east, including one 1985 show in Kingston, Ontario, where audience members repeatedly called for the title track from his 1979 album "Baldry's Out!" - to which he replied, "I'll say he is!"

He played his last live show in Columbus, Ohio, on July 19, 2004.

1951 – Mark Segal is an American journalist. He participated in the Stonewall riots and was one of the original founders of the Gay Liberation Front where he created its Gay Youth program. He was the founder and former president of the National Gay Newspaper Guild and the founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News. He has won numerous journalism awards for his column "Mark my Works."

Segal was a participant at Stonewall in 1969 and help found the Gay Liberation Front that same year. He was also a member of The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day committee, which organized the first Gay Pride parade in 1970.

In 1972, after being thrown out of dance competition for dancing with a male lover, Segal crashed the evening news broadcast of WPVI-TV, an act that became known as a "zap" and that he helped popularize. He repeated the action during many other television broadcasts.

In 1975, he went on a hunger strike on behalf of the passage of a law to guarantee equal rights for homosexuals. In 1976, he founded the Philadelphia Gay News, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newspaper in the Philadelphia area. The publication was inspired by activist Frank Kameny, whom Segal first met in 1970. In 1988, Segal had a televised debate with a Philadelphia city councilman, Francis Rafferty, about Gay Pride Month.

Segal partnered with the Obama Administration to create and build the nation's first official “LGBT Friendly” Senior Affordable housing apartment building. The 19.8 million dollar project known as The John C. Anderson Apartments opened in 2013.

Segal is Jewish and originally from Mount Airy, Philadelphia. He attended school at Germantown High School and Temple University. His friends include several prominent gay activists like Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny, Harry Hay and Troy Perry.

On July 5, 2014, Segal married his partner of 10 years, Jason Villemez. At the time, Villemez was 29 and Segal was 63. The ceremony was officiated by Judge Dan Anders, Philadelphia’s first openly gay judge.

1954 – Today is the birthday of Felipe Rose, better known as "the Indian guy from The Village People." He was born in New York and grew up in Brooklyn. He's part American Indian (Lakota) and part Puerto-Rican (on his mother's side). He actually studied dance with the Ballet de Puerto Rico and was later discovered by the music producer Jacques Morali while working as a bartender and dancing in a New York gay club and recruited for a new disco group he was forming.

While the producers were busy recruiting and preparing the other members of the group, Rose was sent to Paris where he choreographed a native dance number for the Crazy Horse Saloon. When he returned to the U.S., he suggested that the other members of the group wear uniforms representing different "manly" occupations in New York's Greenwich Village.The rest as they say is history. His hits with the Village People hits include Macho Man (1978), YMCA (1978), In The Navy (1979), Go West (1979), Can't Stop the Music (1980)

In 2000, Rose began to work on his solo career. His single "Trails of Tears" was nominated for 3 Native American Music Awards for Best Historical Recording, Song of the Year and Best Producer. In 2002, Rose was the opening act of the 5th Annual Native American Music Awards and won a NAMMY Award for the Best Historical Recording.

In 2005 Rose called up the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC to offer them his framed gold record for the disco group's 1978 megahit "Y.M.C.A." The staff of the new museum had never received such a call but were delighted to accept the items into their collection. The Washington Post's writer Hank Stuever opined that the museum accepted the record "on the precept that sooner or later they might need such an artifact of a bygone era, perhaps to flesh out a future exhibit on the folkloric value of disco, and native cultural responses to it."

1973 – Joel Derfner is an American writer and composer. He is the author of three gay-themed books: Gay Haiku (2005), Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and What Ended Up Happening Instead (2008), and Lawfully Wedded Husband: How My Gay Marriage Will Save the American Family (2013). His articles have appeared in publications including the Huffington Post, The Advocate, Time Out New York, and Between the Lines. Derfner and his works have been cited as references on gay culture, and he has been noted as one of "today's best-known gay writers".

He is the composer of several musicals, and he teaches musical theater composition at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Derfner was also co-star of the first season of the 2010 reality television show Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, along with his close friend Sarah Rose.

Derfner was born in 1973 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. His parents were civil rights activists, and were active in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. His father, Armand Derfner, is a civil rights lawyer, and his mother Mary Frances Derfner (née Seddon) met Armand when she became his legal secretary in Washington, D.C. in 1967. Joel's father is Jewish and his mother was Christian; he was raised Jewish and converted to Judaism at the age of seven His mother, who suffered from type 1 diabetes, died in 1992. Joel came out to his parents as gay when he was 15.

Derfner lives in New York City with his husband, Mike Combs, a psychiatrist who runs an inpatient unit at a New York City psychiatric hospital. He and Combs became engaged in 2007.[88] The couple were legally married in Iowa in May 2010 and had their formal wedding ceremony in October 2010 in Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

1974 – Chinese Gay Rights Pioneer,GLBT activist and attorney Zhou Dan came out to his friends in 1998 and the media in 2003. A champion of GLBT rights in China, Zhou writes articles on Chinese gay and lesbian Web sites. Although many GLBT Chinese use pseudonyms, Zhou uses his real name. After revealing his sexuality to a Shanghai newspaper in 2003, Zhou appeared across China in newspapers and magazines and on television. Earlier that year, he established the Shanghai Hotline for Sexual Minorities.

One generation removed from the persecution of gays under the People's Republic of China, Chinese gays encounter different obstacles than their American counterparts. Many Chinese believe that homosexuality exists only in the western world. The absence of legal protection and the threat of social isolation keep most Chinese GLBT individuals in the closet.

Zhou also fights for rights of people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in China, by advocating a human-rights-based approach to the epidemic.

In 2004, Zhou attended Yale Law School's China Law Center as a visiting scholar. In 2006, he taught China's first graduate class on homosexuality at Fudan University in Shanghai.

1986 – Kieron Richardson, born in Eccles, Greater Manchester, England, is an English actor and Presenter best known for playing the role of Ste Hay in Hollyoaks.

After appearing briefly in the late night Hollyoaks: In the City, Richardson was offered the role of Ste Hay in the early evening Hollyoaks where he appeared for 19 episodes. The character was written out of the show after stealing a car, which resulted in a spectacular crash and his character getting sent to prison. He returned to Hollyoaks on 25 September 2007, and has been a regular cast member since.

Richardson has also made appearances in Holby City, Heartbeat and the feature film Fragments, as well as the pantomime Cinderella as Prince Charming at The Embassy Theatre, Skegness in 2006.

Richardson took part in 2010 series of ITV's Dancing on Ice and was paired with series newcomer Brianne Delcourt. He reached the final, finishing in third place.

In 2011, Richardson and his Hollyoaks ex co-star Bronagh Waugh started presenting on radio station Gaydio.

On 15 September 2010, Richardson revealed on television programme This Morning that he is gay, and accepted it at the age of 20. He was inspired to come out by X Factor winner Joe McElderry. In July 2014, Richardson received a torrent of homophobic abuse via social networking site Twitter. That month Richardson announced his intention to marry long-term partner Carl Hyland the following year. In April 2015, the couple were married in a star-studded ceremony in the Peak District.

In December 2016, Richardson announced they were expecting twins via surrogacy. They have twins born in 2017, a boy and girl.

2009 – On this date a landmark of sorts occurred on American daytime television when after months of teasing and steamy kisses, the soap opera As The World Turns featured the boyfriends Luke and Noah finally having sex in a breakthrough episode for daytime television.

2012 – A firestorm was set off by the revelation that a Canadian government lawyer had filed a document in a divorce case stating that same-sex marriages entered into by foreign couples who reside in jurisdictions that do not recognize same-sex marriage are not valid in Canada.

The statement was at first widely regarded as an attempt to undermine same-sex marriage by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. After the legal brief had been denounced roundly both in Canada and abroad, the government announced that it had no intention of reopening the question of same-sex marriage and that it recognized as valid the same-sex marriages of foreign nationals.

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