Tag Archives: LGBT History

The Independent reports: Greece has appointed its first openly gay minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Nicholas Yatromanolakis made history after he was named the new deputy minister of culture on Monday. The 44-year-old was promoted from his role as general secretary of contemporary culture at the same department. The appointment which made him the first openly gay minister …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Although the Parliament House will be demolished, its distinctive multicolored sign will be preserved as a piece of Orlando history. “The City of Orlando is working on saving the sign,” city spokeswoman Samantha Holstein wrote in an email. “Staff has been in conversations with the property owner and working on coordinating the removal and storage for …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Leanza Cornett, the American TV personality and former Miss America winner, has died at the age of 49 after suffering a head injury earlier this month. The Miss America Organization and her former husband Mark Steines both confirmed the death in separate social media posts. Reports said she suffered the head injury on October 12 and had …

From the Parliament House’s Facebook page: For over 45 years, The Parliament House has called Orange Blossom Trail our home. We have to announce that our home at its current location will be closing Monday, November 2, 2020. We put up a good fight over the last 11 months to secure financing and renovate our existing property. Unfortunately, that fight …

The Wrap reports: James Randi, a magician and illusionist known as “The Amazing Randi” as well as a scientific investigator who debunked paranormal and occult phenomena through his organization the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, has died. He was 92. Among one of Randi’s more famous instances of debunking — a word he frequently said he disliked in favor of “investigator” …

CBS News reports: A large crowd of people gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court on Friday night after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Well-wishers left flowers and signs and broke into applause and songs, and the American flag outside the Supreme Court was lowered to half-mast. “I think it’s a testament to who she was as …

Gentle readers, today is Madonna’s 62nd birthday. Below is a short story that first appeared on JMG on this day in 2006, a date which, as you’ll see, plays a role in the story. Ricky Loved Madonna Twenty years ago today, August 16th 1986, I was a few months into a new job with AMC Theatres, a position that I …

V Magazine reports: The historic Julius Bar, located in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village, may close its doors due to financial insecurities caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, Governor Andrew Cuomo delayed restaurants from serving patrons indoors as coronavirus cases rapidly increased across the country. Julius Bar, a historic pre-Stonewall bar, is feeling the brunt …

Just in via press release: The Gill Foundation today announced it will match contributions up to $250,000 to protect the Stonewall Inn, which is on the brink of closure due to the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis. The support will be earmarked to support rent and utility costs. In addition to its $250,000 pledge to protect the legacy of …

Just in from the Democratic National Committee: “51 years ago today, the LGBTQ+ community in New York City, led by transgender and lesbian women of color, fought back against harassment, persecution, and police brutality. Their activism at Stonewall and in the years to come rippled across America and the world — changing hearts, minds, culture, and law. “One year later, …

It was 51 years ago today that the queer community of New York City finally said “Enough!” As I’ve done for the last few years on this day, I’m reposting the story that the New York Daily News ran one week after the Stonewall Riots. Note how the story drips with condescension and ridicule. We’ve come a long, long way …

“We’re almost 51 years since the night when the patrons at the Stonewall Inn stood up for their rights and set one of America’s defining victories for civil rights. “Because of the movement they sparked and the decades of work that followed, marriage equality became the law of the land five years ago, and just this month the Supreme Court …

USA Today reports: The four justices appointed by Democratic presidents were joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Republican appointee. Within two years, more than 150,000 same-sex couples got married. According to U.S. Census estimates, there are more than 500,000 married same-sex couples in the country. The impact of those unions has been more than cultural. Same-sex weddings have generated more …

Gentle readers, I’m rerunning my annual Pride rant for the sixteenth year. I wrote this post in 2005 a couple of days after attending Pride in NYC. In the following years I’ve reposted it in advance of NYC Pride in the hope of encouraging you to attend your local events. While the pandemic has canceled most of this year’s festivities, …

The Hill reports: Former President Obama took to Twitter on late Monday to wish the country a “Happy Pride month” after the Supreme Court ruled that gay and transgender people are protected against employment discrimination under exiting civil rights laws. The tweet also featured a photo captured by former White House photographer Pete Souza in 2015 showing rainbow colors cast …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis sex, also protects employees from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Today’s decisions confirm workplace anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people …

From the Democratic National Committee: Four years ago today, 49 people were murdered in the single deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ and Latinx communities in U.S. history. What should have been a night of celebration was overtaken by hatred and bigotry. We will not let that hatred and bigotry prevent us from celebrating the lives of those we lost at …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Here’s the first trailer for Ivy Meeropol’s documentary Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which will debut on HBO later this month. The feature film, which had its world premiere at the 2019 New York Film Festival, is another insight into the infamous attorney who prosecuted the Meeropol’s grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and later …

The New York Times reports: Larry Kramer, the noted writer whose raucous, antagonistic campaign for an all-out response to the AIDS crisis helped shift national health policy in the 1980s and ’90s, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 84. His husband, David Webster, said the cause was pneumonia. Mr. Kramer had weathered illness for much of his adult life. …

The SFist reports: One of the founding members of the Daughters of Bilitis and one half of the first same-sex couple to be legally married in San Francisco in 2004, Phyllis Lyon, has passed away. She was 95, and reportedly died of natural causes early Thursday. Lyon and her wife Del Martin were famously the first couple to be granted …