Tag Archives: LGBT History

Photographer, author, and former model Nigel Barker, who is best known from his 17 seasons as a judge on America’s Next Top Model, has announced that he is working on a film about legendary gay activist David Mixner. Paper Magazine asked Barker about his relationship with Mixner and the upcoming film:  “First of all I always loved a great, true …

The above sign was posted in 2005 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. It stands about 100 feet from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and is surely seen by millions of tourists every year. Visit Philly, the city’s official tourism organization, has some details: Pennsylvania erected Philadelphia’s first LGBT marker to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the …

Courtesy of the film’s producers, this week’s Swag Tuesday prize is the DVD of the Oscar-nominated AIDS documentary, How To Survive A Plague, which goes on sale nationwide on February 26th. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE is the story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful …

UPDATE: The debate is underway and the anti-gay Christian crowd is making their usual bigoted arguments. UPDATE II: The bill has PASSED by a vote of 34-21! Onward to the Illinois House!

Watch it live right now.  More history in the making. UPDATE: The bill has PASSED by a vote of 329-229! And it INCLUDES gay adoption! President Francois Hollande’s Socialists have pushed the measure through the National Assembly and put France on track to join about a dozen, mostly European nations that grant marriage and adoption rights to homosexuals. The measure, …

PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford, who died last month at the age of 92, will be posthumously honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest honor the government gives a civilian. Twelve others will receive the medal at an upcoming White House ceremony. Paul Schindler reports at Gay City News: When Manford died last month at the age of 92, Jody …

I don’t think this is an official episode in Canada’s famed Heritage Minute series, which runs often on TV there. But it sure is lovely. Queerty has an earlier gay male version which features the filmmaker himself.

A nice recapping from Channel Four.

“By January 1984, New York City under Koch’s leadership had spent a total of just $24,500 on AIDS. That same year, San Francisco, a city one tenth the size of New York, spent $4.3 million, a figure that grew to over $10 million annually by 1987. The mayor of San Francisco during those years was Dianne Feinstein, who like Koch …

This morning the French National Assembly approved Article One of it marriage equality bill by a vote of 249-97! BBC News reports: The French National Assembly has approved the most important article of a bill to legalise same-sex marriage. Deputies voted 249-97 in favour of redefining marriage as being an agreement between two people – not just between a man …

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch died this morning at the age of 88. As mayor from 1978 to 1989, the forceful, quick-witted Koch, with his trademark phrase “How’m I Doing?,” was a polarizing figure and the city’s constant promoter. Koch died at about 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) at New York-Presbyterian hospital, the spokesman for Koch said. Koch was …

Chris Geidner has the big news at Buzzfeed: With 1,150 votes to Sandra Pupatello’s 866 votes on the third ballot at the Ontario Liberal leadership convention on Saturday, Kathleen Wynne was elected to lead the party and becomes Ontario’s first female premier — and Canada’s first out LGBT premier. Wynne, 59, is married to Jane Rounthwaite, and the party’s new …

JMG reader Damien writes: I had the honor to play in the LGBA (Lesbian Gay Band Association) Band in the Inaugural Parade tonight. It was an amazing experience and I felt proud to help represent my brothers and sisters. We had 215 members from 26 different states, and as many local gay community bands. In 2009 we were the first …

In yet another moment in our movement’s history, tonight openly gay members of the military attended the Commander In Chief Inaugural Ball with their partners. In the center of the above photo is Army Gen. Tammy Smith, who last summer became the first out soldier to achieve that rank. To the general’s right is her wife, Tracey Hepner. Photo by …

Freedom To Marry In his second Inaugural today, President Obama traced the moral arc from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, and rightly exalted the struggle for the freedom to marry as part of America’s moral commitment to equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Freedom to Marry applauds our president and the moral leadership he has shown, the moral …

Never before has a president mentioned us in an inauguration speech. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. We, the people, declare today that the most …