Tag Archives: LGBT History

Google Celebrates Leonard Bernstein’s 100th Birthday

Newsweek reports: The life and work of American music composer Leonard Bernstein is being celebrated with a Google Doodle marking the famed musician’s 100th birthday. In a statement, Google said its Doodle “celebrates Bernstein’s life set to one of his most iconic works—the score to West Side Story.” Bernstein, who died Oct. 14, 1990, aged 72, was the youngest conductor …

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Ricky Loved Madonna

Gentle readers, today is Madonna’s 60th 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 …

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VERMONT: Christine Hallquist Becomes First-Ever Openly Transgender Nominee For Governor [VIDEO]

Via press release from the Democratic National Committee: “The DNC is proud to congratulate Christine Hallquist, Vermont’s Democratic nominee for governor and the country’s first-ever openly transgender nominee for governor, along with all of tonight’s Democratic nominees in the Green Mountain State. “Christine’s historic victory tonight is an inspiration to LGBTQ people everywhere, and we are excited to stand behind …

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Famed “No Obits” Headline Turns 20 Years Old

Twenty years ago today San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter published its now-famous “No Obits” headline, marking the first time in many years that the paper had no AIDS-related deaths to report. The accompanying article’s author, Timothy Rodriques, who at the time had himself recently tested HIV+, reflects this week in the same paper: That the article had such an impact …

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REPORT: New York Yankees Planning Significant Events To Commemorate 50th Anniversary Of Stonewall Riots

Sports New York reports: According to major league sources, the Yankees have been quietly planning significant events for next season to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a seminal event in both the history of LGBTQ rights and New York City. While a Yankees spokesman said it was too early to confirm any specifics of the 2019 promotional …

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Notorious RBG Marks 25 Years On Supreme Court

CNN reports: There is something in the current “Notorious RBG” fervor that offers the perfect paradox for a woman whose early career was marked by rejection and work in the trenches of anti-discrimination law. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s superstardom has not been fleeting, precisely because of what she did before and what she represents today. She made the law review at …

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Actor Tab Hunter Dies At Age 86 [VIDEO]

Variety reports: Tab Hunter, a former on-screen heartthrob and a gay icon, has died. He was 86. The news was announced on a Facebook page associated with the actor, but a cause of death was not included. With his blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and toothy smile, Hunter rose to the top ranks of Hollywood leading men in the 1950’s …

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NORFOLK: Patrons Of Area’s Last Lesbian Bar Flood City Council Meeting In Face Of Wrecking Ball [VIDEO]

The Virginia Pilot reports: When Franki Busitzky was 18 years old, she hitchhiked down Virginia Beach Boulevard and over to Sewells Point Road to visit a bar meant for people like her. She had just come out as a lesbian to her family, and they didn’t take the news as well as she had hoped. So Busitzky, looking to find …

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Cuomo Unveils New York City’s First LGBT Memorial

Curbed New York reports: Nearly a year after it was first announced, New York City’s first official memorial dedicated to the LGBTQ community is set to debut in Hudson River Park. Governor Andrew Cuomo, along with City Council speaker Corey Johnson, Senator Brad Hoylman, and other elected officials, unveiled the monument, two years in the making, which is intended to …

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Tired Old Queen At The Movies: The Boys In The Band

A special Pride edition of the series. Clip description: Mart Crowley’s iconic play about the lives of several gay men in the 1970’s comes alive in William Friedkin’s THE BOYS IN THE BAND (’70). Featuring the brilliant original Broadway cast, its alternately hysterical, funny, sensitive, touching, at times lacerating and ultimately unforgettable.

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Pioneering Gay Rights Activist Dick Leitsch Dies At 83

The Washington Post reports: Dick Leitsch, who became a leading gay rights activist in 1960s New York, where he helped end police entrapment of gays and organized the first major act of civil disobedience by a gay rights group — a boozy sit-in known as the Sip-In — died June 22 at a hospice center in Manhattan. He was 83. …

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Gov. Cuomo Proclaims Edie Windsor Day In New York

Via press release: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today proclaimed June 20 Edie Windsor Day in New York State as a tribute to her legacy championing equality and justice for the LGBTQ community, and for being on the front lines of the fight for marriage equality. Today would have been Edie’s 89th birthday. “Edie was an iconic New Yorker who shaped …

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IRELAND: Govt Apologizes For Anti-LGBT Persecution On 25th Anniversary Of Decriminalizing Homosexuality

Ireland’s state broadcaster reports: The Taoiseach has paid tribute in the Dáil to those who were criminalised for homosexual activity prior to the repeal of the laws in 1993. “Today the people I want to pay a special tribute to are the unknown heroes, the thousands of people whose names we do not know, who were criminalised by our forbears,” …

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Watching The Defectives

Gentle readers, I’m rerunning my annual Pride rant for the fourteenth 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. Have a wonderful Pride Month. Love each other. Watching The …

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FAMILY SEARCH: Mormon Church To Add LGBT Families And Same-Sex Couples To Its Genealogy Database

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Three years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court made gay marriage legal in every state, but the LDS Church still hasn’t listed same-sex couples in its massive genealogy databank. Not surprising, perhaps, given the Utah-based faith’s opposition to same-sex marriage. But change is coming to the genealogy resource — and soon. The church’s genealogical …

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Democrats Mark Pulse Anniversary With Vow To Pursue “Common Sense Gun Reforms” And LGBTQ Rights

Just in from DNC chairman Tom Perez: “Two years ago, our nation witnessed one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. It was an attack on the LGBTQ community, the Latinx community, and LGBTQ people of color everywhere. It was an attack on the American people and the values of diversity and equality that all of us should cherish. …

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ORLANDO: Activists And Survivors Mark Second Pulse Massacre Anniversary With Rally For Tougher Gun Laws

The Orlando Sentinel reports: An emotional, rain-soaked rally on the eve of the Pulse anniversary Monday evening was mixed with anguish and raw anger over the lack of progress on gun reform and gay rights in Florida and the sheer number of mass shootings that have happened since. “Six hundred and twelve days,” said Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the …

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The Queen/Freddie Mercury Trailer Is Here [VIDEO]

Entertainment Weekly reports: Rami Malek is out from behind the computer and rocking the mic with style in the first trailer for Bohemian Rhapsody. In the upcoming Queen biopic, the Mr. Robot star takes on the role of legendary rocker Freddie Mercury. The journey to the big screen hasn’t been an easy one for Bohemian Rhapsody. First, after years of …

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ORLANDO: Interim Pulse Memorial Opens [VIDEO]

The Orlando Sentinel reports: The onePULSE Foundation is unveiling the Orlando nightclub’s “interim” memorial today, designed to be a temporary tribute to the victims and survivors of the 2016 mass shooting. During a dedication ceremony this morning, Pulse nightclub owner and onePULSE Foundation founder Barbara Poma thanked local companies that contributed to the project. She also praised the survivors and …

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Massachusetts Schools To Offer LGBT-Themed Courses

The Boston Herald reports: Bay State schools will be able to try a new curriculum with LGBTQ-themed history, English and health this fall that proponents say is an effort to help all students see themselves reflected in classrooms. The curriculum, developed by a team of teachers with Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ …

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