Tag Archives: LGBT History

Germany To Get Gay Foreign Minister

With the re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor, it appears that Germany will get its first openly gay foreign minister in Guido Westerwelle. The German press is eating it up. Guido Westerwelle and his gay partner are Germany’s new “power couple” — at least according to the nation’s leading daily, which splashed a photo of the pair hugging on election …

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Remembering Mark Bingham

JMG reader Sean Chapin sends us his remembrance of Mark Bingham, the openly gay rugby player credited with helping foil the 9/11 hijackers of United 93, possibly saving the White House or the U.S. Capitol from the same fate as the World Trade Center. Bingham was memorably played by openly gay Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson in a movie recounting the …

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Gordon Brown Apologizes To Alan Turing

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has issued a posthumous apology to Alan Turing, the brilliant World War II code-breaker and computer scientist who killed himself after being convicted of the “crime” of homosexuality. Turing’s decoding of the Nazi’s “enigma machine” is credited as one of single-most crucial factors in ending the war. I am both pleased and proud that, thanks …

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CA Assembly Approves Harvey Milk Day

By a vote of 45-27, the California Assembly has approved a bill creating a statewide holiday to honor gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. The bill passed in the state Senate earlier this year. The question now is whether the Governator will veto the bill as he did last year. “Although he vetoed a similar bill last year with the message …

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Harvey Milk Inducted Into CA Hall Of Fame

Today the Governator inducted Harvey Milk and ten others into the California Hall of Fame. In other news, there is a California Hall of Fame. The 2009 California Hall of Fame inductees are: entertainer Carol Burnett, former Intel CEO Andrew Grove, governor and U.S. senator Hiram Johnson, decathlete and philanthropist Rafer Johnson, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, philanthropist and peace activist …

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Presidential Medals Of Freedom Awarded To Billie Jean King & Harvey Milk

Accepting Harvey Milk’s posthumous award was his nephew, Stuart Milk.

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PhoboQuotable – Peter Sprigg

“Pro-homosexual activists will describe the issue as one of identity – ‘who they are.’ But the real issue is one of behavior – what they do. And what Harvey Milk (like other homosexual activists) wanted was not only the freedom to engage in homosexual sex, but the right to do so without ever being criticized. Milk told one audience that …

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NY. Sen. Tom Duane Rages On HIV Bill

Openly gay and openly HIV positive New York Senator Tom Duane delivered one of the most blistering, heartfelt, and painful speeches I think I may have ever heard yesterday. The NY Daily News: Sen. Tom Duane gave an eyebrow-raising performance on the Senate floor early this morning in hopes of moving his colleagues to support a bill that prevents people …

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UPDATE: India’s Decriminalization Of Homosexuality DOES Apply Nationwide

Contrary to earlier reports that the Dehli High Court’s ruling to decriminalize homosexuality only applied in the National Capital Territory, today the Times Of India reports that the ruling does indeed apply nationwide. Since a high court has a limited territorial jurisdiction, is homosexuality decriminalized only in Delhi or the whole country? Although legal pundits are divided on this, the …

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India’s High Court Set To Rule On Decriminalizing Homosexuality

One of the world’s largest homosexual populations is anxiously awaiting word on a pending ruling that may decriminalize gay sex. Rex Wockner: The Delhi High Court will issue its long-awaited decision in the case seeking to decriminalize gay sex tomorrow, Thursday, July 2, at 10:30 a.m. Delhi time. You should care because…India is the world’s second-most-populous nation: 17.22 percent of …

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CNN On Pride & Stonewall’s 40th

A pretty good piece, actually.

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10th Anniversary: TV’s First Gay Kiss

Spangle Magazine editor Brian Patrick Thornton recalls the day ten years ago when he and his boyfriend pranked The Today Show and Al Roker to create what some consider the first kiss between two actual gay men on national television. [T]hat morning, the first three Al Roker weather segments passed us over. We thought they must have figured us out …

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SF’s Pink Triangle Burned

Every Pride week in San Francisco, a massive fabric pink triangle is placed on the hills above the Castro, a visible-for-miles reminder of the murder of homosexuals in the Holocaust. Yesterday vandals succeeded in burning a portion of the installation. Arson investigators were trying to determine what caused a fire that damaged the Pink Triangle on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks …

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The Foot Wore A Spiked Heel

It was June 28th, 1969. The day that the fags, dykes, and queens of New York City finally said “Enough!” For some historical perspective, I’m posting the story that the New York Daily News ran that week about the Stonewall Riots. Note how the story drips with condescension and ridicule. We’ve come a long, long way in 40 years and …

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Remembering June 1969

Yesterday the cast of Hair, the chorus boys from West Side Story, and the vogueing houses slated to perform at tomorrow’s Love Ball all gathered on the stairs of the new TKTS booth in Times Square to remember the night 40 years ago that sparked the Stonewall Rebellion. In the red headband behind the sailor is openly gay Hair star …

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The Times Of Harvey Milk

YouTube has posted the full version of the 1984 documentary, The Times Of Harvey Milk. (Tipped by JMG reader Sean Chapin)

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LGBT History: The Temperamentals

On Monday, Little David, Eric Leven and I attended the Off Broadway play The Temperamentals, a recounting of the formation of the very pre-Stonewall gay rights group the Mattachine Society. “Temperamental” was code for “homosexual” in the early 1950’s, part of a created language of secret words that gay men used to communicate. The Temperamentals tells the story of two …

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Flashback: David Mixner And Bill Clinton On DADT & DOMA

(Via – JMG reader Noah)

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Victory For Marriage In New Hampshire!

By a vote of 198-176, the New Hampshire House has just approved same-sex marriage, hours after the state Senate did the same. Gov. John Lynch is expected to sign the bill immediately, possibly as early as this evening. New Hampshire joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine as the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Congrats to all in the …

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Review: Trippin’ On The Moon

Sunday night’s Trippin’ On The Moon – Saint reunion party was quite simply the best fucking night out I have had in at least a year. Maybe two. Maybe three. Dr. Jeff and I arrived at 8pm to find the venue already crowded and the steam never let up until we shut the place down at 3:30am. DJs Michael Fierman …

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