BCE to The Suffragettes
04-15-1452 – 05-02-1519 Leonardo da Vinci – Born in the Tuscan town of Vinci, Italy. Little is known about Leonardo’s intimate relationships from his own writing. Some evidence of Leonardo’s personal relationships emerges both from historic records and the writings of his many biographers.
Leonardo maintained long-lasting relationships with two pupils who were apprenticed to him as children. These were Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, who entered the household in 1490 at the age of 10, and Count Francesco Melzi, the son of a Milan aristocrat who was apprenticed to Leonardo by his father in 1506, at the age of 14, remaining with him until his death. Little is known about Leonardo’s sexuality. He left hundreds of pages of writing but very little of it is personal in nature. The only historical document concerning his sexual life is an accusation of sodomy made in 1476, while he was still at the workshop of Vercocchio. An anonymous denunciation was left in the tambour (letter box) in the Palazzo della Signoria (town hall) accusing four people, including Leonardo, of sodomizing Jacopo Saltarelli (a male prostitute). The charges were dismissed on the condition that no further accusations appear in the tambour. The same charges did appear again but were dismissed because the letter was not signed. Sodomy was also an offense for which punishment was very seldom handed down in Florence, where homosexuality was sufficiently widespread and tolerated to make the word Florenzer (Florentine) a slang word for homosexual in Germany. Leonardo’s near-contemporary biographer Vasari makes no reference to Leonardo’s sexuality whatsoever. In the 20th century, biographers made explicit reference to a probability that Leonardo was homosexual though others concluded that for much of his life he was celibate. Leonardo never married. One of the few references that he made to sexuality in his notebooks states: “The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions.”
1843 – American writer Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) is born in New York City. He was an American author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. James regularly rejected suggestions that he should marry, and after settling in London proclaimed himself “a bachelor”. As more material became available to scholars, including the diaries of contemporaries and hundreds of affectionate and sometimes erotic letters written by James to younger men, the picture of neurotic celibacy gave way to a portrait of a closeted homosexual.
04-15-1866 – 02-22-1949 Marie Høeg – Born in Langesund, Norway.
She was a Norwegian photographer and suffragette. From 1890 to 1895, Høeg lived in Finland working as a photographer. She was greatly influenced by the Finnish women’s rights movement. It was in Finland that she met her life-long partner Bolette Berg (1872 – 1944), who was five years younger than Høeg and also a photographer. The couple opened up their own photography studio in Horten, Norway. They used their studio not only for photography, but also as a meeting place for women interested in feminism and women’s suffrage. In 1903, they moved to Kristiania (present-day Oslo) and continued to work as professional photographers. Berg died in 1944, Høeg in 1949. Many of
their glass negatives were discovered after her death inside a barn in the 1980s. The barn was on the property the couple owned at the end of their lives. A series of negatives in a box labelled “private” contained photographs of Berg and Høeg dressed in men’s clothes, smoking, and wearing mustaches. The 440 glass negatives are now in the collection of the Preus Museum, located in Horten, Norway.
04-15-1894 – 09-26-1937 Bessie Smith – Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was an American blues singer. Nicknamed “The Empress of the Blues” she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.
Smith is regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists. She started recording in 1923. She married Jack Gee, a security guard on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was released. During the marriage – a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides – Smith became the highest paid black entertainer. Her husband was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to Smith’s bisexuality.
In “Foolish Man Blues” Smith sang: “There’s two things got me puzzled, there’s two things I don’t understand; That’s a mannish-actin’ woman, and a skippin, twistin’ woman-actin’ man.” Strange words for a woman whose best friend was male impersonator Gladys Fergusson and who had been introduced to the world of ‘women-lovin’ women’ by blues singer Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939).
On September 26, 1937, Bessie Smith was critically injured in a car accident. She died at the age of 43 at Clarkdale’s G. T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital. Her funeral was held in Philadelphia on October 4, 1937. Smith’s grave was unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith.
1927
Serge Koussevitsky directed the Boston Symphony in the first performance of Frederick Converse’s symphony, “Flivver Ten Million.”
LGBTQ2 Blogger Nina Notes: statistically some of the players and production crew would be….
1931 – Sally Miller Gearhart (born April 15, 1931) is an American teacher, radical feminist, science fiction writer, and political activist. In 1973 she became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University where she helped establish one of the first women and gender study programs in the country. She later became a nationally known gay rights activist. She has been controversial for her statement that “The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race”, made in her essay “The Future – If There is One – Is Female”. The Sally Miller Gearhart Fund for lesbian studies was created to promote research and teaching in lesbian studies through an annual lecture series and an endowed professorship at the University of Oregon. The annual Sally Miller Gearhart Lecture in Lesbian Studies at the University of Oregon was first held on May 27, 2009; this first lecture was titled The Incredibly Shrinking Lesbian World and Other Queer Conundra, given by Arlene Stein of Rutgers University.
04-15-1933 — o5-18-1995 Elizabeth Montgomery – Born in Hollywood, California. She was an American film, stage and television actress. Her role as Samantha Stephens
on the television series Bewitched made her a household name and is how she is best remembered. Montgomery was a straight ally to the LGBT community being one of the earliest celebrities to support gay rights and advocate for AIDS victims, volunteering with the AIDS Project Los Angeles and amfAR at the height of the AIDS epidemic. In 1992, she rode with Grand Marshal Dick Sargent in the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade. She died of colon cancer in 1995.
04-15-1907 – 12-06-1955 George Platt Lynes – Born in East Orange, New Jersey. He was an American fashion and commercial photographer. In 1925, while in Paris, he became friends with Gertrude Stein, Glenway Wescott, and
Monroe Wheeler. In 1927, he returned to the US and opened a bookstore in Englewood, New Jersey. It was here that he first exhibited his photographs. The art dealer and critic, Julien Levy, exhibited Lynes photographs in his gallery. He soon received commissions from Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, and Vogue. In 1935, he was hired to document the principal dancers and the productions of George Balanchine’s newly founded American Ballet company (now the New York City Ballet). For over ten years, Lynes had a love affair with both Monroe Wheeler, the museum curator, and Glenway Wescott, the writer. Besides his commercial photography, Lynes took photos of nude males, many of which were homoerotic. A large number of those photos were left to the Kinsey Institute after his death from lung cancer in 1955. (photograph is a self-portrait — courtesy of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery)
04-15-1916 – 05-28-1981 Lem Billings (b. Kirk LeMoyne Billings) – Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Billings met JFK at Choate, an elite preparatory
school, in 1933. They became life-long friends. Billings worked on Kennedy’s successful campaign for Congress in 1946. In 1961, Billings declined Kennedy’s offer to appoint him the first head of the Peace Corps, or the director of the U.S. Travel Service. He later said, “I realized that I did not want to work for the president—because I felt it would change our relationship.” In September 1961, he accepted an appointment to the board of trustees of the National Cultural Center, which later became the Kennedy Center. He was also named to a board to plan America’s participation in the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65. It was known by JFK that Billings was gay. Friends from the 1970s confirmed that Billings was gay but they were not open to discuss it. Ben Bradlee, executive editor of The Washington Post, said: “I suppose it’s known that Lem was gay…It impressed me that Jack (JFK) had gay friends.” One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination of JFK, Billings was: “Probably the saddest of the Kennedy ‘widows’.” Billings died in 1981 from a heart attack.
04-15-1931 Sally Miller Gearhart – Born in Pearisburg, Virginia. She grew up in the Appalachia mountains of Virginia. Gearhart is an American teacher, feminist, science fiction writer, and political
activist. In 1973 she became the first out lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University, where she helped establish one of the first women and gender study programs in the country. In her book The Future-If There is One-is-Female, she made the controversial statement that, “The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race.” She retired from teaching in 1992.
The Friends of Dorothy Era and The Hayes Code
04-15-1949 Craig Zadan – Born in Miami, Florida. He is an American executive producer, director, and writer. He and his partner, Neil Meron, are the producers of the 2013 Oscars. They
also formed the production company Storyline Entertainment which has had success with film musicals, such as Chicago and Hairspray. In 2008, Zadan and Meron were awarded the “Career Achievement Award” by the Casting Society of America. He has been nominated for the Emmy Award eight times, along with his co-executive producer Meron (and the respective producers). Both Zadan and Meron are out gay.
1950s The Decade the public learned heterosexual women wanted sex
04-15-1952 – 09-07-2010 Glenn Shadix – Born in Bessemer, Alabama. He was an American actor, best known for his role as Otho Fenlock in the film Beetlejuice. He also did the voice of the Mayor of Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas. In a Truth Wins Out video that Shadix made before his death, he said that when he was 17 he told his parents that he was gay. After being told by his father that if he did not “beat this thing” he wouldn’t be allowed to be around his younger brothers and sisters, he agreed to undergo aversion therapy with a psychologist in Birmingham, Alabama. Shadix said that after the therapy, he had “this overwhelming sense of shame,” overdosed on Elavil (medication used for depression), then was in a coma for three days. After he was released from the hospital, his father told him he wanted me to live, that it would destroy my mother if I killed myself. He said he wanted me to be who I wanted to be and that he loved me. On September 7, 2010, he fell in the kitchen of his condominium and died of blunt trauma to his head.
In White Pop Culture:
Mitch Miller, music director of Columbia Records, engages in a spirited debate with Allan Freed over the “potentially negative effects of Rock ‘n’ Roll on teenagers” on Eric Sevareid’s news program on CBS-TV. Two psychiatrists also joined the discussion. Miller made no secret of the fact that he hated Rock music, and was quoted as saying, “It’s not music. It’s a disease.”
The Civil Rights 60s: When the Boomers were under 30
1960
“Because They’re Young,” starring Dick Clark, Tuesday Weld, Warren Berlinger, and Doug McClure, with cameos by guitarist Duane Eddy and singer/actor James Darren, opened in U.S. and Canadian movie theaters.
04-15-1965 Linda Perry – Born in Springfield, Massachusetts. She is an American rock singer-songwriter and record producer. She has written and produced hit songs for several successful female singers, including Pink, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, and Grace
Slick. From 1989 to 1995, she was lead singer and primary songwriter for the rock group 4 Non Blondes. Perry won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 2004 for her song Beautiful. Perry began a relationship with Sara Gilbert in 2011. They married on March 30, 2014. Their son was born to Gilbert on February 28, 2015. Perry is stepmother to Gilbert’s son and daughter from a previous relationship.
04-15-1966 Samatha Fox – Born in Mile End, London, England. She is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at
the age of 16, she appeared as a topless model in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun. During this time she became the most popular pin-up girl and was one of the most photographed British women of the 1980s. In 1986, she began her music career with her single Touch Me (I Want Your Body), which peaked at number-one in 17 countries. In the late 1980s, Fox appeared in television advertisements. In 1990, she appeared on the American sitcom Charles in Charge. In 2003, Fox made a statement about her personal life. “I have slept with other women but I’ve not been in love before Myra Stratton. People say I’m gay. All I know is that I’m in love with Myra [Stratton, my manager]. I love her completely and want to spend the rest of my life with her.” In 2015, Stratton died of cancer. Fox is currently in a relationship with Linda Olsen, a woman from Norway. In 2011, Fox appeared as part of a campaign for LGBT charity Albert Kennedy Trust.
Feminist, Gay Liberation and Lesbian Separatists: Civil Rights
04-15-1970 Drake Jensen – Born in Glace Bay, Canada. He is a Canadian country music artist.
In 2007, he moved to Ottawa and in 2008, married partner Michael Morin, who is also his personal manager. On January 16, 2012, he publicly announced that he is gay and told his story of severe childhood abuse and bullying. He left school in the eighth grade because of the bullying. He dedicated the video of his single, the title tract to his album, On My Way to Finding You, to the memory of Ottawa teenager Jamie Hubley, who committed suicide after having been severely bullied. In May 2102, Jensen was awarded Montreal’s Foundation Émergence at their annual Coup de Chapeau (Hats Off) Award in recognition of his contribution to the fight against homophobia.
1972,
Canada – In Ottawa, a visible gay contingent joins the Viet Nam Mobilization Committee demonstration protesting the visit of U.S. president Richard Nixon to Canada.
Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Carole King and Quincy Jones performed at a benefit for U.S. presidential candidate George McGovern.
1978
A song written by the Bee Gees (in this case their own “Night Fever” was at #1 for the 11th consecutive week of what would be 15 weeks in a row for the trio.
The Soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever” continued to set the pace on the Album chart for the 13th straight week.
LGBTQ2 Blogger Nina Notes: Post 50s, the 60s sexual revolution resulted in heteros acting disco gay, until AIDS….The battle of the sexes would be over and sex lost.
1979 – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is founded in San Francisco by Ken Bunch (Sister Vicious PHB), Fred Brungard (Sister Missionary Position), and Baruch Golden. Their mission is “to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.”
The Genderfuck Apathetics vs Yuppies : Aids the new STD on the list
1984
Rockwell was down to #3 with “Somebody’s Watching Me” on the popchart. also in the top ten: Culture Club was at 6 with “Miss Me Blind”, the Eurythmics slipped to 7 with “Here Comes The Rain Again”, the Thompson Twins had a top 10 song with “Hold Me Now”,
1987 – ACT UP’s First Use of “Silence = Death,” the iconic pink triangle and slogan, is debuted to thousands waiting in line at New York City’s General Post Office to file their taxes.
04-15-1987 Samira Wiley – Born in Washington, D.C. Her parents are co-pastors of Covenant Baptist
United Church of Christ and the only Baptist church in D.C., since 2007, that perform same-sex unions. Wiley is an American actress known for her roles in Orange Is the New Black and The Handmaid’s Tale. On October 4, 2016, Wiley announced her engagement to Orange Is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli. They married on March 25, 2017. Out magazine nominated Wiley in 2017 to “Out 100” in recognition of her work and visibility. In 2018, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
04-15-1987 Jason Somerville – Born in Long Island, New York. He is an American poker player and Team PokerStars Pro specializing in Texas Hold’em. Somerville has won over $2.2 million in online tournaments
He resided in Las Vegas from 2013 -2014 while he was signed with Ultimate Poker. In early 2015, he moved to Toronto so he could play on PokerStars, which is not available in the US. On Valentines’s Day in 2012, he came out as gay in a blog post. He is the first openly gay high-stakes male player. Somerville stated that he has great support from the poker community and from others outside of the world of poker.
1989
American all girl group The Bangles started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Eternal Flame.’ Also a No.1 in Australia (biggest selling single of 1989) and the United States.
on the usa song charts: “Like A Prayer” from Madonna at #3, “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles #4
90s: Listserves and Email distribution replaces telephone trees for activism
1990
Actress Greta Garbo died of pneumonia and renal failure at the age of 84. (Ninotchka, Grand Hotel, Camille, Queen Christina, Anna Karenina, Mata Hari, The Kiss, Flesh and the Devil, The Painted Veil, As You Desire Me, Two-Faced Woman, Conquest, Inspiration, Anna Christie)
Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for her “luminous and unforgettable screen performances.” In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on their list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema, after Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman. Recent biographers and others believe that Garbo was bisexual or lesbian, that she had intimate relationships with women as well as with men. In 1927, Garbo was introduced to stage and screen actress Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) and they may have had an affair, according to some writers. Silent film star Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison the following year. In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer and acknowledged lesbian Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1893 – May 9, 1968), introduced to her by her close friend, Salka Viertel, and, according to Garbo’s and de Acosta’s biographers, began a sporadic and volatile romance.
1992
The three surviving members of Queen raised over $15 million at a charity concert in memory of the late Freddie Mercury, who died in November, 1991. They were joined by David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Paul Young and others.
1995,
Argentina – Buenos Aires police raid Boicot, a lesbian disco, and arrest 10 women ostensibly to check their police records. Lesbian activist Monica Santino obtains their release after three hours during which time the women are subjected to verbal abuse and threats.
Post 9/11 – The Shock Decade From “gay and lesbian” to “lesbigay” to “Lgbt/Lgbtq/Lgbtq2”
2009 – GOProud, an organization representing conservative LGBT people, was founded by Christopher R. Barron (born December 15, 1973) and Jimmy LaSialvia (born December 15, 1970), two former Log Cabin Republican staffers who expressed dissatisfaction with that organization’s centrist political positions. It is now defunct. The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for LGBT people in the United States. Log Cabin Republicans was founded in 1977 in California as a rallying point for Republicans opposed to the Briggs Initiative, which attempted to ban homosexuals from teaching in public schools and authorize the firing of those teachers that supported homosexuality.
2010
After receiving some bad reviews and even enduring some boos during her performance, Whitney Houston brushed off criticism of her first show in the UK in over eleven years by insisting she was playing to a “tough crowd”. She had recently been hospitalized with chronic rhinopharyngitis, which is a swelling of the membranes in the nose and throat.
Singer Melissa Etheridge and her partner, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, announced their separation, seven years after bonding in a commitment ceremony. Michaels gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, in 2006.
Human Rights in global conflict: Trans/Pans vs LGB/ vs Heterosexual women
04-15-2013 A judge ruled a Hawaii bed and breakfast violated the law when two women were denied a room because they are gay. The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission joined the lawsuit.
2014, India – Supreme Court of India recognizes third gender not as a social nor medical issues but a human right.
2019
Olivia Newton-John’s 1981 mega-hit ‘Physical’ has been named Billboard’s No. 1 hit of the ’80s. Billboard has teamed up with Sirius XM for a …
LGBTQ2 Blogger Nina Notes: A song about heterosexual women’s desire by the lyrics, that in the music video, turns physically unfit men into buff gay men
cited sources
Today in LGBT History by Ronni Sanlo
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https://lgbtdailyspotlight.com/
LGBTQ2 Blogger Nina Notes:
To Each Decade it’s Age of Understanding, do not under consider differing geographies, nor the heterosexual clash of cultures – in particular – do not read backwards the words of humans now to earlier ages, to each own expression in culture and under legal conditions; and to all biology applies, regardless of what humans think is understood, rather than told, the why and when.
Sex the act of; is central to religion, war – who gets to what to who- vs which has had a no.
Understood as noting to be debated, quibbled nor negotiated.
Both in personal lives, in public and the workplaces, which were gender divided owing to sexual roles, across cultures and times.
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music and movie information from my previous blog
where I note, The Last Elvis Secret given what the Memphis Mafia wrote about Presley Parties, the only thing not officially and rarely luridly written about was the balance of probability Elvis Presley was bisexual, and was described by heterosexual men as being so attractive as to raise a question – including Jerry Reed, writer and performer. And given Larry Geller’s descriptions of being accused by other Memphis Mafia members of being gay with Elvis during the private hair cut sessions -rather makes it seem the Memphis Mafia were jealous, and Larry having to point out that were they admitting Elvis was bisexual?
As if Geller, a Hollywood hairdress would have a problem and his challenge back to those accusers was were they admitting Elvis was bisexual with the accusation?
However:
With Elvis’ self harm in both diet and injuries as a pretense to get drugs from doctors and dentists and anyone who would administer anything, including an induced coma for weight loss: the Darkest Elvis Secret was said by his StepMom on National USA tv. That one can be famous and rich and be depressed, connects to why western nations have the highest suicide rates: direct/obvious and passive. In 2017 it was revealed Elvis Presley left a suicide note, and that was why the life insurance policy was never cashed.
Was There A Dark Side to Elvis and Gladys?
It is important to note that the majority of sexual predators and murderers are males who victimize: pick the most inclusive or the most diverse statement of victim categories:
A) women and other men
B) men and women
C) heterosexual men, heterosexual women and LGBTQ2
D) heterosexual men, heterosexual women, gay/bisexual men, bisexual women, lesbians and NB/Transpersons
LGBTQ2 Blogger Nina Notes:
Most of the above is copied from one of the sites cited as sources in the daily post and as linked at the end of every post.
the history of nonheterosexuals and different historical eras views are such that there is a there is a danger to apply current decadish of time, in 2021 to past decades and centuries; particularly without application of complete history.
There is a difference between adopting male attire in the era when clothing was spelled out in law, and lesbians who passed in public, differ from those who only change clothing for personal sexual gratification, in private “cross dressors” in the language of this same era.
Laws regarding clothing exist in many nations, including capitol punishment, this is why sexual orientation is a demographic, That heterosexual women continue to be denied reproductive rights, education and professions, even where won at court; that women are a demographic. That male and female persons who are ethnically different from the majority population and with differing experiences being merged into colour blind visible minorities are differing demographics.
the farther back in time the given individual is, and why on this blog, there is a under theme of Elvis Presley, as the most prominent modern era person of the 1900s Current Era; who was photographed almost every day of his adult life., and who’s number of days on this planet have resulted in his being one of the most recognizable individuals across all cultures on the planet, which in 1950s was 1 billion people, and by his death almost 4 billion, to the 8 billion currently existing on earth.
Nineties Dyke 