BCE to The Suffragettes
05-02-1858 – 10-08-1949 Edith Somerville – Born in Corfu, where her father was stationed. She grew up in Drishane, Castletownsend, Ireland. In 1886, Somerville met her second cousin, Violet Martin. As Somerville recalled in Irish Memories (1917), the meeting “proved the hinge of my life, the place where my fate, and hers, turned over…” The two women became life and literary partners. The collaboration was highly successful. Together they published a series of fourteen stories and novels. Violet Martin died on December 21, 1915. Somerville believed that communication with her continued through automatic writing and her later publications were published under both names. Although Somerville never spoke of her relationship with Ross as lesbian, her memoirs indicate that their relationship was passionate and primary. Somerville was also an illustrator. She was also active in the suffragist movement and was later in life a close friend of lesbian composer Ethel Smyth. Somerville died in 1949 and is buried alongside Violet Martin at Saint Barrahane’s Church, Castletownsend, Ireland. A considerable archival legacy remains at Castletownsend and in Trinity College Library.
05-02-1895 – 11-22-1943 Lorenz Hart – Born in Harlem, New York City, New York. He was an American lyricist, half of the Broadway team of Rogers and Hart.
Some of his more famous lyrics include “Blue Moon,” “Mountain Greenery,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Manhattan,” “Where or When,” “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” “Falling in Love with Love,” “Have You Met Miss Jones?,” “My Funny Valentine,” “I Could Write a Book“, “This Can’t Be Love“, “With a Song in My Heart“, “It Never Entered My Mind“, and “Isn’t It Romantic?“.
Coming from an upper-middle-class Jewish American background, he was tortured by his diminutive stature (he stood just under 5 feet tall) and being gay, which he could neither deny nor accept. Too insecure to pursue social equals, Hart limited his sexual attentions to chorus boys and male prostitutes.
Hart suffered from alcoholism and sometimes disappeared for weeks at a time on alcoholic binges. He suffered from depression throughout his life. Devastated by the death of his mother seven months earlier, Hart died in New York City of pneumonia from exposure on November 22, 1943, after drinking heavily. (photo of Richard Rogers & Lorenz Hart – Time Magazine, September 26, 1938) No one knew until a biography came out 30 years after his death.
Richard Rogers wrote the perfect scores for Hart’s words: his more famous lyrics include “Blue Moon,” “Mountain Greenery,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Manhattan,” “Where or When,” “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” “Falling in Love with Love,” “Have You Met Miss Jones?,” “My Funny Valentine,” “I Could Write a Book“, “This Can’t Be Love“, “With a Song in My Heart“, “It Never Entered My Mind“, and “Isn’t It Romantic?“
05-02-1902 – 10-26-1989 Mabel Hampton – Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was an American lesbian activist, a dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, and a philanthropist for both black and lesbian/gay organizations. In the 1920s, she danced in chorus lines for
all-black productions for Harlem Renaissance notables, including Jackie “Moms” Mabley. When her dancing career ended, she became a cleaning woman for white families in New York City. As Hampton explained, “I like to eat.” In 1932, Hampton met Lillian Foster. The two remained a couple until Foster’s death in 1978. In addition to her financial contributions to gay and lesbian organizations, Hampton marched in the first National Gay and Lesbian March on Washington, and she appeared in the films Silent Pioneers and Before Stonewall. In 1984, Hampton spoke before thousands at the New York City Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade. She said, “I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people.” Throughout her career and adult life in New York, Hampton collected memorabilia, letters, and other records documenting her history, providing a window into the lives of black women and lesbians during the Harlem Renaissance. The daughter, Joan Nestle, was from one of the families that Hampton worked for, founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York City.
05-02-1905 – 01-22-1964 Marc Blitzstein – Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national
attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. Blitzstein also composed music for films, including Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937). He wrote two songs for the original 1960 production of Lillian Hellman’s play Toys in the Attic. Blitzstein was openly gay. His first lover was conductor Alexander Smallens, with whom he traveled to Europe in 1924. He did marry novelist Eva Goldbeck in 1933. They had no children. In 1958, Blitzstein was subpoenaed to appear before the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities. He admitted his membership in the Communist Party (ending in 1949) but refused to name names or cooperate any further. In 1964, during a visit to Martinique, he was murdered by three sailors he had picked up in a bar.
The Friends of Dorothy Era and The Hayes Code
1941
The Federal Communications Commission set July 1, 1941 as the date U.S. commercial television stations could begin scheduling regular broadcasts.
05-02-1944 Howard Cruse – Born in Springville, Alabama. He is an American cartoonist known for gay themes in his comics. In 1977, Cruse moved to New York City, where he met Eddie
Sedarbaum, his life partner, whom he married after the couple moved to North Adams, Massachusetts. It wasn’t until 1979 that his comics featured gay themes when he became editor of Gay Comix, an anthology featuring comix by openly gay and lesbian cartoonist. His work in the 1980s was published in The Advocate and addressed subjects such as AIDS, gay rights demonstrations, gay-bashing, closeted celebrities, and same-gender relationships. In August 2009, Cruse self-published From Headrack to Claude, a collection of all his gay-themed strips accompanied by commentaries on his career and life.
05-02-1946 – 02-16-2015 Leslie Gore – Born in New York City, New York. She was an American singer-songwriter. Best known for 1963 hit It’s My Party. Her song You Don’t Own Me held at #2 for four weeks behind the Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand. You Don’t Own Me became a feminist anthem.
She often toured with Jan and Dean and was part of the TAMI showcase.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › T.A.M.I._Show
She officially came out to the public in the 1990s when she hosted several episodes of the PBS series, In The Life, which dealt with gay and lesbian issues. She died of lung cancer (she was a non-smoker). Her partner of 33 years was Lois Sasson, a jewelry designer.
1948 – Cal Anderson (May 2, 1948 – August 4, 1995) is born. Cal grew up in Tukwila, Washington, graduated from Foster High School, served in Vietnam and became the first openly gay member of the Washington State legislature. There, Anderson worked for civil rights for gay, lesbian and bisexual people as well as such issues as campaign finance reform and easier voter registration. He died of complications from AIDS on August 4, 1995. On April 10, 2003, Seattle’s Broadway Park was renamed Cal Anderson Park in his honor.
1950s The Decade the public learned heterosexual women wanted sex
May 2, 1956
For the first time in “Billboard” chart history, five singles were in both the pop and the R&B top 10. The singles were Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” the Platters’ “Magic Touch,” and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”
05-02-1956 Ann F. Hackler – Born in Pekin, Illinois. In 1986, she and her longtime partner, June Millington (born April 14, 1948), founded the Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen, Massachusetts.
The IMA’s nonprofit mission is to support women and girls in music and music-related businesses. Hackler said, “We talked about what our visions and dreams were. I had always wanted to start a school and June wanted to form an organization to support women in music.” Photo is of Ann F. Hackler & June Millington.
May 2, 1957
Controversial U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy died of hepatitis at the age of 48.
The Civil Rights 60s: When the Boomers were under 30
05-02-1962 Ty Herndon (born Boyd Tyrone Herndon) – Born in Meridian, Mississippi. He is an American country music singer. After signing to Epic Records in 1995, Herndon made his debut with his number one single, What Mattered Most, followed by the release of his first album, also
entitled “What Mattered Most” (1995). The album was followed by the release of his second album, “Living in a Moment” (1996), which produced his second number one country hit, with the album’s title track. Herndon has charted a total of 17 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. This includes three number ones, as well as four additional top ten hits. On November 20, 2014, in an interview with People magazine, Herndon came out as a gay man and stated that he had been in a relationship for a few years with a man named Matt. When asked if his two ex-wives knew of his sexuality, he confirmed that they “absolutely” knew.
In Pop Culture:
May 2, 1969
The Who gave a press preview of their new rock opera ‘Tommy’ at Ronnie Scott’s in London, England. The double album about a “deaf, dumb and blind boy” who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. In 1998 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic and significant value” and has now sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
Feminist, Gay Liberation and Lesbian Separatists: Civil Rights
1972 –
J. Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972), the homophobic first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dies and leaves the bulk of his estate to Clyde Tolson (May 22, 1900 – April 14, 1975), his “companion” of over 40 years.
Anthony Summers, who wrote Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (1993), stated that there was no ambiguity about the FBI director’s sexual proclivities and described him as “bisexual with failed heterosexuality.”
J. Edgar Hoover: Gay or Just a Man Who Has Sex With Men?
https://abcnews.go.com › Health › story
Nov 14, 2011 — One medical expert told Summers that Hoover was “strongly predominant homosexual orientation” and another categorized him as a “bisexual with …
May 2, 1977
The first Broadway revival of the musical “The King and I,“ starring Yul Brynner and Constance Towers, opened at New York’s Uris Theatre for 695 performances.
05-02-1978 Shaun T. Fitness (b. Shaun Thompson) – Born in Camden, New Jersey. He is an American motivational speaker, fitness trainer, television
personality, and choreographer. Shaun is best known for his home fitness programs for adults and children. After graduating from Rowan University, her moved to Los Angeles. He was hired as a professional dance by Mariah Carey. Shaun has been openly gay since October 2012 when he came out on Twitter. He’s married to Scott Blokker.
in Pop culture:
1979
Scottish singer Sheena Easton started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Morning Train (9 to 5)’. The title of the song was changed after Dolly Parton sued for the song title owing to her own hit ‘9 to 5’, a movie song, in the same year. Parton later turned the song into a Stage Production.
The Genderfuck Apathetics vs Yuppies : Aids the new STD on the list
1983
Spandau Ballet were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘True’, the group’s only No.1. The song spent four weeks at the top of the UK chart and was a hit in 20 other countries. Parts of the original version have been sampled and used in a number of songs – most notably PM Dawn’s 1991 US No.1 hit ‘Set Adrift on Memory Bliss’, which contains a sample of the song’s famous guitar hook.
LGBTQ@ Blogger Nina Notes: Duran Duran vs Spandau Ballet lacked the same The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones from earlier decades. And no one cared when The Stones won…
90s: Listserves and Email distribution replaces telephone trees for activism
1993 – “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner (born July 16, 1956), opens on Broadway. Angels in America received numerous awards, including the 1993 and 1994 Tony Awards for Best Play. The play’s first part, Millennium Approaches, received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1994 – One of the oldest LGBT magazines, The Metro Weekly in Washington DC, was first published.
1998, UK – Justin Fashanu (19 February 1961 – 2 May 1998), the first Black soccer player to earn a million dollars and the first pro soccer player to come out while playing, commits suicide. After moving to the United States, in 1998 he was questioned by police when a seventeen-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault. He was charged and an arrest warrant for him was issued in Howard County, Maryland on 3 April 1998, but he had already left his flat. According to his suicide note, fearing he would not get a fair trial because of his homosexuality, he fled to England where he killed himself in London in May 1998. His suicide note stated that the sex was consensual.
Post 9/11 – The Shock Decade From “gay and lesbian” to “lesbigay” to “Lgbt/Lgbtq/Lgbtq2”
Human Rights in global conflict: Trans/Pans vs LGB/ vs Heterosexual women
05-02-2013
Rhode Island becomes the 10th state to embrace marriage equality. Marriages will begin on August 1, 2013.
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.
~~~~
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 with 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? the last Elvis secret, along with the suicide note left in 1977, all swore to not reveal.
And each Memphis Mafia Member book was all about the orgies and parties Elvis made them attend, as if that was not why they were his friends acquired over time, to Red West, who saved Elvis from high school bathroom beatings and haircuts.
from my original blog:
Books: Elvis My Best Man by George Klein and Genuine Elvis by Ronnie McDowel
Book: Baby Let’s Play House – Alanna Nash
see also:
However:
With the new theatric Biopic that will reveal Elvis’ self harm in both diet and injuries as a pretense to get cancer level drugs from doctors and dentists and anyone who would administer anything, including an induced week long coma for weight loss in Vegas, known to any Elvis fan who read:
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
Extra Credit:
now factor in how to phrase that sentence and include 1 ethnicity 2 disability – physical of body and/or of the brain and persons without religion/spirituality
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 