registreret partnerskab

Passed into law by the Folketing on 7 June of that year, legal recognition for same-sex domestic partnerships came into force in the Kingdom of Denmark on this day in 1989.  The first legislation of its kind, registered couples were accorded almost equal rights and responsibilities as opposite sex married couples with the proviso that one member either be a Danish citizen or that both parties be in residence for at least two years. The definition of a resident was expanded extraterritorially for the purposes of the law to cover Norway, Iceland and Finland, extending the jurisdiction as far as they could. On 15 June 2012, the partnership law was repealed and replaced by a gender-neutral Marriage Act (Ægteskabsloven).

dadt

On this day in 1975, the cover of TIME magazine featured decorated Vietnam War veteran TSgt Leonard Matlovich (*1943 – †1988, see below), the first service member to out himself to protest the US military’s ban on gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.
The first time in the American press that the topic was seriously addressed in a national publication, Matlovich’s struggle to continue to serve in the Air Force openly was a very public battle and Matlovich along with Harvey Milk were likely the only openly gay men known to the American public during the decade. The branch secretary refused to relent, despite his record and reputation, and confirmed his general (though not other-than-honourable, given that the Air Force and other branches had fairly ill-defined regulations on the matter and considered extenuating circumstances common enough to recognise, like maturity, drunkenness or one-off experimentation—known as the “Queen for a Day” exception) discharge in October. Unrelenting, Matlovich fought the decision and five years later on appeal had his separation upgraded to honourable and received compensation and back-pay. Fellow Air Woman Reservist Fannie Mae Clackum (*1929 – †2014) had previously successfully sued for lost pay back in 1960.  A lifelong activist, he campaigned for equal rights until overcoming himself due to complications from AIDS/HIV and was interred in a special corner of Washington, DC’s Congressional Cemetery that he had helped establish.

annual reminder

Staged at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall yearly since 1965 to admonish the government and the public that gay people did not have basic civil protections and reputations and careers were precarious and subject to the caprice and prejudice of others, the final march of picketers took place on this day in 1969. After Stonewall, organisers decided to hold the subsequent parade on its anniversary, the last weekend in June, to commemorate the riots and moved the venue to New York City, holding the first Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970.

stonewall

During the early hours of this morning fifty years ago, members of the LGBT community in Greenwich Village staged a spontaneous uprising to protest a police raid of the Stonewall Inn.
This stand along Christopher Street, between West 4th Street and Waverly Place, marked the beginning of a long and ongoing struggle for gay rights and equal treatment under the law in the US. Pride parades world wide have occurred around this anniversary. Though the relationship is not causal and to suggest otherwise would dampen rising tensions and dangers faced daily by lesbian and gay people, the night before was the funeral for the iconic Judy Garland who had passed away earlier in the week in London from “an incautious self-overdosage”—held at a chapel on Madison Avenue which remained open through the night so twenty-thousand members of the public could pay their respects. Though no one recalled it being acknowledged during the riots, that sort of turn-out surely helped mobilise at least a few mourners and fans.

rainbow connection

On this day in 1978, the Rainbow Flag, created by artist and seamster Gilbert Baker (*1951 – †2017) was unfurled for the first time at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade, an event that originated around 1972 as an informal “gay-in” and is now a celebration of pride echoed around the world.
Gilbert met Harvey Milk in 1974, who asked him to create a new symbol for the community—wanting to jettison the shorthand of the day, the Pink Triangle, reclaiming a badge of shame that the Nazis used for imprisoned men identified as homosexuals as a means of self-identification but dark and derivative nonetheless—prompting Gilbert to design his flag (previously). The colourful motif was possibly inspired by the PACE flags that first appeared during an Italian peace march in 1961 or the Judy Garland ballad, Over the Rainbow. While the banner certainly represents the diversity of the community and the struggle for recognition and civil rights, the original eight stripes had specific meanings: hot pink stood for sex, red for life, orange was healing, yellow was sunshine, green was Nature, turquoise stood for magic and art, indigo for serenity and violet represented spirit. Hot pink was subsequently dropped due to the lack of fabric and dye, and the six banded version was adopted in 1979, blending indigo and turquoise as royal blue—though often throughout the 1990s, a black stripe was added to represent those whom had died due to complications from AIDS.

bill c-195

Whilst American engineers were busy shutting off their part of the Niagara Falls by means of a cofferdam apron to staunch the flow of water and allow for repairs of the eroded riverbed and cliffs, the Canadian senate was legislating and passed on this day in 1969 amendments to the law to decriminalise abortion and homosexual relations.
Introduced originally by then Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau, the passage allowed for the sale of contraceptive medicines and devices, consensual gay relations for persons of majority in private dwellings, as well as tightening laws regarding gun sales and ownership, drink driving, telephonic harassment and cruelty to animals. Trudeau famously defended his stance to the press by declaiming an often repeated phrase, «l’ État n’a rien à faire dans les chambres à coucher de la nation.» “There’s no place for the State in the bedrooms of Canada.”

white night riots

On what would have been the eve of assassinated City Supervisor Harvey Milk’s forty-ninth birthday—among the first openly gay politicians to serve in any capacity, tens of thousands rallied in San Francisco on this evening in 1979 in response to the lenient sentence handed down to the murderer, formerly fellow district supervisor Dan White, who crept into City Hall (avoiding the metal detectors) and shot Milk and mayor George Moscone the previous November.
White’s infamous Twinkie defence notwithstanding (his dietary shift to sugary, unhealthy foods symptomatic of his underlying depression, his attorneys argued), it was perceived that the court doled out the lightest verdict possible—voluntary manslaughter—because of White’s status as a former police officer and firefighter and the justice system was seen as biased and protecting one of its own. Although the march started out as peaceful, clashes between police and protesters turned violent and the police carried out retaliatory raids on gay establishments. Refusal on the part of the gay community to apologise for the protest resulted in greater political capital, leading to the election of Dianne Feinstein as mayor, who appointed a more inclusive commissioner to run the department who recruited more gay members to the force.

#lovewon

The parliamentary vote coinciding with the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, established to mark the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation struck alternative sexual orientation and identity from its register of diseases, Taiwan approved a bill that legalises same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in Asia to do so. Ceremonies will become legally recognised beginning on 24 May.

minn tími mun koma!

On this day a decade hence, reeling from the economic meltdown of that crescendoed in 2008 and revelation of graft and corruption within the sitting government, the Althing appointed member Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (previously) as prime minster of Iceland.  The first openly lesbian head of government plus the country’s first woman leader.
Having served in parliament since 1978, she made a bid to head the Social Democratic party (Alþýðuflokkurinn, later merged into the Social Democratic Alliance) in 1994 but was defeated. Never one to concede, Sigurðardóttir’s rallying cry became the above, My time will come!, a popular saying outside of the political sphere as well.  Though this degree of political normalisation has been restricted to European governments thus far and progress is a fragile thing that never ought to be taken for granted, it does seem rather remarkable and even rather old hat that ten years on there are three currently serving gay or lesbian national leaders, the Taoiseach of Ireland and the prime ministers of Serbia and Luxembourg.

anders als die andern

Artist Shelby Criswell, syndicated in The Nib, introduces us to the one of the early pioneers of studying human sexuality and gender identity in a comic about the life and career of Doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (*1868 - †1935), a physician and outspoken advocate for homosexual and transgender rights.
Hirschfeld set up a pioneering research facility in Berlin-Charlottenburg under the more liberal and enlightened auspices of the Weimar Republic and even co-produced a film, Different from the Others, which was a vehicle for legal reform and featured one of the first portrayals of a gay man in cinema. The rise of Nazism saw the end of his work and outreach—with his institute’s records being ransacked and used to track down undesirables. Dying of a heart-attack while in exile in Nice just as the Nazi government was becoming entrenched, the slab of his tomb bears his personal motto, “Per Scientiam ad Justitiam”—through Science to Justice.  Learn more at the link above. 

8x8

a benign and relatively common parasomnia: by an eerie coincidence, I experienced the “exploding head syndrome” drifting out of sleep this morning

let me reach, let me beach on the shores of tripoli: a look at the cultural impact and legacy of Enya Orinoco Flow

buchstabcenschrift: the rise and fall of Nazi Germany’s one time signature font—via Kottke’s Quick Links

moral compass: scenarios that make one wish for two trolleys

head in the sand: we are mostly ignoring dire and immediate climate-change warnings

god bless you, mister rosewater: Kurt Vonnegut, JR—sketch-artist

casualty rate: death by numbers examined from various angles

be a joyful rule-breaker: the reprisals of two interviews from Terry Gross and Pope of Trash, John Waters, made our day

i want the world to know—got to let it show

Observed on this day to commemorate the March on Washington of the previous year, the second one rallying for lesbian and gay rights and greater activism for the AIDS crisis in the US capital, National Coming Out Day was first held in 1988 and the annual awareness day—under the principle that close-mindedness and homophobia thrive in silence and prejudice and ignorance are quickly disarmed once people know that a loved one, friend or acquaintance have a gender identity that’s other than heteronormative—prompting a world where all individuals can live openly and truthfully. In the past three decades, it has expanded internationally with events held also in Ireland, Switzerland and the UK.

peer of the realm

Marquess of the baronet of Anglesey (Ardalydd Môn), privy counsellor to the courts of Victoria and Edward VII and nicknamed “Toppy,” Henry Cyril Paget (*1875 - †1905) lived a short and by the reckoning of his of his fellow royals a destitute and squandered one. At age twenty-three Paget married his cousin Lilian Chetwynd and the same year came into his title with the death of his father and inherited extensive estates throughout England and Wales. Paget had the chapel of the family’s country seat converted into a one hundred-fifty seat theatre (modelled off the Dresden Opera) and staged everything from elaborate costume dramas to cabaret for invited audiences.
Paget’s plans to tour with his theatre company, already mortgaging some of property to fund the excursion, was a step too far and she had their marriage annulled—though later cared for him at his death in Monaco, bankrupt and suffering from a prolonged illness (he’d always been somewhat restrained by a weak constitution) and possibly eager to win the right to hold onto some of his prized-possessions at Monte Carlo. All of it, the jewels, private custom rail cars for his actors, the clothes, the costumes—even his dogs, were auctioned off. Neither gambling nor lovers seemed to be the cause of Paget’s downfall, however—only a rather innocent though irresponsible propensity for profligacy and performance—also nicknamed the Dancing Marquess, Paget had a signature slinky snake dance that he would do no matter what the occasion, the later which none faulted him for. Even if the obituaries in the newspapers as well as the heir (another cousin) who inherited what was left of the Anglesey lands plus the debt were harsh, that heir ordered destroyed all of Paget’s diaries and correspondence, so we’ll never know if there was more to the story. Whatever the case, the people in his troupe as well as those associated with the family manors genuinely cared for their eccentric lord and patron.

true colours

In order to bypass prevailing homophobic attitudes in Russia, bolstered by laws that make illegal to display the rainbow Pride flag among other symbols, six activists donned the jerseys of six different World Cup teams, we learn via Messy Nessy Chic, to subtly insert themselves as a human banner to promote equity and human rights while the matches were being hosted. Visit the links above to learn more.

change happens at the edges

Historically—which will also be the first time the Armorial College gets to produce a crest for a same-sex couple though wisely rules were established some time ago—the first gay marriage in the extended royal family will occur later this summer on an estate in Devon.
With the blessings of his third cousin, once removed, the Queen (by statute the monarch must give ascent to the first six unions in the line of succession and in this case, the couple’s too far removed and already have heirs) Lord Ivar Alexander Mountbatten, geologist and gentleman farmer, will wed James Coyle. At the suggestion of their daughters, Mountbatten’s ex-wife will lead Mountbatten down the aisle and give him away.

genusvetenskap

Though slightly recanting an early statement that the Church of Sweden is to make God gender-neutral as sensationalism and ‘fake news’—oh what has that despicable dandiprat in the White House wrought—despite a significant shift in attitude and acceptance, another congregation in Västerås has definitely stirred some controversy and defends its decision to advertise for a Christmas mass (put out in the style of a birth announcement or a baby-shower) referring to Jesus with the pronoun “hen.” Though propelled into the fore of public discussion by being a marker indeterminacy and championed by people who do not identify themselves as gender-binary, the church is bringing up another important nuance in the language. Hen/he could also be used when the gender is unknown and the dean of the church is not questioning the identity of the historical figure but the fraught and friendly pronoun is also appropriate to use in circumstances where the gender of the person is irrelevant and it was in this sense the announcement was framed in the way it was. What do you think? Jesus’ sex or whether He is cisgender does not matter today especially, but that detail has been used chauvinistically to justify a long continuum of the patriarchal establishment to the detriment and continued inequality of women and in general those who don’t ascribe to convention.

l’autre moi

We’re again indebted to the brilliant Nag on the Lake for bringing us quite a fascinating biography of two brave and creative individuals whose story and contributions to the resistance went untold with the life and times of step-siblings and life-time partners Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe—also known as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.
Pioneering selfie-artists and authors, Cahun and Moore (the other me, as Cahun called her lover) challenged traditional gender roles and honed their identity and craft at a time when the world was going full-on fascist and fled Nazi-occupied Paris for the Channel Islands. Up to this point, their situation reminded me a bit of that of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas during the war but seeing that after resettling in Jersey in 1937, they really stuck their necks out rather than keeping a low-profile as Jewish lesbians might do. Nazi forces invaded the island in 1940 and the two risked their lives with a psy-ops hearts-and-minds campaign to make Nazi soldiers believe that there was a large-scale, professional effort to take back Jersey imminent, aided by a typewriter and translated text to lend credence to their claim and helped with the liberation of the island. They were eventually taken into custody by the secret-police but their stance was enough of a reprieve to stay their punishment until the Axis powers in Europe surrendered.

cis-gendered

Via the always engrossing Nag on the Lake, we are confronted with a rather fraught and ethically challenging application of machine learning after researchers imbue an artificial intelligence with gaydar.
It’s not perfect and perhaps it is picking up on some other sign that we’re overlooking, but by studying the facial features in just a single photo, the neural network was fairly accurate, approaching the eightieth percentile for both men and women, and raises interesting questions about the role of biology in sexual orientation—a debate that’s not settled here but that we also couldn’t have concluded on our own, apparently. And as potentially annoying as the prospect already seems, it’s not just about targeting demographics with advertisements that the computer thinks you might also like—but could also be abused to malicious out individuals and could be quite harrowing for those in positions or communities that are not open to such behaviour or sentiments. What do you think? It’s really no one’s business—and even trusted those algorithms that claim anonymity and discretion all end up tattletales, and the programme is not one hundred percent accurate and generates mischaracterisations and wrong assignments.

love chechen-style or broken-window, broken-home

Rewarded with unfettered license to play-house with his country in exchange for loyalty towards Moscow, after months of brutal treatment of gay men Ramzan Kadyrov, we learn via Super Punch, is back with more social-engineering initiatives with televised reunions of divorced couples. As ludicrous and as much like the premise of a reality TV programme as the Council for Harmonising Marriage and Family Relations, which brings together former estranged partners under the auspices of it being better for the children and children raised by single-parents are more likely to turn to terrorism (apparently), may seem, it’s deadly serious like broken-window policing policies and ex-husbands and –wives have no say in their forced co-habitation, which is strictly monitored by prying-eyes, and refusal to participate could carry consequences that would potentially rival the most abusive husbands.

dot-dot-dot

A suspension point—or an ellipsis comes from the Greek term for omission or falling short and has paradoxically transformed as punctuation mark to signal a continuance rather than a trailing off (aposiopesis, a figure of speech whose literal translation is becoming silent) or something suggestive of an unspoken alternative thanks in part to that shit gibbon occupying the Oval Office who’d prefer to legislate from the bully pulpit in one hundred and forty character conniptions.
Dear Leader’s latest chained but unhinged affront to reason and dignity and human kindness, the ban on transgender personnel from serving in the military, is not indicative itself of course of any larger agenda or policy shift in itself and was only a ploy to secure funding for his Border Wall and more immediately a distraction from the health care debate and the ongoing investigation into Russian interference and collusion. He does not care and has no strategy, but that does not mean his deputies won’t seize on the action to discriminate and discharge whole classes of service members en-masse and won’t continue with their goals of ideological course-correction that will push America to a much darker place that’s far bigger than the volunteer army. Another sad irony of Dear Leader’s announcement was that it fell on the sixty-ninth anniversary of Harry S Truman’s issuance of Executive Order 9981 which abolished racial discrimination and segregation in the Armed Forces and on the fifty-fourth anniversary of the institution of the policy that forbade service members and federal workers from patronising businesses or institutions that practised discrimination, opening up the route for greater equity and social justice in the country as a whole.