Heinz "Gay Kiss" Advert

Last week, the American food company Heinz decide to pull one of its adverts from the UK television screens after receiving complaints about its content.

"It is our policy to listen to consumers. We recognise that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it. The advertisement, part of a short-run campaign, was intended to be humorous and we apologize to anyone who felt offended," said Nigel Dickie, Director of Corporate Affairs for Heinz UK.

The advert shows a family in the throws of getting ready in the morning. Mum is in the kitchen, preparing sandwiches for the rest of the family, using the new Heinz mayonnaise. And because the mayo is so wonderful, Mum has been turned into a male New York deli chef. This visual metaphor does not stop Dad from giving Mum a peck on the lips when he leaves the house. You can view the advert below.



Within a week of the advert being broadcast, 200 people had contacted Heinz and or the Advertising Standards Agency to complain about this so-called "gay kiss", saying how outraged they were that homosexual behaviour should be shown on daytime television, apparently forcing these same people to, shock, horror, explain that, yes, dear, there are homosexual relationships in this world. There are suspicions that the campaigns against the advert was started from outside the UK by the notoriously homophobic pressure group, American Family Association.

Heinz's knee-jerk reaction has provoked much discussion in the media, Stonewall has called for a boycott of Heinz products, MPs have signed an Early Day Motion tabled by Diane Abbott for Heinz to reconsider their decision and Nick Clegg, Leader of the Lib Dems, has written to Heinz to express his disappointment. Meanwhile an online petition against Heinz's decision has gathered over 10,000 signatures in less than a week.

To gain a little perspective on the subject, this website presents an overview of advertising with LGBT content and is illustrated with video clips.

Commercial Closet, which provides a global ad library, is also a good resource for those interested in the depiction of LGBT people in advertising.

The picture above has appeared on a Facebook group boasting over 4000 members and calling for boycott of Heinz until they reinstate the advert".

LGBT Related Radio and TV Programmes, 28th June - 4th July

We seek them out so you don't have to. This is our weekly non-exhaustive round up of upcoming LGBT programmes on the radio and television. Inclusion of a programme is not a recommendation.
Enjoy!

Some of the radio programmes listed below can be listened to again via the Listen Again facility of the BBC's website while some of the television programmes will remain available also for a week on the BBC's iplayer.

Radio
Saturday 28th
BBC Radio 4 - 10am Excess Baggage. Sandi Toksvig presents
BBC Radio 2 - 5pm: Paul Gambaccini
BBC Radio 4 - 1.10pm: Any Questions. Simon Hughes
6 Music - 12midnight BBC Introducing… New acts presented by Tom Robinson

Sunday 29th
BBC Radio 2 - 2.30pm: Pick of the Pops. 1983 and ‘94 charts with Dale Winton
BBC Radio 7 - 1 & 7pm: Frankie Howerd

Monday 30th
6 Music - 1am: New Music with Tom Robinson

Wednesday 2nd
BBC Radio 4 - 6.30pm: Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show. With Sue Perkins
BBC Radio 7 - 7pm: Beyond our Ken

Thursday 3rd
BBC Radio 4 - 2.15pm: Afternoon Play: I Love Stephen Fry. Stars the man himself; as himself

Friday 4th
6 Music - 7pm: New Music with Tom Robinson
BBC Radio 4 - 8pm: Any Questions. Ben Bradshaw

Television

Film and Drama
Tuesday 1st
C4 - 12.40pm: Where Angels Go….Trouble Follows. Rosalind Russell as a nun and a headteacher. I ask you.

Thursday 3rd
Sky Indie - 10.30am and 8pm: Wilde. Stephen Fry and Jude Law

Friday 4th
ITV4 - 2am: (i.e. Saturday) Jubilee. Derek Jarman’s 80’s punk comedy

Entertainment and Documentaries
Saturday 28th
BBC1 - 7.10pm: Dr Who. Assistants. Daleks. Everything.
BBC3 - 8pm: Dr Who Confidential. Rose Tyler
BBCHD - 11pm: Hotel Babylon
Sky 1 - 10pm: Boyzone Live. Highlights of the comeback tour

Sunday 29th
BBC2 - 10pm: The Graham Norton Show (rpt)
C4 - 10pm: The Sunday Night Project. Alan Carr
BBC3 - 8 pm: Dr Who. Saturday’s edition (rpt.) Followed by Confidential
UK Gold - 10.30: Little Britain. Dafydd goes to a rugby match

Monday 30th
UK Gold - 11pm: Little Britain

Tuesday 1st
UK Gold - 11.10pm: Little Britain

Wednesday 2nd
E4 - 10pm: Shameless (rpt)
UK Gold - 11pm: Little Britain
Sky Arts - 9pm: What the Dickens? Sandi Toksvig presents a cultural quiz.

Thursday 3rd
BBC2 - 9.45pm: The Graham Norton Show. Catherine Tate guests
ITV1 - 9pm: The Mamma Mia Story! Yes… it’s this desperate.
Five - 10pm: Grey’s Anatomy

Friday 4th
BBC2 - 10pm: QI. Stephen Fry (rpt)

Submissions Wanted for the Queer Writing Competition

The second International Queer Writing Competition organised by queer literary journal, Chroma, will be taking place this autumn. Artists are being invited to submit their work for the two categories of the prize (short story and poetry).

Entries are also being accepted for two separate prizes: The Transfabulous Prize (for the best story by a trans writer or on a trans theme) and the Velvet Flash Fiction Prize (for the best short story of no more than 150 words on the theme of journey, surprise or lust).

Sarah Waters, Robert Gluck, and Betsy Warland are the judges for the Queer Writing Competition, and Stella Duffy will be judging the Velvet Flash Fiction Prize. There is over £1,400 in prize money to be won.

The deadline for submissions is 1st September 2008. There is a fee of £5 per entry.

Entry form and competition rules are available here.

Deported Homosexual Comes Out

Four weeks ago, this blog reported that a monument to the gay victims of the Nazis had been unveiled in Berlin. In his speech the Culture Minister, Bernd Neumann, had deplored the fact that, because of it having been delayed for so long, there was no living survivor to attend the ceremony.

This proved however to be not entirely true. On hearing the reports of the event, Rudolf Brazda got in touch with the German Gay and Lesbian Federation (LSVD). Aged 95, Brazda, who was born in Sudetenland (the German majority ethnic part of the then Czechoslovakia), had moved to France after surviving his deportation to Buchenwald and following a French straight friend he had met in the camps. His story has been authenticated by the LSVD.

Alexander Zinn, spokesman for the LSVD, thinks the Brazda might not be the only survivor still alive. "No one has invested the time and money required to try and find survivors," he declared, " We only know about those who have spoken out." Zinn, who met Brazda two weeks ago also explained that the man had lived for 35 years in France with his companion until that one's death, six years ago."

Rudolf Brazda missed the ceremony in Berlin but he will be there for Pride this Saturday when he will attend a special event at the new memorial. He will also take part in a conference on the history of homosexual deportation by the Nazis.

Independent on Sunday Pink List 2008

This week-end, the Independent on Sunday published this year's list of the 100 most powerful gay and lesbian people in the UK.

This year's number one, who replaces Dr Who writer Russell T Davis, is another Mr Davis: Evan, the BBC's former Economics Editor and since recently one of the presenters of the Today Programme on Radio4.

Worthy of notice is the number of Tory politicians making their appearance on this year's list; several of whom are members of the Boris Johnson team at London's City Hall. Strangely, Boris' number two in command, Statutory Deputy Mayor, Richard Barnes, does not appear in the list.

You can view the full list here.

LGBT Related Radio and TV Programmes, 21st – 27th June

We seek them out so you don't have to. This is our weekly non-exhaustive round up of upcoming LGBT programmes on the radio and television. Inclusion of a programme is not a recommendation.
Enjoy!

Some of the radio programmes listed below can be listened to again via the Listen Again facility of the BBC's website while some of the television programmes will remain available also for a week on the BBC's iplayer.

Radio
Saturday 21st
BBC Radio 4 - 12.30pm: News Quiz. Sandi Toksvig presents.
BBC Radio 4 - 11pm: Counterpoint. Music quiz with Paul Gambaccini
BBC Radio 7 - 11.30am: Round the Horne
BBC Radio 7 - 8pm: Barry Took: My Point of View

Sunday 22nd
BBC Radio 7 - 0.30pm: Round the Horne
BBC Radio 2 - 2.30pm: Pick of the Pops. 1966 and ‘93 charts with Dale Winton

Monday 23rd
6 Music - 1am: New Music with Tom Robinson
BBC Radio 7 - 1 & 7pm: Frankie Howerd

Friday 27th
BBC Radio 2 - 7pm: Oral History of Dance Music
BBC Radio 4 - 8pm: Any Questions. Simon Hughes
6 Music - 7pm: New Music with Tom Robinson

Television

Films and drama
Saturday 21st
Film4 - 3.30pm: All about Eve. Bumpy ride with Bette Davies
Sky Indie - 9.30am: All about My Mother. Almodóvar directs.
Sky Indie - 2.40pm: Transamerica
BBC4 - 10.35pm: Psychomania. Nicky Henson as vampire and Beryl Reid as his devil worshiping mother.

Sunday 22nd
BBC2 - 9pm: Kinky Boots.

Monday 23rd
Sky Indie - 12.20pm: Wilde. Stephen Fry and Jude Law

Tuesday 24th
Film4 - 2.35pm: Madness of King George. Alan Bennett script. Nigel Hawthorne stars

Wednesday 25th
Sky Indie - 1.45am: All about My Mother. Almodóvar directs.

Thursday 26th
ITV3 - Midnight: Rocky Horror Show
Sky Movies Comedy - 6pm: She’s the Man. Romcom with a twist2.25pm

Entertainment and documentaries
Saturday 21st
BBC1 - 6.40pm: Dr Who. Clash of the assistants. Is the Dr dead?
BBC2 - 5.30pm: The Supersizers Go. Sue Perkins tries to survive the Tudors with Giles Coren (rpt)
BBC3 - 7.30pm: Dr Who Confidential. Rose Tyler

Sunday 22nd
BBC2 - 10.40pm: The Graham Norton Show (rpt). Joan Rivers guests
C4 - 10pm: The Sunday Night Project. Alan Carr
BBC3 - 8 pm: Dr Who. Saturday’s edition (rpt.) Followed by Confidential

Tuesday 24th
BBC2 - 9pm: The Supersizers Go. Sue Perkins tries to survive the Regency period with Giles Coren

Wednesday 25th
Sky Arts - 9pm: What the Dickens? Sandi Toksvig presents a cultural quiz.
Sky Arts - 9.30pm: The Nude

Thursday 26th
BBC2 - 9.45pm: The Graham Norton Show
C4 - 11pm: The Sunday Night Project. Alan Carr (rpt.)
Five - 10pm: Grey’s Anatomy

Friday 27th
BBC2 - 10pm: QI. Stephen Fry (rpt)

Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Health Survey

The largest ever European survey into lesbian and bisexual women’s health, has just been released. The report, carried out by Stonewall and De Montfort University, reveals deeply disturbing levels of self-harm, substance abuse and exclusion from routine testing for cervical cancer.

Prescription for Change, a survey of 6,000 lesbian and bisexual respondents, suggests that health services are failing to identify specific healthcare needs among Britain's 1.8 million lesbian population. They are also failing to address specific mental health needs that many women still experience as a result of discrimination. The survey, the biggest of its kind ever conducted outside America, provides unique new statistics on the mental health, drinking and drug use of lesbian and bisexual women. Find out more here.

BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour discusses the findings with Ruth Hunt, co-author of the report and Head of Policy and Research at Stonewall and Dr Sarah Jarvis, spokesperson for women's health at the Royal College of GPs. You can listen to the programme here.

Copies of the full report and the accompanying case studies are available at www.stonewall.org.uk/lesbianhealth.

Irish Queer Archive Donates Collection' to the National Library of Ireland

The National Lesbian and Gay Federation (NLGF) has formally handed over the Irish Queer Archive (IQA) to the National Library of Ireland (NLI).

"The NLGF is delighted to donate the archive to the State", said Ailbhe Smyth, chair of the NLGF.
"We pay immense tribute to the foresight of the NLI in understanding the importance of the Irish Queer Archive and its critical relevance to Irish social, political and personal histories, and in their commitment to preserve and catalog it for future generations"
"The IQA bears witness to the transformation of Irish society from the criminalisation of gay people to the cusp of state recognition of our relationships. It is entirely appropriate that this extensive collection joins the other NLI collections documenting these critical movements in Ireland's progress" continued Smyth.

The massive collection contains 250,000 press cuttings, clippings from gay magazines dating back as far as 1950s, collection of Irish lesbian and gay films, and an extensive photo collection.

But what is more priceless are the letters, dating from 1970s onwards, from individuals all across the country to support organisations. There are also letters from the queer community who wrote about the difficulties and hardship they faced. Writing these letters are the only support they had at that time.

However, the IQA does not only document the bad times, It has also shown that the situation for gay people is improving gradually.
"Thankfully too, the IQA documents comprehensively the journey from isolation to a visibility exemplified by the expected 10,000 people who will be on O'Connell street next Saturday for the Gay Pride Parade", said Ailbhe Smyth.

Smyth hopes that the donation will not only educate people about the gay community's past, but also celebrate the successful acceptance of the gay people by the public.

"Through this donation to the NLI, researchers, historians and the public will have access to material showing the incredible resilience of lesbian and gay people in seeking justice and equality in the face of silence and opposition, and the contribution of Ireland's lesbian and gay population to the huge transformation of Irish society over the last few decades", said Smyth.
A reception to mark the handover will be held at the Library at 6pm this (Monday) evening, with Colm Toibin as the guest speaker.

With thanks to Pinknews

National Lesbian and Gay Federation
National Library of Ireland

Gay Brains Structured Like Those of The Opposite Sex

Brain scans have provided the most compelling evidence yet that being gay or straight is a biologically fixed trait.

The scans reveal that in gay people, key structures of the brain governing emotion, mood, anxiety and aggressiveness resemble those in straight people of the opposite sex.

The differences are likely to have been forged in the womb or in early infancy, says Ivanka Savic, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Read the full article in the New Scientist here. The full paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is available here (PDF file available on subscription).

Gay Marriages

A busy few days for your gay marriage planners.

Last week we reported the change of the law in Norway authorising gay marriage.

This week=end, we learned that two Anglican priests, Rev Peter Cowell and Rev Dr David Lord, (already united by a Civil Partnership) exchanged vows and rings in a blessing ceremony at a London church, thereby re-igniting the internal feud conducted across continents by members of the Anglican Church about gay clergy (source). Gene Robinson's claims that if the Church got rid of gay clergy it would collapse (source) probably didn't help the matter either. The priest who officiated at the blessing ceremony reportedly now find himself threatened with a disciplinary action by his hierarchy while Rev Dr David Lord has resigned.

On 15 May, the Supreme Court of California overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The four-to-three decision made California the second state, after Massachusetts (Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey only offer civil contracts), to allow full marriage rights for same-sex partners. The Ruling is taking effect today and couples from across the United States are expecting to flock to the Golden State to tie the knot, so much so the local LGBT associations have produced a joint press release asking the newly wed not to start suing their respective states for a recognition of their union once returned home for fear that it might set back to struggle for equality.

Start Trek star George Takei, 71, has announced he would marry his partner of 21 years while opponents of same-sex marriage have managed to qualify for the November elections an amendment to the State Constitution (titled the "California Marriage Protection Act" by its proponents; titled the "Limit on Marriage" amendment for the ballot) that would explicitly state that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued several statements pledging to oppose the amendment.

www.freedomtomarry.org

Bulletin No 47

The latest edition of the LGBT History Month bulletin is now available, as usual packed-full of news, information, notices of upcoming events and quotations.

To access the latest bulletin please click on one of the links below:
word document
pdf file

You can view all previous bulletins here or register to our mailing list here.

LGBT Related Radio and TV Programmes, 14th – 20th June

We seek them out so you don't have to. This is our weekly non-exhaustive round up of upcoming LGBT programmes on the radio and television. Inclusion of a programme is not a recommendation.
Enjoy!

Some of the radio programmes listed below can be listened to again via the Listen Again facility of the BBC's website while some of the television programmes will remain available also for a week on the BBC's iplayer.

Radio
Saturday 14th
BBC Radio 4 - 10.30am: Sex, Telly and Britain. Miranda Sawyer and others question the truth of the 1960s sexual revolution
BBC Radio 4 - 12.30pm: News Quiz. Sandi Toksvig presents.
BBC Radio 4 - 11pm: Counterpoint. Music quiz with Paul Gambaccini

Sunday 15th
BBC Radio 2 - 2.30pm: Pick of the Pops. 1973 and ‘86 charts with Dale Winton
BBC Radio 4 - 12.04pm: Chairman Humph; a Tribute. Stephen Fry introduces a homage to I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue as part of a day dedicated to the late Humphrey Lyttleton
BBC Radio 7 - 1 & 7pm: Frankie Howerd
BBC Radio 4 - 8.30pm: Last Word - Sue Sanders remembers Paul Patrick

Monday 16th
6 Music - 1am: New Music with Tom Robinson
BBC Radio 4 - 1.30pm: Counterpoint. Music quiz presented by Paul Gambaccini
BBC Radio 4 - 6.30pm: Cambridge Footlights Retrospective. Steve Punt presents. Includes Stephen Fry

Wednesday 18th
BBC Radio 4 - 11am: In Living Memory. Features the Little Red Schoolbook, which empowered kids in the 80s and incensed Thatcher and Whitehouse

Friday 20th
BBC Radio 4 - 6.30pm: The News Quiz. Sandi Toksvig presents. Su Perkins guests
6 Music - 7pm: New Music with Tom Robinson

Television

Films and drama
Saturday 14th
ITV4 - 10.30pm: Fright Night 2. Roddy McDowell stars. Vampires and stuff.
Sky Indie - 10.30am: Wilde. Stephen Fry and Jude Law

Monday 16th
Sky Indie - 12.20pm: All about My Mother Almodóvar directs.
Sky Indie - 2.20pm: Transamerica

Tuesday 17th
Film4 - 11pm: All about Eve. Bumpy ride with Bette Davies

Thursday 19th
Sky Indie - 2.25pm: Wilde. Stephen Fry and Jude Law

Entertainment and documentaries
Saturday 14th
BBC1 - 5.30pm: The Kids Are All Right. Barrowman presents
BBC1 - 7.10pm: Dr Who. Sacrifice time
BBC2 - 6.30pm: The Supersizers Go. Sue Perkins tries to survive the 70s with Giles Coren (rpt)
BBC2 - 9.30pm: Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain. Thatcher: the woman who brought us section 28.
BBC3 - 7.55pm: Dr Who Confidential. Sound effects

Sunday 15th
BBC2 - 10pm: Louis Theroux Behind bars. Louis goes and stays in San Quentin. Includes an apparently moving budding relationship between an ex-Nazi and a gay Jew (rpt.)
BBC2 - 11pm: The Graham Norton Show (rpt)
ITV1 - 5.50pm: The Unforgettable Pat Phoenix. 60s and 70s gay soap icon from Corrie
C4 - 10pm: The Sunday Night Project. Alan Carr
BBC4 - 8.30pm: Dr Who. Saturday’s edition (rpt.)
Five -10pm: Generation Sex. Sexual attitudes discussed
Virgin1 - 11pm: Sexcetera. Sex discussed

Monday 16th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of my Life. Nigel Slater takes Liz Smith on a culinary journey
C4 - 11.05: Derren Brown: Something Wicked this Way Comes. A live show where the gay illusionist messes up people’s heads in The Old Vic

Tuesday 17th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of My Life. Nigel Slater treats John Hurt
BBC2 - 9pm: The Supersizers Go. Sue Perkins tries to survive the Elizabethan era with Giles Coren

Wednesday 18th
BBC HD - 11pm: Torchwood
Sky Arts - 9pm: What the Dickens? Sandi Toksvig presents a cultural quiz.

Thursday 19th
UK TV Gold - 12 noon The Thin Blue Line
BBC2 - 9.45pm: The Graham Norton Show
C4 - 11pm: The Sunday Night Project. Alan Carr (rpt.)
Five - 10pm: Grey’s Anatomy

Friday 20th
BBC2 - 10pm: QI. Stephen Fry (rpt)

Last Word - Paul Patrick

This afternoon, Last Word, BBC Radio 4's weekly obituaries programme, will remember Paul with an interview of Sue Sanders (Paul's sister in arms) by Matthew Bannister.

Last Word
BBC Radio 4
Friday 16:00-16:30
Sunday 20:30-21:00 (rpt)
also available on Listen Again for a week.

A full obituary of Paul, complete with pictures and links to audio files and some of his writings, can be found here.

Norway Legalises Gay Marriage

This week, Norway became the sixth country in the world (after Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa and Canada) to grant gay people full marriage rights. The new law, which passed by 84 votes to 41, will make marriage gender neutral.

The law also also extends parenting rights for gay and lesbian couples. The new law will amend the definition of civil marriage in Norway to make it gender neutral.

Norway legalises gay marriage
Norway's gay marriage law also grants new parental rights

Brokeback Mountain, The Opera

The American composer Charles Wuorinen has been commissioned by the New York City Opera to compose an opera based on Annie Proulx’s renowned short story Brokeback Mountain. The story made into a popular and controversial award winning film by Taiwanese director Ang Lee in 2005, famously tracks the complex relationship of ranch hand Ennis del Mar and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist, over 20 years after the two young men meet and fall in love on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming in 1963.

Currently slated to premiere during City Opera’s 2013 spring season, this work will mark Wuorinen’s second world premiere at City Opera; his Haroun and the Sea of Stories, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s colorful novel, had its world premiere at New York City Opera on October 4, 2004.

Wuorinen said, “Ever since encountering Annie Proulx’s extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it, and it gives me great joy that Gerard Mortier and New York City Opera have given me the opportunity to do so.”

Wuorinen, who celebrated his 70th birthday this week, is a native New Yorker, who has been a major presence on the American contemporary music scene for more than four decades. His many honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and a Pulitzer Prize, for his electronic work Time's Encomium in 1970, when he became the youngest composer ever to receive this award.

Wuorinen's compositions encompass every form and medium, including works for orchestra, band, chamber ensemble, chorus, keyboard, percussion, and electronics, as well as ballets and operas. He has been described as a "maximalist," writing music luxuriant with events, lyrical and expressive, strikingly dramatic. His works are characterized by powerful harmonies and elegant craftsmanship, offering at once a link to the music of the past and a vision of a rich musical future.

Brokeback Mountain on Wikipedia
New York City Opera

LGBT London Network

A new web-based network has been set up to bring together LGBT voluntary and community groups around London.

Earlier this year the "Linking London" project, bringing together the LGBT Forums in the various London Boroughs, was wound up as the funding had ceased. At the final Linking London meeting, facilitated by Ben Gooch, it was agreed to look into ways of continuing to link the forums together, by means of a web presence.

The LGBT London Directory gives details of non-commercial LGBT organisations throughout London. The LGBT London network also offers a calendar of forthcoming events and a forum to which members can contribute freely. Members can also create personal blogs.

The Network is open to anyone to look at but only members can post material to it. Anyone can join, subject to confirmation by an administrator. Members can be individuals or organisations. Additionally there is the possibility of creating one or more private special-interest subgroups.

lgbtlondon.ning.com

Fédéric Mitterand Named Director of the Villa Medici

Rome's newly elected right-wing mayor, former neo-fascist Gianni Alemanno, will probably not be best pleased by the French Président's nomination, last week, of an openly gay man at the head of the prestigious French Academy in Rome. "I respect homosexual people, I know a few and I am not saying this out of discrimination but I fear that Gay Pride is something else, an act of sexual exhibition, and I am opposed to all form of exhibition, homosexual or heterosexual," said Alemanno, adding that the city would make sure the event did not offend anybody.

Frédéric Mitterand, 60, nephew of former French Président François Mitterand, a former History, Geography and Economics teacher and a well known author, director and broadcaster in France, has been chosen by Nicolas Sarkozy from a shortlist of three candidates to become the latest name in a prestigious list of artistes going back to 1666 when the Academy was founded by Louis XIV.

Mitterand is perhaps most famous for his series of television programmes where he explored the lives of iconic cinema stars with trade-mark lyrical sentences delivered in the languid and monotonous tones of his unmistakable acidic voice. He is a former broadcast director for TV5 and a presenter on the French gay TV channel Pink TV. He is a Chevalier de la Légion D'Honneur, one of the highest civil honours in France.

The Academy represented until the 19th century the culmination of their studies for select French artists who, having won the prestigious Prix de Rome (Rome Prize, which was discontinued in 1968), were honoured with a 3, 4 or 5-year scholarship (depending on the art discipline they specialised in) in the Eternal City for the purpose of studying its art and architecture.

The Academy was housed in the Palazzo Capranica until 1737, and then in the Palazzo Mancini until 1793. In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte moved it to the Villa Medici, its current home.

Since the 1970's, the boarders no longer belong solely to the traditional disciplines (painting, sculpture, architecture, medal-engraving, precious-stone engraving, musical composition) but also to new or previously neglected artistic fields (art history, archaeology, literature, stagecraft, photography, movies, video, restoration, writing and even cookery). The artists are no longer recruited by a competition but by application, and their stays vary from six to eighteen months and even, more rarely, one or two years. The Villa present exhibitions and shows created by its boarders.

LGBT Related Radio and TV Programmes, 7th – 13th June

We seek them out so you don't have to. This is our weekly non-exhaustive round up of upcoming LGBT programmes on the radio and television. Inclusion of a programme is not a recommendation.
Enjoy!

Some of the radio programmes listed below can be listened to again via the Listen Again facility of the BBC's website while some of the television programmes will remain available also for a week on the BBC's iplayer.

Radio
Saturday 7th
BBC Radio 4 - 10.30am: Sex, Telly and Britain. Miranda Sawyer and others question the truth of the 1960s sexual revolution (pt 2)
BBC Radio 4 - 12.30pm: News Quiz. Sandi Toksvig presents.
BBC Radio 4 - 11pm: Counterpoint. Music quiz with Paul Gambaccini
6 Music - 12noon: BBC introducing with Tom Robinson

Sunday 8th
BBC Radio 2 - 2.30pm: Pick of the Pops. 1968 and ‘77 charts with Dale Winton
BBC Radio 7 - 10pm: News Quiz presented by Sandi Toksvig (archive)

Monday 9th
6 Music - 1am: New Music with Tom Robinson
BBC Radio 4 - 1.30pm: Counterpoint. Music quiz presented by Paul Gambaccini

Tuesday 10th
BBC Radio 4 - 10.45am & 7.45pm: Paid Servant. Woman’s Hour drama. In 1958 London, E R Braithawaite struggles to care for a mixed race boy who has been involved in the sex trade

Thursday 12th
BBC Radio 4 - 10am: Woman's Hour - Lesbians in India
BBC Radio 4 - 11.30am: Bette in Britain. Susan George narrates a programme that examines Bette Davis’ feelings about the UK, focusing on her visits and statements.

Friday 13th
BBC Radio 4 - 6.30pm: The News Quiz. Sandi Toksvig presents. Su Perkins guests
6 Music - 7pm: New Music with Tom Robinson

Television

Films and drama
Saturday 7th
Film4 - 4.45pm: The Madness of King George. Nigel Hawthorne in adaptation of Alan Bennett work

Sunday 6th
Film4 - 12.40am: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Jodie Foster as a radical nun
Sky Movies Indie - 6.35pm: Transamerica

Friday 13th
Sky Movies Indie - 11.25am & 5.20pm: All about My Mother Almodóvar directs.

Entertainment and documentaries
Saturday 7th
BBC1 - 7pm: Dr Who. Part 2 of a two parter
BBC2 - 6.35pm: The Supersizers Go. Sue Perkins tries to survive the Victorian era with Giles Coren (rpt)
BBC3 - 7.45pm: Dr Who Confidential. With Russell T. Davies
Living - 10pm: Hotel Babylon

Sunday 8th
ITV - 10.45pm: The South Bank Show - Sarah Waters
BBC2 - 11pm: The Graham Norton Show (rpt)

Monday 9th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of my Life. Nigel Slater takes Jo Brand on a culinary journey
C4 - 9pm: The Victorian Sex Explorer. Rupert Everett follows the footsteps ofBritish Empire explorer and sex tourist Richard Burton on a pan-sexual adventure. Undoubtedly the best offer this week.
C4 - 11.05pm: Derren Brown: The System. Something to do with racing
UKTV Gold - 11pm: Gimme Gimme Gimme

Tuesday 10th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of My Life
BBC2 - 9pm: The Supersizers Go. Sue Perkins tries to survive the 1970s with Giles Coren
UKTV Gold - 11pm: Gimme Gimme Gimme

Wednesday 11th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of My Life
BBC HD - 11pm: Torchwood
UKTV Gold - 10.55pm: Gimme Gimme Gimme
Sky Arts - 9pm: What the Dickens? Sandi Toksvig presents a cultural quiz.

Thursday 12th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of My Life
BBC2 - 9.45pm: The Graham Norton Show
BBC4 - 9pm: Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley.
C4 - 11pm: Derren Brown: Trick or Treat? (rpt)
C5 - 10pm: Grey’s Anatomy
UKTV Gold - 7.40pm: The Thin Blue Line
UKTV Gold - 11pm: Gimme Gimme Gimme

Friday 13th
BBC2 - 6.30pm: A Taste of My Life
BBC2 - 10pm: QI. Stephen Fry (rpt)
UKTV Gold - 7.40pm: The Thin Blue Line
UKTV Gold - 11pm: Gimme Gimme Gimme

Paul Patrick's Obituary

The Guardian has now published an obituary of Paul by Carole Woddis.

Paul Patrick, who has died aged 57 from a lung condition, was passionate, voluble, big-hearted and an inspired and inspiring teacher. In the 1970s he became almost certainly the first openly gay teacher in Britain to not only keep his job, but to get promoted. In 1986 he produced, for the Inner London Education Authority (Ilea), the first video to go into schools highlighting homophobia, A Different Story: The Lives and Experiences of a Group of Young Lesbians and Gay Men. In the 1990s he was one of the first single gay men to become the foster parent of a young male heterosexual - recounting the experience on John Peel's Home Truths programme on Radio 4.

The full article can be found here.

Click here to leave your thoughts and condolencies on Paul's memorial page.

Third Transfabulous Festival

The third Transfabulous Festival will be taking place in London on 13, 14 and 15th June featuring performances and art by a varied group of trans artists, workshops and a picnic.

Find out more by clicking on the picture above.

Gay Singer Tells of 'Nightmare'

Singer Ian 'H' Watkins' has told of the "complete nightmare" of growing up gay in the south Wales valleys. The former Steps singer, who is from the Rhondda, filmed a personal account for BBC Wales' Week In Week Out. In the programme, he also looked at schools' treatment of gay issues and admitted he was bullied "relentlessly".

Read the full BBC News article here.

Ian Watkins on wikipedia

Yves Saint Laurent Dies

Yves Saint Laurent
1936 - 2008

Yves Saint Laurent was considered one the greatest fashion designers of the 20th century. He had retired in 2002 but was still involved in the foundation he had created with his former partner Pierre Bergé, a businessman and philanthropist gay rights activit. He died following a long illness.