London Metropolitan Archives: Flights of Fancy

The London Metropolitan Archives will be holding another of their LGBT study days early next month. The arts are powerful. Sometimes they are disturbing, dangerous and real instruments of change. They provide people with ways of making their presence felt, their thoughts known and voices heard. Be inspired and challenged by FLIGHTS OF FANCY, past and present.

Programme:
The First Gay Kiss? Sex, Scholars and Ancient Egypt.
Dr Richard Parkinson, British Museum
Richard Parkinson will discuss controversial images of men kissing from Ancient Egypt and how they have been used in studies of ancient sexuality. He’ll consider how Ancient Egypt has featured in gay works of art and how ancient same sex desire can be presented in Museum displays, drawing on the British Museum’s recently launched webtrail.

The Coming Out of Comics
Paul Gravett, author, curator, lecturer and director of the Comica Festival, London
LGBT comics creators have traditionally been published episodically, producing newspaper strips in the LGBT press, short pieces in pornographic magazines and in sporadic fanzines and underground anthologies. Graphic novels offer an exciting platform through bookshops and libraries for extended, complete strip narratives in book form. This select survey will consider the distinct qualities, techniques and contents of six key contemporary international graphic novelists who have developed long-form "literary" comics: Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby, USA), Ralf König (Maybe, Maybe Not, Germany), Ariel Schrag (Potential/Likewise, USA), Kiriko Nananan (Blue, Japan), Fabrice Neaud (Journal, France), and Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, USA).

National Gay Icons
Professor Richard Dyer, King’s College, London
Recently the National Portrait Gallery held a well mounted exhibition entitled 'Gay Icons', the first of its kind anywhere in the world. What did they have in mind? What is a gay icon? This presentation will look at a wide range of images of people who were and were not chosen for the show.

Richard Dyer teaches Film Studies at King's College London.
The Creation and Reception of ‘Victim’.
Brian Robinson Senior Programmer, London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
The BFI National Archive owns Dirk Bogarde's personal collection of scripts which includes a heavily annotated script of 'Victim'(1961)and the film is available at the BFI

Mediatheque alongside some key BBC documentaries of the period. This presentation explores the context of the campaign for law reform, other Basil Dearden social

issue films, the impact of 'Victim' and its marketing campaign.
Gay Sweatshop, Section 28 and Community
Dr Catherine Silverstone - Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies Queen Mary, University of London
From the mid-1970s to the late-1990s Gay Sweatshop produced a substantial body of work including plays, readings, workshops, pantomimes, cabarets, and performance clubs. In this paper Catherine will consider elements of Gay Sweatshop’s archive of their 1988 production This Island’s Mine, held at Royal Holloway, University of London, in relation to Section 28, homophobia and community.

sh[OUT] or should that be sh[OOSH]
Dianne Barry - documentary filmmaker, artist and curator
Before it was even launched, the Daily Mail released a ‘tirade of homophobic rhetoric’ against GoMA’s exhibition on contemporary art and LGBTi human rights, sh[OUT]. The paper’s concerted opposition to the exhibition and community arts projects intensified over the summer months. Rather than defend freedom of expression Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art chose to censor artists’ work. In this session filmmaker and artist, Dianne Barry, describes how GoMA’s response enraged and alienated the artists and communities it had aimed to represent, provoking a storm of creative protest.

Plus practical workshops and discussion groups.

This year we are joined by Poet and Musician Nick Field who will perform a selection from his repertoire
Nick is a produced playwright, harpist and spoken word artist. His poetry is soulful, bittersweet and lyrical, exploring themes as diverse as identity and the joys and heartaches of travel. Nick has performed his work widely, highlights this year included the vaults at Shunt the Green Man Festival and a commission from Apples and Snakes to write and perform a one-man show.

Flights of Fancy
Saturday 5 December 2009 9.30am - 4.30pm £10 / £7.50
London Metropolitan Archives, 40, Northampton Road, EC1R 0HB
Booking / Further Information: Call on 020 7332 3851 email ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Making a Gay Scene at the V&A

The V&A Museum late opening event on 27 November will have something a little queer about it.

That week, Making a Scene will tap the surface of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans & Queer culture to celebrate making visible what for so long has been hidden. From clandestine liaisons to the joy of serendipity, the art of cruising to radical activism, Making a Scene explores the relationship between sexuality, performance and public space.

All this and more, through a selection of talks events, workshops and happenings and performances. All events are free and unbooked, unless stipulated otherwise.

Find a full list of the events on the V&A's site here.

History of Gay Surrey Enters Surrey History Centre

The charity Gay Surrey have deposited their archives with Surrey History Centre in Woking.

Gay Surrey started out as a group of friends in 2005. It has now developed into a charity providing help, support and information in and around the Surrey area. Building on the huge success of the recent local IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia) awareness campaign, plans are afoot for the first ever Surrey LGBT History month in February 2010. Volunteers will be researching the archives to uncover aspects of Surrey's gay past and highlight both the life of the gay community in the county and the work of Gay Surrey. Research has already revealed a scandal in the Onslow family in the 18th century and the memoirs of Harry Daley, the lover of E.M Forster, author of A Room with a View and Maurice and a resident of Abinger Hammer.

The Surrey History Centre holds 5 million archives dating back to the C12th and the charity's records are the first of their kind to be deposited in its collection, as Di Stiff, Collections Development Archivist, explains, "As the official custodians of Surrey's history we feel it is important to preserve all areas of the county's written heritage and the records of Gay Surrey are a vital part of this. We want our archive collections to develop in a way that reflects Surrey’s diversity and encourage the public to explore wider aspects of the county’s rich heritage."

The centre welcomes further material relating to the Gay community in Surrey and letters, diaries, poems, stories, personal experiences or film are all ways in which the collections here can be developed to celebrate Surrey's Gay history.

For more information, visit www.gaysurrey.org or www.surreycc.gov.uk/surreyhistorycentre. For information on volunteering to help with LGBT research please contact Di Stiff on 01483 518737 or email: di.stiff@surreycc.gov.uk

Anthony Blunt's Memoir Goes Public

25 years after the death of the former Cambridge professor and renowned art historian who was unmasked publicly as a spy by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the British Library unveiled yesterday a 30,000-word manuscript that amounts to a short account of his life, from birth through to the moment of his unmasking.

Following his death in 1983, the memoir was anonymously donated to the British Library on condition that it not be made available for 25 years, a restriction that has now expired. However, the manuscript can only be seen by registered Readers through the Manuscripts Reading Room, one person at the time. Furthermore the copyright status of the document is unknown which means that it cannot be reproduced.

Find out more:
- Blunt reveals a spy's life from beyond the grave, Reuters
- Anthony Blunt memoir reveals spy's regret at 'the biggest mistake of my life', the Guardian
- Blunt’s memoir is a sorry tale of regret, but not remorse, Timesonline
- Anthony Blunt memoir becomes available in British Library Reading Rooms - Press release, British Library

Gay Icons at the National Portrait Gallery

Will Young and Nelson Mandela will stand side by side in a new exhibition of 'gay icons'. The singer and the former South African president are among 60 figures chosen for the National Portrait Gallery's show.

Gay Icons explores gay social and cultural history through the unique personal insights of ten high–profile gay figures, who have selected their historical and modern icons. The chosen icons, who may or may not be gay themselves, have all been important to each selector, having influenced or inspired them.

The 10 curators are: Labour peers Waheed Alli and Chris Smith; the chief executive of gay campaign group Stonewall, Ben Summerskill; comedian and presenter Sandi Toksvig; actor Sir Ian McKellen; musician Sir Elton John; tennis champion Billie Jean King; and writers Alan Hollinghurst, Jackie Kay and Sarah Waters. Each chose six icons.

Their only constraint was that choices had to be photographic portraits. This creates a timeframe of about 150 years - the period in which homosexuality gradually became accepted and made legitimate, the gallery said.

One of Lord Smith's choices was Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science whose career ended when he was "outed" and criminally prosecuted at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. And Sir Ian chose Harvey Milk, the first openly gay, elected politician in California whose life has just been depicted on film in an Oscar-winning performance by Sean Penn.

The choices provide a fascinating range of inspiring figures – some very famous, some heroic, others relatively unknown. Spanning the worlds of entertainment, art, music, literature, sport and politics they include artists Francis Bacon and David Hockney, civil rights campaigner Harvey Milk, writers Quentin Crisp, Joe Orton, Daphne Du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith and Walt Whitman, composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, musicians k.d. lang, Will Young and Village People, entertainers Ellen DeGeneres, Kenneth Williams and Lily Savage, and Nelson Mandela and Diana, Princess of Wales.

A fully illustrated book accompanies the exhibition, featuring over seventy striking photographs, an introduction by Sandi Toksvig and an essay by Richard Dyer.

Gay Icons
Opening Times: 2 July to 18 October 2009. Open daily 10:00-18:00. Thursday-Friday until 21:00.
National Portrait Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London WC2H 0HE
Tickets: £5/£4.50/£4, free for Gallery Supporters
webpage

LGBTQ histories at the V&A

As part of a new programme the V&A is seeking to unearth previously hidden LGBTQ histories in its collections, researching the objects and their histories that surround them. Equally, these investigations look at the ways in which visitors themselves understand and make sense of these objects on the basis of their own identities and lived experience.

Oliver Winchester, Research Assistant - Postmodernism: Design 1970-90, said: "This is an exciting and complex task that is fraught with political, moral and personal challenges. Perhaps the most complex question stems from the inherent contradiction that lies at the centre of the gay liberation movement and its legacy – the desire to eradicate discrimination whilst enshrining difference. Any investigation into this area is charged and throws up many questions and provides only partial answers. We look forward to progressing through future projects and events."

For more details please see www.vam.ac.uk or email Oliver at o.winchester@vam.ac.uk

Forthcoming events

Write Queer London
17 November 2008
11.00-13.00
What does your queer London look like? And how does it compare with the queer London of yesteryear? Write Queer London is looking for stories, non-fiction, and poems about queer London, past, present and future. Competition entrants are invited to get their creative juices flowing with a warm up workshop focusing on LGBTQ objects in the V&A collections.
For more information and to enter the competition see www.untoldlondon.org.uk

World AIDS Day
1 December 2008
Seminar Room 3
13.00-14.00
The 20th World AIDS Day takes place this year. To mark the occasion the V&A will host a lunchtime talk investigating the cultural impact of the virus. Join curators as they discuss the significance and meanings behind the AIDS quilt as a collective expression of grief and discuss examples of graphic design prompted by political and educational fallout of AIDS.
Free event, no ticket required

2009 events to be announced shortly

Image: Clementina and Isabella Grace, 5 Princes Gardens
by Viscountess Clementina Hawarden
ca.1863-64. Albumen print.
PH.356-1947
© V&A

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life

A new exhibitions opened yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery until 1 February 2009. Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005 includes over 150 photographs by the celebrated lesbian photographer, encompassing well-known work made on editorial assignment as well as personal photographs of her family and close friends. "I don't have two lives," Leibovitz says. "This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it."

Find out more here.

Hadrian's life uncovered in new British Museum exhibition

Think of Roman Emperor Hadrian and the first thing that springs to mind is the wall that bears his name, separating England from the revolting Picts. However, there were many sides to Hadrian, as a new exhibition about his life reveals. As well as being a great leader who strengthened the empire through consolidation and crushed dissent ruthlessly, Hadrian was also a cultured man and the first openly gay emperor.


Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, opened at the British Museum today. It offers a new perspective on the personal life and career of a man of many contradictions.

Hadrian, full name Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus, was born in AD 76 to a family of Spanish descent.His father died when he was a young boy, and he was taken under the wing of the Emperor Trajan, who groomed him for succession. Hadrian excelled as a military leader and was married to Trajan’s great-niece, further cementing his future succession. He eventually became emperor on Trajan’s death in 117 AD.

However, the marriage was one of convenience rather than love; neither Hadrian nor his wife was happy. Instead, Hadrian consoled himself with a string of lovers, including a young Greek boy named Antinous. Homosexual relationships were nothing new during the Roman Empire, however, the extent to which Hadrian expressed his devotion for Antinous was unusual.

The young man became a consort of the emperor, accompanying him on his many travels. It was during one such trip to Egypt that Antinous drowned in the Nile in 130 AD. Devastated by this loss, Hadrian founded an entire city, Antinoupolis, in memory of his lover, near the spot where he had died. The emperor’s grief was such that he had Antinous deified as a god and many statues, busts and silverware featuring Antinous’ image were made. Some are included in the exhibition.

However, this soft, romantic side to Hadrian contrasted dramatically with his role as a military leader. He was often ferocious in his suppression of dissent, particularly during a Jewish revolt in Jerusalem in 132 AD.

Hadrian was well known as a great traveller. It is said he travelled more widely, and met many more of his subjects than any other emperor. He also showed a great interest in architecture, and oversaw the construction of many iconic buildings, including the Pantheon in Rome and the Villa Adriana in Tivoli, a magnificent celebration of Greek and Egyptian art and culture.

Hadrian died in 138 AD, aged 62 and is regarded as one of the "Five Good Emperors." Thorsten Opper, the curator of the exhibition, hailed Hadrian as an "extremely successful emperor who left an immense and enduring legacy."

Certainly, Hadrian was a man of many faces – military champion, political strategist, ruthless leader, man of the people, lover of culture, grief-stricken lover – and gay icon. History should remember him as a complex man with many passions.

Hadrian: Empire and Conflict opens at the British Museum in London on 24th July until 26th October.

More details are available here.

With thanks to PinkNews.co.uk

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

Memorial to Gay Victims of Nazis Unveiled in Berlin

As announced in the post on the new Magnus Hirshfeld street earlier this month, the first openly gay Mayor of Berlin opened on Tuesday a new memorial in the city to the homosexual victims of Nazi oppression. Klaus Wowerit was joined by representatives of the International Gay and Lesbian Association (ILGA) and the federal minister for culture and media.

Although there are several memorials to the gay victims of the Holocaust, "the Berlin memorial has an important symbolic value" ILGA-Europe said in a statement. "It is in the centre of the city from where decades ago the policies of extermination of homosexual people along with such groups as Jews, gypsies, Jehovahs witnesses and political dissidents, was conceived and the deadly orders were given."

It is estimated that 45,000 to 100,000 German homosexuals were arrested under Nazi rule between 1933 and 1945. Up to 10,000 of them died in concentration camps. Many survivors, far from being liberated, were transferred to prisons. The laws used against gay people in Germany remained on statute books until 1969. It was only in 2002 that the German parliament issued a formal pardon for any gay people convicted by the Nazis and in 2003 it approved the construction of the memorial.
The homosexual victims of Nazi Germany remained excluded from the public process of remembrance of past injustices until recent times and were denied compensation for their suffering under Nazi rule.

"This is symptomatic for a society that did not abolish unjust verdicts, but partially continued to implement them; a society which did not acknowledge a group of people as victims, only because they chose another way of life," said Mayor Wowerit.

The new memorial is situated in Berlin's Tiergarten Park, close to the Brandenburg Gate and opposite the Jewish Holocaust Memorial. It consists of a four metre tall grey rectangular block. One side has a small opening through which viewers can see a black and white art film scene of two men kissing. A simple kiss could land you in trouble, reads the inscription.

During the opening ceremony, Linda Freimane, a member of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board, said: "Today, our continent is a safe place to live if you are homosexual – safe in comparison with many other places on our earth, where homosexuality is still considered a punishable crime. Europe has come a long way in its battle for the right of each individual and in dealing with its history of discrimination. Today, in many European countries, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people along with other vulnerable groups enjoy the protection of their state against prejudice, discrimination and violence. In many places in Europe same-sex partners can register their partnership or get married, in some countries the state also supports our wish to become equal parents. We have not yet reached full equality, but we sense the political will to get there. But this is not enough. You must now also be the ones who do not stay silent when other countries, which have already entered the EU or are knocking on its door, violate the rights of their own citizens. Please remind homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, racist and sexist political leaders that they too belong to a Europe, which is built on the assumption of each individual’s right to freedom, dignity, and respect and to seek his or her own happiness. And please, do not forget all those LGBTI people around the world who live in fear and despair, who face persecution, humiliation, imprisonment and death for simply being who they are. I hope that the present and future mayors of Berlin and members of German governments will remember to bring their foreign guests to this memorial when they show them the beautiful city of Berlin."

With thanks to Pinknews

Proud Heritage Online Museum Launched

After three years of careful research and development, Proud Heritage, the national museum for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history and cultural ancestry, opened its doors online officially on 18 April. There was a special preview event for the public on the 14th which featured a biographic interview with Peter Tatchell.

During the event, organised in partnership with the Natural History Museum, Proud Heritage set out its future plans and unveiled its first public phase - a cutting edge online museum that breaks new ground, and not just for being queer!

Jack Gilbert, Executive Director commented,"Proud Heritage has already established itself as an expert agency in the heritage sector, now it is ready to go live. And now it needs public support. Find out how to give memory or memorabilia, how to
volunteer and how to become a Friend! Be Proud!"

Peter Tatchell said:"I regard it as a visionary project of critical importance for the integration of queer history and heritage into British cultural life."

The online museum is organised very simply into four "wings", each containing sections or galleries to explore. Members of the public are invited to give time and money to the project but perhaps more importantly, they can also give memories and materials to be included to the museum itself.

Proud Heritage

Imperial War Museum appeals for LGBT experiences

Only a few days after organising its first ever event for LGBT History Month, the Imperial War Museum has announced a new photographic display titled "Military Pride".

The exhibition, (which will run from 12 July - 12 October 2008 at the Manchester branch of the Museum) will be a small but powerful display which reveals via portrait photography and personal testimony the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people within the context of conflict, war and military service. Military Pride will also detail historical context and a timeline of post 1945 legislature and policies within the Armed Forces and is timed to connect with the Manchester Pride Festival.

Organisers would love to hear from those who would like to share their experiences with the possibility that your story may be part of the final display of around 10 personal testimonies which reflect how war and conflict have shaped people in the LGBT communities' lives from 1945 to the present day. As well as reflecting adversity the display will aim to celebrate the achievements and reflect the positive contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities to the Armed Forces and examine how experiences may have changed since 1945.

Catherine Roberts, Visitor Programmes Manager, Imperial War Museum North says:
"The experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, within the context of conflict, war and military service, is arguably still a largely hidden history. With your help hopefully we can make a step towards helping to reveal and celebrate it. We look forward to hearing from people as soon as possible - we are hoping to finalise content by the end of March."

To find out how you can get involved or for more information please contact Catherine Roberts (0161 836 4062 croberts@iwm.org.uk) or James McSharry (0161 836 4099 jmcsharry@iwm.org.uk) at Imperial War Museum North.

Imperial War Museum North has a 3-year history of delivering tours and events relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender experience in war and conflict from the First World War to the present day, reflecting the Museum's focus on how war has shaped and continues to shape peoples lives.

Imperial War Museum North
Open 7 days a week from 10am - 6pm (Nov to Feb 10am - 5pm) with free admission
The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1TZ
(close to Harbour City Metrolink and Junction 9 of the M60)
www.iwm.org.uk

Rare Portrait of Playwright Saved

In November last year, we mentioned on this blog that the National Portrait Gallery was launching a public appeal for the purchase of a portrait of Elizabethan playwright John Fletcher. The appeal to raise £218,000 has been successful and the Gallery will now be able to add the painting to its collections.

Rare portrait of playwright saved - BBC News

John Fletcher on Wikipedia.

Love, Sex and Metaphor: A Queer Gaze

What makes a picture queer? What happens to a painting when confronted with the private (queer) imagination? Sadie Lee, artist, and Shaun Levin, writer and editor of Chroma Journal, explore the portraits they fancy and the paintings that inspire them.

For the second time this year, artist Sadie Lee and writer Shaun Levin reveal the queer histories behind the Gallery's portraits on this guided tour.

Love, Sex and Metaphor: A Queer Gaze
Thursday 1 November 2007, 19:00
National Portrait Gallery, London

This very popular event is free, but tickets are required on the night on a first come, first served basis. To book ticketed events call 020 7306 0055.

www.npg.org.uk/live/november.asp

The National Portrait Gallery Goes Queer

Thursday 2 August 2007, 19:00
Love, Sex and Metaphor: A Queer Gaze

What makes a picture queer? What happens to a painting when confronted with the private (queer) imagination? Sadie Lee, artist, and Shaun Levin, writer, explore the portraits they fancy and the paintings that inspire them.



Sunday 19 August 2007, 11:30 - 16:00
National Portrait Gallery Walks
Coming Out of the Picture - Gay and Lesbian Soho

A one-day event, the first of a series, which makes the connection between lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans-gendered (LGBT) people, portraits from the National Portrait Gallery and the built environment. Enter into the world of some of the LGBT characters that have lived, worked and played in Soho, through the paintings. Then walk along the streets that have witnessed fascinating LGBT trials and triumphs over the centuries. In association with Kairos in Soho

Tickets: £15/£10 concessions (lunch not included)



http://www.npg.org.uk/live/august.asp

Lecture: Daphne du Maurier

To mark the centenary of her birth, the National Portriat Gallery is hold a lecture examining the life of Daphne du Maurier, author of many bestselling novels including The Breaking Point(1959) and The Birds, which was later adapted to become a successful Alfred Hitchcock film in 1963.

Sunday 8 July, 15.00
National Portrait Gallery
Ondaatje Wing Theatre
Speaker: Sylvia Paskin
Admission free

Statue of Gay War Hero Unveiled

A statue of Alan Turing, was unveiled on Tuesday 19 at Bletchley Park. Turing was the inspirational mathematician at the heart of Bletchley Park's codebreaking successes during World War II. Historians agree that the work of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park effectively helped to shorten the war by two years.

Alan Turing arrived at Bletchley Park, the site of secret British codebreaking activities during WWII and birthplace of the modern computer, in September 1939 and was soon pursuing his idea of building a machine that would break the Enigma key. He became head of the small Naval Enigma team in Hut 8 and contributed greatly to the breaking of the German Naval Enigma. By August 1940, Turing, together with his friend and colleague, Gordon Welchman, had brought the idea of an Enigma codebreaking machine to fruition with the construction of the Turing-Welchman Bombe, which speeded up the process of breaking into the daily Enigma keys.

In 1952, Turing was convicted of having a sexual relationship with another man, to which he made no defence other than to say he saw nothing wrong in his actions. Turing was sentenced to a treatment that amounted to chemical castration. The conviction robbed him of his security clearance for GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters, a British intelligence agency), for which he still worked, and made him the target for surveillance at the start of the cold war. He committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide in 1954. The symbol of the half-eaten apple lives on to this day with the logo of the Apple MacIntosh computer.

Although Alan Turing received the OBE for his wartime achievements, he died having received no public recognition of the colossal contribution he made to the outcome of the war and the computer age that was to follow.

Before he died in January 2006, the late Sidney E Frank, an American billionaire, commissioned the internationally renowned sculptor Stephen Kettle to create a statue in memory of Alan Turing. Kettle's pioneering work led to the world's first stacked slate statue, which is permanently housed in the Science Museum in London.

The one and a half ton, life-size statue of Alan Turing is made from approximately half a million individual pieces of five hundred million year old Welsh slate.

Simon Greenish, Director of Bletchley Park Trust, heralded the statue as a fitting and timely tribute to Turing. He continued, "Alan Turing is universally recognised as the founding father of the modern computer and one of the pre-eminent unsung intellectual warriors of the twentieth century. "With the help of the Sidney E Frank Foundation and the brilliance of sculptor, Stephen Kettle, Bletchley Park is now home to an exquisite and magnificent memorial to the genius of Turing."

Bletchley Park
Milton Keynes MK3 6EB
www.bletchleypark.org.uk

Out Ranks

The GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Fransisco are launching this month the first exhibit in the US to explore the experiences of GLBT veterans. The one-year exhibition opens in June as Congress begins planning hearings on the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” military policy in the fall. “Out Ranks” is a premier exhibit of the GLBT Historical Society, one of the world’s largest institutions for of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender historical materials.

“Out Ranks” tracks changes in military policy and conveys the stories of GLBT veterans and peace activists from WWII to Iraq . Almost 70 years of history is told through hundreds of letters, photographs, medals, uniforms, and video footage.

The “Out Ranks” exhibit follows two related timelines, running from 1941 to the present. One timeline tracks American military conflicts from WWII to Iraq , focusing on the roles of GLBT personnel. The other timeline charts the evolution of the ban on openly gay service personnel. The two timelines meet in the center of the exhibit in the present time as GLBT service personnel fight their rights even as they defend our country in both the military and peace movements.

"When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."
Epitaph chosen by US Air Force Vietnam veteran Leonard Matlovich to mark his own grave.

Visitors to the exhibit are encouraged to walk between the timelines to explore when policies on gays in the military change and why, when and why discharges of GLBT servicemembers rise and fall, how social and political issues (such as AIDS, marriage, homophobia, and privacy) affect the military debate and how military service has affected the gay rights movement over time.

Exhibit highlights pulled from the GLBT Historical Society’s world-renowned archives include Leonard Matlovich’s footlocker from his tour in Vietnam, Matlovich was a Vietnam vet who fought the US military in 1975 for the right to serve as an openly gay man; the Air Medal citation, letter from President Truman, and photo of Robert Ricks, a WWII B-24 bomber navigator whose plane was shot down in August 1943 and who spent the rest of the war behind German lines, including three months in Dachau; the Bronze Star Citation and photo of Robert Fleisher who helped liberate Dachau; and a photo of military police guarding the entrance of the Black Cat, a popular gay bar in San Francisco during WWII, in an attempt to keep military personnel out.

An estimated 650,000 gays served in the Armed Forces during WWII, despite the official ban on gay military service. “We were not about to be deprived the privilege of serving our country in a time of great national emergency by virtue of some stupid regulation about being gay,” said Charles Rowland, one of the gay draftees featured in the exhibit.

World War II offered an unprecedented opportunity for women to serve non-combat roles in the military, where thousands of lesbians found sisterhood. Pat Bond, who found herself coming out in the 1940’s joined the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) on her first day recalled her first day, “I came with my suitcase, staggering down the mess hall and I heard a voice from one of the barracks say, ‘Good God, Elizabeth, look! Here comes another one!’” Another WAC servicemember, Helen Harder, dreamed of flying and signed up with her girlfriend.

See also:
* Exhibition website
* Exhibit examines gay veteran history, gay.com
* Gay military service out for all to see, SFGate.com
* GLBT Historical Society Museum