Leonard Matlovich, a vietnam veteran and gay rights and AIDS activist died 22 years ago today. The epitaph he chose to mark his grave is still as fresh as today's headlines: 'When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one'.
To mark this anniversary, a video commemorating him has been uploaded to Youtube.
Song: Kisses for Christmas by Thomas Anders
Images: Kiss-in against homophobia (website in French), Paris, 12 December 2009
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island.
As shown in the National Geographic clip below, they recognise not two but five different genders, some of them endowed with magical powers. In addition to men and women, the bissu, calabai and calalai can also be found.
The growing petition (now nearing 30000 signatures) aimed at securing a posthumous apology for computing pioneer and code-breaker Alan Turing is gaining media coverage.
On Thursday, Newsnight dedicated a report by Susan Watts on the innitiative by Dr John Graham-Cumming. also traced relatives of Turing for interview.
You can read a blog post by Susan Watts about this and view the report on the BBC website here.
Extra material from the interviews is available here.
In the US, June has been named as Gay Pride Month by both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton and this year will mark 40 years since the Stonewall Riots that were such a landmark in the gay liberation movement and kick started the yearly return of evermore numerous Gay Pride events around the world.
To celebrate this anniversary and because "It's time to celebrate all the colours of the rainbow", artist Jon Gilbert Leavitt has reworked and extended a song he wrote for the 20th anniversary of the riots. The song comes with a video including a variety of iconic video footage and photographs to showcase LGBT life since the beginning of the 20th Century.
The updated song, entitled Pride 2009, is part of a CD by Leavitt, titled Pride at 40, The Music of a Movement. The Lyircs of the song can be found here (pdf file). More information about the album can be found here.
The video was conceived and written by Marc Shaiman, the Tony-winning composer of "Hairspray" and "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut." The cast includes Jack Black (who plays Jesus), Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Margaret Cho, Rashida Jones and others. Read what the Associated Press says about it here.
Something more serious and even more punchy:
About Proposition 8
No on Prop 8
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".
You will also be able to view these videos from the front page of our own website as of tomorrow, 1st October.
Early, this year, Channel 4 broadcast a mini season of programmes marking the 40th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality. This included the much talked about and rather controversial for its bleak oulook, Clapham Junction. (see our post here)
The legacy of this season is a microsite entitled 40 Years On and gathering details of the programmes and more general information.
The channel also screened a special debate programme. Hosted by journalist and commentator David Aaronovitch and bringing together a diverse panel, the programme looked at how it feels to be gay in modern Britain, how far attitudes have evolved since 1967, and how gay and bisexual men and women view themselves today. Channel 4 also held a non-televised debate, hosted by Rhona Cameron.
Clips of the televised debate can be viewed from the 40 Years On microsite.
40 Years On (www.channel4.com/gayseason)
Allan Horsfall is a veteran campaigner and a part of our collective history. In 1964 he co-founded the North-West Homosexual Law Reform Committee with Colin Harvey which later became the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).
Allan spoke at the pre-launch of LGBT History Month 2007 at the TUC headquarters in London on 20 November 2006. You can view his full intervention in two parts by clicking the arrow on the images below (click on the YouTube logo at the bottom right corner of the images to view the clips full size).
Speaking for about 15 min, Allan told the audience how, at the publication of the Wolfenden Report in 1957 (fifty years ago this year), he decided to start challenging the Labour Party's prejudices against doing anything about gay rights because Labour MPs at the time thought the working class (their supporters) were homophobic at heart. This was not his experience.
He also explained how he found that the (limited) decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 (forty years ago this year) sometimes actually made things worse for gay men with the police showing their displeasure at the new law by making more arrests than before it happen. Regardless, Allan Horsfall took the (for us) bold step to use his personal address to run the campaign. Surprisingly (again, from our perspective), there was no backlash from his local community, although his address was "outed" in the papers.
In his view, the current homophobia rampant in working class minds at the moment is all the doing of the press and particularly the tabloids.
Allan Horsfall has his own website: The Gay Monitor.
