Curtain Rises on Gielgud's Gay Scandal

The scandal that almost ended the career of Sir John Gielgud is to be brought to the London stage this month in a new play about the actor. Critic's play shows how the famous actor's arrest was part of the 1950s homosexual witch-hunts.

Read the Observer's full article here.

Met Police host History Month conference

From PinkNews.

February is Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) History Month, and among the hundreds of events across the country, the Metropolitan Police Service hosted a one day conference at New Scotland Yard on Monday. Met staff and officers joined others from the Crown Prosecution Service, youth workers and local LGBT forums to discuss compound discrimination, homophobic bullying and hate crime research. Speakers from Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, and the Met's Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate were among those who gave presentations at the event, which was hosted by comedienne Zoe Lyons.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Alfred Hitchcock said: "The Met is committed to delivering a quality service to all Londoners and all communities, and developing a service that reflects those communities. This conference is an opportunity to enhance our awareness and understanding of the needs of our LGBT colleagues and London’s wider LGBT community. We have made significant progress in creating a better workplace for LGBT colleagues, but there is still more to be done. Similarly, we are working with our partners to tackle all forms of hate crime, and to ensure the public can feel confident in coming to us to report these crimes."

The Met will be holding two internal film screenings in February at New Scotland Yard to celebrate LGBT History Month. A number of events including MPS LGBT community forums will also be taking place across London.

The 'Normal' Test Is Not On The Syllabus

FEBRUARY is lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history month. It has been celebrated in the UK since 1997 [2005 actually - NOTP] and is based on the premise that, in order to understand the present and the future, the past must first be understood.

In many ways, the month is a celebration of the progression of gay rights over the past 30 years, from the eventual legalisation of sex between two adult men in Scotland in 1980, to the repeal of Section 28 in 2000 in Scotland (2003 in the rest of the UK). In theory, British society is approaching a stage where everyone is treated equally, regardless of their sexual orientation.

However, the harsh reality is that prejudice is a day-to-day fact of life for many LGBT people: particularly young people. The challenge for education establishments is to support those students who may be struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, or who may be victimised because of it. There is also the arguably greater challenge of educating the rest of the student body in order to tackle ignorance and prejudice.

Read the full article in the Scotsman here.

BBC MemoryShare - The Days of Our Lives

BBC Memoryshare is a web service that aims at piecing together an intriguing People's History of Britain.

You can post a memory or observation relating to any day from the 1st January 1900 to the present day. You can also comment on other people's memories.

You can share any lasting memories from opening your first pay packet, to the birth of your child or your first trip to a festival.

Whether you want to write 25 words or 500, make your mark with Memoryshare; make sure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans voices are heard in this excellent vox pop project.

For LGBT History Month, why not register some of your own memories and contribute to make the community visible. To do so, simply click here.

First published in a slightly different version on 25/08/2007

Francis Bacon Painting Sold for Over £26m.

Triptych 1974-77 was sold today at Christie's as it appeared at auction for the first time for £26,340,500. The paintings are the last in the series that Bacon painted in response to the suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971 and only just failed to set a new record for an Irish or British work .

Find out more and view a picture of the paintings here.

Francis Bacon on Wikipedia

David and Jonathan, Jesus and John

One of the country's most senior bishops has argued that the Bible sanctions same-sex relationships, using the bonds between Jesus and John the disciple, and David and Jonathan as examples.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, a conservative evangelical, expressed the views in a book, A Fallible Church, in which he apologised for objecting to the appointment of the gay cleric Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading. He was one of nine bishops to sign a public letter criticising the proposed consecration.

Read the article Bishop of Liverpool apologises for opposing gay cleric - The Guardian - 5 february 2008

About the possible homosexuality of Jesus, see Was/is Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) gay? and also the chapter entitled "Gentle Jesus" in Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century by Graham Robb (the New York Times review of the book can be found here).

Most consciously homosexual depictions of a "Greek" Jesus date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The novelist Jean Lorrain imagined him in 1893 as a hermaphroditic Cupid, a beardless, heavy-lidded Adonis with 'a kind of ambiguous charm'. The American Catholic "R.S.", quoted in Havelock Ellis's "Studies in the Psychology of Sex", thought that Jesus should look like 'some Praxitelean demigod or Flandrin's naked, brooding boy'. He might have appreciated the soft-porn painting "L'Ecole de Platon" by Jean Delville (1897). Swathed in a pinkish robe and flanked by twelve nude disciples with body-builder muscles, 'Plato' is evidently supposed to be Jesus Christ. (p. 245, hb ed.)

The chapter also contains extracts from The Secret Gospel of Mark such as this one:

And going immediately where the young man was, [Jesus] stretched out his hand and raised him up, taking him by the hand. The young man looked on him and loved him, and loved him, and began to beseech him that he might be with him. They came out of the tomb and went into the young man's house for he was rich. After six days Jesus laid charge upon him. and when evening came the young man comes to him with a lined robe thrown over his naked body; and he stayed with him that night, for Jesus was teaching him the mystery of the kingdom of God.

Spotlight: Outside Edge

Each year, there is a growing number of events being organised for LGBT History Month around the UK. During the month we will run a series of spotlight posts on this blog highlighting some of those events and perhaps bringing them to your attention. You can view a list of events (or register and promote your own) by visiting our calendar. Feel free to also join the debate and make new friends on our forum.

A small exhibition Outside Edge opens at Museum in Docklands on 7 February 2008 and is a journey through black British lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history of the last 30 years. The black LGBT community has been vibrantly active for a long time but has not always been well represented culturally. This display, which opens during LGBT History Month, seeks to redress the balance and acknowledge the presence of the black LGBT community.

A study day is being held in conjunction with the display on Saturday 23 February and will explore London’s black LGBT history through talks, discussion and debate with Ajamu from rukus! Lynette Goddard, Historian and Steven G Fullwood, project director of Black, Gay and Lesbian Archive, New York.

Museum in Docklands has worked closely with Ajamu, an internationally acclaimed photographer and co-founder of rukus! Federation and the rukus! black LGBT archive, to create a display which publicly commemorates the people and events that have shaped the lives of black LGBT. From the colourful, pop filled 80s with an emerging marginalised group in search of a voice to the post-millenial noughties where the activism had begun to pay off and there were openly gay black artists such as David McAlmont, Labi Siffre and Skin from Skunk Anansie, establishing themselves in the arenas of music, fashion and theatre.

This display runs until 4 April 2008.

Making a rukus! about Black gay culture at Museum in Docklands on untoldlondon: the history of London's diverse communities.

Outside Edge
www.museumindocklands.org.uk

BBC Asks LGBT History Month for Volunteers for Big Restaurant Show

The BBC is in the process of recruiting contributors for the next series of The Restaurant and wants to include the LGBT community.

The series had huge success last year on BBC TWO. Featuring Raymond Blanc and nine couples who battled it out over eight weeks, the show is coming back for a second series.

Raymond Blanc will once again be giving couples the opportunity to try their luck as restaurateurs and seeing if they can rise to the challenges he throws at them. The stakes are high as the successful couple will go into business with Raymond and, as last years winners are finding out, this is an opportunity money just can't buy. After a nail biting final challenge in France in which Jeremy and Jane Hooper emerged the victors, they opened their Oxfordshire restaurant "Eight at The Thatch" in November 2007 and are currently booked up 4 months in advance.

The BBC wants to hear from any couples who think they too could run a restaurant. Married, friends, siblings, relatives, partners, colleagues – anyone over the age of 18 can apply. Experience of a restaurant or catering environment isn't necessary but whether you're a chef or a cleaner, a waiter or writer, Raymond only wants to hear from people who are passionate about food and the dining experience.

Press Release -
How to apply

Gay Birmingham Remembered

History Month is a fitting time to unveil the many gems uncovered by the Heritage Lottery Funded Gay Birmingham Remembered project. Aiming to record the city’s rich LGB social cultural and political heritage, the project team has collected reminiscences and information from nearly 80 interviewees spanning seven decades, plus boxes of magazines, flyers, photographs, badges and other artefacts. These are currently being sorted and entered onto our website www.gaybirminghamremembered.org.uk , which will be publicly accessible from late February.

The material will then be showcased in a new Gay Birmingham Remembered Exhibition on display in Symphony Hall throughout May. To bring it up to date, the exhibition will incorporate ‘A Portrait of Gay Birmingham 2008’, with a professional photographer capturing the diversity of the city’s gay community in various locations during LGBT History Month.

Meanwhile, Birmingham Libraries’ Proud History display, from 2006, returns to Central Library at the top of the escalator, all February.

To launch the site and provide a taster, the team are holding a free “Gay Birmingham Remembered launch event” at the Library Theatre, Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ on Thursday 21st February at 7:00 p.m. with refreshments. Some contributors will be recounting anecdotes and experiences. Audience members will be invited to share their own memories and tales. Please bring old pictures or memorabilia to donate or loan!

During the evening the following themes will be explored:

• The changing ways we meet, influenced by technology from Gestetners to Gaydar: “After a strange encounter on New Street I was invited back…. I was more interested in the colour TV, it’s the first time I’d seen one, than the lad I went back with” - Alan, 1973
• The rise and demise of Birmingham’s two Gay Centres: “a deputation of fundamentalist Christian churches went to see the Council and got a pledge off the Leader that no gay organisation would get any funding except over his dead body”- Lyn, 1987
• The changing fashions from dungarees to diamante: “I was wearing Vivienne Westwood rocking horse shoes with 4 inch platforms and a pink furry phallus safety-pinned to black leatherette trousers with white overlocking which I’d run up.” Richard, 1992
• The impact of HIV/AIDS: “The police in Wombourne ….brought a man to trial in Wolverhampton who was HIV+ and wore space suits to bring him into court - Lyn, 1987
• Why the 1978 National Women’s Liberation Conference, held in Birmingham, was the last! “There were thousands of women in the plenary getting hysterical. The Bradford dykes were on one side saying ‘give us that microphone you middle class wanker’ and these working class lesbians on the other side saying to me ‘would you like to join us’ ”- Patricia, 1978
• The evolution of the gay village: “Angels opened, with plate glass windows - I was amazed to see gay people in the open – I had thought gay people in Birmingham must be vampires!” – Tom, 1997

Spotlight: Documentary at the Imperial War Museum

Each year, there is a growing number of events being organised for LGBT History Month around the UK. During the month we will run a series of spotlight posts on this blog highlighting some of those events and perhaps bringing them to your attention. You can view a list of events (or register and promote your own) by visiting our calendar. Feel free to also join the debate and make new friends on our forum.

One of the very first events of the Month this year sees one of the foremost cultural institutions in the country taking its first steps towards celebrating the Month.

As a result of almost two years of gentle lobbying and support from a local LGBT group, the Imperial War Museum in London has scheduled two screenings of Sex and War, a documentary directed by Annie Paul in 1998 for the BBC's Timewatch series.

The film uses the stories of British servicemen who fought bravely for their country during the Second World War and the example of the Dutch Army which started to welcome gay people in its ranks from 1994 to explore the arguments in the debate around the legalisation of homosexuality which was taking place in the UK at the time of the making of the film.

The film includes testimonies from gay (and straight) men from the three services as well as a particularly prejudiced interview with Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Armitage, the former head of military intelligence (his view are reproduced in the contemporaneous links below).

This will be screened in the main cinema of the Museum between 2.00pm - 3.00pm on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd of February.
Imperial War Museum

The ban on gays in the UK armed services was official lifted in 2000.

* Gays in the armed services: head-to-head - BBC News - 1999
* Opposing views in gay debate - BBC News - 1999
* Military gay ban illegal BBC News - 1999
* How gay panic gripped 1960s Royal Navy - BBC News - 2002