So, for awhile I've been slowly conducting oral histories with queer folks from the early Internet, a project I've called Read/Write Memories (https://queerdigital.com/rwm)
I'm happy to announce that the first of these histories, with narrator Max Vasilatos, is finally available! Max was the "co-founder" of the first gay newsgroup on Usenet, soc.motss, and they had many wonderful reflections on the community's early years and its legacy. https://queerdigital.com/items/show/138
We’wha was a Lhamana (or two spirit) person born into the Zuni tribe in 1849 New Mexico. We’wha was a spiritual leader, a pottery and textile artist, and a Zuni cultural ambassador.
#OTD in 1911 suffragists and trade unionists Helen Chenevix and Louie Bennett co-founded the Irish Women's Suffrage Federation.
Helen and Louie were partners as well as comrades ❤️ They are commemorated with a bench in St Stephen's Green, Dublin - as far as we know the only memorial to a same-sex couple in Ireland?
Today is the Feast Day of James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987). He was a writer and civil rights activist who gained acclaim for his 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. The following year he published his second novel, Giovanni's Room, which broached the topic of homosexuality at a time when this was still considered to be taboo. He is considered one of the most respected writers of the 20th century.
India's first #Pride march: the Friendship Walk in #Kolkata in 1999. I'd never heard of this before.
No corporate sponsors, no floats, just a small group of guys (they all seem to have been men) in yellow t-shirts walking in the rain. A lovely brave gesture.
I'm glad things worked out in the end for Mr Dowjah and his neighbour.
From today in 1976: Coverage of the gay rights demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention in NYC. Note the "GAYS FOR CARTER" banner and an early reclamation of the pink triangle on a protest sign, set in a black circle like the future ACT UP logo. NBC covered it, and this video might (or might not) be from that network.
At the time, NBC's in-house subject index, which used lots of abbreviations, logged their report as being about a protest by "homos."
In the report "What Makes a Family?" (aired today in 1989), Interviewees discussed a New York court ruling that same-sex couples count as a family. In a classic piece of TV news "both-sides-ism," the panel included a bigot from the Family Research Council.
Just me and a couple of friends went to Madame Peabody’s Dancing Academy for Young Ladies aka The Casino, Seattle’s earliest gay bar, and many other historical sites on my 3rd annual Seattle Queer History Bike Tour today!
"Whom again must I persuade
to lead you back to her love? Who, Sappho,
is doing you wrong?
For if she flees, swiftly she will pursue;
if she refuses gifts, soon she shall give them;
and if she does not love, swiftly she will love
even if she does not wish to.
Come to me again and ease my pain;
Take bitter care from my mind and give me
all I long for. Stand beside me, #Aphrodite, as my sister in arms."
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
#Zeus pursuing #Ganymedes who is playing with a hoop. Hoops (krikoi), were probably made of bronze, iron, or copper, and were driven with a stick called the "elater". Hoop driving was practiced in the gymnasium and was also used for tumbling & dance with different techniques.
🏛️ Zeus and Ganymedes, red-figure vase painting, National Archaeological Museum #Athens
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
Venus Barbata ('Bearded Venus') was an epithet of the Roman goddess #Venus. Macrobius mentions in his Saturnalia a statue of a bearded Venus in #Cyprus, depicted in female dress but with the body of a man.
🏛️ Modern photo edit of Venus de Milo with a beard by anonymous
We hope you have enjoyed following along as we have looked back on some of the highlights of the history of Pride in the US! If you didn't catch all our posts you can read the whole articles series and join the discussion here: https://www.tarvalon.net/index.php?threads/june-pride-month.53591/
🪷 #Mars and #Uranus are at right angles to each other. Frustration, dread, anxiety, panic reactions. Explosive energies! Your challenge is to focus these powerful cosmic energies on constructive perseverance. Your #Antinous#astrology forecast: antinousstars.blogspot.com/2022/03/astro-… 🪷
"Hear me, elders, hear me, young men,
my beloved friend is dead, he is dead,
my beloved brother is dead, I will mourn
as long as I breathe, I will sob for him
like a woman who has lost her only child."
[…]
"But Enkidu did not answer. Gilgamesh
touched his heart, but it did not beat.
Then he veiled Enkidu’s face like a bride's."
"Even if your whiskers, bringing hair, have sprung forth,
and soft blonde curls are on your temples,
even so I do not flee my eromenos. But his beauty
even with a beard, even with hair, is mine."
Greek Anthology 12.10
A young man with body hair was considered no longer attractive by the beauty standards of #ancientGreece. Once he could grow a full beard, he wasn't eromenos material anymore.
"'O why must #Juno, goddess of sweet brides, and why should #Hymen also, favour us when man with woman cannot join in wedlock, but both are brides?'
The other maiden flamed with equal love, and often prayed for Hymen to appear."
"[My friend, the] penis that you touched so your heart rejoiced,
grubs devour [(it) … like an] old garment.
[My friend, the crotch that you] touched so your heart rejoiced,
it is filled with dust [like a crack in the ground.]"
"Unsuspected love had filled their hearts with equal longing—but how different! Ianthe waits in confidence and hope the ceremonial as agreed upon, and is quite certain she will wed a man. But Iphis is in love without one hope of passion's ecstasy, the thought of which only increased her flame and she a girl is burnt with passion for another girl!"
"The Sacred Band of [#Thebes], we are told, was first formed by #Gorgidas, of 300 chosen men, to whom the city furnished exercise and maintenance and who encamped in the Kadmeia. But some say that this band was composed of lovers and beloved."
"It is said that the band was never beaten, until the battle of Chaeroneia and when, after the battle, Philip [II of Macedon] was surveying the dead, and [...] on learning that this was the band of lovers and beloved, burst into tears and said: 'Perish miserably they who think that these men either did or suffered anything that was disgraceful.'"