I know this is a week late, due to me having to make last minute rearrangements for Christmas. I was going to was wish you all a Merry Christmas, and mention that the excesses of food and wine this week would have been helped by those of you who are, shall we say, a bit older than myself, possibly stocking up on Christmas cheer at an outlet in Nottingham and Worksop called Skinnner and Rook.
In Nottingham the manager of this shop in the late 1950s and early 1960s was Clive Johnstone-Wilson. In the pre-decriminalisation days of homosexuality Clive was a rampant bisexual orgy-lover (much to the chagrin of his wife).
In true Advent spirit I will leave you this year with a feeling of anticipation of what revelations are to come ahead. There's so much to look forward to in 2009, not least of all LGBT History Month in February. Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage is planning a number of events to celebrate. So I'll leave more about Clive Johnstone-Wilson, and his more famous brother the writer Angus Wilson, until next year.
From me, and Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, have a Happy New Year.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Advent 3
Do you wish Christmas was banned? Join the Puritan Club - the party-pooper kings. Though their intentions may have been sound their enthusiasm went against them. Under the Puritanical Oliver Cromwell, Christmas (including parties, games and mince pies) was illegal. In fact, anything that smacked of something the Catholics and Royalists supported was opposed by Cromwell.
The name Cromwell has appeared before in this blog: Oliver was greatnephew of Thomas. One Cromwell outlaws gay sex and the other outlaws Christmas - the family doesn't appeal to me very much!
Oliver Cromwell took a political road to enforce his Puritanism, but originally the Puritans wanted to worship simply without persecution. The Anglicans said they should worship the Anglican way or go to jail. Even death threats were made. The Catholics had been through all of this before, but this time the Puritans had an escape route - America.
Nottinghamshire is proud to be the home of the Pilgrim Fathers. These Bassetlaw Puritans worshipped in private and decided to found a new community in America. So, in 1620 they set sail with their followers on the Mayflower. Hundreds joined them over the next decades.
They took their Puritan beliefs with them. And the statute of 1534 which criminalised "active" gay sex. Plymouth colony introduced its own sodomy laws with the death penalty. In 1634 John Allexander and Thomas Roberts were found guilty of "lewd behaviour ... and spending their seed upon another". Because no penetration was proved they escaped hanging and were whipped. And in 1642 Elizabeth Johnson was found guilty of "unseemly behaviour" with a maid.
As the American colonies developed into the United States, same-sex activity became less of an issue so that, eventually, gay communities developed in places like San Francisco long before anywhere else in the world.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
The name Cromwell has appeared before in this blog: Oliver was greatnephew of Thomas. One Cromwell outlaws gay sex and the other outlaws Christmas - the family doesn't appeal to me very much!
Oliver Cromwell took a political road to enforce his Puritanism, but originally the Puritans wanted to worship simply without persecution. The Anglicans said they should worship the Anglican way or go to jail. Even death threats were made. The Catholics had been through all of this before, but this time the Puritans had an escape route - America.
Nottinghamshire is proud to be the home of the Pilgrim Fathers. These Bassetlaw Puritans worshipped in private and decided to found a new community in America. So, in 1620 they set sail with their followers on the Mayflower. Hundreds joined them over the next decades.
They took their Puritan beliefs with them. And the statute of 1534 which criminalised "active" gay sex. Plymouth colony introduced its own sodomy laws with the death penalty. In 1634 John Allexander and Thomas Roberts were found guilty of "lewd behaviour ... and spending their seed upon another". Because no penetration was proved they escaped hanging and were whipped. And in 1642 Elizabeth Johnson was found guilty of "unseemly behaviour" with a maid.
As the American colonies developed into the United States, same-sex activity became less of an issue so that, eventually, gay communities developed in places like San Francisco long before anywhere else in the world.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Advent 2
There was a piece in the papers last week about the tradition of appointing a "boy-bishop", when a chorister was chosen to act as mock bishop at Christmas. It was very popular in medieval times. The boy-bishop conducted services and was treated like his adult counterpart even by the highest in the land.
This included the butch queen King Edward II, who received the boy-bishop of St. Mary's church, Nottingham, in 1316 while he spent his usual Christmas at the Castle.King Edward liked Nottingham. He appointed his equally butch boyfriend Piers Gaveston as its Constable, and held (usually all-male) parties throughout Christmas, from which even his wife was excluded.
Another bishoply connection with St. Mary's comes in the person of Dr. David Hope. He is famous as being the Archbishop of York who described his sexuality as a "grey area". He studied at Nottingham University in the 1960s and would have been familiar with St. Mary's.Dr. Hope's coat of arms shows his personal devotion to St. Mary (of course a central figure at Christmas) in the form of a fleur-de-lys and the colour blue - St. Mary's emblems. The design includes other clues to his life and career. The yellow part represents a church roof and also signifies his father's occupation of a builder. The pattern of tiles is called "papillony" and is meant to look like scales on a butterfly wing. Which is rather interesting. In France and Spain the slang name for a gay man is "butterfly" ("papillon" and "mariposa" respectively). So is Dr. Hope secretly revealing more about his sexuality than his words have done?
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/
Friday, 5 December 2008
Advent 1
It's that time of year again, when people get sick of Christmas decorations and tired old festive songs, and wish Christmas was over - and it's not even begun! This is the first week of Advent when, traditionally, Christians start preparing for Christmas. Very few people bother to find out about proper traditions nowadays. For instance, NO decorations or trees should go up before Christmas Eve - it's considered unlucky. You should NEVER put anything on the top of the tree until Christmas morning for the same reason. And no self-respecting Christian ever takes their decorations down BEFORE 2nd February, the last day of Christmas.
Various opinions float around about homophobia and the church, mainly based on hearsay or prejudice. Even though the church has said that homosexuality is immoral, an abomination or unnatural, no Christian church has officially said it’s a sin, so no-one can use this as a reason to be atheist!
In England the first law that specifically targeted homosexuality was in 1534. This was in order to give Henry VIII extra ammunition in his battle to close the monasteries, which have always had a legendary reputation as hot-beds of gay sex, whether true or not. Henry enlisted the help of two sons of Nottinghamshire to formulate and enforce the Act. First was Thomas Cromwell, the King's Secretary. Cromwell's grandfather came from a long-established family from (you guessed) Cromwell. Thomas drew up the Act. The other man was Thomas Cranmer, born in Aslocton, the Archishop of Canterbury. His support for King Henry and the Act gave the monasteries no hope of calling on him for help.
Most of today's homophobia has its roots in this Act. Before 1534 punishment for homosexual acts was predominantly aimed at the clergy. After 1534 it included everyone. From then on all society became more homophobic, building up to the teachings of the Puritans a century later - something I'll mention another time.
(A genealogical footnote is that Cranmer's brother is ancestor of Lord Byron and Cole Porter).
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
Various opinions float around about homophobia and the church, mainly based on hearsay or prejudice. Even though the church has said that homosexuality is immoral, an abomination or unnatural, no Christian church has officially said it’s a sin, so no-one can use this as a reason to be atheist!
In England the first law that specifically targeted homosexuality was in 1534. This was in order to give Henry VIII extra ammunition in his battle to close the monasteries, which have always had a legendary reputation as hot-beds of gay sex, whether true or not. Henry enlisted the help of two sons of Nottinghamshire to formulate and enforce the Act. First was Thomas Cromwell, the King's Secretary. Cromwell's grandfather came from a long-established family from (you guessed) Cromwell. Thomas drew up the Act. The other man was Thomas Cranmer, born in Aslocton, the Archishop of Canterbury. His support for King Henry and the Act gave the monasteries no hope of calling on him for help.
Most of today's homophobia has its roots in this Act. Before 1534 punishment for homosexual acts was predominantly aimed at the clergy. After 1534 it included everyone. From then on all society became more homophobic, building up to the teachings of the Puritans a century later - something I'll mention another time.
(A genealogical footnote is that Cranmer's brother is ancestor of Lord Byron and Cole Porter).
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
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