Nottingham Pride is less than a week away, and there's a tingle of excitement this year because we're having our first march - Walk With Pride. In a way you could say that the Pride march is coming "home".
Let's start at the beginning. The Stonewall Riots of June 1969 led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in New York shortly afterwards. They held a march on the first anniversary of the riots. Two British men were there at the time and together they were inspired to form a GLF group in the UK. One man was Aubrey Walter, the other was a 19-year-old sociology student from Nottingham called Bob Mellors.
The first UK GLF meeting attracted 9 people and from them grew an organisation that has earned a place in history as one of the pioneers of protest, even though, as a national group, it existed for less than 3 years.
After a small-scale attempt at a protest march and various "zaps", the GLF decided to hold a march with the deliberate aim of showing the "straight" world that gay men are willing to fight prejudice and discrimination. Following the example of the US GLF, the UK group arranged the first London Pride march on the Stonewall anniversary in June 1972. The idea took a couple of years to catch on, until today there's an LGBT parade every week somewhere in the world.
The Nottingham march could be a kind of memorial or celebration of thanks to the late Bob Mellors who died in 1996. It is sad that it has taken so long to have a Pride march in his home county. I hope everyone will turn out in their thousands to join in or cheer the marchers.
And just in case you think the city council have allowed the march to take place because they support diversity, write to them and ask why we can't march through the Market Square like the Caribbean and St. Patrick' Day marches.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
Monday 20 July 2009
Friday 10 July 2009
Out of their Trees - a legal mash
There are times when it doesn't surprise me when a well-known actor comes out. Last month David Ogden Stiers admitted being gay. His face and distinctive name became a regular part of my childhood from his appearances as Major Winchester in the series "MASH". But it was his regular appearances in the 1980s revival of "Perry Mason", where he played the Prosecuting Counsel, that lit up my gaydar.
Playing Perry Mason, as he did in the original 1960s series, butch gay Raymond Burr frequently reduced Stiers' witness to tears of confession with the booming "Isn't that right?" after detailing his deductions in court, to which you would always see Stiers' camp purse of the lips as if he was thinking "Ooh, you bitch!"
I was asked earlier this year why it is often easier to trace American ancestry. The answer's simple - they keep better records than we do. So in no time at all I traced David Ogden Stiers' ancestry back to medieval Nottinghamshire.
Three prominent families in his ancestry are the Willoughbys of Wollaton, the Nevilles of Rolleston and the Babingtons of Chilwell. Stiers has some Mayflower ancestry as well, but none originating in Nottinghamshire.Like myself Stiers inherits royal blood through Edward III, son of Nottingham Castle's favourite queen - Edward II. Similarly we both descend from the brother of the castle's only (so far) gay constable Sir William Neville.Among his notable LGBT relatives (apart from myself!) are Will Young, Claire Balding, Anthony Perkins, Francis Bacon (the artist) and Ellen Degeneres.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
Playing Perry Mason, as he did in the original 1960s series, butch gay Raymond Burr frequently reduced Stiers' witness to tears of confession with the booming "Isn't that right?" after detailing his deductions in court, to which you would always see Stiers' camp purse of the lips as if he was thinking "Ooh, you bitch!"
I was asked earlier this year why it is often easier to trace American ancestry. The answer's simple - they keep better records than we do. So in no time at all I traced David Ogden Stiers' ancestry back to medieval Nottinghamshire.
Three prominent families in his ancestry are the Willoughbys of Wollaton, the Nevilles of Rolleston and the Babingtons of Chilwell. Stiers has some Mayflower ancestry as well, but none originating in Nottinghamshire.Like myself Stiers inherits royal blood through Edward III, son of Nottingham Castle's favourite queen - Edward II. Similarly we both descend from the brother of the castle's only (so far) gay constable Sir William Neville.Among his notable LGBT relatives (apart from myself!) are Will Young, Claire Balding, Anthony Perkins, Francis Bacon (the artist) and Ellen Degeneres.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
Carry on Dick?
6th July is the 820th anniversary of the accession of King Richard the Lionheart. A lot of misconceptions have filled his life with a lot of contradictions. The Victorians idolised him and invented a lot of the symbolism associated with him (St. George's cross and the 3 lions). It's common knowledge that he hardly spent any time in England. He owned more of France than the French king, so why spend it in a country he is known to have hated?
A famous story of one trip to England is immortalised in the Robin Hood legend when he came to Sherwood Forest. There's some factual basis because Prince John used Nottingham Castle as a power base while Richard was imprisoned in Austria. As soon as Richard escaped he heard about John's misappropriation of the ransom money and headed straight for Nottingham for a show down. John, being a wimp, ran away leaving the castle to defend itself against what they were told was a foreign army. They soon realised the truth and surrendered. Richard then went around pardoning outlaws.
Richard is often included in lists of gay kings. It'll take too long to discuss the concept of homosexuality and the medieval ideas of same-sexual activity. It must be said that Richard's sexuality will confuse people for years, and I know 'm going against other peoples' opinions when I say that, to my mind, Richard the Lionheart was NOT gay or bisexual. Even gay professional historians can't agree.
It really started in 1948 when writer John Hervey claimed to have uncovered a "conspiracy of silence" about Richard "sleeping" with King Philippe of France. It was such a big conspiracy that, like others "conspiracies" in recent years, it was well known to historians and readers of school history books for centuries! Stories about Richard being gay originate long after his death, and none of them centred around Hervey's evidence.
Hervey claims Richard was gay because he was married but had no children (like Edward VIII, so was he gay too?), and that he spent the night (and more) with King Philippe. Hervey failed to investigate the political conventions of the time. Two political allies always had their beds on offer to each other. Practical reasons prevented most from taking up the offer, but Richard took up Philippe's offer.
King Henry II was losing control of his kingdom and his family. He offended both his son Richard and King Philippe by marrying Richard's fiance (the French king's sister) to younger son John - after fathering a son by her himself! Richard went to France to show publicly whose side he was on, and it wasn't his father's. Richard and Philippe showed great "love" for each other. Wouldn't anyone in this situation - give support to an ally? It did the trick - King Henry felt dejected by his favourite son's betrayal and died a year later.That's how much things have changed. Today politics isn't about displays of emotion but words, words and words. Politicians are seen shaking hands, but if the Victorians hadn't demonised the sharing of beds we may have seen sights like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama sitting up in bed together giving a press conference (I hope for everyone's sake that Gordon Brown wears pyjamas!).
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
A famous story of one trip to England is immortalised in the Robin Hood legend when he came to Sherwood Forest. There's some factual basis because Prince John used Nottingham Castle as a power base while Richard was imprisoned in Austria. As soon as Richard escaped he heard about John's misappropriation of the ransom money and headed straight for Nottingham for a show down. John, being a wimp, ran away leaving the castle to defend itself against what they were told was a foreign army. They soon realised the truth and surrendered. Richard then went around pardoning outlaws.
Richard is often included in lists of gay kings. It'll take too long to discuss the concept of homosexuality and the medieval ideas of same-sexual activity. It must be said that Richard's sexuality will confuse people for years, and I know 'm going against other peoples' opinions when I say that, to my mind, Richard the Lionheart was NOT gay or bisexual. Even gay professional historians can't agree.
It really started in 1948 when writer John Hervey claimed to have uncovered a "conspiracy of silence" about Richard "sleeping" with King Philippe of France. It was such a big conspiracy that, like others "conspiracies" in recent years, it was well known to historians and readers of school history books for centuries! Stories about Richard being gay originate long after his death, and none of them centred around Hervey's evidence.
Hervey claims Richard was gay because he was married but had no children (like Edward VIII, so was he gay too?), and that he spent the night (and more) with King Philippe. Hervey failed to investigate the political conventions of the time. Two political allies always had their beds on offer to each other. Practical reasons prevented most from taking up the offer, but Richard took up Philippe's offer.
King Henry II was losing control of his kingdom and his family. He offended both his son Richard and King Philippe by marrying Richard's fiance (the French king's sister) to younger son John - after fathering a son by her himself! Richard went to France to show publicly whose side he was on, and it wasn't his father's. Richard and Philippe showed great "love" for each other. Wouldn't anyone in this situation - give support to an ally? It did the trick - King Henry felt dejected by his favourite son's betrayal and died a year later.That's how much things have changed. Today politics isn't about displays of emotion but words, words and words. Politicians are seen shaking hands, but if the Victorians hadn't demonised the sharing of beds we may have seen sights like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama sitting up in bed together giving a press conference (I hope for everyone's sake that Gordon Brown wears pyjamas!).
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk
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