Gay Star Boy @your-gaystarboy - Tumblr Blog

Happy Pride Month Eleanor Roosevelt was queer, the Little Mermaid is a gay love story, James Dean liked men, Emily Dickinson was a lesbian, Nikola Tesla was asexual, Freddie Mercury was bisexual & British Indian, and black trans women pioneered the gay rights movement.

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Florence Nightingale was a lesbian, Leonardo da Vinci was gay, Michelangelo too, Jane Austen liked women, Hatshepsut was not cisgender, and Alexander the Great was a power bottom

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Honestly just reblogging for that last one

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Probably not historically backed but fuck yes

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Eleanor Roosevelt wrote love letters to Lorena Hickok

Love letters Hans Christian Anderson wrote to Edvard Collin contain elements that appeared in The Little Mermaid, which he was writing at the same time

Several people who knew James Dean have talked about his relationships with men

Letters and poems allude to a romance between Emily Dickinson and at least two women

Nikola Tesla was adverse to touch. He said he fell in love with one women but never touched her and didn’t want to get married

Freddie Mercury is well known for his attraction to men but was also linked to several women, including Barbara Valentin whom he lived with shortly before he died. Friends have talked about being invited into their bed and walking in on them having sex (documentary Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender)

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are two of the best-known activists who fought in the Stonewall riots

Florence Nightingale refused 4 marriage proposals and her letters and memoir suggest a love for women

Leonardo da Vinci never married or fathered children, was once brought up on sodomy charges, and a sketch in one of his notebooks is 2 penises walking toward a hole labeled with the nickname of his apprentice

Condivi said that Michelangelo often spoke exclusively of masculine love

Jane Austin never married and wrote about sharing a bed with women (Jane Austen At Home: A Biography by Lucy Worsley)

Hatshepsut took the male title Pharaoh (instead of Queen Regent) and is depicted in art from the time the same way a male Pharaoh would have been

“Alexander was only defeated once…and that was by Hephaestion’s thighs.” is a 2,000 year old quote

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Stonewall Riots (1969) The beginning of a movement and of an era of liberation from oppression for the LGBT+ community

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RED for life

ORANGE for healing

YELLOW for sunlight

GREEN for nature

BLUE for magic and serenity

PURPLE for spirt

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Before Stonewall: the Black Cat Tavern Riots in Los Angeles. (1964)

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Above: The Los Angeles Times, California, December 26, 1928

The Decatur Herald, Illinois, January 2, 1934:

Wilmington Daily Press Journal, California, May 9, 1934:

The News-Review, Roseburg, Oregon, October 11, 1941:

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, October 9, 1941:

The Star Press, Muncie, Indiana, October 10, 1941:

The Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio, November 13, 1941:

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JULY 23: Ruth Ellis (1899-2000)

Ruth Ellis, the LGBT rights activist and oldest known lesbian to ever live, was born on this day in 1899 and would have turned 118-years-old today!

Ruth Ellis poses for the camera as she leans against a car in 1951 (x).

Ruth was born on July 23, 1899 in Springfield, Illinois as her parents fourth child and first daughter. Her mother and father, Charles and Carrie Ellis, were former slaves from Tennessee but the abolition of slavery allowed them to move north and build a prosperous life for themselves and their family. Ruth’s mother died when she was young, but her father became the first black mail carrier in the state of Illinois and managed to put three of his children, Ruth included, through high school. Ruth would graduate from Springfield High School in 1919.

Ruth came out to her family as a lesbian when she was just 16-years-old, which was an unheard-of admittance in 1915! She would also recall meeting her partner, Babe, just five years later in 1920. For the next 30 years, Ruth and Babe would live together in Detroit, Michigan, where their home eventually became a major hub for the city’s black gay and lesbian community. Ruth also became the first black woman to ever operate her own printing company in the whole city of Detroit; the business specialized in printing stationary, fliers, and posters, and was operated out of her and Babe’s home.

Ruth is photographed hard at work operating the printing press that fueled her successful small business (x).

Ruth and Babe eventually separated because, as Ruth said, “We were just two opposite people.” Although the refuge of Ruth and Babe’s home ceased to exist, Ruth remained incredibly involved in the LGBT community and reached somewhat of a celebrity status in the 1970s. She became noticed as a frequent attendee of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and eventually began being asked to speak at different universities around the country about her experience as an out lesbian in the pre-Stonewall days. Her 100th birthday was celebrated with the release of the documentary Living with Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100 and that same year Ruth was the honorary leader of the San Francisco Dyke March.

A special photo shoot to celebrate Ruth’s 100th birthday shows her smiling sweetly and holding a bouquet of flowers (x).

Ruth passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 6, 2000 when she was 101-years-old. The Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit continues to be operated in her memory and is one of only four American organizations specifically dedicated to housing LGBT youth.

-LC

365daysoflesbians

JUNE 8: Marcela and Elisa are secretly married (1901)

Spain celebrated its legalization of same-sex marriage on June 30, 2005, but unbeknownst to many, the first real same-sex marriage in Spain took place 104 years beforehand when a woman named Elisa Sanchez Loriga disguised herself as a man and legally married her lover, Marcela Gracia Ibeas, on June 8, 1901.

Marcela and Elisa’s wedding photo shows Marcela (left) in traditional bridal attire and Elisa (right) disguised as a man (x).

Both Marcela and Elisa were elementary school teachers who had met at college in A Coruña and their friendship eventually blossomed into a romance. Marcela’s parents were unhappy with the candidness of the women’s relationship and sent her to another college outside of A Coruña to finish her studies; however, Marcela’s parents’ influence only lasted so long and once Marcela and Elisa both finished college they settled down together in a village called Dumbría.

After living together for some time, Marcela and Elisa decided that they wanted to get married, and so, they went to work devising a plan. In order to trick their neighbors, Marcela and Elisa simulated a loud, angry fight that resulted in Elisa moving back to A Coruña. Their families and community believed that the two had simply broken up and parted ways, but while in A Coruña, Elisa was busy developing her new “male” identity. She cut her hair, started wearing suits, took up smoking cigars, and tricked a priest into baptizing her as a man named “Mario.” With her new identity assumed, Elisa moved back home and was legally married to Marcela on June 8, 1901 in the Church of St. Jorge in A Coruña.

Unfortunately, the honeymoon stage didn’t last long. Marcela and Elisa’s neighbors became suspicious of this strange new man named “Mario” whose appearance and voice were both creepily similar to Elisa’s. One of their neighbors leaked the story of their “marriage without man” to local newspapers and it broke out into a nationwide scandal. Marcela and Elisa both lost their jobs, were excommunicated from the Church, and were issued arrest warrants. The last that is known of the married couple is that they were able to escape local authorities by boarding a ship that was destined for Argentina and never returned. To this day, the marriage of Marcela and Elisa has never been annulled by either the Catholic Church or the Civil Registry and they are still considered to be the first same-sex couple to be legally married in Spain.

-LC

norsesuggestions

the swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1942) in her twenties. not only one of the most famous lesbians in swedish history, but also apperntly, really early with that gay gender studies proffesors hair cut sported by half of the famous lesbian and bisexual academics of sweden.

goals tbh.

also, this is the type of hair cut Selma had when she wrote to her girlfriend sofie elkan, that she managed to “seduce ALL the women at the party with, because they just found me so HOT” (this were before they were togheter, and selma sends very long letters filled this type of… somewhat… human disaster flirting).

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Willem Arondeus was a Dutch resistance fighter who gave his life trying to protect his Jewish countrymen from the Nazis. Born in Amsterdam in 1895, Willem was one of six children. From a young age, he was a talented artist and his parents encouraged his creativity, until he came out as homosexual at age 17. In a time when nearly all gay people were in the closet, Willem’s parents could not accept his choice to live openly. Their rejection led Willem to run away from home. On his own, Willem took odd jobs and eventually became a successful visual artist and writer. He was commissioned to paint a mural for Rotterdam’s town hall, in a style that combined modern abstract painting with a traditional Dutch motif. Willem was a well-respected author who published a popular biography of Dutch painter and political activist Matthijs Maris. In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Willem immediately joined the resistance movement, and urged his fellow artists to fight against the Nazi occupation. WIllem published illegal anti-Nazi pamphlets calling for mass resistance against the Germans. Willem was especially committed to saving Amsterdam’s Jewish community. Bringing in others to the cause, Willem arranged for Dutch Jews to be hidden in people’s homes. He used his artistic skills to create false identity papers. In 1943, Willem hatched a brazen plan. Dressed as a German Army captain, and with 15 men behind him, Willem boldly marched into the Public Record Office, where lists identifying people as Jews were kept. Willem drugged the guards and planted a firebomb. The resulting blaze destroyed tens of thousands of documents, and delayed or prevented many Jews from being identified by the Nazis. Unfortunately, Willem was captured by the Germans and sentenced to death. Willem’s last words before being executed in July, 1943 were, “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.” In 1986 Yad Vashem recognized Arondeus as Righteous Among the Nations. Because of his sexual orientation, Willem’s story was omitted from Dutch history books. Only in the last 20 years has his courage become widely known.

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i have never heard of this!

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gay hero 💖💖💖

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“Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”

Damn. Just.

Damn.

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ok today im going to make a post about one of my history faves: Gladys Bently

She was a musician during The Harlem Renaissance and very very very VERY openly a lesbian. She was known to flirt with women in the audience during her performances. She even claimed to have had a wife (although i cant find any details on that) and was quoted as saying “It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought so….From the time I can remember anything, even as I was toddling, I never wanted a man to touch me.” Unfortunately as far as I can tell none of her explicitly gay music was ever recorded Sadly, She eventually had to claim she was no longer attracted to women for her own personal safety, although to quote this article “These desperate attempts to survive do not diminish her previous accomplishments.“ In a world where it feels like the only gay people in media are thin, flat chested, white people, I think we should all take a sec to remember this wonderful lesbian

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tallulah bankhead was an american actress who often introduced herself at parties by saying "hello, i’m a lesbian. what do you do?“ photographer unknown, 1925

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Being trans is not a new, trendy thing. Trans people have always existed.

Dr Alan L Hart was born in Kansas in 1890. He was assigned female at birth, but started presenting and living his life as a boy at a young age. In 1917/1918 he was the first trans man to go through GCS in America. After the procedure, he changed his legal name. Shortly thereafter he married his first wife, Inez Hart. They separated and divorced a few years later and in 1925 Alan married his second wife, Edna Ruddick, to whom he was married until his death. After the second world war, synthetic testosterone became available and Alan started HRT. Alan dedicated his life to helping people. He was a medical doctor and radiologist and he put much time into researching tuberculosis and collecting money for people who could not afford treatment themselves. He died of heart failure in 1962. His body was cremated and spread over Puget Sound.

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This is excellent trans history, but Hart did not come from an unsupportive family! Him being a boy was not really an issue at the time. To quote:

“Hart wrote later, in 1911, of his happiness during this time, when he was free to present as male, playing with boys’ toys made for him by his grandfather. His parents and grandparents largely accepted and supported his gender expression, though his mother described his “desire to be a boy” as “foolish.” His grandparents’ obituaries, from 1921 and 1924, both list Hart as a grandson.”

Even growing up, Hart rarely faced resistence for his transition. Even while attending college, he had professors who indexed his medical degree under his chosen name despite needing to issue it under his legal name (which was Lucille at the time).

Most people simply did not know Hart was trans unless he told them. He was sadly outed as trans in Oregon in a local paper by a former classmate. This motivated him to get marry his first wife and move back home so all his friends knew he was ashamed of nothing and quite happy.

Unfortunately, the strain of financial insecurity weighed on his marriage and his first wife left him. He married his second wife (who he was with until he passed) the same year he divorced his first.

Hart found his way into tuberculosis research regarding radiology. Without his techniques, tuberculosis would have continued to be a devastating disease. Hart saved the lives of thousands of people, most of whom could previously not afford to be screened and advanced radiology as viable and cheap.

He also stopped the stigma sorrounding the disease in its tracks. Tuberculosis was once akin to a veneral disease, but Hart insisted his clinics and treatments be referred to as “chest clinics” and “chest treatments” so his patients would not face ostrasization for seeking help.

It would be remiss to not acknowledge that Hart was an important figure in medical history who truly cared about people.

Even today, Hart is still helping people! After his death, Hart’s wife Edna did what he wished and established their estate to gain interest. That interest is given to leukemia research every year (Hart’s mother died of leukemia).

He said in a speech to a class of graduating medical students:

“Each of us must take into account the raw material which heredity dealt us at birth and the opportunities we have had along the way, and then work out for ourselves a sensible evaluation of our personalities and accomplishment.”

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I have learned a thing today! More deets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_L._Hart

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Asexual Awareness Week, Day Six

Most of these are taken from the Wikipedia entry for “Timeline of Asexual History” With a few extra facts taken from AVEN’s wikia page, and other news sources.

Asexual History

1869: Karl-Maria Kertbeny uses the word “Monosexuals” to refer to people who only masturbate. While not really a distinction in modern asexual discourse, it is similar to other categories coined such as “autoerotic” and “asexual” people described by Myra Jonson in the 1970s, among others.

1896: A German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld, wrote the pamphlet “Sappo und Sokrates,” which mentions people without any sexual desire.

1948:The Kinsey scale included a “group x” for those who did not feel sexual attraction, which was roughly 1% of those surveyed.

1974: Singer and composer David Bowie discusses asexuality in the Rolling Stone in the article “David Bowie in conversation on sexuality with William S. Burroughs by Craig Copetas in the Rolling Stone February 28, 1974”

1977:Myra Jonson wrote one of the first academic papers about asexuality as part of The Sexually Oppressed. Johnson mainly focused on the problems still facing asexual women as they were ignored, or seemingly left behind by the sexual revolution going on.

1979:In a study published in Advances in the Study of Affect, vol. 5, Michael D. Storms of the University of Kansas outlined his own reimagining of the Kinsey scale, using only fantasizing and eroticism, and placing hetero-eroticism and homo-eroticism on separate axes rather than at two ends of a single scale; this allows for a distinction between bisexuality (exhibiting both hetero- and homo-eroticism in degrees comparable to hetero- or homosexuals, respectively) and asexuality (exhibiting a level of homo-eroticism comparable to a heterosexual and a level of hetero-eroticism comparable to a homosexual, namely, little to none). This type of scale accounted for asexuality for the first time. Storms conjectured that many researchers following Kinsey’s model could be mis-categorizing asexual subjects as bisexual, because both were simply defined by a lack of preference for gender in sexual partners.

1980: Writer and Artist Edward Gorey, Comes out as asexual in an interview. When asked ‘…the press makes a point of the fact that you have never married. What are your sexual preferences?’, Gorey responds “Well, I’m neither one thing nor the other particularly.” and goes on to talk about how his lack of attraction affects his work.

1983: The first study that gave empirical data about asexuals was published in by Paula Nurius, concerning the relationship between sexual orientation and mental health.

1993:Boston Marriages: Romantic but Asexual Relationships Among Contemporary Lesbians by Esther D. Rothblum and Kathleen A. Brehony was released on November 17, 1993.

1994:A survey of 18,876 British residents found that 1% of the respondents “never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all”.

1997:First online Asexual Community appears in the comment section for an article titled “My Life As An Amoeba”

2000: A Yahoo group for asexuals, Haven for the Human Amoeba, was founded.

2001: David Jay founded the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), which became the most prolific and well-known of the various asexual communities that started to form since the advent of the World Wide Web and social media.

2004: The New Scientist dedicates an issue to asexuality.

2004: Discovery dedicates an episode of “The Sex Files” to asexuality.

2005: L'amour sans le faire by Geraldin Levi Rich Jones (Joosten van Vilsteren) is released. The first book on asexuality. Geraldin was at the head of the asexual movement, launching “The Official Asexual Society” in 2000 and performing asexual comedy shows. She also was a prominent face in the early ‘00’s asexual media boom.

2005: A common symbol for the asexual community is a black ring worn on the middle finger of the right hand. The material and exact design of the ring are not important as long as it is primarily black. This symbol started on AVEN in 2005.

2007: Award winning Novelist, Keri Hulme, comes out as asexual in an interview, saying “It is part of who I am: the major impact is that I am not– and never have been– interested in sex. It was more a slow realisation that I was different from most people. By my mid-teens, I’d realised that what was of great moment and interest to other young people – their sexuality and relationships – didn’t intrigue me in the slightest.”

2009: AVEN members participated in the first asexual entry into an American pride parade when they walked in the San Francisco Pride Parade.

2010: A flag was announced as the asexual pride flag. The asexual pride flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, grey, white, and purple from top to bottom.

2010: The New York State Division of Human Rights updated its discrimination complaint form to include asexuals in the protected sexual orientation category.

2010: Asexual Awareness Week was founded by Sara Beth Brooks in 2010. It occurs in the later half of October, and was created to both celebrate asexual, aromantic, demisexual, and grey-asexual pride and promote awareness.

2010: Fashion Consultant, Tim Gunn, says in an interview that he has identified as asexual since the 80s, saying “Do I feel like less of a person for it? No… I’m a perfectly happy and fulfilled individual.”

2010: Comedian Janeane Garofalo comes out as asexual while live on stage in Seattle.

2011: The Documentary “(A)sexual” is released.

2012: The first International Asexual Conference was held at the 2012 World Pride in London.

2013: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition changed the diagnosis of Hypoactive sexual desire disorder conditions to include an exception for people who self identify as asexual.

2013: American Comedian, Paula Poundstone, Comes out as Asexual in an interview

2014:The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality, by Julie Sondra Decker, was published; it was the first mainstream published book on the subject of asexuality.

2015: George Norman became Britain’s first openly asexual parliamentary election candidate.

2017: ‘Asexual’ is updated in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to include the sexual orientation.

2018: ‘Ace’ and ‘Aromantic’ are added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and ‘Asexual’ is updated to include the sexual orientation.