Gay Icons and History: June 2010
Lounge Ladies of the Jewel Box: Vintage drag photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 30, 2010 1:30 PM |A Bilerico reader recently asked if I knew of any images of Butch Ellis, one of the fine 1950s-era ladies featured at the Jewel Box Lounge in Kansas City. I did not but throw me a name and I must...Read More
On The U.S. Army's First Gay Discharge
Filed by Andrew Belonsky | June 29, 2010 8:00 PM |Well, Americans, it's been 234 years since our revered Founding Fathers declared this young nation independent. It has been a hard road, to be sure, and yet our democracy remains adolescent: rampant discrimination continues to plague our land, such as...Read More
Must See Movie: Perversion for Profit (1965)
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 27, 2010 11:30 AM |When you have 31 minutes to spare, I strongly recommend watching this 1960s anti-sex propaganda movie, Perversion for Profit (1965). The only thing more amazing than the lies and hypocrisy in this film is that some Americans still believe the...Read More
Drag Memorabilia: Club O-My and Pat Waters
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 21, 2010 9:30 AM |Just love finding these great old images of transpeople looking proud and strong. Do any of you recall this 1950s drag club or its performers? The ladies aren't just "smart," they're gorgeous....Read More
Beautiful Cytherea: Classic lesbian art
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 16, 2010 1:30 PM |Found this lovely Victorian engraving of a Greek myth, depicting the goddess "Cythere" (in French) embracing a girl. According to Wiki, "the goddess Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, from which she emerged on a sea...Read More
Gay pulp fiction: The covers of our fathers
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 11, 2010 10:30 AM |They were "shame mates"? That's kind of hot! But perhaps not quite as hot as a "dungaree jungle" where men are clad only in underwear. Do I see a hint of stockings under that robe? Two gay pulp fiction book...Read More
Exploiting Almost Everything: vintage movie poster
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 10, 2010 11:30 AM |I love creepy posters for exploitative movies of the past and this one rolls sexploitation and blacksploitation and even a little bisexualploitation and shades of incest into its deliciously tawdry mix. Oh my God. LOGO! Buy the rights!...Read More
Real Men Can Dance: vintage photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 09, 2010 1:30 PM |Another "found" gem from gay history. I would love to know the festive tale behind this (New Year's?) merriment. It makes me think we need more places where men can slow-dance together! Love his party hat and how they keep...Read More
Troy Walker, Whatever: 80's trans performer
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 08, 2010 4:30 PM |Arguably, one of the odder ads I've come across. Do any of my fine friends recognize this fashion plate?...Read More
Photos: San Francisco's Fairoaks Hotel
Filed by Bil Browning | June 07, 2010 7:00 PM |Oh, how I wish I lived in Los Angeles now that I see drkrm/gallery is hosting a collection of Frank Melleno's candid Polaroid snapshots taken at San Francisco's Fairoaks Hotel during the spring and summer of 1978. The bathhouse closed...Read More
The covers of our mothers: Lesbian pulp fiction
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 07, 2010 6:30 PM |I just can't get enough of those wacky 50s and 60s pulp novels. I wonder if the women who bought them were like me when I first began exploring kinky sex -- stealing into newstands trying to look casual but...Read More
Long Live QueerBomb!
Filed by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer | June 07, 2010 4:00 PM |My favorite sign at last Friday's "QueerBomb," the alternative pride march in Austin, Texas, was, "STONEWALL WAS A RIOT, NOT A TRADE SHOW." Queerty gets many of the facts right, but they are wrong to say that QueerBomb made people...Read More
Men's Digest, Lesbian Study: vintage magazine
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 04, 2010 10:30 AM |What first caught my eye was how much Claudia Cardinale resembles Brittany Spears, or vice versa. This men's magazine dates from 1964....Read More
Turn of the 20th century lesbian erotica NSFW
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 03, 2010 11:30 AM |Found this amazing and very old cabinet photo of beautiful, young women giving themselves over to sensual pleasures. Guessing it's 1890-1905....Read More
Homoerotic: Keanu Reeves and Carl Marotte
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | June 01, 2010 4:30 PM |Just found, and love, these vintage publicity stills (1984) featuring then 20-something Keanu Reeves and his co-star, Carl Marotte in a Toronto theatre production of "Wolfboy," an adaptation of writer Brad Fraser's novel, Love and Human Remains Two more -...Read More
Punk and Gay: The Reunion Tour
Filed by Andrew Belonsky | June 01, 2010 9:30 AM |Words, as I've so often said, are mercurial. In one context, they're perfectly acceptable. In another, they're terribly offensive. We've already learned that lesson with "gay," which sad, misinformed people use as a pejorative and proud people often embrace. There's...Read More
