Gay Icons and History: February 2011
LIFE AIDS Lobby and Equality California
Filed by Karen Ocamb | February 27, 2011 11:30 AM |Equality California is the grandchild of LIFE AIDS Lobby, which was founded in 1985 out of terrible post-Gay Liberation necessity. Though the Centers for Disease Control published a report on June 5, 1981 about six gay men in the Los...Read More
EQCA History Part 2: MECLA, Alice and the DNC
Filed by Karen Ocamb | February 25, 2011 2:00 PM |It may be hard to understand now, but until the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, most LGBT people didn't identify as "a people," a "minority" or even as "a community" with a shared history, dreams and common problems. There had...Read More
As She Was: Mystery Celebrity Photos
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 25, 2011 10:30 AM |When an icon releases private family photos...well, how could I resist? See if you can guess who this adorable tot is: Maybe this photo of her in her teens will help:...Read More
Boi from a Bygone Era: Vintage Male Impersonator
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 24, 2011 11:30 AM |Another wondrous find, this ca. 1890 - 1910 photo of a young male impersonator, probably a theatrical performer of the era....Read More
Video: Coming Out in the 1950's
Filed by Bil Browning | February 22, 2011 6:00 PM |What a fantastic project! The newly formed Pye/Harris Project was founded by 94-year old Edgar Pye, whose sixty-year life partner Robert Harris died in 2006. In Mr. Harris' honor, Pye created the project to show young gay people that a...Read More
The Truth About George Washington
Filed by Karen Ocamb | February 22, 2011 3:30 PM |I was reading Family Research Council President Tony Perkin's newsletter this President's Day in which he and FRC's "resident historian" Bob Morrison wax poetic about George Washington: "[O]ur first president, the Father of our Country. George Washington has been described...Read More
Form and Substance: Vintage Muscleman
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 21, 2011 9:30 AM |I'm guessing this bodybuilder was photographed between 1900-1920. He seems to be in amazing condition and the photographer captures every morsel of his muscularity in this deceptively simple shot....Read More
San Francisco Neighborhood Associationists Prefer Revisionist Art
Filed by Toshio Meronek | February 20, 2011 4:00 PM |The Bay Area Reporter has the story of a piece of LGBT art that may never see the light of day thanks to a few neighborhood associationists in the Lower Polk area of San Francisco. Last fall, local artists Helen...Read More
LGBT Fiction Fest: Last of the Lesbians
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 18, 2011 10:30 AM |This brings my five-day queer pulp fiction fest to an end (sniffle), but I'll be back before too long with more fabulous literary finds for queer history buffs and book-lovers. Hope you enjoyed!...Read More
LGBT Fiction Fest: Gender Transcending
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 17, 2011 11:30 AM |Two classics which traded on the out-dated notion that gays and lesbians lived in a kind of intersexed "twilight." One wonders how many other misconceptions lurked between the covers. Any of you familiar with either of these books?...Read More
Pioneering Facts of Life Star and Disability Activist Comes Out
Filed by Jessica Max Stein | February 17, 2011 10:30 AM |Ever wish that smoldering Jo Polniaczek on 80s sitcom The Facts of Life was a dyke? Well, keep wishing. But the show's recurring guest star Geri Jewell has come out as a lesbian in her upcoming memoir, I'm Walking as...Read More
LGBT Fiction Fest: Hot Gay Hook-Ups
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 16, 2011 2:30 PM |Wow, I'd love to come for lunch. Do you think he's serving salad too? Here are two of the more deliciously explicit vintage novels aimed at gay male audiences in the early 1980s (pre-AIDS)....Read More
LGBT Fiction Fest: Lesbian Lust
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 15, 2011 4:30 PM |At least someone was able to acknowledge that lesbians are normal, though I myself prefer the stranger ones!...Read More
LGBT Fiction Fest: Five Fabulous Days of Pulp
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 14, 2011 9:30 AM |I've collected so many cover images of vintage LGBT novels that it's time to do a full-scale show: five days in a row of fabulous queer pulp! I will start with these two vintage tomes. I love the campy art...Read More
Vintage Fetish Fashion: 1960s Leatherwear for Men
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 11, 2011 10:30 AM |Two-page spread from a 1960 fetish (latex, leather, and lingerie) catalogue, showing some of the hot leather garments that men could order. The leather bathing suits are amazing but what happened when they got wet? Yikes. It's after the jump....Read More
Very Naughty Girls: Lesbian BDSM in the 1920's
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 10, 2011 11:30 AM |For those of you who think BDSM was invented sometime in the 1990s... this lesbian gem from the libertine days of 1920's Paris....Read More
Man Tango: Photo by Wangenheim
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 09, 2011 4:30 PM |Exquisitely erotic dance photo, ca. 1970s, shot by fashion photographer extraordinaire, Chris Von Wangenheim...Read More
Nollendorfplatz, Then and Now: LGBT History
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 07, 2011 10:00 AM |An early 20th century view of Nollendorfplatz, the center of gay and bohemian life in pre-World War II Germany. Theatres, cabarets, and clubs here catered to gays, lesbians, transsexuals, sadomasochists, and other members of Berlin's sexually liberated sub-culture. The Nazis...Read More
TransSEXUAL: Early 20th Century Genderplay [NSFW!]
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 04, 2011 10:30 AM |OK, everyone: close your eyes if you're never seen a penis before (ha!). I'm guessing this was shot sometime around the 1920s, possibly earlier judging by the setting and style of the photo - a very amazing find (and a...Read More
Beautiful in Love: Vintage Lesbian Erotica
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 03, 2011 11:30 AM |Simple, sweet, and incredibly sensual: these two beautiful, beautiful women sharing a romantic hug, ca. 1920s-1930s....Read More
Tenderness Times Ten: 1920s Lesbian Photo
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 01, 2011 4:30 PM |Interracial lesbian relationships in 1920s France? Mais oui! This photo was captured with a brilliant eye that understood everything about passion, tenderness, and the natural beauty of the female body. I dug up this charming quote to go with it.:...Read More
