Box Turtle Bulletin

Moldova To Consider Russia-Style “Homosexual Propaganda” Ban

The European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights has warned that the parliament of Moldova is set to consider a Russian-style “homosexual propaganda ban.” Like Russia’s law passed in 2013, the Moldova law would impose fines for spreading “homosexual propaganda” to minors “through public meetings, the media, the Internet,” and other means. The Culture and Education Committee of the Moldovan Parliament green-lighted the bill last month. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

The latest salvo in Moldova’s long-running cultural conflict was fired by the Socialist Party, the parliament’s largest party. They brought the measure to committee on May 25, four years to the day after the country adopted a European Union-backed antidiscrimination law that social conservatives angrily opposed. Since that law was adopted, “homosexual propaganda in Moldova has become more aggressive,” the new bill’s sponsors wrote.

“What we are talking about is the public impact,” Socialist deputy Vlad Batrancea told RFE/RL. “We want to ban the propaganda of this phenomenon because there is the danger that children might fall victim to it in schools. This danger is real because so many parents are working abroad and the children left behind are vulnerable to such actions.”

Igor Dodon

Moldova’s parliament rejected an attempt to overturn the anti-discrimination law earlier this year. According to RFE/RL, Moldova’s parliament is nearly evenly split between the socially-conserviatve Socialists and Communists on one side, and three generally pro-European parties on the other. Observers believe the bill may be a bid to increase Socialist Party leader Igor Dodon’s popularity in the upcoming presidential elections. Dodon has called for closer political and economic relations with Moscow, and was a featured speaker at last month’s World Congress of Families in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Moldova passed a similar law in May of 2013, but it was quietly rescinded when it became clear that the legislation would threaten Moldova’s bid for Association status with the European Union. Moldova and the EU reached an initial agreement for Association status in 2014. That agreement must still be ratified by EU member countries.

Ulrike Lunacek, a Green party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Austria and co-President of the EU’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights, called the recent developments “worrying.” “She added, “However, as a European state cherishing European values of freedom, equality and non-discrimination, I am confident Moldova and the majority of her lawmakers, will resist the Russian-inspired anti-propaganda bill.”

The Intergroup’s Vice President Tanja Falon, Social Democratic MEP from Slovenia, said, “Although the content of the bill worries us, I am glad to see that there are politicians speaking out against the bill. It is simply unacceptable that people could be punished for sharing objective information about LGBTI issues. As a fellow parliamentarian, I call on all Moldovan parliamentarians to join in speaking out against this bill, and stand up for the rights of the LGBTI community.” Falon is part of the EU-Moldova delegation.

American anti-gay extremists, including Scott Lively and Paul Cameron, had long seen Moldova as a key battleground against LGBT people.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From Vector (San Francisco), September 1968, page 10.

San Francisco-based Vector, a glossy magazine founded by the Society for Individual Rights, published a West Coast travel feature in 1968 that included this description of Vancouver’s August Club:

Vancouver is the home of the largest gay club in the British Commonwealth, both in membership and club area. We arc speaking of the AUGUST CLUB, located at 818 Richards Street in downtown Vancouver. The AUGUST is a totally equipped gay bar. Full kitchen WIth private banquet rooms, two bars, two dance areas-in Vancouver the kids can dance with each other with over 4500 square feet of space, on three levels of fun floors. Parking is beside the building and within walking distance of the gay hotels (which feature only beer). These are: The Castle Hotd, The York, which cater to the regular average types. Then there is the New Fountain for those who like rough trade.

The AUGUST CLUB has a men-only policy, catering to anyone who is gay and over 21. Booze sets for 50 cents per shoe of hard liquor. and 35 cents a bottle for cool Canadian beer. Full exchange is given on all American money.

…Vancouver is the only place to visit in Canada where the gay set has a full degree of freedom, much the same as San Francisco.

The August Club opened in 1968, and became the Shaggy Horse in 1972. The building is gone, and replaced with a condominium with an art gallery on the ground floor.

Today In History, 1977: Florida Bans Gay Marriage and Adoption

Gov. Reubin Askew

Florida’s gay community took a triple whammy today. Just one day after Miami voters overwhelmingly sided with Anita Bryant to rescind an anti-discrimination ordinance (Jun 6), Governor Reuben Askew (D) signed into law two additional anti-gay measures affecting gay Floridians. The first banned same-sex marriage and the second banned gay adults from adopting.

State Sen. Curtis Peterson, (D-Eaton Park) sponsored both bills, and said that the new laws tell homosexuals, “We are tired of you and wish you would go back in the closet.” He continued: “The problem in Florida is that homosexuals are surfacing to such an extent that they are infringing on average, normal people who have a few rights, too.” The bills sailed through the legislature with little opposition. Askew had already publicly supported Anita Bryan’s campaign in Florida, saying ““I would not want a known homosexual teaching my children.”  He signed both bills, which went into effect immediately.

In 2008, Florida voters made same-sex marriage super-double illegal when they passed Amendment 2. But both bans on same-sex marriage were overturned in 2014 by state and Federal courts. As for the adoption ban, that fell by the wayside when a Florida appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found the adoption ban unconstitutional. Askew died in 2014, and despite his longtime opposition to gay rights (an opposition that he never appears to have disavowed), the New York Times eulogized him as a “progressive ‘New South’ governor.”

Today In History, 1991: First Gay Days at Disney World

25 YEARS AGO. It started as a very modest idea: a time for about 3,000 gays and lesbians in central Florida to enjoy a day at Orlando’s top attraction — and to become more visible. “Twenty years ago, there were hardly any visible portrayals of our community other than the pride parades,” Chris Alexander-Manley, president of Gay Days Inc., told Time in 2010. He was also one of the volunteers who helped organize the first event in 1991. He said that the media tended to show “the drag queens and the extremes, the leather people, but that’s only a small part of the overall community.” To increase their visibility, gay attendees wore red shirts in the park. That visibility caught the attention of anti-gay activists. The Southern Baptist Convention launched a boycott of all things Disney, despite the fact that Disney never sanctioned the event. Disney always instructed their employees to treat the first Saturday of June just like any other Saturday, which put the SBC in an odd position of, I guess, demanding that Disney ban red shirts or something.

Gay Days at Disney World has grown from that modest 3,000 assemblage to an estimated 150,000 participants in recent years. And with that growth the nature of the event has changed somewhat. There are still family events taking place catering to LGBT families, but they occur alongside pool parties, dance raves and other circuit party-style activities of a more specifically adult orientation. But within the confines of the park itself, it’s all about Mickey Mouse and Magic Mountain and getting the kids in line for the spinning teacups. And despite ongoing grumbling from social conservatives — Disney typically issues refunds to families offended by the sight of red shirts — Gay Days continues to appeal to the kids in all of us.

Born On This Day, 1957: Peter Jepson-Young

(d. 1992) The Vancouver, BC doctor was known to millions across Canada simply as Dr. Peter, host of a regular segment on the CBC’s news broadcast called The Dr. Peter Diaries. That platform made Dr. Peter the country’s best-known educator for AIDS and HIV awareness. Dr. Peter’s approach was uniquely personal: he documented, on his own program, his experiences both as a doctor and as a person with AIDS. He began his weekly segment in 1990 after he was unable to continue his medical practice because of his deteriorating health. He brought a sense of humor to his weekly video diaries, and his frank discussion of AIDS helped to break down stereotypes and stigma surrounding the disease. His Diaries continued for more than two years, until a few weeks before he died in November 1992. Shortly before he died, Dr. Peter had also established the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation to provide care for people with HIV/AIDS.

In 1993, the CBC and HBO jointly produced a 45-minute documentary, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, which consisted of excerpts from his video diaries. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Today, all 111 episodes are available on the CBC’s website.

Born On This Day, 1961: Mary Bonauto

55 YEARS AGO. If you’re in a state where you’re allowed to marry, then you have Mary Bonauto to thank. The civil rights attorney, lauded as “our Thurgood Marshal,” has been working with the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) since 1990, playing key roles in methodically building the legal foundation through a series of court cases which eventually opened the doors, at least part way, to marriage equality for same-sex couples. As Roberta Kaplan told The New York Times in March 2013, “No gay person in this country would be married without Mary Bonauto.”

Bonauto began her work at GLAD by litigating several employment discrimination, custody and free speech cases throughout New England. Seven years later, she was co-counselor for three Vermont couples seeking a marriage license. The goal was full marriage, but at that time it was still difficult to make a legal case. Instead, Baker v. Vermont compelled the Vermont legislature to enact the nation’s first civil union law in 2000. The following year, Bonauto took another crack at marriage as lead counsel for Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. That led to the landmark 2003 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which led the Bay State to become the first in the nation in marriage equality. She was also co-counsel in the Connecticut court case which prompted that state legislature to enact a civil union law.

Bonauto next set her sights set on Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act as lead counsel for Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, one of five federal cases which challenged DOMA’s constitutionality. In that case in 2010, a Federal District Court in held that DOMA violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection clause, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. The case then went on to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court chose to hear the appeal for Edith Windsor instead and that case ended up dooming DOMA in June 2013.

Two years later, Bonauto was before the Supreme Court again, this time urging the court to strike down gay marriage bans nationwide as litigant for Obergefell v. Hodges. And what she accomplished for the state of Massachusetts, she also won for gay couples nationwide when the Supreme Court declared that marriage equality bans violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

INS Recognizes Gay Couple’s 1975 Marriage, Issues Green Card With An Apology

Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan. Photo by Pat Rocco (Feb 9)

There was a brief moment in 1975 when Boulder, Colorado, county clerk Clela Rorex was issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after getting the green light from the county’s Assistant District Attorney.  Word spread rather slowly in those pre-internet days, but six couples managed to get hitched before the State Attorney General put a halt to it nearly a month later. Among them were Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, an Australian national who was trying to legally immigrate to the U.S. to be with Adams.

Immigration authorities refused to recognize the marriage or issue a green card to Sullivan. The INS district director for Los Angeles wrote, “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.” That crude ruling was replaced by a less crude, but more puzzling, reason: the marriage was invalid because neither spouse “can perform the female functions in marriage.” The couple sued in Federal court, but lost. They also lost on appeals, and the Supreme Court refused to hear their case. Adams and Sullivan were forced to leave the country, and bounced around the world for several years. They re-entered the U.S. in 1986, but lived under constant fear that the INS would catch up with Sullivan and deport him. In 2012, the Obama Administration issued a memo directing the INS to de-prioritize the expulsion of low-risk family members of U.S. citizens, including same-sex partners. Adams died that December. And now, three and a half years later, the U.S. has formally issued Sullivan a green card.What’s more, they did so on the basis of their 1975 marriage:

As newlyweds, Richard and Anthony could never have imagined that 41 years later the White House would ask the Director of USCIS to issue a direct, written apology to them. Nor could they have imagined that, in 2016, the very same downtown Los Angeles Immigration office that denied Richard’s green card petition for Anthony with such offensive language would, at long last, recognize their marriage and take the position that Anthony should be treated the same as all other surviving spouses under U.S. immigration law, with the dignity and respect he deserves in accordance with recent Supreme Court rulings.

Lavi Soloway, their Los Angeles-based attorney, says the federal government’s recognition of their 1975 marriage is groundbreaking because it affirms that the constitutional protection of fundamental personal liberties, including the right to marry, extends to a marriage entered into by a same sex couple that took place decades ago.

…León Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wrote on behalf of the President: “This agency should never treat any individual with the disrespect shown toward you and Mr. ­Adams,” Rodriguez wrote. “You have my sincerest apology for the years of hurt caused by the deeply offensive and hateful language used in the November 24, 1975, decision and my deepest condolences on your loss.”

The Pride LA has all the details, including the story about how they met and their long struggle to stay together through the years.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

Today In History, 1977: Miami Voters Rescind Gay Rights Ordinance

The Dade County Commission approved an ordinance in January of 1977 that would outlaw discrimination against gay people in employment, housing and public services (Jan 18). Miami joined about 40 other communities around the nation had similar anti-discrimination laws in effect.

Reaction from local Christian conservatives was swift. Former beauty queen and Florida Orange Juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant learned about the ordinance when it was denounced from the pulpit at Northwest Baptist Church. She sprang into action, creating a group called “Save Our Children” to overturn the ordinance at the ballot box. Fear-mongering about “access to children” would be the group’s main focus. She told one audience, “Some males who would become teachers even want to wear dresses to work and flaunt their homosexuality in front of our children.” To another, she warned,  “When the law requires you to let an admitted homosexual teach your children and serve as a role model for them, it’s time to stop being so tolerant.” She even blamed gay people for the weather. “Do you know why California has a drought? Because a Southern California city passed a gay rights ordinance. That’s God’s way of punishing civilizations that are tolerant of homosexuals.”

Bryant’s mean-spiritedness reportedly cost her a planned syndicated television series when producers backed away from the controversial singer. This gave her a chance to reveal her persecution complex. Declaring that “the blacklisting of Anita Bryant has begun,” she claimed that in losing that job, “it destroys the dream that I have had since I was a child.” Gay rights leader and local businessman Bob Kunst relished the irony. “She wants to cause gays to lose their jobs and she complains because she has lost a job. The lady is a hypocrite.”

Days before the vote was to take place, Florida Gov. Ruben Askew was asked about the Miami campaign at a news conference. “If I were in Miami,” he responded, “I would have no difficulty in voting to repeal that ordinance.” He also said that he had no known gay people on his staff, and he wouldn’t hire any. Askew had been seen as being among a new breed of open-minded Southern Democrats, and his name was often mentioned as a potential Presidential contender.

The final vote wasn’t even close. When the special election came around, the final tally was 202,319 to just 89,562. Dade County voted overwhelmingly to jump onto Anita Bryant’s bandwagon. Bryant responded, “The laws of God and the cultural values of man have been vindicated,” and she announced that she would take her campaign to other cities across America.

Our Faggoty Queers

Articles about gay bars and gay life in the least-expected places, most out-of-the-way places surely must constitutes some lesser, c-list kind of click-bait (I know I’m always going to click) and Gawker is, well Gawker (and so I clicked). Which is why I’m surprised to be glad I clicked. This article has everything you expect from one titled “Inside Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar” — a brave owner, pervasive harassment, furtive customers, a penis shaman — and a very unusual twist in how the gay community in Ulaanbaatar found acceptance (and, more importantly, protection). And it came from the last place you might expect such a thing.

Since 2008, Mongolia has experienced a massive mining boom fueled by foreign investment, mostly Chinese, which generated local outrage over exploitive business and mining practices and terrible environmental destruction. This drove a rise in Mongolian nationalism, embodied by the neo-Nazi group Dayar Mongol. The dangers for LGBT people were as you might expect. In 2009, members of Dayar Mongol kidnapped three transwomen in broad daylight, took them to a cemetery, and beat and sexually assaulted them. Later that year, the LGBT Centre produced a film, “Lies of Liberty,” featuring an interview with one of the three attackers. The film apparently helped increase awareness of anti-LGBT violence. It also drove home a message: “What the ultra-nationalists did was shameful because they were targeting their own flesh and blood.”

What happened next really hit home to me, because it’s very similar to what I’ve witnessed while growing up in Appalachia, where, as in Mongolia, there is a deep distrust and often dislike for outsiders. In Appalachia, those outsiders can be anyone, even if it’s just someone from the next hollow over or as simple as someone outside of a family. The definition of insider vs outsider constantly shifts, based on a rough hierarchy of descending importance: family, church, religion (which is broader than a particular church) and community. (Occupying a different, transcendent place, of course, is race, although how that plays out can depend on the categories I just listed.) And when given a choice about who to hate more, they’ll pick outsiders every time. They may be faggoty queers, the reasoning will go, but they’re our faggoty queers.

And so something similar seems to have happened in Mongolia recently:

Recently, the ultra-nationalists have focused their ire on foreigners, in particular, the Chinese, who they believe are exploiting their economy and natural resources. Some groups, including Tsagaan Khass (White Swastika), have rebranded themselves as environmental groups fighting pollution generated by foreign-owned mines.

About a year after the attack, Dayar Mongol issued a formal apology to the victims. Anaraa says he hasn’t heard a single report of violence carried out by the ultra-nationalists against the LGBT community since the public apology.

…Not long ago, Zorig says he spoke with the leader of umbrella ultra-nationalist group Khukh Mongol (Blue Mongolia), which includes Dayar Mongol, who told him the group no longer sees the LGBT community and proprietors like Zorig as their enemies. The leader’s friend, an older trans woman, came out to him last year. The leader and other members of Blue Mongolia even visited Hanzo a few times themselves.

The leader told Zorig, “If anyone comes into your place and threatens you, just call me.”

Appealing to clannish loyalties doesn’t sound to me like a very sound strategy to address anti-LGBT violence. I’d never espouse it, whether we’re talking about Ulaanbaatar, Moscow, or Pomeroy. But this example provides yet more evidence of how important being out of the closet can be, since it does allow LGBT people to take their rightful place in that hierarchy I mentioned.

Today Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From Arizona Gay News (Tucson, AZ), May 5, 1977, page 4.

The Arizona Daily News described the Back Pocket two years after it opened:

BACK POCKET – 2921 N 1st Ave. Tucson. On March 15, 1976, during one of the freak snow storms in Tucson, the Back Pocket opened its doors. Formerly an open sky patio extension of the Stonewall called Stoneynook, it took shape as a quiet, intimate place away from the disco in the Stonewall.

All work on the building from electrical to carpentry was done completely by gay people. Featuring split level seating, natural surroundings and lighting, fireplace and atrium all add up to make a very pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. BACK POCKET features fantastic steak dinner every Sunday for a very nominal cost, Spaghetti dinners every Thursday for under a buck and group activities which include volley ball on Sunday afternoons during the spring and summer in the parking lot. All this shows a true effort on the part of owners John Morgan and Tom Seward to give another dimension to the Tucson Gay Community.

[Source: “Out & About.” Arizona Gay News (February 4, 1977): 3.

Emphasis Mine

Editor, the Citizen:

Re: The murder of Richard Heakin by four teen-agers.

“I was not surprised to hear the decision of the honorable Ben Birdsall to try those poor youths as juveniles, thereby insuring the proverbial slap-on-the-wrist penalty for their dastardly deed.

My only question is: Would this decision have been the same if the young man so cruelly beaten to death had been the son of a judge, or the mayor, or some other fine, upstanding citizen? After all, what does one less “queer” mean to the society in which we live?

And, of course, those well-behaved young boys certainly meant no harm, did they? … I know that when my sone was that age, he certainly wasn’t hanging around outside any bar looking for hassles — or anything else.

This decision of the honorable judge will serve as notice to all other thrill-seeking young boys that if they maintain a decent school average, et., they are free to go out and murder anyone they wish and they can rest that no “murder one” wrap will ever hang over their fair heads.

Ah, Justice

G.L. Ryan

[Source: Letters to the editor, Tucson Daily Citizen (Aug 2, 1976): 18.]

Today In History, 1976: Richard J Heakin Murdered

Richard J. Heakin, Jr.

40 YEARS AGO: You could only cruise Tucson’s Speedway Blvd on a hot summer night for so long before boredom sets in. But if a carload of bored teens turned north onto Euclid and kept going past where Euclid merges onto First, and then kept going another six blocks past Grant, they could relive their boredom by harassing the faggots going in and out of the Stonewall Tavern. That’s why in the very early morning hours of June 6, thirteen of those high school teens were prowling Stonewall’s dirt parking lot, looking to liven things up.

Richard J. Heakin, Jr., a 21 year old microfilm technician from Lincoln, Nebraska, was in Tucson for a week, visiting friends. He had been out to everyone he knew, and was active with gay organizations in Nebraska. His family welcomed his partner into their home. Heakin had saved enough money to buy a new car, and he drove it to Tucson. As the week came to a close, his friends suggested they go to the Stonewall for one last night out before he began his trip back home the next day.

But by 12:30 a.m., things inside the tavern were getting tense. As patrons tried to leave, they were harassed and accosted by a menacing gang of high school students roming the parking lot that surrounded the bar. When one patron tried to leave, a student tripped him, called him a faggot and took a swing at him. The swing missed, and the patron went back into the bar to call the police.

Before police responded, Heakin and six of his friends decided it was time to leave. They stepped outside, and four of the youths approach them. “Somebody yelled run,” one of Heakin’s friends told a reporter, “but he (Heakin) held back. He didn’t expect it.” Charles J. Shemwell, 17 and a varsity football player, delivered two karate-like kicks and a solid punch to Heakin’s neck. Heakin, five foot eight and all of 136 pounds, fell back against a car and was immediately out cold. The county medical examiner would later testify that the single blow to his neck caused extensive hemorrhaging. Heakin’s friends rushed to his side to find him breathing laboriously. Someone called an ambulance, and Heakin was rushed to the University hospital where he died 45 minutes later of brain injuries.

A few hours later, police tracked down the four assailants. Arrested at their homes were Shemwell, Herman J. Overpeck, 15 and a freshman football player and wrestler, Scott McDonald, 16 and a football player, and Russell Van Cleve, 16.

The local gay community, which had not been big on organizing until now, circulated a petition demanding justice. Al DeLabio, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church said, “We’ve had four or five murders in this city that I’ve heard of, and they’ve been swept under the rug.” Stonewall Tavern owner John Morgan said harassment of customers at his bar and at the other three gay bars and bathhouse in town “ranges from vandalism to egg-throwing to beating, and, obviously, murder.” Several others complained of ongoing police harassment, a charge that Police Chief William J. Gilkinson denied. “In some jurisdictions,” he said, “police have paid too much attention to homosexual bars… It is my opinion that any citizen has a right to conduct himself in any particular lifestyle he enjoys.” But Morgan countered, “The police just don’t have an accurate picture of crime in this area… If a guy was beaten up in the parking lot of the Stonewall, and he happens to be a teacher, his is not going to go to the police because he’d be out of work in two days.”

The Pima County Attorney’s Office quickly announced that they would seek to try the four teens as adults for first-degree murder. But before the four could stand trial as adults, a state Superior Court judge would have to certify that they “were not amenable to treatment or rehabilitation as delinquent children … and the safety or interest of the public requires that the children be transferred for criminal prosecution.”

Judge Ben. C. Birdsall began hearing testimony from witnesses on June 29. On July 1, he released the four youths from Juvenile Court custody. On July 9, he reduced the charges to involuntary manslaughter, after ruling that there was “no evidence” of premeditation (for first degree murder) or malice (for second-degree murder). During the hearing to determine whether the four would stand trial as adults, he heard a long parade of witnesses describing the defendants — and especially Shemwell — as model students from good families. Prosecutor James Himelic got tired of the five hours of the parade of witnesses singing the students’ praises. At one point he objected to the introduction of Shemwell’s trophies and 4-H ribbons as evidence, saying they were irrelevant. Judge Birdsall overruled his objection.

On July 23, Birdsall ruled that Shemwell would stand trial, but only as a juvenile. Birdsall justified that it was “the first and only unlawful act of violence Shemwell has engaged in. I don’t believe anything like that will happen again.” With Shemwell being the only one of the three who witnesses identified as physically assaulting Heakin, it wasn’t surprising that over the next few days, Birdsall ruled that the other three also would not face trial as adults.

Birdsall found the four delinquent in the manslaughter charge. All four remained in their parents custody until sentencing. The options available ranged from probation to detention in the Juvenile Center until they turned 21. On October 21, Burdsall selected the most lenient sentence possible: probation.

But in case anyone should think they got off scott-free for killing a man, Birdsall let it be known that there would be conditions for their probation: No more cruising, a 10 p.m. curfew (unless their parents decided otherwise), and mandatory summer jobs. “This is not a slap on the wrist,” Birdsell said, after delicately slapping their wrists.

Members of the recently-formed Tucson Gay Coalition were outraged. At a press conference, Cathy M Hemler said Judge Birdsall’s sentences were “not even a slap on the wrist.” In a statement, the group said, “We and many other gay people in this community have withheld our judgment until our criminal court system acted upon the law. We didn’t have much faith, but we had hoped that gays could expect justice from this society’s institutions.” Gordon Wilson said that Birdsall’s decision meant that killing gay people wasn’t really a serious crime. The Tucson Daily Citizen opined that “the disturbing pattern set by Birdsall ever since he assumed the case” represented a “tragic Tucson example of lost justice.” Tucson’s citizenry seemed to agree, as letters to the editor flooded in to the two daily newspapers. One letter writer said that the sentence wasn’t so much a slap on the wrist as it was a pat on the back.

The Richard J. Heakin, Jr. Memorial in Sunset Park.

Community outrage over Birdsall’s decisions prompted several important changes in the city of Tucson. The Tucson police department established a Community Liaison-Safety patrol to check Tucson’s gay bars and parking lots. On February 4, 1977, Tucson joined the first wave of cities to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance based on sexual orientation. On June 26, 1977, Tucson held its first Gay Pride Picnic/Heakin Memorial in Himmel Park. In 2002, community activists placed a memorial to Richard J. Heakin, Jr., in Sunset Park in front of City Hall, commemorating “a tragedy that has transformed us and our history into a triumph of community spirit.”

[Sources: Edward Bassett. “4 teen-agers held: Man beaten to death at North Side bar.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 7, 1976): 1, 2.

“Adult trials asked for teen-agers in tavern beating death.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 8, 1976): 1.

San Negri. “Gays charge harassment.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 15, 1976): 21.

“Youth testifies victim kicked twice: Killing ended trip to ‘hassle queers’.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 30, 1976): 5.

Cheryle Rodriguez. “Bar death suspects home after 24 days.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 2, 1976): 29.

Cheryle Rodriguez. “Bar death charges might be reduced.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 8, 1976): 25.

“Judge reduces charges in bar-beating death.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 10, 1976): 11.

“Beating death hearing begins: Teen admits kicking Heakin.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 22, 1976): 25.

“Youth to face slaying trial as a juvenile.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 23, 1976): 31.

“Three slaying suspects face trial as a juvenile.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 24, 1976): 2.

“3 youths face jail in attack.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Sep 6, 1976): 46.

“Teens get probation in killing at tavern.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 21, 1976): 1.

“Gays criticize sentence.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 23, 1976): 4.

Editorial: “A tragic Tucson example of lost justice.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 23, 1976): 36.]

Born On This Day, 1875: Thomas Mann

(d. 1955) The German author, social critic and 1929 Nobel Prize winner mined the rich material of his own life and family for many of his novels, including the Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, and A Death in Venice, the latter of which is credited with introducing homosexual themes in the general culture. Mann married in 1905 and had six children, but when his diaries were unsealed in 1975, they revealed his struggles with his sexuality.

Mann’s political views began on the conservative end of the spectrum, with his support for the authoritarian policies of Kaiser Wilhelm II. But after the Great War, he became increasingly liberal, and his staunch support of democratic principles led naturally to his strident denunciations of Nazi policies. The Manns were vacationing in Switzerland when Hitler came to power in 1933 and they never returned home. Mann soon resettled in Southern California and recorded several anti-Nazi speeches which were broadcast into Germany during World War II by the BBC. After the war, he returned to Switzerland, where he died in 1955 of atherosclerosis.

Born On This Day, 1952: Harvey Fierstein

His acting debut was in 1971, when he appeared in Andy Warhol’s only play Pork. He’s most famous as the actor and playwright of the Tony Award-winning Torch Song Trilogy (1982), the story of a drag-performer’s search for true love and family. His book for La Cage aux Folles (1983) garnered him another Tony Award. He won another Tony, this time for Best Lead Actor in a Musical, for his role as Edna Turnblad in the Broadway version of John Water’s Hairspray (2002). Film credits include the film version of Torch Song Trilogy and Woody Allen’s Bullets over Broadway, and as Mrs. Doubtfire‘s makeup artist brother. He also lent his distinctive gravelly voice to a number of cartoons, including a 1999 HBO special based on his children’s book The Sissy Duckling, and guest appearances in The Simpsons and Family Guy. In 2012, he wrote the book for the stage version of Kinky Boots. His latest play, Casa Valentina opened on Broadway in 2014, and was nominated for four Tonys, including Best Play. Despite critical acclaim, the play closed after two months.