Box Turtle Bulletin

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From The Calendar (San Antonio, TX), May 9, 1986, page 6.

According to his obituary in The Calendar, Ted Langley was the first San Antonian to publicly acknowledge his diagnosis when he wrote about it in the local afternoon daily San Antonio Light in 1985. “He never lost his courage to face life,” his obituary read. “His courage forced the rest of us to face him and the disease which is our nightmare. By refusing to hide from his friends and his community, Ted made AIDS real. He represented the scores of Persons With AIDS and Persons with AIDS Related Complex in our community who are out of sight and out of mind.”

Emphasis Mine

The following is excerpted from a letter written by Frank Kameny (May 21), on behalf of the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), to the national board of the Daughters of Bilitis, which was threatening to leave ECHO over the issue of picketing:

As you know by now, our picketing of White House on May 29 was one of the most successful and important ventures our movement has undertaken.

We had nationwide — and worldwide — publicity — in every favorable sense. It was shown on TV in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Indiana, Texas, Seattle, that we know of so far. … The picketing was sell and properly done. The 10 men and 3 women participating were well-groomed, and well-dressed — suits, white shirts, and ties, for men; dresses for women were mandatory. We were told that ours was an impressive-looking picket line indeed. … The entire enterprise was carried out with order and with dignity.

In view of all of us, the adoption of picketing, on a regular basis, and properly done, is one of the most important advances in the homophile movement in recent years. In every good sense these demonstrations are gaining us attention and respect. …

At the ECHO delegates meeting in New York on Saturday, June 5, we were informed that such demonstrations are considered to be against the policies of DOB, and that if ECHO supported them, DOB would have to leave ECHO.

In addition, we were informed that DOB would picket only when the action was backed by the larger community.

First, this is arrant nonsense! When one has reached the stage where picketing is backed by the larger community, such picketing is no longer necessary. The entire force and thrust of picketing is a protest on issues not yet supported or backed by the larger community, in order to bring issues to the fore, and to help elicit that support.

Second, this is in keeping with a mentality which has pervaded this movement from its beginning — homosexuals must never do anything for themselves; they must never come out into the open. They must work through and behind others. They must never present their own case — let others do so for them. We have outgrown this “closet-queen” type of approach, and it is well that we have.

[Source: Michael G. Long (ed.) Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014): 96-98]

Today In History, 1965: ECHO’s Endorsement of Picketing Threatens To Split the Gay Rights Movement

In 1963, representatives of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., the Mattachine Society of New York, the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis, and Philadelphia’s Janus Society came together to launch the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), to foster better communication and cooperation between the groups. In addition to its annual conferences, ECHO delegates met once a month to plan the annual conference and to exchange ideas and discuss general problems and come to agreements on plans of action.

Beginning in late 1964 and continuing onto 1965, members of the ECHO coalition’s organizations were pioneering a new era of gay rights activism with the start of some of the first pickets of the gay rights movement (Sep 19, Apr 17, Apr 18, May 29). On June 5, the majority of the delegates at June 5 ECHO meeting voted in favor of a resolution endorsing the practice of picketing for civil liberties.

The move was exceptionally controversial, especially to to the national leadership of the Daughters of Bilitis. DoB members Barbara Gittings (Jul 31), Kay Lahusen (Jan 5) and soon-to-be DoB President Shirley Willer (Sep 26) were very enthusiastic about engaging in direct action. But Willer and Meredith Grey knew the move would be contentious and sought input from the DoB national board. The board reminded Grey and Willer that picketing was a violation of DoB policy. Grey and Willer placed another resolution before the ECHO delegates pledging that ECHO would not adopt policies that were contrary to those of member organizations within ECHO.

That resolution failed, and the DoB board decided to cut its ties with ECHO. “At this particular point we do not have confidence in the leadership as demonstrated by the Eastern Mattachine groups, who, under present circumstances, would be able to override DoB in any and all cases,” the board stated. “And what DoB’s participation would amount to is tacit support of the Mattachine program. We would prefer to hold DoB’s identity as a separate organization intact and cooperate with the Eastern Mattachine groups in so far as we are able.” By then, the issue of picketing became just one of many issues dividing DoB from ECHO. As a women’s organization vigilant to preserve its place in the male-dominated homophile movement, many DoB activists were determined to protect women’s interests from the mens’ tendency to dominate discussions and decision-making. While the issue of picketing was the immediate impetus of the split, it was just one more grievance among a larger constellation.

But that grievance wasn’t a trivial one. DoB cofounders Del Martin (May 5) and Phyllis Lyon (Nov 10) didn’t reject direction action outright, but objected to what they saw as a lack of planning and preparation in case of arrests. “Timing and strategy are of the utmost importance in direct action projects — as is proper training in techniques of non-violence.” They felt the DoB leadership wasn’t ready to make such an important decision. Other DoB leaders rejected direct action entirely. One said, “only dirty, unwashed rabble do that.” Del Shearer, DoB’s vice president objected strongly with picketing “at this time or in the very near future” since the homophile groups had not yet had much impact on “the reflection of custom and public policy” of the general public.

ECHO decided to move ahead with two more planned pickets, in Philadelphia (Jul 4) and at the Pentagon (Jul 31). ECHO also approved another resolution imploring DoB to remain affiliated with ECHO, and tasked Frank Kameny (May 21) with conveying ECHO’s sentiments to the DoB board. His June 8 letter to DoB leadership, in typical Kameny fashion, was not particularly tactful:

I realize that you are very conservative in outlook. …I do not ask or expect that you will be the leaders, taking an avant-garde position or that you will re-do and remake yourselves over in the image of other groups. But can you not even allow the ECHO affiliation, WITH YOU AS A MEMBER, to sponsor a demonstration.

The homophile movement is becoming increasingly activist. “Uncle Tomism” in our movement is on its way toward becoming as discredited as it is in the Negro movement. Surely you can find a compromise position which will not rule you out of the most important activities…

With the kindest of feelings toward you, I will say that if you do not keep up with the movement, I predict that DOB will go “down the drain” as a meaningful organization — not be over act of anyone else in the movement, but because that’s just the way movements evolve.

…In summary, on this point, I will say, simply, that if you withdraw from ECHO at this time, you will be removing yourselves from participation in some of the most important activities ever to affect the American homosexual, and the loss will be primarily DOB’s — and permanently so.

[Sources: Marcia M. Gallo. Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights (New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers, 2006): 114-117.

Michael G. Long (ed.) Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014): 96-99, 106.]

Today In History, 1981: “Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published this notice in the June 5, 1981 edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC was skittish about how to handle the report, knowing that if it’s gay angle was too provocative or prominent, it might bring about adverse political consequences. The CDC’s concerns about a rising political backlash against the gay community would soon be confirmed when the religious right seized found the new disease to be a handy cudgel. And so this report, the first clinical description of a new disease which we would later know as AIDS, appeared tucked inside on page two, with all references to homosexuality dropped from its title:

Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles
In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died. All 5 patients had laboratory-confirmed previous or current cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and candidal mucosal infection. Case reports of these patients follow.

Patient 1: A previously healthy 33-year-old man developed P. carinii pneumonia and oral mucosal candidiasis in March 1981 after a 2-month history of fever associated with elevated liver enzymes, leukopenia, and CMV viruria. The serum complement-fixation CMV titer in October 1980 was 256; in may 1981 it was 32.* The patient’s condition deteriorated despite courses of treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX), pentamidine, and acyclovir. He died May 3, and postmortem examination showed residual P. carinii and CMV pneumonia, but no evidence of neoplasia.

Patient 2: A previously healthy 30-year-old man developed p. carinii pneumonia in April 1981 after a 5-month history of fever each day and of elevated liver-function tests, CMV viruria, and documented seroconversion to CMV, i.e., an acute-phase titer of 16 and a convalescent-phase titer of 28* in anticomplement immunofluorescence tests. Other features of his illness included leukopenia and mucosal candidiasis. His pneumonia responded to a course of intravenous TMP/.SMX, but, as of the latest reports, he continues to have a fever each day.

Patient 3: A 30-year-old man was well until January 1981 when he developed esophageal and oral candidiasis that responded to Amphotericin B treatment. He was hospitalized in February 1981 for P. carinii pneumonia that responded to TMP/SMX. His esophageal candidiasis recurred after the pneumonia was diagnosed, and he was again given Amphotericin B. The CMV complement-fixation titer in March 1981 was 8. Material from an esophageal biopsy was positive for CMV.

Patient 4: A 29-year-old man developed P. carinii pneumonia in February 1981. He had had Hodgkins disease 3 years earlier, but had been successfully treated with radiation therapy alone. He did not improve after being given intravenous TMP/SMX and corticosteroids and died in March. Postmortem examination showed no evidence of Hodgkins disease, but P. carinii and CMV were found in lung tissue.

Patient 5: A previously healthy 36-year-old man with clinically diagnosed CMV infection in September 1980 was seen in April 1981 because of a 4-month history of fever, dyspnea, and cough. On admission he was found to have P. carinii pneumonia, oral candidiasis, and CMV retinitis. A complement-fixation CMV titer in April 1981 was 128. The patient has been treated with 2 short courses of TMP/SMX that have been limited because of a sulfa-induced neutropenia. He is being treated for candidiasis with topical nystatin.

The diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia was confirmed for all 5 patients antemortem by closed or open lung biopsy. The patients did not know each other and had no known common contacts or knowledge of sexual partners who had had similar illnesses. Two of the 5 reported having frequent homosexual contacts with various partners. All 5 reported using inhalant drugs, and 1 reported parenteral drug abuse. Three patients had profoundly depressed in vitro proliferative responses to mitogens and antigens. Lymphocyte studies were not performed on the other 2 patients.

Reported by MS Gottlieb, MD, HM Schanker, MD, PT Fan, MD, A Saxon, MD, JD Weisman, DO, Div of Clinical Immunology-Allergy; Dept of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine; I Pozalski, MD, Cedars-Mt. Siani Hospital, Los Angeles; Field services Div, Epidemiology Program Office, CDC.

Editorial Note: Pneumocystis pneumonia in the United States is almost exclusively limited to severely immunosuppressed patients (1). The occurrence of pneumocystosis in these 5 previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency is unusual. The fact that these patients were all homosexuals suggests an association between some aspect of a homosexual lifestyle or disease acquired through sexual contact and Pneumocystis pneumonia in this population. All 5 patients described in this report had laboratory-confirmed CMV disease or virus shedding within 5 months of the diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia. CMV infection has been shown to induce transient abnormalities of in vitro cellular-immune function in otherwise healthy human hosts (2,3). Although all 3 patients tested had abnormal cellular-immune function, no definitive conclusion regarding the role of CMV infection in these 5 cases can be reached because of the lack of published data on cellular-immune function in healthy homosexual males with and without CMV antibody. In 1 report, 7 (3.6%) of 194 patients with pneumocystosis also had CMV infection’ 40 (21%) of the same group had at least 1 other major concurrent infection (1). A high prevalence of CMV infections among homosexual males was recently reported: 179 (94%) had CMV viruria; rates for 101 controls of similar age who were reported to be exclusively heterosexual were 54% for seropositivity and zero fro viruria (4). In another study of 64 males, 4 (6.3%) had positive tests for CMV in semen, but none had CMV recovered from urine. Two of the 4 reported recent homosexual contacts. These findings suggest not only that virus shedding may be more readily detected in seminal fluid than urine, but also that seminal fluid may be an important vehicle of CMV transmission (5).

All the above observations suggest the possibility of a cellular-immune dysfunction related to a common exposure that predisposes individuals to opportunistic infections such as pneumocystosis and candidiasis. Although the role of CMV infection in the pathogenesis of pneumocystosis remains unknown, the possibility of P. carinii infection must be carefully considered in a differential diagnosis for previously healthy homosexual males with dyspnea and pneumonia.

References

1. Walzer PD, Perl DP, Krogstad DJ, Rawson G, Schultz MG. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in the United States. Epidemiologic, diagnostic, and clinical features. Ann Intern Med 1974;80:83-93.
2. Rinaldo CR, Jr, Black PH, Hirsh MS. Interaction of cytomegalovirus with leukocytes from patients with mononucleosis due to cytomegalovirus. J Infect Dis 1977;136:667-78.
3. Rinaldo CR, Jr, Carney WP, Richter BS, Black PH, Hirsh MS. Mechanisms of immunosuppression in cytomegaloviral mononucleosis. J Infect Dis 1980;141:488-95.
4. Drew WL, Mintz L, Miner RC, Sands M, Ketterer B. Prevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in homosexual men. J Infect Dis 1981;143:188-92.
5. Lang DJ, Kummer JF. Cytomegalovirus in semen: observations in selected populations,. J Infect Dis 1975; 132:472-3.

The MMWR went out to thousands of doctors across the country, and to dozens of science and health reporters at the major newspapers. The Los Angeles Times quickly reported on the local story of five gay men who had died in L.A. hospitals, and speculated that the unusual pneumonia was somehow “related to gay life style.” The San Francisco Chronicle’s David Perlman did some digging and determined that the “mysterious outbreak of a sometimes fatal pneumonia” was also occurring in San Francisco and New York. So far, the new disease had only one name: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, or PCP, but it would quickly become apparent that PCP would be merely a symptom of a much more serious underlying immune deficiency.

A month later, the CDC, in another issue of MMWR, would add more information about additional PCP cases, and add an unusual skin cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, as another condition that gay men were dying of (see Jul 3). That report spawned talk of a “gay cancer,” which many in the gay community took to be a separate disease from PCP. The new underlying disease wouldn’t get a semi-official name for almost another year, when it was mistakenly called GIRD, or Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, despite the fact that others who weren’t gay were also coming down with the illness: Haitians, Africans, hemophiliac, intravenous drug users. It wasn’t until mid-1982 when the CDC, which had refused to use GRID to describe the illness, coined the designation of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.

Today In History, 1989: Republicans Conduct Whisper Campaign Against Democratic House Speaker

House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA)

Just as Rep. Tom Foley (D-WA) was about to take the gavel from recently-disgraced former Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX), the Republican National Committee’s communications director Mark Goodin began circulating a memo among state party chairmen and GOP Congressmen titled, “Tom Foley: Out of the Liberal Closet.” The memo compared Foley’s voting record with that of Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA), who had come out of the gay closet only two years earlier (May 29). GOP Chairman Lee Atwater, who had made his reputation smearing other reputations left and right, stood by Goodin’s memo, calling it “no big deal” and “factually accurate,” and professed astonishment that anyone could interpret the memo as a slur. The memo didn’t come right out and accuse Foley of being gay (labeling someone as gay in 1989 would have been taken as an accusation rather than a mere description), but the subtext was unmistakable. And while Atwater was protesting the memo’s innocence, other Republicans cheered the memo and sought more personal assaults on Democratic leaders.

GOP Chairman Lee Atwater

Republican minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-GA) even spent several days calling dozens of reporters trying to get the rumor into print. One of those reporters, Lars-Erik Nelson of the New York Daily News, finally ran with it on June 5 after one of Gingrich’s top aides called him saying The Washington Post was going to run the story. “We hear it’s little boys,” Nelson was told. The Post confirmed that they had been contacted but refused to run it. When Rep. Frank learned of the memo, he blasted GOP leaders for circulating it and threatened to expose closeted House Republicans, of which there were a few.

Other Republicans quickly began disassociating themselves from the memo, including President George Bush, whose White House Chief John Sununu told reporters that both he and Bush had reprimanded Atwater. “The President was very upset,” Sununu said. “I was upset. It went too far. It was wrong. The innuendo was wrong. It’s wrong not because it damages our relationship with the Democrats. It’s wrong because it’s wrong. It’s a terrible thing to happen at this time. It was not appropriate or fair.” Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) called the memorandum “garbage” and House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-IL) also denounced it.

Goodin took the fall, resigning on the same day that Bush rebuked Atwater. Atwater also tried to remove his fingerprints. “I think it was bad taste and bad judgment,” Atwater said. “I told Mark that. I play hardball politics, but I don’t cross the line. This memo crossed the line.” With Goodin’s departure, Bush stood behind the GOP chairman. “Lee Atwater is doing a great job,” he said during a meeting with state party chairmen a week later. Dole quickly fell in line: “The president has spoken and Lee Atwater is staying.”

Atwater didn’t stay GOP chairman for long. The following year, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, and died a year later in 1991. During that interval, he converted to Catholicism and personally apologized to many of the politicians who he had personally attacked over the years. One of those receiving an apology was Tom Turnipseed, who Atwater mercilessly attacked during a 1980 Congressional campaign in South Carolina. Atwatter planted a story that Turnipseed “has had psychotic treatment.” When Turnipseed’s campaign demanded an apology, Atwater said he wouldn’t respond to someone who had “got hooked up to jumper cables.” A decade later as Atwater was confronting his own mortality, he wrote to Turnipseed. “It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called ‘jumper cable’ episode,” he wrote. “My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.” It’s not clear whether anyone who Atwater gay-baited also received an apology.

Born On This Day, 1883: John Maynard Keynes

(d. 1946) The British economist has had a profound influence on macroeconomics and government economic policy. His ideas now carry his name — Keynesian economics — which argued that free markets didn’t always provide the best solutions in times of economic turmoil. He argued that counter cyclic spending during economic downturns could provide vital demand to keep businesses and industries afloat in times of lower employment levels. He advocated economic stimulus policies to keep people employed. “With men and plants unemployed, it is ridiculous to say that we cannot afford these new developments,” he wrote in 1928 of the need for spending on public works. “It is precisely with these plants and these men that we shall afford them.”

Keynes’s economic policies weren’t the only thing revolutionary about him in the early twentieth century. He was also very open about his sexuality. Between 1901 and 1915, he kept separate diaries where he tabulated his sexual encounters in a kind of a code that has baffled historians and biographers since then. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a group of English writers, artists and philosophers which included E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and the artist Duncan Grant, who is said to have been Keynes’s great love. Stratchy was also a lover, but he must have gotten a glimpse at Keynes’s diary: Stratchy was put off by Keynes’s manner of “treat[ing] his love affairs statistically.” Keynes eventually married the Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova, and their marriage did appear to have been a satisfactory one.

Born On This Day, 1898: Federico García Lorca

(d. 1936) Born in a small town to the west of Granada, García Lorca abandoned law studies at the University of Grenada to pursue literature and theater. When he staged his first play, El Maleficio de la Mariposa (The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, 1920, about an impossible love between a cockroach and a butterfly), it was laughed off the stage, which encouraged Garcí­a Lorca to instead turn his energies to poetry and fiction. His poetry collections included Impresiones y Paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes, 1918), Libro de Poemas (Book of Poems, 1921), Canciones (Songs, 1927) and Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads, 1928). García Lorca became a fixture in Spain’s avant-guarde as a member of Generación del 27, an influential group of authors and poets who came of age between 1923 and 1927. Others influenced by García Lorca (and who, in turn, influenced him) included the surreal painters Salvador Dali and Óscar Domínguez, and filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

In 1929, García Lorca traveled to New York to study English at Columbia University, but he spent his time writing instead of studying. The result was another poetry collection, Poeta en Nueva York (A poet in New York), was published posthumously in 1942). Influenced by the Wall Street crash of 1929 which García Lorca had witnessed while there, Poeta en Nueva York condemned materialistic values and explored alienation, isolation, and the oppression of the African-American community he encountered there. When he returned to Spain in 1930, his iconoclastic art and left-leaning politics found instant favor in the newly established Spanish Republic. He was appointed director of a university student theatre company and was paid by the Ministry of Education to bring modern performances to remote rural areas free of charge. “The theatre is a school of weeping and of laughter,” he wrote, “a free forum, where men can question norms that are outmoded or mistaken and explain with living example the eternal norms of the human heart.”

When civil war broke out in 1936 between the Republic and rebellious Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco, García Lorca’s habit of “questioning norms” may have marked him as the Nationalists’ enemy, although contemporaries note that he maintained friendships on both sides of the battle lines. García Lorca’s sexual orientation, also, wouldn’t help matters. On August 18, 1936, his brother-in-law, mayor Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, was shot, and García Lorca was arrested that same afternoon. Controversy still surrounds the details of García Lorca death — who shot him and why — but it is believed that he was shot with three others outside of Granada on August 19. One executioner is reputed to have said, “I fired two bullets into his ass for being a queer.” A year later, an article appeared in a Nationalist newspaper lionizing García Lorca, calling him “the finest poet of Imperial Spain,” but Franco placed a general ban on his work until 1953 when a censored Obras Completas (Complete Works) was published.

Born On This Day, 1951: Suze Orman

She started out with a B.A. in social work and worked as a waitress in Berkeley before becoming a financial adviser for Merrill Lynch. In 1983, she moved to Prudential Bache Securities, where she became vice-president of investments. Four years later, she quit to found her own financial firm. Not bad for someone without an MBA. In 2002, she began appearing on television in her own program, The Suze Orman Show, which aired on weekends on CNBC until March, 2015. In 2010, Orman married Kathy Travis, a co-producer of The Suze Orman Show.

Born On This Day, 1974: Chad Allen

I didn’t know this until I was reading up a few years ago for this write-up: one of Chad’s early major roles was on the television series St. Elsewhere, where he played the autistic son of Dr. Westphall from 1983, to 1988. He also appeared in Our House and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. In 1996, he was outed by the supermarket tabloid The Globe, which published photos of him kissing another man in a hot tub. When he was cast to play the role of real-life Christian missionary Nate Saint in the 2006 docudrama End of the Spear, conservative Christians were outraged over an openly gay man in the role. The real Steve Saint, Nate’s son, however put aside his own reservations. After seeing the film, he felt that God was pleased with Chad playing his father. End of the Spear became one of the few independently released Christian films to earn more than a million dollars in its first three weekends of release.

In 2007, Allen took on Christian themes again when he starred in Save Me, about a drug-addicted man who entered an ex-gay program. In 2011, he co-produced and appeared in Hollywood to Dollywood, a documentary about twin brothers who travel across country in an RV named “Joline” to meet their idol, Dolly Parton. In 2015, he announced that he was retiring from acting and will study to become a clinical psychologist.

Another Honduran LGBT Activist Murdered

René Martínez holds a placard reading, “I Run for Life. #Chamelecon Peace and Harmony.” (via La Prensa)

I don’t think there’s anyplace worse in the Western Hemisphere to be LGB or T than Honduras. Activists on the ground there say that more than 150 LGBT people have been killed there in recent years, with two of them — Walter Tróchez and Paola Barraza — being leading activists who lost their lives. René Martínez, who ran an anti-violence outreach center in the Chamelecón neighborhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second largest city, was killed this past week:

Friends called him Reny.

La Prensa, a Honduran newspaper, reported Rene Martínez’s family reported him missing on Wednesday after he left his home in the city of San Pedro Sula’s Chamelecón neighborhood and got into someone’s car.

La Prensa reported that Martínez’s relatives identified his body at San Pedro Sula’s morgue on Friday. The newspaper said it appears that Martínez was strangled to death.

…The U.S. Embassy in Honduras on Friday condemned “in the strongest terms the apparent murder of Rene Martínez.”

“A leader in the LGBTI community in San Pedro Sula and a rising political figure in Honduras, his death comes as a great shock,” said the Embassy in a statement. “We offer our condolences to his friends and family, and expect a full and thorough investigation into the circumstances of his death. The United States has already offered our assistance to Honduran authorities working to bring justice in this case.”

According to La Prensa, local officials say they don’t know whether Martinez was killed “for something personal or political, or whether it relates to the anti-violence work he was doing Chamelecón.” Martínez was also a rising figure in the ruling center-right National Party as an advocate for LGBT rights.

San Pedro Sula had been the “murder capital of the world” since 2011 due to drug and gang violence, only to be overtaken by Caracas, Venezuela this year. (Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capital, currently comes in at number 6.) Honduras also scores 31% in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From The Advocate, October 24, 1973, page 10. (Personal collection)

The Church of the Beloved Disciple was founded in 1968 by Fr. Robert Clement. Modeled after the older rites of the Roman Catholic Church by way of three other breakaway catholic moments, Beloved Disciple’s main focus was serving the gay community. In 1970, his church innaugurated the sacrament of “Holy Union” as a substitute for marriage for same-sex couples. In 1973, the church moved into its first permanent home on 9th Avenue. Clement said the new church was “the first property to be owned by a gay east of the Mississippi River and north of Florida.” The Advocate described the church’s move to its new digs:

Fr. Robert Clement and Fr. Deacon John Noble. From GAY (New York, NY), November 1973, page 5. (Personal collection)

An estimated 75 members of the congregation assembled for the dedication march at I PM Sunday at the Moravian Church on Lexington Avenue at 30th Street, where Beloved Disciple worshipped for a time before its expulsion by Moravian officials. The group carried the Blessed Sacrament with vestments and altar furnishings to the new church.

There they were joined by about 300 other worshippers who entered the old three-story carriage house for the blessing of the altar and the sanctuary. Following the “Te Deum” sung in what he called “a festive setting.” Fr. Clement preached the sermon. The services followed the ancient Gallican Rite of St. Germain, thought to be the oldest Mass to survive complete in Europe.

Fr. Deacon John Noble, Fr. Clement’s lover, called “the simple splendor of the setting” a “moving experience for everyone who came.”

The Holy Union joined two young men from Montreal, who came to the services with 40 Canadian guests. Beloved Disciple, which has one mission in Philadelphia, is contemplating setting up another in Montreal.

According to another article in the New York City monthly GAY, the new church building would double as a community center. Rooms were being booked by a number of groups, including a lesbian Alcoholic Anonymous meeting.

Today In History, 1965: FBI Collects Info on Homophile Groups “Obstructing the Efforts of the Bureau”

On On June 4, 1965, the Birmingham, Alabama field office sent a memo addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover with a copy of a document “furnished… on 6-1-65 by Major DON DRISSIL, Region 4, 111th Intelligence Group, Ft. McClellan, Alabama, U.S. Army Duty Station, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Major DRISSIL advised that the source of this document was unknown; however it had been furnished to him by one of his investigators who had obtained it somewhere in the State of Florida. It is being furnished to the Bureau for information and any action deemed necessary in the event it has not been previously furnished.” The memo, which had been routed to Associate Director Clyde Tolson and other senior staff at the F.B.I., quoted the following:

EAST COAST HOMOPHILE ORGANIZATIONS

How To Handle A Federal Investigator

The discriminatory policies of the Federal Government in disqualifying the homosexual citizen from Federal employment, from eligibility for a security clearance, and from service in and fully honorable discharge from the Armed Forces, are not only not justified, but are gravely injurious to the national interest. It is, therefore, the patriotic duty of every American citizen to do everything lawfully within his power to impede and to obstruct the implementation of these policies, and to encourage others to do likewise. Central to that implementation is the conduct of investigations involving the administration of interrogations. To those finding themselves subject to such interrogations, the following pointers and suggestions are offered.

1. No citizen is required to submit to an interrogation by any Federal official — F.B.I., Civil Service Commission, military investigators, etc. — or even to speak to them. However, in certain instances (for example, where you yourself, rather than an acquaintance are the subject of the investigation) it may be advisable to grant the Government the privilege of interviewing you.

2. In case of such interrogation, your choice is NOT between telling truth or untruth, but between speaking and not speaking. Never lie, falsify, or misrepresent. On matters relating to homosexuality — yours or anyone else’s — just refuse to speak.

3. If you are asked any questions at all on homosexuality, in any aspect, your ONLY answers should be: “These are matters which are of no proper concern to the Government of the United States under any circumstances whatsoever.” and “This is information which the Government does not have to know.” Stand your ground on these. Do not engage in philosophical or psychological or sociological discourses. Do not make use of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution; it is not necessary, and may be harmful.

4. Sign no statements; take no lie detector tests; give no names or other information about any other person.

5. Under no circumstances tolerate unannounced visitations by investigators at your home or your place of employment. Refuse to speak to them. Insist upon a proper appointment, at a time and place of YOUR choice and convenience. INSIST upon the right to be accompanied by one or more persons of your choice (without restriction to professional legal counsel) to act not only as counsel, but as witness.

6. The interrogators will try to cajole, to persuade, to bully, to demand, to threaten, to bargain. Do not be taken in. Regardless of what they may say and how they may act, they are “out to get you.” Among a few of their favorite techniques are:

a. “You are not cooperating.” Of course you are not. Continue not to.

b. “All of this is not really very important, and nothing will happen to you; we just need a few questions answered and your signature, so we can complete our records and close our files.” Do not believe it.

c. “The laws or regulations require you to reply.” This is not true, regardless of what may be quote to you or even shown to you in print.

d. The “good guy and bad guy” approach. After interrogator A has unpleasantly browbeaten you for a while, interrogator B will intercede, supposedly as your friend, to try to make things easier for you, and to modify interrogator A’s attitude. Do not be taken in. They are both your enemies.

7. This is stated with very strong over-emphasis because extensive experience has shown that without it, this advice, as simple as it is, is not properly heeded: On matters having to do with homosexuality, say NOTHING; “nothing” means NO thing, and “no” means NONE AT ALL, with NO exceptions. It does NOT mean “Just a little.” This means that you do NOT discuss juvenile homosexual experiences, and you do NOT discuss so-called passive acts, or anything else at all. You say NOTHING whatsoever. Do not attempt to exercise your judgment as to what may or may not be harmful to discuss. Close the door firmly and absolutely to discussion or comment upon ANY and EVERY aspect of homosexuality, and, in fact, of sex generally.

8. Do not confirm information which they allegedly have. They may not have what they have led you to believe they have and they may be only guessing and deducing. Even if there is no doubt as to their possession of information, you will be better off if there has been no confirmation or corroboration from you.

9. Insist that you be treated with the full respect and dignity due ALL American citizens in every status, by ALL their public servants, at ALL levels, at ALL times. If you are not so treated, walk out and do not return until you have received, in writing, an apology for past improper treatment, and assurances of future proper behavior. If you receive no such apology, object, by letter, to the appropriate Cabinet-level official, with details of the behavior and language involved, and inform you local Mattachine Society or other homophile organization.

10. Remember that the information involved in investigations is classified, as far as the Government is concerned. If anyone — particularly including your employer — is informed by anyone but you, of the subject or any details of an investigation of you, you can bring criminal charges against the investigators or other officials who have disclosed the information. Do so. At the same time, do not allow yourself to be misled into believing that you are not permitted to discuss any and all aspects of the matter with anyone you choose. You may seek counsel and advice from anyone, and are completely free to discuss all aspects of the matter with persons of your choice, at all times.

By following the advice above, you will be serving not only your own best interests and those of your acquaintances and fellow citizens, but the best interests of your country.

The statement ends with the addresses and phone numbers for the Mattachine Societies of Washington, D.C. and New York, the Daughters of Bilitis’ New York Chapter, and the Janus Society of Philadelphia.

That same day, another memo from the Louisville field office, also addressed to Director Hoover, contained the same mimeographed document. According to the Louisville memo, that copy was obtained by a Commanding Officer at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. The following day, another memo from the Newark office provided a two-page printed brochure with the same title that had been “found in a public telephone booth at Fort Monmouth, N.J.” In fact, “How To Handle A Federal Investigator” had been published in March of that year in The Eastern Mattachine Magazine, the official newsletter of the Mattachine Society of New York. Eastern Mattachine didn’t give an author’s name, but judging by its emphatic cadence and authoritative tone, it’s hard to imagine it being written by anyone other than Frank Kameny (see May 21), who had been working with several Federal employees who were being hounded out of their jobs and denied security clearances.

Four weeks after those memos were sent to Hoover, another memo went out from the FBI to an official of the Justice Department responding to a suggestion from the Department’s Training Division that the FBI provide “instructions issued by such groups as the American Nazi Party and the Mattachine Society to their members to obstruct the efforts of the bureau and law enforcement.” The FBI provided the Mattachine’s “How To Handle A Federal Investigator,” along with material from the Communist Party, the American Nazi Party, the Minutemen of America and the Ku Klux Klan, all of which the Bureau apparently viewed as equal threats.

Today In History, 1971: GAA Activists Conduct Gay Marriage Protest In New York

The Gay Liberation Front formed in July, 1969, almost immediately after Stonewall, formed by a younger generation of LGBT people impatient with the cautious and quiet ways things had always been done by the established gay rights groups in New York. Right out of the gate, GLF undertook several highly visible marches and protests (Jul 27, Sep 12, Nov 12, Mar 8). If the general public hadn’t heard about Stonewall yet, GLF’s protest made sure that they would nevertheless come to learn more about those young activists’ grievances. GLF was very effective in making voices heard and raising awareness. They were also good at delivering a swift kick in the butt of the gay community. But they got bogged down in figuring out what to do beyond that. A lot of that had to do with the GLF’s rejection of “patriarchal” leadership structures. Everything was done by group consensus, and that only came after exhaustive and often interminably picayune political discussions.

About six months after the GLF formed, a group of activists broke away to form the Gay Activists Alliance as a more professionally-run organization, with set goals, planning, leadership, and a specific focus on gay rights — the GLF was often distracted by a broader political platform encompassing the Vietnam War, Third World issues, and support for the Black Panther Party.. The GAA was less militant than the GLF, although it wasn’t above organizing marches, protests and sit-ins (Oct 8, Oct 27). Their focus was on addressing issues related to discrimination and anti-gay attitudes in the media. Gay marriage was never really on their radar, but in 1971, the GAA found themselves tackling the that very issue. They weren’t the first post-Stonewall activists to do this; Jack Baker and Mitch McConnell had unsuccessfully tried to get a marriage license in Minneapolis the year before (May 18). But unlike Baker and McConnell, the GAA’s interest in gay marriage didn’t rest in anyone wanting to get married. Instead, it came about as a result of a very specific provocation by a city official.

That provocation was a threat by New York City Clerk Herman Katz to sue Father Robert Clement for allegedly performing “illegal” gay marriages. Fr. Clement was pastor of the Church of the Beloved Disciple, a predominately gay church, where he performed “Holy Union” ceremonies at the request of gay couples. After the New York Post published Katz’s remarks, the GAA immediately decided, as one activist put it, “to raise his consciousness a little bit.”

Until a few years ago, it was hard to find much information about what happened during that day’s protest at the City Clerk’s office. But thanks to a three-part film posted by GAA member Randolfe Wicker (Feb 3) on YouTube in 2010, we have a lasting document of what a classic “zap” looked like back in the day.

The first part of the video covers pre-zap activities. It opens with Wicker interviewing Fr. Clement, going over the difference between marriage and “holy unions.” “We don’t use the term ‘marriage’,” explained Clement, “because that implies a legal concept and a marriage certificate and Bureau of Vital Statistics, and we are interested in a church concept which is spiritual, people pledging their love together in the eyes of God and asking for the blessing of God. …This was misinterpreted.” Back at the GAA Firehouse headquarters, GAA member Marc Rubin was preparing to go over their strategy for that day, while acknowledging that he was “scared shitless.” To get everyone literally on the same page, he read aloud from one of the leaflets they would be distributing:

Gay people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Gay people have the right to their own bodies. Gay people have the right to love. No nation, state or city has the right to deny gay people these inalienable rights. And no petty municipal clerk has the right to tell gay people how to live.

City Clerk Herman Katz has the arrogance to do this, saying, “If it looks like a marriage, it is a marriage. And I don’t care what they’re calling it, they’re violating the law.” We demand:

1. Mr. Katz keeps his bureaucratic nose out of gay relationships.
2. A full public apology from Mr. Katz to the entire gay community.
3. That Mr. Katz remove all suits pending or threatened against Fr. Robert Clement and the Church of the Beloved Disciple.
4. Gay Power to Gay Lovers.

Rubin stressed that the issue wasn’t gay marriage, although he recognized that that was all that people would likely be talking about. “Try and keep it to the point about gay rights and discrimination against gays,” he counseled. He also urged the gathering to hold firm in their convictions and not to concede ground to contrary views. “I think that we should never ‘understand’ their point of view. Any point of view which is opposed to gay rights is a wrong point of view — categorically, by fiat and word of God.” As for marriage, “This is not an issue at this particular time that we want to be arrested for. … So we’re going to avoid arrests. Which means that if the cops come and they say ‘We’re giving you five minutes to clear out’ and we can’t talk them into letting us stay longer, we’ll leave with some gay power chants and we’ll take our cake back here.”

These are the videos you want to watch if you ever want to see how the GAA conducted their protests. It’s pretty calm as GAA activists file into the Clerk’s office. Then Arthur Evans leads the group in a “Gay Power” chant while others setup of coffee and cake. When challenged by various officials, the protesters remain calm while declaring their demands. Voices rise with another chant of “Gay Power” and “Bigot! Bigot! Bigot!” as one official, who refuses to identify himself, calls the police.

Much of the rest of the zap consisted of answering phone calls from unsuspecting callers, laughing, joking, singing protest songs, and even a little bit of dancing while officials try to figure out what to do. After the initial tensions subsided, it actually looks like it was a pretty fun party. The cake was beautiful. When police arrived, activists broke out into another couple of chants of “Gay Power” before moving out, just as they had planned. “Would you like some cake?” one activist asked the smiling officers just before they packed up and left.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From The Advocate, April 16, 1981, classified section, page 17.

The Rusty Nail was opened sometime in the 1970s by three lesbian owners, although the bar catered to the bears and other men who flocked to the Russian River from San Francisco. It was little more than a run-down shack located on the way to the major gay resorts of Guerneville, but it boasted a large outdoor patio that was packed with men on Sundays as they made one final stop on the way back to San Francisco.

Emphasis Mine

Frank Kameny (May 21) to the editors of the Washington Post:

June 3, 1968

Gentlemen:

I note that the State Department has just gone through its annual American “fertility rite” by announcing the firing of a certain number of homosexuals in the preceding year. …

The ancient Aztecs or Mayans used to sacrifice virgins, annually, to propitiate the gods and to gain favors from them. The State Department sacrifices homosexuals, annually, to propitiate the House Appropriations Committee, and to gain money from them. There is little difference.

Sincerely yours,
Franklin E. Kameny

[Source: Michael G. Long (ed.) Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014): 155.]