Box Turtle Bulletin

Colorado Republican Leadership Thwarts House Majority, Runs Out the Clock on Civil Unions

If you need any more evidence for the irrational and unethical lengths — not to mention the sheer douchebaggery — that anti-gay politicians will go through to thwart the will of the majority, you need look no further than the Colorado House of Representatives’ Speaker, Frank McNulty (R, HD-43, Highlands Ranch), who abruptly called a recess when it became evident that a majority of the House wanted to pass a bill granting civil unions to same-sex couples in Colorado.

To shouts of “same on you,” McNulty allowed some thirty bills to die rather than allow a vote on the measure. The bill had the support of three Republicans who joined Democrats in a house where Republicans hold a slim 33-32 lead. When Democrats used a procedural move to try to and a fillibuster on the bill, Republicans abruptly stopped floor work and called a recess which lasted through midnight, when the House session officially ended.

Among the other bills that died were $20 million worth of water projects around the state and a measure setting standards for driving while under the influence of marijuana. Colorado is a medicinal marijuana state. Which means that same-sex couples with cancer can smoke pot, but they may not be a allowed to bury each other if that cancer proves fatal.

During the recess, opponents and supporters held dueling press conferences on the house floor:

Jace Woodrum, Deputy Executive Director for One Colorado, spoke to supporters after the session ended.

The Daily Agenda for Wednesday, May 9

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Angers, France; Bergen, Norway; Brussels, Belgium; Chisinau, Moldova; Maspalomas, Gran Canaria; New Hope, PA; Northhampton, MA and Uppsala, Sweden.

AIDS Walks This Weekend: Ohunquit, ME and Stockton, CA.

Other Events This Weekend: Boston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Boston, MA; Beach Bear Weekend, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Big Horn Rodeo, Las Vegas, NV Paradise Festival, Oahu, HI.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Three Hanged for Sodomy: 1726. In July of 1725, Gabriel Lawrence, 43 and “a Papist” — that alone was also a crime in 18th century England — was indicted “for committing, with Thomas Newton, aged 30 years, the heinous and detestable sin of Sodomy, not to be named among Christians.” They were arrested at the famous “molly house” of Margaret Clap, a “place of rendezvous for Sodomites.” Newton described the place: “For the more convenient establishment of her customers, she had provided beds in every room of the house.” Newton testified against Lawrence, taking upon himself the role of innocent “victim” even though he, too, was at the molly house and arrested.

Newton claimed that he didn’t know that Claps’s establishment was a molly house. He must have been pretty dumb, because he apparently spent a lot of time there. He not only testified against Lawrence, but also against two others at the house: William Griffin, 43, and Thomas Wright, 32, who “often fetched me to oblige company that way.” All three defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. On May 9, 1726, Lawrence, Griffin, and Wright were hanged at the infamous gallows known as “the Tyburn Tree.” In exchange for his testimony, Newton was granted immunity from prosecution.

[From Ian McCormick’s Secret Sexualities: A Sourcebook of 17th and 18th Century Writings. The historian Rictor Norton has posted trial records for Lawrence, Griffin and Wright at his web site.]

Ignorance Is Bliss: 1871. Dressed as Lady Stella Clinton and Miss Fanny Winifred Park, Ernest Boulton, 22, and Frederick William Park, 23 attended a performance at the Strand Theatre in London and were arrested by police. A search of their homes turned up more than a dozen dresses, petticoats, bodices and bonnets. Their landlady described their dresses as very extreme. They were charged with conspiracy to commit sodomy.

The two defendants appeared in court in drag. The whole thing was baffling to the Attorney General, who, testified on May 9, 1871, that the lack of detailed British knowledge on the topic as one of the country’s virtues. He thought it “fortunate [that] there is little learning or knowledge upon this subject in this country; there are other countries in which I am told learned treatises are written as to the appearance to be expected in such cases. Fortunately Doctors in England know very little about these matters.” Ignorance reigned, and it was to Boulton and Park’s benefit. Sure, they dressed funny, engaged in “disgraceful behaviour,” and wrote piles of letters describing their exploits — an entire day was spent reading them into the record — but none of that counted as evidence of a conspiracy to commit sodomy. And since wearing dresses itself wasn’t against the law, the jury found them not guilty.

Harvey Fierstein’s Debut: 1971. Pork, Andy Warhol’s only play, debuted on a New York off-Broadway stage. One of the cast members was a sixteen-year-old (or eighteen-year-old, his birth year seems to vary) drag queen by the name of Harvey Fierstein.

Dana Goes International: 1998. The music world is shocked when judges at that year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham, England choose openly MtF Dana International as their champion. Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli conservatives were shocked and demanded that next year’s telecast not be held in the winning country, as tradition holds, due to the “shame” of her being transsexual. Dana countered, “My victory proves God is on my side. I want to send my critics a message of forgiveness and say to them: try to accept me and the kind of life I lead. I am what I am and this does not mean I don’t believe in God, and I am part of the Jewish Nation.”

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Alan Bennett: 1934. The English performer and playwright is best known for The Madness of George III and the film adaptation, The Madness of King George. He received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay. In August 1960, he achieved instant fame as a comedy actor at the Edinburgh Festival by appearing in a satirical review with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook. His first play, Forty Years On, debuted in 1968. His critically acclaimed The History Boys won three Lawrence Olivier Awards in 2005 and Six Tony Awards on Broadway in 2006. His memoir, Untold Stories, appeared in 2005. He thought it would be published posthumously because he was undergoing treatment for cancer when he wrote it. The cancer went into remission, but the book went ahead anyway. In the biographical sketches, Bennett wrote openly for the first time about his homosexuality, although he said that he was “reluctant to be enrolled in the ranks of gay martyrdom, reluctant, if the truth be told, to be enrolled in any ranks whatsoever.”

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

What’s Going On With Colorado’s Civil Unions Bill?

Tonight is the night. After midnight Mountain Time, the Colorado legislature becomes a pumpkin, killing the proposed Civil Unions bill with it. House Speaker Frank McNulty (R, HD-43, Highlands Ranch)has been trying to run out the clock, but there now seems to be a full-blown rebellion in the House, where Republicans hold a narrow 33-32 lead, but two Republicans have joined the Democratic minority in calling for the Civil Unions bill for a vote. As I write this, it is just a little past 10:00 p.m. McNulty has called a recess at about 8:45 while lawmakers haggle and argue.

BTB’s Daniel Gonzales is at the Capitol now, live-Tweeting the blow-by-blow. You can also follow the hashtag @COLeg.

North Carolina Voters Add Discrimination to State Constitution

North Carolina is one of twenty states in which first cousins can legally marry. But the already existing legal ban on marriage between otherwise unrelated same-sex couples is now enshrined in the State Constitution. Voters three approved the measure 58% to 42%, making North Carolina the thirtieth state with a constitutional ban on marriage equality.

Meanwhile on Twitter…

It looks like someone want’s Dan Savage to pay attention to him.

Anti-Gay Groups Conspire to Add Anti-Gay Measures To Defense Authorization Bill

Chris Geidner is reporting that Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) will introduce an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act before the House Armed Services Committee tomorrow to weaken the implementation of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The amendment would, in effect, create a “conscience protection clause” for military chaplains, giving them free reign to denounce LGBT servicemembers as shameful and sinful. Another measure, which would prohibit chaplains from performing same-sex marriages under the guise of enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act on military bases, would ironically have the effect of violating the consciences of chaplains who support marriage equality.

Both measures are currently part of the same amendment, but they may instead be broken up into two separate amendments in order to “(give) us the strongest hand going into conference with the Senate,” according to an email sent to amendment supporters form Justin Johnson, Akin’s legislative director. Similar measures were included in the House version of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, but were dropped during conference negotiations with the Senate, which did not include similar measures in their version of the act.

The email had a interesting list of names in the address line:

Among the advocates included in the planning for the amendments being offered and from whom Johnson was seeking input were Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness; Brian Duggan, a lobbyist for the National Organization for Marriage; Austin Nimocks and Daniel Blomberg, lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund; Arthur Schulcz, a Virginia lawyer who brought a lawsuit on behalf of chaplains claiming religious discrimination even prior to the repeal of DADT; Tom McClusky from the Family Research Council; Doug Lee and Ron Crews from the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty; members of the Archdiocese for the Military Services; Nathaniel Bennett, the director of government affairs for the American Center for Law and Justice; and the president of the Associated Gospel Churches, which has highlighted on its main page a link to the organization’s “Resolution on Homosexuality and the Military.” FRC has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Maggie: Why Focus on Same-Sex Marriage Rather than Divorce?

Andrew Sullivan has offered his readers a chance to ask Maggie Gallagher questions and hear how she responds. The first one appeared yesterday:

Why do those defending the sanctity of marriage target a small segment of the threat and ignore adulterers and divorcees?

This is a polite version of: Are you really concerned about marriage, or is all this just about the gays?

Here’s her response, but let me give you a summary in case you can’t bear to watch it:

• Before 2003, most of Maggie’s work was on divorce and married childbearing.

• She changed focus because she understands “the enormous power of governing ideas for a social institution.”

• People are increasingly afraid to say: marriage is important because a child’s ideal situation to be raised by a mother and father.

• Gay activists say if you see a difference between opposite- and same-sex couples, you’re like a racist.

• The “framing ideas of marriage” are the most important thing about it. Same-sex marriage changes those ideas, weakening the institution.

• We’ll soon be left trying to create effective marriage cultures privately, without a governing public institution.

This is Maggie’s best public face: gentle, sweet, relaxed, a concerned woman touched lightly with sorrow.

I don’t buy it. I’ve got two reasons for that: Read the rest of this entry »

Maurice Sendak, “Author of Where the Wild Things Are”, Dies at 83

Maurice Sendak, who The New York Times calls “the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century,” has died today in Danbury, Connecticut at the age of 83 from complications from a recent stroke. From The Times’s obituary:

Roundly praised, intermittently censored and occasionally eaten, Mr. Sendak’s books were essential ingredients of childhood for the generation born after 1960 or thereabouts, and in turn for their children. He was known in particular for more than a dozen picture books he wrote and illustrated himself, most famously “Where the Wild Things Are,” which was simultaneously genre-breaking and career-making when it was published by Harper & Row in 1963.

In Sepember, HarperCollins published Sendak’s Bumble-Ardy, his first new book in 30 years. Another picture book, My Brother’s Book, is scheduled to be published in February. Sendak came out in a 2008 interview:

Was there anything he had never been asked? He paused for a few moments and answered, ‘Well, that I’m gay…I just didn’t think it was anybody’s business,’ Mr. Sendak added. He lived with Eugene Glynn, a psychoanalyst, for 50 years before Dr. Glynn’s death in May 2007. He never told his parents: ‘All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.’ Children protect their parents, Mr. Sendak said. …A gay artist in New York is not exactly uncommon, but Mr. Sendak said that the idea of a gay man writing children books would have hurt his career when he was in his 20s and 30s.”

The Daily Agenda for Tuesday, May 8

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Final Rally for Civil Unions: Denver, CO. Today is the day for Colorado House Speaker Frank McNulty (R, HD-43, Highlands Ranch) to schedule a vote on a bill granting civil unions to same-sex couples. Yesterday, McNulty warned that House leadership is under no obligation to bring the bill up for a debate. The bill’s sponsor, House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino, says that Democrats will use every tool available to try to force a vote, but Republicans hold a 33-32 edge in he chamber. In a final push to get a straight up-or-down vote on the bill, One Colorado has called an emergency press conference and rally for this morning at 10:00 a.m. on the steps of the Capitol building.

Among those lobbying for the bill is former Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman. To add your voice for the bill’s passage, here is McNulty’s contact info:

Twitter: @RepMcNulty
Email: fmcnulty@comcast.net and frank.mcnulty.house@state.co.us
Facebook: Frank McNulty
Phone: 303-866-2346

North Carolina Votes on Amendment 1: NC.Today is the big day for North Carolina’s Amendment 1, the proposed state constitutional amendment that would not only enshrine a ban on same-sex marriage in the state’s foundational document, but would also prohibit all other forms of non-marital recongition for gay or straight couples. The polls open at 6:30 a.m. EDT, and will remain open until 7:30. To find out where your polling place is located, visit the North Carolina State Board of Elections web site.

California Senate Judiciary Committee to Hold Hearings on Bill Regulating Sexual Orientation Change Efforts: Sacramento, CA. The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality is gearing up a massive lobbying effort against a proposed bill to prohibit sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) for minors under the age of 18 by therapists licensed by the state of California. The bill would also require a statement of informed consent for adults which volunteer to undergo such therapy. The proposal does not cover religious-based ex-gay programs or ministries. The text of the bill can be found here. The hearing before the California Senate Judiciary Committee will take place this afternoon at the John L. Burton Hearing Room (4203) beginning at 1:30 PDT.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
Tom of Finland: 1920. Born Touko Laaksonen, Tom of Finland was famous for his stylized homoerotic and fetish art. Over a forty year career, he produced some 3500 drawings in his unique exaggerated style. If Barbie dolls proportions represent an anatomically impossible ideal for women, Tom of Finland’s hypermasculine characters were portrayed in similarly fantastical idealization of manly men. His style was partly influenced by “beefcake” and “physique” magazines which skirted on the edge of U.S. censorship codes in the 1950s and 1960s. But as the codes were struck down in the 1960s over First Amendment issues, his drawings became more explicit and more overtly sexual. His drawings became the definitive style guide for leathermen through his portrayal of policemen, lumberjacks, sailors and bikers. Several examples of his “dirty drawings ” — his unabashed term for his artwork — have been acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He died of a stroke brought on by emphysema on November 7, 1991.

Darren Hayes: 1972. The singer-songwriter was the front man of Savage Garden. Their 1987 album by the same name peaked at #1 in Australia, #2 in the U.K., #3 in the U.S. Their biggest American hit was “Truly Madly Deeply.” Their follow-up album yielded another #1 hit in the U.S. with “I Knew I Loved You.” In 2002, he launched his solo career, and by 2005 it was clear that Savage Garden was through.

Darren married his “childhood sweetheart” in 1997. They divorced in 2000 after he told her that he was gay. After years of public speculation about his sexuality, Hayes came out on July 18, 2006, when he announced that he had married (via civil partnership) his boyfriend a month earlier. In April, 2007, he told The Advocate, “First of all, it took me a long time to even accept that I was gay. And then it took me a long time to be happy that I was gay.” That summer he headlined London’s Gay Pride at Trafalgar Square. You can see his video for “It Gets Better” here. His fourth solo album, Secret Codes and Battleships, was released in 2011.

UPDATE: To mark his 40th birthday, Hayes wrote a letter to his fifteen-year-old self:

I know for example that the first two years of high school were hell for you. In May 1987 the bullying should be just about winding down by now. If it makes you feel any better, that group of boys who called you ‘faggot’ and ‘gay boy’ – the ones who beat you up and harassed you so much you sometimes wanted to die? Well they end up getting the futures they deserve. Right about now I imagine you are just starting to realise there is something special about you Darren Hayes. What I want you to know is, the thing that made you a target is the thing that makes you beautiful. There will be times in your life where you will try to dull down your magic because it draws too much attention. But please don’t do that. Please remember to shine because one day people are going to pay a lot of money to see you light up.

Enrique Iglesias: 1975. I know, he’s not gay dammit, but he did say he could be my hero and that’s good enough for me. Plus, there’s this performance at London’s famous G-A-Y nightclub in 2007:

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Colorado House leadership stalling, media attention growing, equality org holding another rally

The crowd at last week's press conference. Photo by Dan Gonzales.

.

Last week before the big House Judiciary Committee hearing our state equality org One Colorado held a rally/press conference and late that evening SB-002, the civil unions bill, cleared the committee.

Well now it’s looking like the House Republican leadership may be trying to stall the bill until the legislative session ends on Wednesday because it’s clear the bill would pass if voted on by the full House.  In response One Colorado is organizing an emergency press conference and rally Tuesday morning at 10am on the west steps of the Capitol building to keep the pressure on.  (facebook event page)

But this foot dragging is not going unnoticed by the media, the New York Times published an article on civil unions and later this afternoon the Denver Post editorialized:

He [Gov. John Hickenlooper] should consider calling a special session of the legislature if key House Republicans let Senate Bill 2, which would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, expire this week through parliamentary gimmicks. There is simply no excuse for obstructionist behavior on such a high-profile bill of major importance.

Colorado needs your urgent action in last minute push for civil unions

The legislative here session ends on Wednesday and if House Speaker Frank McNulty (R, HD-43, Highlands Ranch) doesn’t schedule the civil unions bill for a floor debate by Tuesday then the bill will die the Denver Post writes today:

The bill must have what is called a second reading, or its debate, before the full floor by Tuesday so it can be officially voted on Wednesday, which is the last day of the session. If that doesn’t happen, the bill is dead.

This is the last hurdle and we need all the help we can get.  If you support civil unions for the people of Colorado please contact Rep McNulty and urge him to schedule the bill for floor debate ASAP.

Twitter: @RepMcNulty
Email: fmcnulty@comcast.net and frank.mcnulty.house@state.co.us
Facebook: Frank McNulty
Phone: 303-866-2346

On Smoking and Not Inhaling

When then-Governor Bill Clinton was running for President in 1992, someone asked if he had ever smoked pot. His answer came to crystalize his much-discussed “triangularization” of contentious issues — he tried it once, but he didn’t inhale. Supposedly that answer would appeal to hip, young pot smokers (along with many fellow baby-boomers) and he, also supposedly, would avoid offending those who opposed marijuana use. We all know how well that worked out. Nobody believed him, but he was allowed to keep that charade going as long as everyone winked (or smirked) whenever they repeated his answer.

Fast-forward twenty years, and President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are answering questions about their support for marriage equality with a variation on the smoking-but-not-inhaling theme. But yesterday, in an appearance on Meet the Press, Biden came pretty close to taking an honest-to-god drag from the matrimonial reefer:

BIDEN: The good news is that as more and more Americans come to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love? And that’s what people are finding out is what all marriages at their root are about. Whether they’re marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.

DAVID GREGORY: Is that what you believe now?

BIDEN: That’s what I believe.

GREGORY: And you’re comfortable with same-sex marriage now?

BIDEN: Look, I am vice president of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that.

The rest of the day was spent carefully parsing Biden’s words: did he or didn’t he endorse marriage equality? In my reading, I’d say he did, but he set an important caveat: he’s just the vice president; the President sets policy. But to be honest, my reading is no more and no less valid than anyone else’s. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief campaign strategist, tried to slap the smoke from out of Biden’s lungs when he quickly tweeted, “What VP said — that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights — is precisely POTUS’s position.”

And literally speaking, Axelrod’s right. Obama’s official position is that he wants to repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, his Justice Department is declining to defend DOMA in federal courts, his Homeland Security office is granting green cards to foreign partners of married same-sex couples, and his administration had provided an array of domestic partner benefits to large numbers of federal employees. Plus, his campaign has released statements against North Carolina’s Amendment 1 and a proposed anti-marriage amendment in Minnesota. And the last time anyone was able to ask Obama about his personal stance on same-sex marriage, he said that he supported equal rights for same-sex couples and he supported the rights of states to grant marriage equality, but that on the subject of marriage itself he was personally still “evolving” on the issue.

The conventional wisdom now goes that Obama is pretending not to support marriage equality and Americans are pretending to believe him. Except conventional wisdom is wrong because they’re not. Those who vigorously oppose marriage equality — and they are now a shrinking minority in this country at about 43% — already don’t believe him and aren’t giving him any credit for his presumably stalled evolutionary state. And those who do support marriage equality believes that he does too, and they’re just waiting for him and everyone else in his administration to just finally say so. Just like Mark Halperin on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, who says he will ask every cabinet secretary who appears on the program whether they support marriage equality. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was the first to answer the Morning Joe question this morning. “I do,” he said, sounding a lot like someone who has just taken a solemn vow before adding, “I don’t know that I’ve ever been asked publicly.”

All of this makes Obama’s charade of “evolving” look increasingly ridiculous. Just as the whole point of smoking pot is inhaling (and, Mr. Clinton notwithstanding, more than 100 million Americans have inhaled at least once), the whole point of doing all of the things that the Obama Administration is doing is to bring about a de-facto federal recognition of marriage to as many people as legally possible. There are still huge gaps — the IRS code, military spousal benefits, Social Security survivorship, inheritance taxes — which are still awaiting action. But if Obama doesn’t secretly believe in marriage equality, he’s sure behaving like someone who has taken a nice, long toke at the betrothal bong. And I’d say you’d have to be smoking something pretty powerful yourself to believe otherwise.

The Daily Agenda for Monday, May 7

TODAY’S AGENDA:
White House LGBT Conference on Aging: Miami, FL. The White House Office of Public Engagement in partnership with the University Miami Center on Aging will hold a special conference today for advocates, community leaders and the general public to issues surounding the health, housing, and security needs of aging members of the LGBT community. Featured keynote speakers are Kathy Greenlee, Assistant secretary for Aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Raphael Bostic, Assistant Secretary for Policy and Research Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The conference takes place today at the University of Miami Clinical Research Building (1120 NW 14th Street) from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Jesse Helms Rails Against “Militant-Activist-Mean Lesbian”: 1993. But of course, in Helms’s imagination what other kind of lesbian was there? President Bill Clinton had nominated Roberta Achtenberg, a San Francisco civil rights lawyer, as Assistant Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. As San Francisco City Supervisor, she supported efforts to bar the Boy Scouts from using the city’s school facilities because of its exclusion of gays scouts and leaders. Helms blew his stack over that. “She’s not your garden-variety lesbian,” he told the Associated Press. “She’s a militant-activist-mean lesbian, working her whole career to advance the homosexual agenda. Now you think I’m going to sit still and let her be confirmed by the Senate? . . . If you want to call me a bigot, go ahead.”

Helms was a bigot and Achtenberg was confirmed. She remained on the job until 1995 when she left to run for against Willie Brown for mayor of San Francisco. Obviously, she didn’t make it. Achtenberg is currently serving on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Helms is currently dead.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: 1840. The great Russian composer’s brother, Modeste, was comfortable with being gay, but Pyotr was not, at least not until much later in life. But he had to undergo a short, disastrous marriage before he arrived at the conclusion that his sexual orientation was insurmountable. Meanwhile, he became Russia’s most celebrated composer, with Swan Lake, Eugene Onegin, The Nutcracker, and his Fourth Symphony and Sixth Symphony (Pathétique) probably his finest works. He composed the 1812 Overture to celebrate Russia’s defeat of Napoleon at the outskirts of Moscow. Tchaikovsky confessed that the work, complete with live canon shots, would be “very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it.” He warned one Russian conductor, “I shan’t be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts.” The 1812 Overture, it turned out, became one of his most popular works.

His death in 1893 was attributed to cholera, although there have been a persistent legend that his death was a suicide. One story has it that a sentence of suicide was imposed in a “court of honor” by Tchaikovsky’s fellow alumni of the St. Petersburg Imperial School of Jurisprudence because of his homosexuality. Another has it that his suicide was ordered by Tsar Alexander III himself. There doesn’t appear to be much evidence for either theory. But against the backdrop of those unfounded rumors, many have taken Pathétique, which Tchaikovsky premiered just a few days before his death, as his final statement. According to an eyewitness at the premiere:

Tchaikovsky began conducting with the baton held tightly in his fist … in his usual manner. But when the final sounds of the symphony had died away and Tchaikovsky slowly lowered the baton, there was dead silence in the audience. Instead of applause, stifled sobs came from various parts of the hall. The audience was stunned and Tchaikovsky stood there, motionless, his head bowed.

Some have come to regard Pathétique as Tchaikovsky’s requiem, with its second performance coming three weeks later at his memorial concert in St. Petersburg.

Mike Jones: 1957. In November, 2006, Mike Jones revealed to a Denver radio station that Rev. Ted Haggard, pastor of Colorado Springs’s New Life Church and head of the National Association of Evangelicals, had been Jones’s client for nude massages for the past three years. Haggard’s career was essentially over as he went off to seek — well, its unclear what he sought exactly. Without a doubt, Haggard’s life became infinitely more complicated. But, surprisingly, so did Jones’s. In many people’s minds, the fact that Jones offered massages with a happy ending was as shocking as Haggard’s fall — even among some elements of the LGBT community. Mike has been out of the limelight lately, but I’d like to take this opportunity to wish him a happy 54th, and to thank him once again for going public.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 6

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations Today: Brussels, Belgium and Houston, TX (Black Pride).

Other Celebrations Today: Hot Rodeo, Banning, CA; Boston LGBT Film Festival, Boston, MA; Purple Party, Dallas, TX; Frieberg International Gay Film Festival, Frieberg, Germany; and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.

AIDS Walks Today: Atlantic City/Asbury Park/Morristown/Newark/New Brunswick/Pennsauken/Ridgewood, NJ; Orange County, CA; and Portsmouth, NH.

Karl-Maria Kertbeny's letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs with the word "Homosexualität" (Click to enlarge)

TODAY IN HISTORY:
The Word “Homosexuality” Coined: 1868. On this date, an Austrian-born Hungarian by the name of Karl-Maria Kertbeny (or Károly Mária Kertbeny) wrote a letter in which he used, for the first time in recorded history, a new word of his creation: Homosexualität. The letter was to German gay-rights advocate Karl Heinrich Ulrich.

Ulrich was, more precisely speaking, an urning-rights advocate. Ulrich defined urning as a “male-bodied person with a female psyche,” who is sexually attracted to men and not women. In fact, he had complex taxonomy to describe the many combinations and permutations of gender, gender role, attractions, and degrees of affection. In addition to urning, there was dioning (a heterosexual masculine man), uranodioning (a male bisexual), mannlinge (very masculine man with an attraction toward effeminate men), manuring (effeminate man who was attracted towards women), and virilisiert mannlinger (a “straight-acting” gay man) — and that was just for men. There was also a list of counterpart words for women. It was all very complicated to try to keep track of.

In English, the terminology was very simple — in fact, too simple. The word invert described gay men and women as embodying an inversion of sex-role behavior. But that term depended on a description of sex role behavior rather than sexual attraction, which meant that masculine men and feminine women who were attracted to the same sex fell outside of the definition.

And this is what set Kertbeny’s homosexualität apart. Hor the first time, here was a simple word that went straight to the heart of the matter: the object of sexual or romantic desire was separated from the gender role — but not the gender itself — of the subject as part of the definition. This eventually allowed for the discussion of everyone who was attracted to the same gender, men and women, masculine and feminine.

Homosexualität made its first known public appearance the following year, when Kertbeny anonymously published a pamphlet calling for the repeal of Prussia’s sodomy laws. Other German advocates picked up the word, and it eventually made its English appearance as “homosexuality” at around 1894, which Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis was translated into English. Adoption in English was slow however. The famous English sexologist Havelock Ellis hated it on linguistic grounds: its mixture of Greek-based (“homo”) and Latin-based (“sexual”) roots were anathema to him. In his groundbreaking first volume of Studies in the Psychology of Sex published in 1897, Ellis clung to his favored term inversion, writing in a footnote on the first page of the text, “‘Homosexual’ is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it. It is, however, convenient, and now widely used.” But even as he saw the writing on the wall he resisted and suggested an alternative: ” ‘Homogenic’ has been suggested as a substitute,” he added.

His suggestion of homogenic never caught on, and even he declined to adopt it. Invert remained a common term, but its usage continued to diminish until it finally met its demise in the 1920’s. That’s when when the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, who preferred the word “homosexuality” and its counterparts “heterosexuality” and “bisexuality” became popular in the English-speaking world. We’ve been homos (or bi’s, as the case may be) ever since.

Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft parading in front of the Institute of Sex Research.

Nazis Storm the Institute of Sex Research: 1933. The great German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld, established the Institute of Sex Research in 1919. Located in Berlin’s Tiergarten it became a major center for gay rights advocacy and research, with a massive research library archive. The Institute included medical, psychological, and ethnological divisions, provided marriage and sex counseling.

But when the Nazis came to power in January of 1933, the Institute quickly became a target of official ire. On May 6 of that year while Hirchfeld was on a lecture tour of the U.S., Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft began parading in front of the Institute. That night, Nazis attacked it and looted the archives. Four days later, those archives served as the fuel for the famous book-burning rally, where some 20,000 books and journals, and 5,000 images, were destroyed. The Institute’s groundbreaking work came to an abrupt end. Hirschfeld remained in exile, first in Paris and later in Nice, where he died of a heart attack in 1935.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Rudolph Valentino: 1895. Known as the “Latin Lover,” Italina-born Rodolpho Guglielmi di Valentina D’Antonguolla’s appearances in films like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik established him as one of moviedom’s earliest male sex symbols. When he died suddenly at the age of 31, his public viewing prompted near-rioting among his female fans. Valentino had married twice — once to a reputed lesbian actress (according to their divorce papers, they never consummated the marriage), and then to Natacha Rambova, the artistic director for an early film they both worked on. That marriage also ended in divorce.

Neither marriage did much to quell rumors of Valentino’s “effeminacy,” which critics believed they detected in his sensitive and stylish portrayals on the silver screen. One Chicago Tribune editorial blasted his androgynous image as the “Pink Powder Puff.” Wrote the writer, “When will we be rid of all these effeminate youths, pomaded, powdered, bejeweled and bedizened, in the image of Rudy–that painted pansy?” The evidence behind those rumors remains both skimpy and controversial. Oh well, his birthday is noteworthy regardless of whether he was gay or not. I mean, just look at him!

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Email of the Day

Let's just make stuff up and see if anyone notices.

The National Day of Prayer was just two days ago. And all this week my heart and prayers have been drawn to the struggle in Washington State. Right now, brave pro-Family activists are fighting to gather enough signatures to place real marriage on the November ballot.

Already more than a hundred thousand people have taken the step to place them name on the referendum.

But while Public Advocate is sending letters to a thousand churches and community leaders asking for their support — the Homosexual Lobby has launched a website to advertise the names and home addresses of every Washingtonian who signs in support of real marriage…

…and they are calling on their hordes of supporters to attack the brave signers anyway they can.

They tried these same tactics in California over Prop 8 and countless people were hurt by their terror campaign.

On this special week I ask that you pray for our struggle in Washington that we might defend real marriage. But I also ask that you pray for those fighting against us; pray that they handle themselves with greater restraint and compassion and even that they renounce this fight altogether.

…P.S. Please prayerfully consider chipping in with a donation of $10 or more to help Public Advocate fight for traditional values.

We are still waiting on independently verified reports of that phantom “terror campaign.”