On August 18, 1978 three gay teens, two of them in drag, were walking to a Beacon Hill apartment when they heard screams coming from the Arlington Street T station. Two men came out of the station and ran to their cars. When Larry Brown called out their license plate numbers to his friends, the two men chased them down, beat and kicked them, and shouting, “This is for Anita Bryant.”
When the police finally arrived, the three youths learned that the men who had beaten them were actually Boston police officers: John Gillespie and Thomas Clifford. Patrol officers then arrested the victims, with Gillespie and Clifford going free. On the way back to the station, the arresting officers threatened to dump the youths “in the Charles River or the Blue Hills” saying: “queers have no right to live.”
Then Massachusetts State Rep. Barney Frank demanded an investigation, the BPD’s Internal Affairs Division obliged. They found Clifford and Gillespie guilty of physical and verbal abuse against the young men, failing to submit incident reports, and submitting false statements to their commanders and to IAD. Lt. Ralph Maglio was also found guilty of neglecting his responsibilities as a duty supervisor and of making false statements to IAD.
BPD Commissioner Joseph M. Jordan suspended Clifford and Gillespie for three months without pay. Maglio received a one week suspension without pay.
Jordon’s action made it the first time Boston police officers had ever been disciplined for abusing gay people
1920: Actor Montgomery Clift is born in Omaha Nebraska. Clift often played outsiders and “victim-heroes” examples include the social climber in George Stevens’s A Place in the Sun, the anguished Catholic priest in Hitchcock’s I Confess, the doomed regular soldier Robert E. Lee Prewitt in Fred Zinnemann’s From Here to Eternity, and the Jewish GI bullied by antisemites in Edward Dmytryk’s The Young Lions.
Clift’s performance in 1951’s A Place in the Sun is regarded as one of his signature method acting performances. He worked extensively on his character and was again nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. For his character’s scenes in jail, Clift spent a night in a real state prison. He also refused to go along with director George Stevens’ suggestion that he do “something amazing” on his character’s walk to the electric chair. Instead, he walked to his death with a natural, depressed facial expression.
Clift was notoriously picky with his projects. According to Elizabeth Taylor “Monty could’ve been the biggest star in the world if he did more movies.” Clift reportedly turned down the starring role in East of Eden just as he had for Sunset Boulevard.
On the evening of May 12, 1956, while filming Raintree County, Clift was involved in a serious auto accident when he apparently fell asleep while driving and smashed his car into a telephone pole minutes after leaving a dinner party at the Beverly Hills home of his close friend and co-star, Elizabeth Taylor, and her second husband, Michael Wilding. Alerted by friend Kevin McCarthy, who witnessed the accident, Taylor raced to Clift’s side, manually pulling a tooth out of his tongue as he had begun to choke on it. He suffered a broken jaw and nose, a fractured sinus, and several facial lacerations which required Wisconsin plastic surgeon
In 1961, with the scars still visible and the left side of his face immobilized from the car crash, Clift gave a stunning portrayal of Rudolph Peterson, an emotionally unstable and physically tortured concentration camp victim in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment at Nuremberg,” earning Clift a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Clift became addicted to alcohol and prescription drug abuse, and became erratic. Nevertheless, he continued his acting career, playing such parts as “the reckless, alcoholic, mother-fixated rodeo performer” in John Huston’s The Misfits, the title role in Huston’s Freud.
Montgomery Clift died of a heart attack brought on by “occlusive coronary artery disease” at the age of 46.
During his life Montgomery Clift’s homosexuality was carefully guarded from fans but there were few on the business side of Hollywood who did not know about it.
Following a 15-minute ceremony at St. James’ Church attended by 150 guests, including Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Walker.
Montgomery Clift was buried in the Friends [Quaker] Cemetery ,Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. Elizabeth Taylor, who was in Paris and was a close friend of Monty’s sent flowers, as did Roddy McDowall, Myrna Loy and Lew Wasserman.
Rest in Peace Monty.
1980: The first Black Lesbian Conference took place in San Francisco, California. A development stemming from the first National Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference held in Washington, D.C., the previous year, over 200 women were in attendance. One of the conference goals was reportedly to address the wide spectrum of needs for black lesbians and “to provide the courage and strength necessary to make those needs felt in places where it becomes necessary.” Angela Davis gave the conference’s keynote address.
1995:The Advocate published a ground-breaking interview with Barney Frank, Steve Gunderson and Gerry Studds — the three openly gay members of congress at that time. Barney Frank has consistently remained one of the most outspoken and influential gay politicians to this date. That was when of course the Advocate was a legitimate and serious source of news .
1998: The National Gay and Lesbian Law Association appointed Melinda Whiteway as co-chair of the organization, making her the first openly transgender person to hold the position. This is reportedly the only queer law association to be affiliated with the American Bar Association.
2010: The Liberace Museum in Las Vegas closed after 31 years.
The Liberace Museum closed “indefinitely, but not forever” according to Liberace Foundation Board of Directors Chairman Jeffrey Koep. The closure was announced due to economic downturn and a decline in the number of visitors. The museum’s board of directors is continuing to seek a new home for the museum on Las Vegas strip, but the efforts have thus far been unsuccessful.
On the day of the closing, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Doug Elfman noted that several overly enthusiastic fans attempted to remove some of the small mirrors decorating Liberace’s Rolls-Royce, and another tried to steal a hood ornament from a car on display.
1892 – American Feminist writer and illustrator Djuna Barnes is born. Her writings are believed to be the first English language poems with lesbian content.
Barnes played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens. Her novel “Nightwood” became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T. S. Eliot. It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes’s death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.
1959 – Birth date of Scott Thompson, openly gay actor 1967.
Thompson is best known for the character he created of Charles Budderick “Buddy” Cole an effeminate, scandalous, gay socialite, made famous on The Kids in the Hall, a popular Canadian sketch comedy series and troupe of the same name. The character also had a recurring role in The Colbert Report .
1959 – The US Supreme Court issued its ruling in Loving v. Virginia. The case was brought by an interracial couple who challenged the constitutionality of laws banning interracial marriage. The court ruled in favor of the couple, and ruled marriage to be a civil right.
1970 – Neva Joy Heckman and Judith Ann Belew attempted to become legally married. The ceremony was held at Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles and performed by Rev Troy Perry, the founder of the denomination. Under California law, a couple who has lived together at least two years can be legally joined without a license by having a church ceremony and being issued a church certificate.
1975 – The Austin Lesbian Organization was given airtime on the Texas public interest interview program “For Your Information.”
1981 – A Provincial Court judge in Toronto found two employees guilty and three owners not guilty of keeping a common bawdyhouse. Charges related to the Barracks steambath, raided by police December 9, 1978.
1983 – “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker made its appearance on the New York Times bestseller list.
1989 – A rally was held outside the state house in Boston to demand approval of a gay rights bill. 300 people attended.
1995 – The Employment Non-Discrimination Act was re-introduced in Congress. Transgender individuals were purposely excluded from the official bill presented to Congress because it was thought to be too risky in getting the bill to pass. Congressman Barney Frank and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) were behind the exclusion as they saw this reframing as a way to make the bill more marketable. However, 350 national queer organizations opposed the exclusion of gender identity from the bill in an act of solidarity with trans communities. To this day HRC is resented by many for this cowardly act and helped create a rift between the Trans and LGB community that still has not been repaired to this day.
1997 – San Francisco Human Rights Commissioners voted five-to-one to retain laws regulating sex clubs and bathouses, including the banning of private rooms. Because we all know a banning a private room stops AIDS not education and condoms.
1997 – A New York appeals court revoked all legal rights as a parent from a lesbian who had been granted limited visitation with a child born to her ex-lover.
2002 – Philip Walsted, 24, was beaten with a baseball bat and robbed on a downtown Tucson street.
Walsted was walking home on June 12, 2002, when he was attacked and beaten with a baseball bat by 22-year-old David Higdon in the course of a robbery. Walsted was struck in the head with the bat up to 20 times, and received more than 50 wounds as a result of the attack. He died later that day at University Medical Center.
David A. Higdo, an avowed neo-Nazi was sentenced to life without parole
2003 – Philadelphia’s Boy Scout council, which defied the national BSA organization in May 2003 by promising not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, ousted a Scout, Gregory Lattera, 18, for publicly announcing he is gay. The same council, the nation’s third largest, voted May 28 to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy.
2006 – Australia’s Attorney General, Phillip Ruddock, overturned a same-sex marriage law in the Australian Capital Territory.
2011 – On this date, Episcopal clergy in the diocese of San Joaquin, California, officially recognized gay and lesbian partnerships as “sacred unions.”
Retiring Democratic House Rep.Barney Frank has had a change of heart and said this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he has asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint him interim Senator to replace John Kerry for the rest of Kerry’s term.
“A month ago, or a few weeks ago, I said I wasn’t interested,” Frank said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It was kind of like you’re about to graduate, and they said: ‘You gotta go to summer school.’ But [the fiscal cliff deal] now means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months in American financial history.” He added, “I’ve told the governor I would now like, frankly, to do that [serve as interim senator].” Frank said he wouldn’t run for Kerry’s seat in a special election, which would likely take place this summer”
Frank has handed Gov.Deval Patrick a rare opportunity to make a difference in Washington at a critical moment Lets hope he takes him up on it.
Besides the shrieks and screams of outrage from the Tea-terrorist and GOP Wingnuttistan will be sweet music to any Democrat or Liberals ears.
In 1998, then GOP Senator Chuck Hagel called James Hormel, President Bill Clinton’s choice for U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, “openly, aggressively gay.” He called Hormel’s sexual orientation an “inhibiting factor” that would prevent him from doing “an effective job.”
Fast forward to 2012.
Now that President Obama is considering nominating Hagel as Defense Secretary, and the nasty comment from the past has resurfaced, Hagel has apologized and even President Obama has said he believed that Hagel had “evolved” on the issue.
But Barney Frank’s not having any of the excuses being used by either Hagel or the President and expressed his discomfort and distate with Hagel’s possible nomination in a statement put out by his office:
“Then-Senator Hagel’s aggressively bigoted opposition to President Clinton’s naming the first openly gay Ambassador in U.S. history was not, as Sen. Hagel now claims, an aberration. He voted consistently against fairness for LGBT people and there does not seem to be any evidence prior to his effort to become Secretary of Defense of any apology or retraction of his attack on James Hormel. And to those of us who admire and respect Mr. Hormel, Sen. Hagel’s description of him as aggressive can only mean that the Senator strongly objected to Hormel’s reasoned, civil advocacy for LGBT people.
I cannot think of any other minority group in the U.S. today where such a negative statement and action made in 1998 would not be an obstacle to a major Presidential appointment.”
Unfortunately Barney Frank is retiring from Congress, so he will not have a chance to vote for or against President Barack Obama’s eventual Defense Secretary nominee.
“The governor ought to be free to make whatever choices he makes. In Massachusetts, you’re talking about an interim, not a permanent appointment. I certainly would not take on any long-term appointment,” Frank said. “As for an interim thing, I think accepting offers that haven’t been made is kind of presumptuous.” Pressed to clarify, Frank said his answer was “not a ‘no’ or a ‘yes.’ Rejecting an offer that hasn’t been made is also presumptuous.” Speculation about the Senate appointment has focused so far on Vickie Kennedy, the widow of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. If Frank were to end up getting the nod, he’d be the second openly gay senator, after Wisconsin Sen.-elect Tammy Baldwin. – via POLITICO
The GOP, teatards and the right wing Boston Herald are going insane over the idea:
This is a potential nightmare scenario for Republicans who thought they’d soon be rid of the acid-tongued Bayonne, N.J., native who badgered and bullied his opponents, and the media, for years. In a bitter re-election victory speech two years ago, Frank launched a tirade against the Herald, calling the paper “irrelevant.” Can you imagine if Frank now ends up with an interim appointment in the Senate, where he’s not held accountable by voters? The surly sourpuss might even try to pass legislation abolishing all Boston newspapers with “Herald” in the name. He once told college interviewers that he was “tired” of his job in Congress, saying, “it’d be nice to have some free time, not have to read a lot of stuff I don’t care about.” And he said one of his reasons for retiring was that it would be too strenuous to campaign in a new district where many voters didn’t know him. “I don’t have to pretend to be nice to people I don’t like,” he added
Oh dear God let this happen. Mitch McConnell would wet himself. It would be like dropping the Republican Senate leadership in hot oil!
“I was glad that he made clear what’s been obvious, that he’s just a flat out bigot.
I’d previously said he was a homophobe. And Fox and the rightwing said, ‘Oh just because he’s not for same-sex marriage? And I said, ‘No, let me be very clear. That’s not it. This is a man who has said you should go to prison for having sex.’ It was an extraordinarily abusive sentiment and it was dead wrong.
And, by the way, for a guy who is supposed to be so smart — quite stupid.This young man said to him, ‘Why do you compare sodomy to murder?’ And he said, ‘Well because I have a right to say if I think something is immoral.’ Well the question wasn’t about his right. The question was, By what morality is expressing your love for someone in a physical way equivalent to killing that person? It makes it clear that the man is an unreconstructed bigot, and given that you have a bigot on the Supreme Court like that, it is useful to know.” –Rep. Barney Frank
Barney Frank, and Bernie Sanders, are what all Congressmen should aspire to. They don’t mince words and they call a spade a spade. Or in this case, a bigot a bigot. I only wish other Democratic Congressmen would grow the balls to do so.
Today’s endorsement shows that Log Cabin Republicans are a right-wing conservative organization that happens to have gay staff, rather than an organization dedicated to LGBT equality that supports conservative principles. When one reviews the horribly anti-equality record of Gov. Romney, it pales in comparison to the record of President George W. Bush, whom the Log Cabin Republicans wisely declined to endorse for re-election. Clearly the Log Cabin Republicans were put back in their place by the Republican establishment after that episode, or they never would have seen fit to endorse a candidate who opposes nearly every single item on the agenda for full LGBT equality over a President who is arguably the most pro-equality President in our history.”
For those of you who are not in the know or connected to the Gay A: List powers that be otherwise known as Gay Inc. They have a new (insane) strategy that includes embracing gay republican groups like the Log Cabin Republicans to gain support for LGBT Equality and also gay republican candidates. (Nevermind the fact that the LCR and GOProud usually back anti-gay GOP candidates because they are fiscally responsible and have always chosen money over equality and always will.) But now suddenly, out of nowhere Gay Inc. thinks that Gay Republicans are the answer and the way to gain our equality. ( After all their “changing the hearts and minds” strategy has worked so well. NOT)
Today though the outspoken Congressman Barney Frank has released an essay on this bizarre electoral strategy. In the piece, Frank argues that it makes no sense to back Republican candidates whose voting records on LGBT issues are worse than their opponents’. He also demonstrates that it is a mistake to deny support to incumbents with excellent records on LGBT issues when they are challenged by gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender candidates. (In an obvious reference to the LGBT Victory Funds recent endorsement of gay Massachusetts GOP candidate Richard Tisei over straight incumbant Democrat John Tierney who has a 100% Pro-LGBT voting record and is ranked the 8th most Progressive member in Congress just because Tisei is gay.)
Frank also refutes the argument proposed by the Log Cabin Republicans, that it is important to elect Republicans to Congress who are supportive of LGBT issues regardless of whether they are better on those issues than their opponents. Frank shows that efforts to change the Republican Party from within have been an absolute failure.
The Human Rights Campaign recently released its 2012 Congressional Scorecard. The study shows that the voting records of Republican Members of the 112th Congress were substantially worse than they were in the 111th Congress. Of the 240 Republican House Members, 211 of them received scores of 0%. Those 211 Members receiving 0% ratings represent 87.5% of Republican House Members. Less than 1% of Republican Members received a 100% rating.
In response to the HRC report, Congressman Frank writes:
“I recently saw the final results of The Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard for the 112th Congress. Having read it, I have to amend what I said about the Log Cabin Republicans’ efforts to win Republican support — the result of their efforts to build Republican support has been even more unsuccessful than I thought.”
Supporting Republicans, even gay ones is an insane strategy to gain LGBT equality that would take decades to fulfil and shows an extreme lack of integrity on our LGBT organizations part who would so easily do this and tunr thier backs on women’s reproductive rights and immigration issues which the GOP stands firmly against.
If this the best strategy that our LGBT organizational leaders have then they are the ones who need to be voted out of office.
“Mitt Romney’s attack on the moral character of disabled veterans, elderly and disabled Social Security recipients, and hard-working Americans in low-wage jobs because they do not pay income taxes is especially galling given the great energy he has put into evading income taxes on his very high income. Many of those whom Mr. Romney impugns pay a significant portion of their income in payroll taxes which support Social Security and Medicare.
“And until Mr. Romney stops hiding his own tax records, we can speculate that those people pay a higher percentage of their income in these taxes than Mr. Romney does on his foreign accounts, tax shelters, and other evasive devices. What Mr. Romney has done is to make clear – although he had not intended to be so public about it – the philosophical rationale behind efforts of the Romney-Ryan ticket to weaken the Social Security and Medicare safety nets.” – Rep. Barney Frank.
We the 47 Percent DEMAND that Mitt Romney release all his Tax Returns NOW!
*Oh and by the way Mittens. Your “tithting” to the Mormon Church is NOT chaity. Its a payoff to organized crime.
