Tag Archives: gay

#OTD - June 3, 1906: Bisexual Singer, Dancer and Actress Josephine Baker Is Born.

#OTD – June 3, 1906: Bisexual Singer, Dancer, and Actress Josephine Baker Is Born.

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Singer, Dancer, WW2 French Resistance Spy, and Civil Rights activist. Josephine Baker was much more than just a banana skirt.

Josephine Baker, born on June 3, 1906 was an iconic figure in the world of entertainment. She was a French-American singer, dancer, and actress, known for her remarkable talent, charisma, and trailblazing spirit. Josephine Baker was also known for her open bisexuality, which was an important aspect of her personal life.

Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and grew up in a challenging environment. She faced poverty and racial discrimination, but her determination and passion for performance pushed her towards a brighter future. At the age of 13, she started performing on stage, and by the 1920s, she had gained significant recognition for her unique style and energy.

In 1925, Josephine Baker achieved worldwide fame when she traveled to Paris (Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States ) and became an instant sensation at the Folies Bergère with her captivating performances. Her provocative dances, featuring her famous “banana skirt” and sensual movements, revolutionized the entertainment industry and broke numerous social barriers.

Baker was the most successful American entertainer working in France. Ernest Hemingway called her “the most sensational woman anyone ever saw”. The author spent hours talking with her in Paris bars. Picasso drew paintings depicting her alluring beauty. Jean Cocteau became friendly with her and helped vault her to international stardom.

Aside from her success on stage, Josephine Baker was also active in the French Resistance during World War II. She served as a spy, smuggling secret messages hidden in her sheet music and using her celebrity status to gather information for the Allies. Her bravery and contributions earned her several honors, including the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of Resistance.

Josephine Baker’s personal life was marked by her bisexuality. She had both romantic and sexual relationships with both men and women, which was considered taboo at the time. She was known for her affairs with prominent figures, including Frida Kahlo, Colette, and many others. Her openness about her bisexuality challenged norms and helped pave the way for acceptance and understanding of different sexualities.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Josephine Baker became increasingly involved in the civil rights movement. She actively fought against racism and segregation, refusing to perform for segregated audiences in the United States. Her contributions to the movement were recognized, and she was the only woman to speak at the March on Washington in 1963.

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, ’cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all over the world.

josephine baker – march on washington – 1963

Later in her life, Josephine Baker adopted twelve children from different ethnic backgrounds, forming what she called her “Rainbow Tribe.” Her dedication to promoting racial harmony and acceptance through her family exemplified her commitment to social justice and equality.

Coretta Scott King approached Baker in the Netherlands to ask if she would take her husband’s place as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were “too young to lose their mother”.

Josephine Baker continued to perform and advocate for civil rights until her death on April 12, 1975, at the age of 68. She received a full Catholic funeral at L’Église de la Madeleine, attracting more than 20,000 mourners.[The only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Baker’s funeral was the occasion of a huge procession. After a family service at Saint-Charles Church in Monte Carlo. Josephine  Baker was interred at Monaco’s Cimetière de Monaco.

Her legacy as a bisexual trailblazer, entertainer, and activist live on, and she is remembered as an LGBT icon of the 20th century.

*HAPPY PRIDE! – Buy us a beer for PRIDE or make a small donation to not-for-profit gay independent journalism.

It’s good KARMA and always appreciated!

PAYPAL will@back2stonewall.com – VENMO @Will-Kohler-1 

Pride Anthem 1980 - The Story of "I'm Coming Out" sung by Diana Ross

Pride Anthem 1980 – The Story of “I’m Coming Out” Sung by Diana Ross.

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In 1979, Diana Ross commissioned Chic founders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to create material for a new album after taking her daughters to see the band in concert.  Rodgers got the idea for “I’m Coming Out” after noticing three different drag queens dressed as Diana Ross at a Gay/Drag/Trans New York club called the GG Barnum Room that had a trapeze with flyers soaring over the dance floor. 

And ever since the song has been interpreted as a celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, identity and the encouragement of self-disclosure and fabulousness!

PRIDE Month - Remembering Malcolm Michaels Jr. aka Marsha P. Johnson: The Original Drag Queen Trans Activist (1945 - 1992)

PRIDE Month – Remembering Malcolm Michaels Jr. aka Marsha P. Johnson: The Original Drag Queen Trans Activist (1945 – 1992)

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Malcolm Michaels, Jr. aka. Marsha P. Johnson was an African-American self-identified gay man and drag queen who advocated for “trans rights”  in New York City’s gay scene from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Malcolm Michaels, Jr. was born on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Johnson experienced a difficult childhood due to her Christian upbringing. 

He engaged in cross-dressing behavior at an early age but was quickly reprimanded. Johnson moved to Greenwich Village in New York City after graduating from high school. In New York, he struggled to make ends meet. He was homeless and prostituted himself and engaged in petty theft to make ends meet. However, he found joy as a drag queen amidst the nightlife of Christopher Street. And Marsha Johnson was born. He designed all of his costumes (mostly from thrift shops) and quickly became a prominent fixture in the gay community serving as a “drag mother” by helping homeless and struggling LGBT youth.

One of the city’s oldest and best-known “drag queens”, (which is what Marsha proudly referred to herself as) Johnson participated in clashes with the police amid the Stonewall Riots along with her friend Sylvia Rivera and hundreds of others. (After wrongly being credited for stating it.)) and both became co-founders, of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) in the early 1970s.   Marsha and Sylvia became the mothers of  S.T.A.R House and together gathered food and clothing to help support the young queens. Sometimes legally.  Most times not.

STAR opened its first STAR House in a parked trailer truck in a Greenwich Village parking lot later that year. It functioned as a shelter and social space for drag/trans sex workers and other LGBT street youth. However, the pair arrived one day to find the trailer was being towed, with as many as 20 youths still sleeping inside. This experience made them decide to find a more permanent home for STAR House. “Marsha and I decided to get a building,” Rivera told Leslie Feinberg in 1998. “We were trying to get away from the Mafia’s control at the bars. We got a building at 213 Second Avenue.”

Marsha was one of a kind.  Once, appearing in a court the judge asked Marsha, “What does the ‘P’ stand for?”,  Johnson gave his customary response “Pay it No Mind.” and the judge laughed and let him go.  This phrase became her trademark. In 1974 Marsha P. Johnson was photographed by famed artist Andy Warhol, as part of a “ladies and gentlemen” series of Polaroids featuring drag queens.

Masha P. Johnson was as tough, crazy, and as gritty as New York City itself.  But as kind and as loving as any mother could be to her “children”

In July of 1992 that came to an abrupt end when Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers shortly after the 1992 Pride March. Police ruled the death a suicide. Johnson’s friends and supporters said she was not suicidal, and a people’s postering campaign later declared that Johnson had earlier been harassed near the spot where her body was found.  Attempts to get the police to investigate the cause of death were unsuccessful but many today believe that Johnson was murdered.

Marsha P. Johnson was an original, an activist, and a martyr.

May he be at peace and never be forgotten and finally be remembered correctly

Listen to Marsha P. Johnson Talk About the Stonewall Riots In Her Own Words – “We didn’t start the rebellion.” [RARE AUDIO]

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Buy us a beer for PRIDE or make a small donation to gay independent journalism. Always appreciated and Happy PRIDE!

PAYPAL will@back2stonewall.com – VENMO @Will-Kohler-1 

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH 2023! Including a VERY SPECIAL MESSAGE from Matt Bomer!

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH 2023! Including a VERY SPECIAL MESSAGE from Matt Bomer!

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A Happy PRIDE MONTH 2023 to all including our FANTASTIC LGBT STR8 Allies!

Pride Month is a month-long celebration and recognition of the LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and others) community. It is observed in June each year and is marked by various events, parades, parties, and activities that promote LGBT+ rights, equality, and diversity.

It’s important to note that Pride month is not just a celebration, but also a reminder that there is still so much work to be done to achieve full equality and acceptance for the LGBT+ community.

Remember: PRIDE Month is not to be confused with LGBT History Month which falls in October.

To celebrate PRIDE 2023 we are playing the cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “People Like Us” by Matt Bomer and Alan Mingo Jr. from HBO’s “Doom Patrol”.

And after all the abuse the LGBT community has taken these past 2 years the message is clear.

Get Angry, protect each other, fight, and stay the course!

Our lives depend on it.

“Hey, everybody loses it
Everybody wants to throw it all away sometimes
And hey, yeah I know what you’re going through
Don’t let it get the best of you, you’ll make it out alive

Oh, people like us we’ve gotta stick together
Keep your head up, nothing lasts forever
Here’s to the damned to the lost and forgotten
It’s hard to get high when you’re living on the bottom…

Hey, this is not a funeral
It’s a revolution, after all your tears have turned to rage
Just wait, everything will be okay
Even when you’re feeling like it’s going down in flames.

Oh, people like us we’ve gotta stick together
Keep your head up, nothing lasts forever
Here’s to the damned to the lost and forgotten
It’s hard to get high when you’re living on the bottom.

They can’t do nothing to you, they can’t do nothing to me
This is the life that we choose, this is the life that we bleed
So throw your fists in the air, come out, come out if you dare
Tonight we’re gonna change forever

Listen to the lyrics my children. And FIGHT!

Actress Marcia Gay Harden: "My children are all queer"

Actress Marcia Gay Harden: “My children are all queer”

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Actress Marcia Gay Harden told People magazine that her LGBTQ+ children teach her something new every day.

Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden shared some personal information during the “Drag Isn’t Dangerous: A Digital Fundraiser” telethon over the weekend where she revealed all her children are “queer”.

Harden told co-host Adam Shankman, according to People magazine. “What drives me is — my children are all queer.“

“My eldest child is non-binary. My son is gay. My youngest is fluid,” she continued. “And you know, they are my kids, and they teach me every day.”

The telethon was in Los Angeles was held in response to state lawmakers’ recent attempts to ban drag shows and performances, which they insist are unsafe for minors.

“This is so fear-based, and it’s spreading that kind of fear and hatred among other people,” Harden said of the controversial legislation. “I believe this country will fight that.”

Harden encouraged her followers to contribute to the fundraiser in support of the LGBTQIA+.

“Our nation, our neighbors, our children, artists, our singers, our dancers, our better leaders, ceo’s [sic], writers, spiritual leaders, basically our humanity,. Gay is here to stay. Drag is here to stay. Donate what you can, and join us in spreading the love.”

Back2Stonewall Sunday Tea Dance – The Skatt Brothers aka. Canada’s Village People: “Walk The Night” and “Life At The Outpost”. (1979/80)

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The Skatt Brothers (or Skatt Bros.) was a Canadian band formed in 1979 was supposedly modeled after the Village People for parallels in music, but for a straight audience and by straight (?) masculine men.

They did not succeed.

Sean Delaney formed the band in 1979 and was signed to Casablanca Records by Neil Bogart. In 1979, the band released Walk the Night , on the Strange Spirits album. ” Walk the Night” reached #9 in the Billboard charts and #1 on various national charts. Walk the Night is considered the band’s cult classic . But in 1980 the band released a single called Life at the Outpost which while not as popular did reach the Top 25 internationally and hit Number  #13 in Australia.

This official video for Life At The Outpost was done by the Australian record company, without the actual Skatt Brothers, using male models instead when repeated requests to the bands management company to produce a video for Life At The Outpost went unanswered.

It’s the the finest music video never to reach popular rotation and a must see.

Even I don’t remember the 1980’s being THIS  gay.
MISSOURI: Man Who Pled Guilty To Shooting Gay Teen Sentenced To 22 Years in Prison

MISSOURI: Man Who Pled Guilty To Shooting Gay Teen Sentenced To 22 Years in Prison

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Malachi Robinson who pled guilty to shooting a 16-year-old eight times because of his sexual orientation has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act .

The 16 year old identified as “M.S.” in court documents met outside the Kansas City Public Library in May 2019, Robinson and M.S. talked briefly online, and walked for a time in Swope Park, according to court documents. Robinson suggested they walk into a wooded area to engage in a sex act, then Robinson messaged his girlfriend that he “might shoot this boy” because he is gay.

When M.S. changed his mind, and turned to leave the woods, Robinson shot him with a 8times in the back with a Taurus 9mm pistol. M.S. survived the shooting after spending two weeks in the hospital. He has since undergone multiple surgeries and has been doing physical therapy and living with several bullets inside him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes sentenced Robinson to o 21 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed in 2009, created a new federal law that criminalized bodily injury when it was committed because of perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Actor Richard Armitage Casually Comes Out As Gay

Actor Richard Armitage Casually Comes Out As Gay

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In a recent interview with Radio Times magazine, actor Richard Armitage causally came out while discussing his new Netflix series Obsession.

Armitage has long kept quiet about the subject and avoided discussing his personal life in interviews even as rumors began to swirl about Armitage’s sexuality after Sir Ian McKellen let slip that a number of his co-stars were gay, in The Hobbit including actors who played “two of the dwarves.”

Armitage reflected on coming out to the people in his life when he was a teen and why he didn’t want to talk about it publicly for so long:

“[Coming out] happened when I was 19–to anybody who mattered–and I was always waiting for that question to punch me in the face, and it never did,” Armitage says. “I thought, ‘Are people being polite, or is it that they don’t want to know?’”

He continues: “I don’t know that I ever wanted to put myself in front of the work I was doing, anything about my family or personal life. I just thought, ‘Let the work speak for itself. If I declare who I am and my sexuality, then I’m saying it’s fixed and I don’t know that, or if I might feel something for somebody further down the line. I doubt it, but I don’t know. It’s more relaxed now. As a writer and producer, I do wonder if anybody has to be defined by who they’re in love with.”

“I love the conversation with the younger generation. I love the idea that whatever gender, sexuality, the fluidity of who you love, how you identify, is not fixed. That was always a thing: If I declare who I am and my sexuality, then I’m saying it’s fixed and I don’t know that, or if I might feel something for somebody further down the line. I doubt it, but I don’t know. It’s more relaxed now. As a writer and producer, I do wonder if anybody has to be defined by who they’re in love with.”

Welcome to the Tribe Richard!

WOOF!

RUSSIA: Bolshoi Ballet Cancels 'Nureyev' Ballet Piece Over 'LGBT Propaganda" Law

RUSSIA: Bolshoi Ballet Cancels ‘Nureyev’ Ballet Piece Over ‘LGBT Propaganda” Law

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The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia.

On Wednesday, the Bolshoi theatre announced it has dropped a contemporary ballet about the legendary Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev from its repertoire following the expansion of Russia’s ban on “LGBT propaganda”.

This makes any portrayal of homosexuality – such as Nureyev’s relationships with men after his defection from the Soviet Union in 1961, which the ballet touches on – impossible.

“‘Nureyev’ was removed from the repertoire in connection with the law … where issues related to the promotion of ‘non-traditional values’ are stipulated absolutely unequivocally,” Vladimir Urin, general director of the Bolshoi, told a news conference on Wednesday.

The ballet, choreographed by Kirill Serebrennikov, has had a troubled history in Russia. It premiered in December 2017, several months late, after the then-culture minister reportedly called it gay propaganda, and has not been performed since 2018. Performances scheduled for 2022 were abruptly cancelled after Serebrennikov publicly blamed Russia for the conflict in Ukraine.

Serebrennikov is one of Russia’s leading film, theatre and television directors and stage designers, has made his frustration clear.

Below you can watch the best of talented ballet star Rudolph Nureyev.

NYC - Gay Couple Attacked and Beaten in Times Square

NYC – Gay Couple Attacked and Beaten in Times Square

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Times Square was full of people while the attack occurred, but no one intervened to help.

The two men were walking around Times Square at around 10:30 p.m. on April 8th. when they were  targeted and attacked by four suspects in Times Square.

“They come up to us and they’re like,’ you need to move’. They’re like, ‘You need to move..’ They started pushing us,” The suspects reportedly used profanity and made anti-gay comments while they were beating the couple.

The two men were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where one needed to have a metal plate put into his fractured jaw.

The couple also said that Times Square was full of people while the attack occurred, but no one intervened to help. No suspects have been arrested yet.

We will update this story as more details become available. Please stay safe.