ON THIS QUEER DAY – SEPTEMBER 2022
Introduction, the LGBTG History and Interfaith Calendars for September 2022
Written by Adriaan van den Berg
*
Intro: September and on Being More Than Our Sexual Orientations, More Than Our Gender Identities (and Post Script on the Attack on Salman Rushdie)
September is Heritage Month in South Africa, but it is also Tourism Month and Public Service Month, Heart Awareness Month, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and National Month of Deaf People. And this month we at Exit are concerned with “showing up as our authentic selves, outside of the confines of sexual orientation and gender.” It has been the complaint of asexual people for a long time that the other categories of sexual orientation make too much of their sexual orientations, that we allow our sexual preferences to rule us and to become the primary points of our personal identities. It has indeed been a point made by myself that LGB people reduce ourselves to our bodily needs in our thinking about ourselves and thereby restrict our potential to be more. September is the month on the cusp or on the verge of spring, a time during which we can allow ourselves change with the seasons and it is a time of becoming and we can allow ourselves to be more than just LGBTGQ people or we can define ourselves as more than to merely confine ourselves to categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. So, enjoy your September and spring 2022 after a long winter, be proud of being LGBTGQ people, but become and be more than that.
And to remind you of the proud, fierce people that we are, here is the month of September in LGBTGQ history (followed by our Interfaith Calendar) …
P.S. At the time of going to press we had just heard of the heinous attack on author Salman Rushdie. We have to condemn this act for its cowardice, for its intolerance, for its narrow understanding and for how unfounded in any acceptable sense of reason it is. We wish Mr. Rushdie a speedy recovery and that justice be served for the attacker. As a tribute to all authors in this month which sees International Literacy Day on the 8th, we will include a number of entries on LGBTGQ authors, publications and literature in the following calendar from LGBTGQ history as we will as always in coming months’ editions.
September 2022 in LGBTGQ History
September 1st – Let us remember an author on this first day of September in honor of all writers and in remembrance of Salman Rushdie who at this moment is lying critically injured in a hospital… Let us remember then Leslie Feinberg, an American butch lesbian and transgender activist, communist and author who was born on this day in 1949 (d. Nov. 15th, 2014). She is remembered for her book Stone Butch Blues (1993), but likewise for her most important writing which came in the guise of 1996’s Transgender Warriors, which activist Ronni Sanlo says “laid the groundwork for much of the terminology and awareness around gender studies and was instrumental in bringing these issues to a more mainstream audience.” Feinberg’s own description of herself was “an anti-racist white, working class, secular Jewish, transgender lesbian, female, revolutionary communist.”
September 2nd – We are celebrating LGBTGQ publications again on this day? And on this day in September 1967, the first issue of The Advocate, that stalwart oldest and largest LGBTGQ publication in the United States but known around the world, was published. The Advocate began as a small newspaper under the title of The Los Angeles Advocate.
September 3rd – On this day in 1980 a furor over “gay power politics” taking over city hall erupted over Toronto’s mayor’s adoption of gay candidate George Hislop (June 3rd, 1927 – October 8th, 2005) for alderman in the municipal election. Hislop did not win, but was nevertheless a prominent Canadian gay activist and was referred to by the Eye Weekly as “the unofficial mayor of the Toronto gay community.”
September 4th – The Wolfenden Report is published in the UK on this day in 1957 and recommended that “homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence.” Its suggestion was that private consensual sex acts between men older than 21 should be decriminalized. It was published after a number of prominent men were convicted of homosexual offences in the UK.
September 5th – I have long asked for more monuments and memorials for the victims of homo- and transphobia. One of the few was dedicated on this day in 1987 in the center of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It commemorates all gays and lesbians who had been subject to persecution because of their homosexuality and comprises three large pink granite triangles set onto the ground so as to form a larger triangle on the bank of the Keisergracht canal.
September 6th – India legalized gay consensual sex on this day in 2018.
September 7th – The world’s first LGBTG TV network called Pride-Vision TV is launched in Canada on this day in 2001.
September 8th – Before we return to LGBTGQ history, let’s bear in mind that today is International Literacy Day. Puerto Rico’s Bar Association of Layers got its first lesbian and the first black woman as President on this day of September in 2012 – she was Ana Ima Rivera Lassen (b. 1955). She has received numerous awards for her human rights work including the Martin Luther King /Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize and the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal. She is a practicing attorney who also serves on the faculty boards of several Puerto Rican universities as well as on the advisory council of the Program for Equality and Gender Equity of the Puerto Rican Judicial Branch.
September 9th – (World Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Day). On this day in 2019, Bosnia Herzegovina’s first ever pride event was held.
September 10th – South Africa – In Du Toit v. Minister of Welfare and Population Development, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled on this day in 2002 that same-sex couples must be allowed to adopt children jointly. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day.
September 11th – In 1976 on this day two men’s lewd conduct convictions were upheld by the California Appeals court. They had been arrested for “kissing in public” in a parked car at a freeway rest stop. They were both ordered to register as sex offenders.
September 12th – Lola, the Kinks’ song about transvestism entered the Billboard Top 40 on this day in 1970 where it will stay for 12 weeks
September 13th – The micro nation of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Corral islands declared war on Australia for its failure to recognize same-sex marriages on this day in 2004. The Kingdom’s establishment was a symbolic act by LGBTG activists from Australia and though there was no military action on their “war,” the declaration of war did cement the Kingdom’s claim that it was an independent country.
September 14th – Katherine “Kate” Murray Millet is born on this day in 1934 (d. September 5, 2017). She had been an unknown sculptor when her doctoral dissertation at the University of Columbia was published by Doubleday and Co. Titled Sexual Politics, its core premise was that the relationship between the sexes was political, with her definition of politics being “arrangements whereby one group in controlled by another.” She briefly taught at the University of North Carolina, then pursued her art career in Japan and then in New York, where she took a job teaching English Literature. In 1965 she married the Japanese sculptor Fumio Yoshimura nut she rejected many traditional notions regarding marriage and eventually came out as a lesbian. Her autobiographical work, Flying, published in 1974 told of the fame that Sexual Politics had brought her and her other work, Sita, published in 1977, dealt with her sexuality. She is survived by her spouse Sophie Keir.
September 15th – (International Day of Democracy). Homosexuality was removed the International Statistical Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization on this day in September 1992.
September 16th – (International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer). On this day in 1730, Navy Chief of Detectives Laurens Hospuijn (? September 16th, 1730) was executed for sodomy in Amsterdam by being strangled and then being thrown into the water with a 100-pound weight around his neck.
September 17th – In September of 1480, on this day the Spanish Inquisition was established as a court for the detection of heretics, but it soon became an enforcer of both moral and dogmatic purity and during its 350 year long reign it burned nearly 32 000 “heretics” at the stake and charged between 1000 and 1600 people with the crime of sodomy.
September 18th – Today is the birthday of the man who founded the first gay bookstore and the first gay mail-order service in the United States. His name was Edward Sagarin (d. June 10th, 1986) and he wrote under the pseudonym Donald Webster Cory and also was the author of The Homosexual in America, the first non-fictional insider account of the American LGBTG community. Cory influenced so many young men and women to become activists that he became known as the “father of the homophile movement.”
September 19th – Belize in South America banned same-sex activity with a 10-year jail sentence for those who were caught on this day in 2003.
September 20th – In 356 BC, this was the birthday of Alexander the Great, the conqueror of almost half of Asia and most of the Middle East and one of the greatest military strategists of all time. According to many sources he was gay.
September 21st – (International Day of Peace and World Alzheimer’s Day). The Oklahoma Supreme Court declares on this day in 1982 that homosexuality is not grounds for ruling a parent unfit and awards custody of two boys to their divorced gay father.
September 22nd – Reverend Magora E. Kennedy was born on this day in 1938 in Albany New York. Educated at Boston University and Yale Divinity School, she began her career as a teacher, as a lecturer and as a historian teaching African History and the God-Goddess /King-Queen connection. She is a black lesbian and is the Chaplain of the National Stonewall Rebellions Veterans Association.
September 23rd – Believed to be the only openly gay royal in the world, Indian prince Manavendra Singh was born on this day in 1965. When he first came out in the media in 2006, his family disowned him but he has since been welcomed back. The prince is also a legendary LGBTGQ activist.
September 24th – (South African Heritage Day). On this date in September 2003, sixty-two men were arrested for homosexuality and were charged with “habitual practice of debauchery in Egypt.
September 25th – A commemoration plaque that specifically memorializes homosexuals who had been incarcerated and killed during the Holocaust was unveiled at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on this day in 2010. It reads: In memory of the victims of Nazi barbarity deported because of their homosexuality.
September 26th – (World Environmental Health Day). Sometimes our victories come in small increments… In 1970 on this day of September in Los Angeles, Gay Liberation Front demonstrators persuaded bar owners to allow gay patrons to hold hands. And the Rocky Horror Picture Show opened on this day in September 1975 in Los Angeles.
September 27th – The Chicago Gay Alliance separated from the Gay Liberation Front on this day in 1970 declaring that GLF’s political agenda is too broad to be effective in the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights. The split is reminiscent of the positions taken recently by some gay and lesbian activists who insist that their cause should become separate from the quest for transgender rights and against transphobia.
September 28th – (World Rabies Day). Ana Brnabić (b. 28 September, 1975) was Serbia’s first lesbian Prime Minister and on this day in 1975 her partner Malicia gave birth also making Brnabić the first Prime Minister in a same-sex couple whose partner gave birth while she was in office.
September 29th – In 1926 on this day a melodrama was staged about a young woman who is seduced by an older woman (her so-called “shadow”) titled The Captive and created a sensation on Broadway. Sadly, also on this day but in 2004, Sierra Leone’s brave pioneering lesbian and gay rights activist, FannyAnn Viola Eddy (b. 174) was murdered in the offices of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association after at least three men had broken in, gang-raped her, stabbed her and eventually broke her neck.
September 30th – (World Translations Day). Paraguay’s government arrested hundreds of gay men without warrants and tortured them for being gay after the first public action for gay rights took place on this day in 1959. And on this day in 1983, New York State sues a West 12th Street co-op for trying to evict Dr. Joseph Sonnabend for treating Aids patients on this day in 1983. He was given a new lease and awarded $10 000.
And that was the month of September from LGBTGQ history… may it and at least one of our entries from our history serve as an inspiration to you.
Interfaith Calendar for September 2022
September 6th – Antinous in Athens: Antinoan – Antinous in Athens with the Emperor Hadrian and attending the Elysian Mysteries 21ST).
September 10th till 25th – Pitru Paksha: Hindu – Hindus paying homage to their ancestors.
September 11th – Nayrouz or Coptic New Year: Coptic Church – Feast commemorating martyrs and confessors in the Coptic Orthodox Christian Church.
September 17th – Arbaeen: Islam – Muslims conclude the 40-day period of mourning after the Day of Ashura.
September 21ST – Antinous and the Mysteries of Eulysis, – on Mount Cassius, – and the Blessing of Saint Carpocrates, the Sacred Ship of Antinous: Antinoan – Various stations on the Peregrination route of the emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous (leading up to the death and deification of Antinous in Egypt in October).
September 23rd – Mabon: Wicca and Pagan – Autumnal Equinox.
September 23rd till 31st – Paryushana: Jain – Festival about forgiveness that is the religion’s most important observance.
September 25th till 27th – Rosh Hashanah: Judaism – The Jewish New Year beginning at sundown promoting reflection.
Antinous in Heliopolis: Antinoan – Point on the Peregrination route of the emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous.
September 26th till Nov. 4th – Navaratri: Hinduism – Celebration of the Goddess Durga.
September 28th – Antinous at Giza: Antinoan – Point on the Peregrination route of the emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous.
(END)
*
On This Queer Day, the introductory article or column, the month in LGBTG history and the interfaith calendars are composed by Adriaan van den Berg. You can contact him with corrections, criticism and contribution at adriaanvandenberg2@gmail.com.
*
