October 12th in Queer History: Matthew Shepard

Died this day:

Matthew Shepard


Sodomy in History, October 12

1984 — Congress enacts a law repealing the District of Columbia sexual assault reform law of 1981, that had included a repeal of the District’s sodomy law.

1988 — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals clarifies that only "consensual, heterosexual" activity is constitutionally protected, preventing a more liberal decision of two weeks earlier from becoming precedent.

Source:
Calendar of Sodomy, October

October 11th in Queeer History: Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean Cocteau

Born this day:

Eleanor Roosevelt

Wife of the 32nd American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Eleanor had a secret love for journalist Lorena Hichok. As chair(wo)man of the UN-committee for human rights she was reponsible for the creation of the Basic Laws.

-Famous Gay People

Lupe Valdez, Sheriff


First openly lesbian sheriff in Texas

Cleve Jones, Aids Activist

Founder of the AIDS memorial quilt


Died this day:


Jean Cocteau

French poet, painter, playwright, stage director, actor, film maker, sculptor and choreographer, born as Jean Maurice Eugene Clement Cocteau. 


Joerg Haidar, Austrian 
Politician




Renato Russo  (1960 – 1996)Brazilian
Singer and songwriter, who aged 18 outed himself as bisexual to his mother, and in 1988 he made it public by writing the song "Meninos e Meninas" ("Boys n' Girls") with the chorus stating, in English, "I like St. Paulo, I like St. João, I like St. Francisco and St. Sebastião, and I like boys and girls."
His death in 1996 was due to complications caused by AIDS.


Sodomy in History

1915 — A Delaware appellate court rules that fellatio violates the state’s sodomy law.

1935 — A California appellate court violates both statutory and case law in the state by sustaining an oral copulation conviction secured by the admission of the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice.

1965 — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds an oral copulation conviction of two men in California for sex in a restroom stall that was enclosed and viewed from holes in the ceiling overhead.

1995 — A federal judge in Florida refuses to dismiss a suit brought by a man arrested in a restroom for sex. The court finds that the store may have acted in concert with police, thus creating a possible federal civil rights issue. The court also finds that Florida’s privacy provision in its constitution does not give right of action against private individuals.

Source:
Calendar of Sodomy, October

October 10th in Queer History

Born this day

Jacob Dahlin  (1952 –  1991) Swedish 

Presenter 

Sodomy in History, October 10th

1960 — The Virginia Supreme Court reverses the sodomy conviction of two men that was based on the confession of only one.

1960 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the case of a Gay alien being deported after conviction of a minor misdemeanor solicitation.

1960 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a consensual sodomy case from Ohio.

1972 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Maryland sodomy law.

Source:
Calendar of Sodomy, October

October 9th in Queer History: Cardinal John Henry Newman

Saint's day:


Blessed John Henry Newman

Cardinal  Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 2011, which means that although not yet recognized by the Catholic Church as as a saint, he is in effect on the way to sainthood. "Blessed" John He is important in queer history for his notable devotion to his beloved friend, the fellow priest Aubrey St John, in whose grave he shared after death.


Sodomy in History, October 9


October 9

1706 — English sailor James Ball is sentenced to death for sodomy with a ship boy.

1900 — The Hawaii Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction secured by a non-unanimous jury verdict.

1958 — The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that people of the opposite sex can be prosecuted for sodomy as well as those of the same sex.

1967 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Washington sodomy law, the first challenge based on privacy rights ever to reach it.

1990 — The Maryland Court of Appeals rules that the state’s sodomy and unnatural and perverted practices law are unconstitutional as applied to people of the opposite sex, but constitutional as applied to those of the same sex. The Court misconstrues case law history in the state to justify its ruling.

1998 — The South African Constitutional Court strikes down the country’s sodomy law under the new constitution.

Sodomy in History,Octber 8

October 8

1945 — The Michigan Supreme Court upholds a gross indecency conviction even though the complaining witness had not been cross-examined fully.

1956 — The Missouri Court of Appeals overturns a sodomy conviction because the prosecution raised the issue of the defendant’s sexual activity with other persons.

1956 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a consensual sodomy case from Pennsylvania.

1973 — The Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law and upholds a sentence of eight years in prison for a private, consensual act.

Source:


Calendar of Sodomy, October

October 7th in Queer History: Dan Savage; Queer Saints, Sergius and Bacchush

Born this day:


Dan Savage, gay columnist, agony uncle, defender of queer kids and scourge of the religious right.


Saints Day: SS Sergius and Bacchus.

Today is the feast day of the best known of all the queer saints and martyrs of the Christian Church. Sergius and Bacchus were Roman soldiers, lovers, and martyrs for the Christian faith - one of several such military pairs of lovers honoured by the early church.

Died this day:

Gustaf Grundgens 


German actor and director, born in Dusseldorf as Gustav Heinrich Arnold Grundgens. Untill 1945 he was the director of the Prussian State Theatre. Grundgens was married to Erika Mann. He committed suicide. The film 'Mephisto' (1981) was based on his life story. Films: M (1931), Ohm Kruger (1935), Der Tunnel, Capriolen, Faust (1961)

- Famous Gay People

Sodomy in History, October 7

1940 — The Michigan Supreme Court overturns a trial court’s sentence of a Gay man to be held in confinement in a mental institution, after his imprisonment on a sodomy charge ends, "until this court shall judge you cease to be a menace to public safety." The Supreme Court points out that the judge was without authority so to act.

1964 — Presidential Assistant Walter Jenkins is arrested in a Washington YMCA for soliciting another man. Many supporters of Senator Goldwater try to make a big deal out of it, although Goldwater himself refuses to comment.

1969 — The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upholds the right of the state to proceed against sodomy arrestees by using indictment language different from the text of the sodomy law.

1975 — The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals rejects a challenge to a sodomy conviction based on the fact the women had been excluded systematically from the jury pool.

1976 — The Delaware Supreme Court rules that a man convicted of sodomy 27 years earlier and pardoned is not eligible to run for public office in the state.

Calendar of Sodomy, October

Related Posts:

• Saints Sergius and Bacchus
• Saints Felicity and Perpetua
• Saints Polyeuct and Nearchos
• Saints Symeon of Emessa, and John
• Same-Sex Unions in Church History
• Gay Popes, Papal Sodomites
• Gay Bishops: How Many?

October 6th in Queer History: Alfred Lord Tennyson; Janet Gaynor

Born this day:

Janet Gaynor  (October 6, 1906 - September 14, 1984)

American actress, who in 1928 was the first woman to receive an Academy Award, and the only person to win the award for multiple roles: Seventh Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928). Her career continued with the advent of sound film, and she achieved a notable success in the original version of A Star Is Born (1937).

Died this day:

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate.

Tennyson's life and work present a direct challenge to the conventional thinking which places a clear dichotomy between "homo-" and "hetero-" sexuality (with a passing nod to bi-). He was noted for his undoubted attraction to women, and is not known to have had any physical relationships with men, so would not normally be described even as bisexual. Yet, his celebrated verse abounds in homoerotic and androgynous imagery, his long poem "In Memoriam", written upon the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam, has been described as "the most beautiful homoerotic elegy in the English language" 

October 6

1943 — An Oklahoma appellate court rejects the contention of a man and woman that sodomy can be accomplished only between people of the same sex.

1967 — A New Mexico appellate court rules that cunnilingus is prohibited by the state’s sodomy law.

1969 — The Georgia Supreme Court rules that the testimony of police officers in sodomy cases does not need to be corroborated.

-Sodomy in History