Michael Bedwell
-
Legendary gay composer & Broadway genius Stephen Sondheim passes at 91
From “West Side Story” to “Sweeney Todd” and everything in between, the public searches hopelessly for words that encapsulate the incomparable creative.
-
Legendary gay rights pioneer Kay Lahusen passes at 91
The world’s first out gay photojournalist, she documented the birth of the LGBTQ movement.
-
Out Major General Tammy Smith retires after 35 years of service
In 1778, George Washington had a soldier drummed out of the military for sodomy. 243 years later, the Fife and Drum Corps, Honor Guard Company, and the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard were all there to celebrate a lesbian general’s retirement.
-
Chasten Buttigieg’s new book is a frank discussion of growing up gay in middle America
Chasten has gone from being bullied for being too gay to being accused of not being gay enough. Now he’s telling his story.
-
How gay Halloween became a major event in one small Indiana town in 1975
Some people were deeply closeted and used the Halloween dance’s popularity to be around out LGBs while pretending to be straight.
-
Homophobia and homosexuality during World War I
Homosexuality was lobbed as an insult during the war while gay people hid it, but sometimes it would “hide in plain sight.”
-
How Alfred Kinsey armed the early gay rights movement with research
Even early gay rights activists wouldn’t have known just how many people they were fighting for without him.
-
The history of same-sex relationships is the history of marriage
Unions between people of the same-sex are hardly new phenomena. Love is eternal.
-
The secret lesbian couple behind a historic meeting at the White House
They got LGBTQ leaders from around the country into Jimmy Carter’s White House.
-
Surrender Dorothy! For more than a century the US Navy was the worst branch for LGB people
From hiring men to entrap civilians to imprisoning gay sailors for years, the Navy earned its reputation for homophobia.
-
The ‘Imitation’ Alan Turing vs. the real Alan Turing: Victim vs. hero
“The Imitation Game” portrays Alan Turing as a weak whiny, and possibly a traitor to his country. But the real Alan Turing was a hero.
-
2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the White Night Riot. “He got away with murder!”
The night the man who murdered Harvey Milk got away with murder, there were 12 incinerated police cars, 150 injuries, and dozens of arrests.
-
Inconvenient truths: Potholes along the yellow brick road of LGBTQ history
The word “faggot” does not come from burning gays at the stake.
-
Stop saying Harvey Milk was the first out gay person elected to public office
He wasn’t even second. Here are the women who were first.
-
Reed Erickson was a trans man who bankrolled early LGBT movements
Fundraising is central to the LGBTQ movement today. But decades ago, several organizations depended on one trans man.
-
Black lesbian Ernestine Eckstein was protesting when most gays thought protests were crazy
Closeted gays and even many early gay organizations criticized her for being visible and active.
-
Frank Kameny devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. He lived to see several victories.
Kameny replaced “Homosexuality is unfortunate” with “Gay is good” long before many LGBTQ historic figures were even out.
-
In 1972, gay people spoke at the Democratic National Convention for the first time
They had to speak at 5 a.m. and were followed by a straight woman who accused them of pedophilia, but they spoke.
-
3 years before Stonewall, gay activists protested all over the country on same day
All over the country, protests about the military’s ban on gay soldiers were organized. Liberals and conservatives alike hated it.
-
In 1976, the Supreme Court slapped down a sodomy law challenge with just four words
It all started with a Help Wanted ad.
