Happy National Coming Out Day!
Oscar Wilde says Happy National Coming Out Day! This month is LGBT History month here in the US; would anyone be interested if I featured some queer Victorians here at Steampunk Magazine? Would anyone have any suggestions?
Besides the obvious Mr. Wilde? There’s always Gay Watson… ( http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=264 )
-The Gneech
That, my friend, is a fucking awesome idea.
I can’t think of any examples right now, but it is 7 o’clock in the morning.
I’ll put my brain to it.
Maybe we could also invite steampunks from the LGBT community to guest blog about their experiences as steampunks?
If we could find someone interested in blogging about it from an activism standpoint (like with have with Ay-leen and Jha with anti-racism) that would be completely awesome, too.
I am full of fail today:
Molly Houses are pre-Victorian.
Anne Lister just about reaches the Victorian era.
The Ladies of Llangollen – nearly Victorian.
Percy Jocelyn – too early.
There’s the Cleveland Street Scandal?
And Edward Carpenter.
Plus Boulton and Park.
From a ‘laws and other horrendous things’ POV there’s also the Labouchere Amendment.
… of course that’s all very Britain-centric – I’m lacking in knowledge of other countries histories of rights and suppression.
I was thinking about the Ladies of Llangollen.
Could see if Tez is interested in writing something about them.
Allegra, I can think of a couple queer steampunks off the top of my head who might be interested. I’ll shoot them e-mails. 😀
Cal, I’ve never heard of any of those, but am now looking forward to looking into them!
Renee Vivien
‘Muse of the Violets’
1877-1909
Mercedes de Acosta – poet, playwright, designer, socialite. She was also the lover of Alla Nazimova, Isadora Duncan, Eve LeGallienne, Tamara Karsavina. She was also friends with Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Nattalie Clifford Barney, & Bessie Marbury. Mercedes was a lover of Dolly Wilde (Oscar’s Niece) as well as Garbo and Dietrich. She was born in New York City in 1893 to the wealthy de Acosta family. Her sisters included Rita Lydig (painted by Boldini) and Aida de Acosta Root Breckinridge who was the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo (June 29,1903 in Paris).
Check out “Free Comrades” from AK Press( http://www.akpress.org/2007/items/freecomradesakpress ). It is about LBGT-issues in the US between 1895 and 1917.
How about Magnus Hirschfeld and John Addington Symonds?
Truman Capote?