LGBT+ History Month

1st February 2022 55 5

Week 2

Day 8: Who Designed the Bi Flag

Michael Page designed the bisexual flag, and reviled it to the public on the 5th of December 1998. Michael is a Florida based bisexual activist. Its creation was born from a desire to have a prominent symbol for the bisexual community.

The colour scheme is borrowed from another bi pride symbol (Bi-Angles symbol); two overlapping triangles. One pink and one blue.

Like the Rainbow Flag, the colours of the bi flag have meaning.

Pink = Same sex attraction
Lavender = Attraction to both sexes
Blue = Heterosexual attraction

Day 9: Appreciate Art by an LGBT Artist

Gilbert & George

Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch, and George Passmore, are two artists who work together as the collaborative art duo Gilbert & George.

David Hockney

David Hockney, OM, CH, RA is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was an Irish-born English figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery. Focusing on the human form, his subjects included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, with abstracted figures sometimes isolated in geometrical structures.

Christina Quarles

Christina Quarles is a contemporary American artist living and working in Los Angeles whose gestural, abstract paintings confront themes of racial and sexual identities, gender, and queerness.

Bernice Bing

Bernice Bing was a Chinese American lesbian artist involved in the San Francisco Bay Area art scene in the 1960s. She was known for her interest in the Beats and Zen Buddhism, and for the “calligraphy-inspired abstraction” in her paintings, which she adopted after studying with Saburo Hasegawa.

Joan Mitchell

Joan Mitchell was an American “second generation” abstract expressionist painter and printmaker. She was a member of the American abstract expressionist movement, even though much of her career took place in France.

Day 10: Learn About a Bi Role Model

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards, she has been named Hollywood’s highest-paid actress multiple times.

When Barbara Walters asked if she was bisexual in 2003, Angelina Jolie responded:

Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it’s okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!

Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore is an actress, producer, writer, and director. She starred in many films and, along with Nancy Juvonen, has started her own production company, Flower Films In 2003 in and interview with Contact Magazine, she said:

Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally. I have always considered myself bisexual… I love a womans body. I think a woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful.

Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Armstrong serves as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and lead guitarist of the punk rock band Green Day, co-founded with Mike Dirnt. He spoke about his sexuality in a 1995 interview with The Advocate:

I think I’ve always been bisexual. I mean, it’s something that I’ve always been interested in. I think people are born bisexual, and it’s just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of ‘Oh, I can’t.’ They say it’s taboo. It’s ingrained in our heads that it’s bad, when it’s not bad at all. It’s a very beautiful thing.

Jack Woolley

Jack Woolley is an Irish taekwondo athlete. He has qualified to represent Ireland at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men’s 58 kg category. He’s openly bisexual Jack recently told Attitude Magazine:

Maybe it can be good, maybe I can be an inspiration to some young people

Day 11: Listen to Music by an LGBT Music Act

Kim Petras

Kim Petras is a German singer and songwriter currently based in Los Angeles. Since 2016, Petras has been releasing music as an independent artist under her own imprint, BunHead Records. Petras began recording music as a teenager, releasing her debut extended play ‘One Piece of Tape’ in 2011. Kim Petras has been very public about her transition to female after she was assigned male at birth.

Sophie Xeon

Sophie Xeon, known mononymously as Sophie, was a Scottish musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, and DJ. She worked with artists such as Madonna, Diplo, Camila Cabello and Charli XCX.

Unfortunately, Sophie died on the 30th January 2021 in an accident in Greece.

Sam Smith

Samuel Frederick Smith is an English singer and songwriter. They rose to prominence in October 2012 after being featured on Disclosure’s breakthrough single “Latch”, which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. Sam is openly non-binary.

Years & Years

Years & Years are a British synth-pop trio, founded in London, England. The band consists of Olly Alexander, Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen. Years & Years’ music has been described as electropop, mixing R&B and 1990s house elements.

Olly recently stared in Channel 4’s Its a Sin.

George Beck

George Beck, a German-born, London-based vocalist and songwriter, radio presenter and mental health advocate.

George has recently created a piece specifically for LGBT History Month! You can check out Judge of Me here.

“At some stages in my life I tried to be who other people wanted me to be. Even within our community. I remember when internet dating started and suddenly I was faced with comments like: you’re too vanilla, too young, too old, too ginger, too fem, too fat, too short, too nice… Eventually I decided to push that aside and just be the best version of me, which made me feel happier, content and confident in who I am as person and artist.”

Read about George on his presenter bio page here!

Charlie Fisher

With inspirations spanning the spectrum of the Pet Shop Boys and The B-52’s, all the way round to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, Charlie is bringing trashy, fun pop back – all delivered with a personal spin and a refusal to conform to the label “guilty pleasure”.

Read more about Charlie on his presenter bio page here!

Lucas Gil

Brighton based musician and producer. Typically synth-wave electronica with some uplifting beats thrown in. However, each of his tracks has something different. Lucas is not one to be put into a category and his compositions most certainly reflect this.

I wish to see the day that we wouldn’t have to use the term “LGBTQ+Artist” but instead just “Artist”, that there wouldn’t have to be a reason for suchlabels anymore.

Read more about Lucas on his presenter bio page here!

Venn

We all love a good pop diva and queer anthem, but how many LGBTQ+ artists have you got in your collection? The world of independent queer music-makers is huge and packed full of talent and your new favourites just waiting for you to love them! It’s not always easy getting seen and heard as a queer musician, so every listen, follow and purchase really makes a difference!

Go ahead and make your music collection even more queer

Read more about Venn on his presenter bio page here!

Day 12: Learn about LGBT+ Laws in a Different Country

The world is still far away from equality for the LGBT community. According to the Equaldex, there are still 71 countries where gay activities are illegal. In 70 countries, is illegal to have sex with a person of the same sex; in 8 of these the punishment is death. In the past few years, as mentioned by Stonewall, we have seen progress made for LGBTQ+ rights in many countries, but unfortunately at the same time we have seen some countries becoming more repressive.

If we look just at Europe, we can see through the ILGA Rainbow Map a very inconsistent (and in certain cases worrying) situation:

Stonewall reports that in more than half the world, LGBT people may not be protected from discrimination by workplace law. This means that LGBT employees can be rejected for jobs, overlooked for promotion or fired for being who they are.

Trans people are still facing in a very big number of countries the impossibility to legally change their name and gender. In the majority of the countries that allow the change, the process is still long, bureaucratic, and involve Court decisions along with high expenses and fees, invasive requirements, medical interventions (in some cases even the forced sterilisation).

Journalist Lyric Fergusson and her husband Asher compiled a list of 150 countries for LGBT+ travellers, from the most dangerous to the safest one, using 8 different factors.

To measure LGBTQ+ safety abroad, one cannot look only at data on whether or not same-sex marriage is legal and if anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination laws are in place. It also depends on the general attitude of the culture, minutiae of the legal system, and oppression of LGBTQ+ rights. These issues can affect everything, from your ability to show public displays of affection to being able to share a hotel room bed to the capacity at which you can use dating apps without being caught by the local police

The safest country, according to this map, is Sweden. As reported by Forbes, same-sex marriage has been legal in Sweden since 2009, and the country has more Pride festivals per capita than anywhere else in the world.

The full list of countries is available at this link https://www.asherfergusson.com/lgbtq-travel-safety/

Day 13: Learn About an LGBT+ PoC Role Model

Hafsa Qureshi

LGBT Muslim voices are still not being heard
(Channel 4 News 6th April 2019)

In January 2019, Hafsa was given the Stonewall Bi Role Model of the Year award.Hafsa worked for the Ministry of Justice and was active in the MoJ LGBT network Spirit. She now works for Stonewall UK.

Day 14: Visit an LGBT+ Venue or Historical Site

Right now, our traveling options are limited. So I’m sure visiting these places virtually will suffice.
If you are in New York you can visit the Stonewall Inn in person! Some say, where our liberation began. Below are a few examples in the UK!
This is only a tiny selection. However if you are curious about places to see and visit, you can always check this article by the BBC!