Flights of Fancy

Report of the 7th LGBT History and Archives Conference at the London Metropolitan Archives December 6th 2009-12-06

Dr Richard Parkinson, professor of Egyptology at the British Museum gave a talk on sexualities in Ancient Egypt. He began with an ‘apology’ that all primary source material related to male sex and then cited written evidence of the use of sodomy for ‘power’; a man taking another man as though “a woman” to punish him and assert authority. On a lighter note, he read out the first recorded gay chat up line, showed a church relief with a man embracing another who has an erection, an image of two men kissing and The Tomb of Saqqara, south of Cairo, where two men are interred together. But he warned against making assumptions. The two men at Saqqara were married with children and may have been brothers. The British Museum has an entablature of two Egyptians, Hor and Suty, but their images have been erased. While one theory posits that they had carnal knowledge of one another and that their wives’ families had them removed as an act of revenge, the other, more likely theory is that they were twin brothers and their families were disparaged by a later dynasty. As a gay man and an expert on Egyptology, Richard said he himself would be reluctant to assert that the primary source material amounted to evidence that same sex desire was represented and celebrated anywhere inancient Egypt and reminded us that homophobia is an everyday reality in Egypt today.

Richard then talked about the Same Sex Desire and Gender Identity Trail, which can be found on the British Museum website. He explained the reasoning behind the terminology of the title. He spoke of the success of LGBT History Month Pre-Launch during which it was launched. He concluded that the web-trail helped LGBT History Month and that both played an important role in demonstrating that same sex desire and gender variance have existed in all times and in all places.

Next, Paul Gravett, author, curator, lecturer and director of the Comica Festival, gave us a whirlwind tour of the world of LGB comics and graphic novels. He gave several examples. First, Howard Cruse, author/illustrator of Stuck Rubber Baby in the US, whose illustrations were incredibly intricate, though the shrunken format of the comics once published lost a lot of the detail. Second, Ralf König, whose work portrayed a gay man’s life in Germany. After that he showed us some of the work of Ariel Schrag, who produced high school lesbian stories with a touching yet expressive naïve drawing style. This contrasted with the contrast between the plain and the incredibly detailed illustrations that Japanese artist Kiriko Nananan introduced into her work, which again focused on becoming aware at high school. She was part of the Yuri tradition in Japanese graphic art, which is specifically lesbian. Then Paul took us to France, where the comic is highly revered but the format is generally confined to the A4 sized 48 page book, following the tradition of Asterix the Gaul. Here, Fabrice Neaud writes honest, self-deprecatory works about everyday life when you’re out and gay in a parochial French town. He finished with Alison Bechdel, author and illustrator of Fun Home, a sad and lonely tale of a lesbian teenager growing up with her closet father. They have a distant relationship and neither is able to come out to the other.

Paul’s talk was vivid and his expertise of the genre was clear in his smooth, noteless delivery. His race around the world demonstrated what could be - and has been - done within the genre.

Professor Richard Dyer, who teachesFilm Studies at Kings College London, talked about the ground-breaking Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. He began by explaining that the choice of title, which he acknowledged some might find exclusive, was made by the Gallery and they would not be budged on it. He described how the legend of Sappho and her lesbianism prevails, although nobody really knows what she looked like, never mind what she did. Using photographs, he demonstrated how aware Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe-Hall were of their own self-image. He mused on the paradox that Elizabeth Barthory, who is said to have bathed in the blood of virgins, has become a figure in lesbian erotica, whereas Dennis Neilson would never be a figure of arousal. He questioned whether we could correctly assert the the Duke of Roxley had sex with men or that the ladies of Llongollen could be described as lesbian when we have no proof that they had sexual relations. However he came to the conclusion that we have the benefit of the doubt. He spoke of Alan Turing’s achievements and was somewhat dismissive of the PM’s public apology.

Brian Robinson, Senior Programmer at the London Lesbian and Gay film Festival, talked about the 1961 film ‘Victim’ a landmark in film, LGBT history, The Wolfenden Report and the changes in British law. He read examples from the tennis match style to-and-fro correspondence between the film’s writers and the censors prior the final script. The panic concerning anything that suggested that “queers” or “inverts” were anything other than very, very rare and thoroughly unlikeable was evident from these readings and showed the contempt the establishment had for us at the time. After being rejected by Jack Hawkins and rejecting Stewart Granger and James Mason (“never in the country”) the makers chose Dirk Bogarde for the lead role, confident in the knowledge that he was a heartthrob for female audiences and totally unaware his true sexual nature. He grabbed the role and made it his own, re-writing much of the script, adding the lines: “I left him because I wanted him. I wanted him and I still want him!” to the dialogue with his wife, played by Sylvia Syms. After its final release, the film achieved mostly positive reviews, Dirk Bogarde was taken more seriously as an actor and people came to understand that the laws on homosexuality were a blackmailer’s charter.

Dr Catherine Silverstone, Lecturer in Drama, Theater and Performance studies at Queen Mary, University of London, left short of time, whisked briskly through her presentation on Gay Sweatshop. She described how ‘This Island’s Mine’ related to Section 28 and homophobia in the community. She said that Gay Sweatshop was effectively destroyed by Section 28. This was less to do with the wording of the law, which was vague and woolly, and more to do with local authorities using it as an excuse to slash the budgets in the arts and culture sectors. She hailed Gay Sweatshop as an example of community cohesion through consciousness raising.

Dianne Barry, documentary film-maker, artist and curator, described the work done in Glasgow as part of its Shout!Celebrations. Ideas included a Mapplethorpe exhibition, an Our Vivid Stories youth exhibition with DVDs, a trans exhibition amongst other things at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Two things - a Mapplethorpe photo from 1977 of a man urinating into his partner’s mouth and an installation where visitors were invited to write comments in a copy of the Bible – attracted the attention of The Scottish Daily Mail. Before it even opened the exhibition was attacked by the paper and the attacked intensified throughout the summer. But what astonished Barry and the organisers – OurStory Scotland and LGBT History Month Scotland among them – was that the Council cut the education element from the exhibition and GOMA censored it. Furthermore, neither of them attempted to defend the exhibitors against the attacks. She argued that this was censorship and warned against the tide growing further.

Mark O’Neill, Head of Arts and Museums, Culture and Sport in Glasgow, described how Glasgow Museums run a biennial human rights and arts show in Glasgow. Having covered Asylum Seekers (2003), Violence against Women (2005), Sectarianism (2007), this year was LGBTI. It was the most controversial and brought a wave of indignant protest from the press and church figures. Nevertheless it was well –supported, with some 200,000 attendees. Mark described it as a sign that we cannot claim the LGBT community has it all right now and that it raised significant issues about whose voice should be represented in a city of enormous contrasts.

During questions and answers, Tony Fenwick related the events to experiences on this side of the border. He said we had the debate some 15 years ago when Mapplethorpe was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (who won) and 3 years the ‘Bleeding Bible’ in the MET GLA advertisement (they lost). Is this indeed a sign of creeping censorship? He spoke of the difficulties encountered by somwe schools in celebrating LGBT History Month this year and how they were not supported by the DCSF or by the left wing/liberal press. He recommended the use of surveys to show the shocking extent of homophobia and transphobia in our schools and communities.

Robin Baker from the BFI showed, from the vaults, a BBC 30 Minute Theatre production from 1972, called simply Bermondsey. Set in the living quarters behind a public bar in Jamaica Road, it features 4 characters: upper class Pip (Edward Fox), who stays with the publican family every Christmas and is Godfather to their children; Bob (Dinsdale Landon) a rather drunken landlord who is planning to leave his wife Iris (Rosemary Leach) with the new bargirl (Sharon Duce) as soon as Christmas is over. As the plot unfolds, it soon becomes apparent that Iris isn’t the only one who’ll be ditched if Bob runs off with the paramour. It also contained a full-on gay kiss. It was also written by the late John Mortimer, who defended Oz in the obscenity trial and Gay News in the blasphemy trial.

Nick Field finished us off with a couple of poems and a couple of songs. He performed Jolene with a harp. The song has a very different feel when a man is pleading with the eponymous opportunist not to take his man.