According to a post on Gay Persons of Color:

[On] January 13, North America’s first GLBT History Museum opened in San Francisco, occupying 1,600 square feet of gallery and program space in The Castro District. Two debut exhibitions, Our Vast Queer Past: Celebrating GLBT History and Great Collections of the GLBT Historical Society Archives chronicle the multiplicity of experiences that has shaped perspectives of gay people both within and outside our community, a definite must-see if you’re in The City by the Bay.

More here!

Find out more about many other gay people worth knowing about at: Queer Cult!

According to GAYRVA:

As President of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, Elliot was in the business of issuing permits. He offered to hold the show on his parent’s property, but the Woodstock crew said it was too small.

Then, Elliot got an idea. His local dairy farmer, Max Yasgur, had a 600-acre farm, naturally shaped like an amphitheater.

More at: GAYRVA!

According to a post on Passport Magazine:

Sen. Christine Kehoe, the first openly gay elected official in San Diego said, “This year our community’s progress will be seen by all who pass through City Hall… It is a chance to educate, enlighten, and inspire. This exhibit weaves together our story illustrating our struggles right here in our community, right here in San Diego, and the progress we have made right here in San Diego.”

It is the first time the exhibit has appeared at City Hall, but officials said they plan to make it an annual display.

Read more here!

These were  the times we lived in, in the closet and the shadows. And that’s how paranoid we were, like someone from the greater Danbury area would actually be down in Westport for our cars to be seen.We always drove separately as one never knew when one or all of us might hook up with someone, either for a quickie in the car, go to Sherwood Isle State Park or to an apartment for a night of “fun”.

Read more of this blast from the past in remembrance of the Cedar Brook Cafe, considered to be the oldest gay bar in America as it closes at: Focus On The Rainbow – Opine!

The Malleus Maleficarum had topics such as the merits of torturing with red hot irons as opposed to boiling water, and how to strike the right balance of food and/sleep deprivation. To escape further torture, men accused of being witches (AKA homosexual) would often name neighbor men and attest to their witchery (AKA sexual) behavior. The detailed confessions included the official witchcraft, such as the ability to fly, to cast spells, or to turn themselves into animals. Yet it seems that over and over, one of the inquisitors’ favorite fixations was the sexual practices of the accused men. Confessions included the ability to to magically castrate other men, and in one striking case, even keeping their stolen cocks in birds nests, where they fed them grain and corn! Men would break down and admit that yes, they had buggered with the neighbor man, but that it was the neighbor’s fault for having cast a demonic spell to make him say yes to having sex. Not uncommon, the man with the most valuable land was the one who received the harshest punishment (loosing his assets and maybe his life). Between 1450 and 1750, approximately 110,000 people were tried for witchcraft in Europe and America, of whom 60,000 were executed.

More at: Vintage Gay Media History!

City University of New York Graduate Center . Part archive, part museum, part encyclopedia, it is a rare resource in that it makes scholarship on LGBT history widely accessible outside of academic journals.

This very important project needs your help. Please make a donation if you can! Because of the economic crisis and its impact on public higher education in New York, CLAGS  can’t continue funding the project, and the grant that established OutHistory expires on December 31, 2008. In an email sent out today by CLAGS director Sarah Chinn and OutHistory director Ned Katz, the importance of the site and its need for funding is put like this:

OutHistory publishes articles by renowned scholars in the field of LGBT history. It aims to distribute reliable work on LGBT history to a bigger and more varied audience than ever before.

But most innovatively, OutHistory is an experiment in LGBT history by the LGBT community. Using Wikipedia-style software, the site encourages anyone with data, documents, and citations to create open, collaborative entries. For example, community members are encouraged to create entries recording the local LGBT history of their village, town, or city.

OutHistory needs time to catch on. Teachers, students, historians, and the public are just now hearing about OutHistory.

$20,000 for OutHistory in 2009

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies needs $20,000 to  keep OutHistory.org alive and developing in 2009.

OutHistory.org will go on making history if  2000 people give $10, if 1000 give $20, if 320 give $62.50, if 160 give $125, if 80 give $250.

OutHistory is asking members of the community to donate as much as they can, and every size donation is welcome. Contributions to CLAGS for OutHistory.org are tax deductible. CLAGS is an institute at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Donatations can be made on line at OutHistory.org:  http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Donate#DONATE_ONLINE

Donations can also be made by mail. Donors are asked to mark their donations “forOutHistory.org” and to send them to CLAGS, Room 7115, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309.

In your end-of-year giving please consider OutHistory. Even a small donation can help keep this project going, making sure that LGBT history is accessible to everyone. And please let your friends know about OutHistory, its important contribution to the sex commons (and the history commons!), and its need for support.

Georgina Beyer, first transgender member of a national Parliament
Mark Bingham, 9/11 hero
Margarethe Cammermeyer, military officer, GLBT service members advocate
Rachel Carson, environmental pioneer
Bertrand Delanoe, first openly gay Mayor of Paris
Melissa Etheridge, Grammy and Oscar Award-winning singer/songwriter
Harvey Fierstein, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor, playwright and screenwriter
E.M. Forster, author of “A Room with a View,” “Howard’s End,” and “Maurice”
Allen Ginsberg, revolutionary poet and activist
Philip Johnson, innovative, internationally-renowned architect and designer
Bill T. Jones, Tony Award-winning dancer and choreographer
Cleve Jones, GLBT activist, founder of NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
Sheila Kuehl, first openly gay elected to the California legislature
Tony Kushner, Tony, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
Greg Louganis, Olympic Gold Medal diver
Robert Mapplethorpe, groundbreaking photographer
Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon, founders of nation’s first lesbian organization and first same-sex couple married in San Francisco
Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist and author
Michelangelo, Renaissance painter, sculptor and architect
Rosie O’Donnell, comedian, talk-show host, actress, winner of 11 Emmy Awards
Troy Perry, spiritual leader and founder of Metropolitan Community Churches
Gene Robinson, first openly gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church
Anthony Romero, ACLU Executive Director
Randy Shilts, New York Times best-selling author and groundbreaking AIDS journalist
Stephen Sondheim, theatrical lyricist/composer, multiple Tony Award winner
Gianni Versace, fashion designer and entrepreneur
Alice Walker, author and feminist, Pulitzer Prize winner for “The Color Purple”
Andy Warhol, American pop artist and avant-garde filmmaker
John Waters, filmmaker, actor, and author of “Hairspray”
Jann Wenner, co-founder and publisher of “Rolling Stone”
Tennessee Williams, prolific American playwright, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner

“From Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon on October 1st to Michelangelo on October 31st, the 31 Icons for 2008 combined, with the 62 Icons for GLBT History Month 2006 and 2007, are impressive,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum. “For a community deprived of its history, GLBT History Month teaches our heritage, provides role models, builds community, and makes the civil rights statement of our extraordinary national and international contributions.”

GLBT History Month was conceived in the mid-1990’s by educators and embraced by major GLBT organizations. In 2006, Equality Forum took responsibility for this communal project and solicits Icon nominations from state, national and international executive directors and other community leaders. The criteria are persons living or deceased, who have distinguished themselves in their field of endeavor, are a national hero or have made a significant contribution to GLBT civil rights.

All 2008 nominations were reviewed by GLBT History Month Co-Chairs Professor Sharon Ullman, History Department, Bryn Mawr College, and Professor Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law, and were approved by the Equality Forum Board of Directors

Each day in October 2008, an Icon is featured with a video, biography, bibliography and other educational resources. The resources for GLBT History Month 2008 Icons will be available in October at www.glbtHistoryMonth.com. Educational resources for 2006 and 2007 Icons are archived on the site.

GLBT History Month Icon videos are expected to be broadcast on Logo and here! and streamed on major gay portals. The videos are offered without charge to educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, for profit companies and the public. More than 300 educational institutions, organizations and companies hosted GLBT History Month 2007 on their Web sites.

Equality Forum is a national and international GLBT civil rights organization with an educational focus. Equality Forum coordinates GLBT History Month, produces documentary films, undertakes high impact initiatives and presents annually the largest national and international GLBT civil rights forum.

www.equalityforum.com