-KNOW Homo-

LGBTQ* Did You Know Art History

BATMAN is (not) Gay!

Did you know?

In 2005, DC comics sent a “cease and desist” letter to both Mark Chamberlain (the artist of the above image) and Kathleen Cullen Fine Art’s studio telling them to pull all artwork depicting the DC characters.

Due to copyright infringement (DC owns Batman’s image), DC and Chamberlain eventually settled on displaying the images but not selling them.

LGBTQ* Religion and Political Cartoons

You are the company you keep. 

LGBTQ* Quotes and Quips

First rate thoughts from the author of The Second Sex 

LGBTQ* Stories of Survival

“I’m living proof that Hitler didn’t win.

I’m aware of that every day.” The speaker is Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim. (pictured above) At the age of eighty-eight, this charming gay man celebrates his birthday twice a year. “You never know,” he says.

One can hardly imagine the suffering he endured. Von Groszheim was among 230 men arrested in Lübeck in the course of a single evening in 1937. The police hauled him from his home and imprisoned him for ten months. He was released, but re-arrested. This time, the Nazi authorities forced him to choose between castration, or incarceration at the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen. He submitted to castration.

His nightmare had not ended, however. In 1943, von Groszheim was arrested a third time, and was put into a satellite camp of Neuengamme. He survived that ordel, but half a century would have to pass before he started to tell his story.

— Dr. Klaus Müller

Introduction to THE MEN WITH THE PINK TRIANGLE

LGBTQ* History You Should Know

DID YOU KNOW?

The first recorded evidence of homosexuality is found in Mesopotamia circa 3000 B.C., where artifacts depict men having relations with other men.

Source: OUT IN ALL DIRECTIONS (1995) p. 162

LGBTQ* History in Art

Subject: Knight von Hohenberg  and his lover, a squire, burned at stake. 

Charge: Sodomy

Painting: 1482 - Painter Unknown (from Zurich Central Library)

LBGTQ* Quotes and Quips

Comedian Lynn Lavner

LGBTQ* History You Should Know

When people claim “the homosexual agenda is trying to change laws all over the world,” kindly tell them that attitudes and educational thought have reversed laws criminalizing homosexuals for almost 220 years. 

Country                                Decriminalized Homosexuality in (Year)

Kingdom of Prussia                 Removes death penalty from sodomy charges (1794)

Netherlands                           Decriminalizes homosexuality (1811)

Indonesia                              Decriminalizes homosexuality (1811)

Brazil                                   Decriminalizes homosexuality (1830)

Portugal                                Decriminalizes homosexuality (1852)

Ottoman Empire (Turkey)         Decriminalizes homosexuality (1858)

**1869, “Homosexuality” is first used in print. Prior to this everything is referred to as sodomy.**

Empire of Japan                     Decriminalizes homosexuality (1880)

Italy                                   Legalizes homosexuality (1889)

Poland                                 Moves age of consent to 15y/o for everyone (1932)

Uruguay                              Decriminalizes homosexuality (1934)

Iceland                               Decriminalizes homosexuality (1940)

Switzerland                          Decriminalizes homosexuality (1942)

Sweden                              Decriminalizes homosexuality (1944)

Greece                               Decriminalizes homosexuality (1951)

Thailand                             Decriminalizes homosexuality (1956)

Czechoslovakia                    Decriminalizes homosexuality (1961)

Hungary                              Decriminalizes homosexuality (1961)

Illinois, United States           Becomes the FIRST state to decriminalize sodomy (1961)

Israel                               Decriminalizes homosexuality (1963)

England and Wales             Decriminalizes homosexuality (1967)

Canada                             Decriminalizes homosexuality (1969)

West Germany                   Decriminalizes homosexuality (1969)

Austria                             Decriminalizes homosexuality (1971)

Costa Rica                        Decriminalizes homosexuality (1971)

Finland                            Decriminalizes homosexuality (1971)  

Colorado, USA                   Decriminalizes homosexuality (1971)

Oregon, USA                    Decriminalizes homosexuality (1971)

Idaho, USA                      Decriminalizes homosexuality and then reinstates it

                                    due to outspoken anger from Catholics and Mormons (1971)

Sweden                           Becomes first country to allow gender marker change (1972)

USA                               DSM removes homosexuality from mental disorder (1973)

Malta                             Legalizes homosexuality (1973)

California, USA                Legalizes homosexuality (1975)

Australian Capitol Territory  Legalizes homosexuality (1976)

Slovenia                          Legalizes homosexuality (1977)

Vojvodina                        Legalizes homosexuality (1977)

Croatia                           Legalizes homosexuality (1977)

Montenegro                     Legalizes homosexuality (1977)

Quebec, Canada               First major metropolitan city to make sexual orientation

                                   discrimination illegal. Offers job security (1977)

Cuba                             Decriminalizes homosexuality (1979)

Spain                            Decriminalizes homosexuality (1979)

Victoria, Australia            Decriminalizes homosexuality (1981)

Colombia                       Decriminalizes homosexuality (1981)

Northern Ireland              Decriminalizes homosexuality (1982)

Wisconsin, USA               First state to offer sexual orientation protection (1982)

(the last 30 years, part 2, will be posted at a later date)