KNOWhomo

LGBTQ* History Behind The Story

THE CHILDREN’S HOUR

(You can watch the trailer to the film version here)

On 20 November 1934, Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour opened on Broadway to rave reviews and sell-out audiences. It told the story of two Scottish schoolteachers, Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie, accused of lesbianism by one of their students, and was based on an actual case in 19th-century Scotland. The play was filmed in 1962 as The Loudest Whisper (also released as The Children’s Hour), in which the heroine’s epiphany is that she is, indeed, a lesbian, necessitates (as was the Hollywood tradition of the time with any gay character) that she die (in this case, suicide).

In reality, however, the two women in Scotland brought a successful legal action against the woman who had spread the original rumors. The notoriety of the case led the British authorities in the following year (1812) to debate the possibility of sex between two women. 

Their conclusion? Not Possible.

(text from: Baker, Michelle, and Stephen Tropiano. Queer Facts: the Greatest Gay and Lesbian Trivia Book Ever. London: Arcane, 2004)

Additional Info from Tumblr http://justlikegmpavalentine.tumblr.com/:

For those who have the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) channel, The Children’s Hour is going to be airing on November 19, 2011 at 10:15 PM, eastern time.

LGBTQ* Plays, Monologues and Theatre

Bent by Martin Sherman

(check local theatres for productions of play — also a film staring Clive Owen, Mick Jagger, Jude Law and Ian McKellen)

Bent is an award-winning play about the persecution of homosexuals by Nazis during World War II. In Germany, the Nazi party’s program of genocide against any and all perceived “enemies” is coming into full swing when the party begins a violent purge of homosexuals in its membership. Max, a bisexual playboy, is attending an orgy thrown by drag queen “Greta” and featuring a number of party members when the festivities are raided by the police; Max and his lover Rudy escape, but they are later arrested and sentenced to a concentration camp. En route to the camp, Max betrays Rudy and arranges to be given a yellow identification star, marking him as a Jew, instead of a pink triangle, which would signify him as gay; while the Jews are destined to be executed, gay prisoners receive even more brutal treatment from the guards. While incarcerated, Max meets Horst, an inmate who proudly wears the pink triangle. Max and Horst fall in love with each other, and Horst’s bravery leads Max to accept his sexual identity.(from MoviePhone)

LGBTQ* Plays, Monologues and Theatre

The Boys in the Band — Matt Crowley

Emory:The one person I have always loved. Delbert Botts. That’s who you said to call, isn’t it? I admit his name is not so good - but he is absolutely beautiful. - At least, he was when I was in high school. Of course, I haven’t seen him since and he was about seven years older than I even then. I’ve loved him ever since the first day I laid eyes on him which was when I was in the fifth grade and he was a senior. - then, he went away to college and by the time he got out I was in high school, and he had become a dentist. And he opened his office in a bank building. I went and had my teeth cleaned.

……..I told him I was having my teeth cleaned for the Junior-Senior Prom for which I was in charge of decorations…He was engaged to this stupid-ass girl named Loraine whose mother was truly Supercunt.

Anyway, I was a wreck. I mean a total mess. I couldn’t eat, sleep, stand up, sit down, nothing. I could hardly cut out silver stars or finish the clouds for the Prom…..

 So I called him on the telephone and asked if I could see him alone. He said okay and told me to come by his house. - I was so nervous this time - my hands were shaking and my voice was unsteady. I couldn’t look at him - I just stared straight in space and blurted out why I’d come. - I told him … I wanted him to be my friend. I said that I never knew anyone who I could take to and tell everything to and trust. I asked him if he would be my friend. He said he would be glad to be my friend. And anytime I ever wanted to see him or call him - to just call him and he’d see me. And he shook my trembling wet hand and I left on a cloud, no not one of the ones I made myself. And the next day I went out and bought him a gold-plated cigarette lighter and had his initials monogrammed on it, and wrote a card that said, “From your friend, Emory.”

And then on the night of the Prom I found out. I heard two girls I knew giggling together. …..This girl who was telling the story said she had heard it from her mother - and her mother had heard it from Loraine’s mother. Obviously, Del had told Loraine about my calling and about the gift. Pretty soon everybody at the dance had heard about it and they were all laughing and making jokes. Everybody knew I had a crush on Doctor Delbert Botts and that I had asked him to be my friend. What they didn’t know was that I loved him. And that I would go on loving him years after they had all forgotten my funny secret.