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Showing posts from February, 2008

Queer Songs

A couple of days ago, I was helping Slightly to prepare a lecture he gave for LGBT History Month. I knew there was going to be a sound system on the night and thought I would quickly put together a playlist of gay songs to play in the background while people were arriving. In doing my selection, I have deliberately moved away from the usual disco and dance anthems which are supposed to be favourites in the community but ultimately only speak indirectly about our experience. Since the event, I have done a little research and my (non-exhaustive) list has now grown to 55 songs, all of which directly and explicitly talk about the gay, lesbian, bi or trans experience. The only possible exceptions to this being three same-sex duets. It is interesting to notice, by the way how, many songs with a Trans theme seem to be out there. The last four tracks at the bottom are two songs with and a translation. The list of songs can be found below in blocks of 10 and in alphabetical order by artist fir...

Small Victory

This afternoon, I went to the Imperial War Museum (next door to where I live) to attend one of the two screenings of Sex and War , a documentary directed by Annie Paul in 1998 for the BBC's Timewatch series, the museum had scheduled to mark LGBT History Month. The film uses the stories of British servicemen who fought bravely for their country during the Second World War and the example of the Dutch Army which started to welcome gay people in its ranks from 1994 to explore the arguments in the debate around the legalisation of homosexuality which was taking place in the UK at the time of the making of the film. The film includes testimonies from gay (and straight) men from the three services as well as a particularly prejudiced interview with Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Armitage, the former head of military intelligence (his view are reproduced in the contemporaneous links below). The ban on gays in the UK armed services was official lifted in 2000. The film was very and, with ...

February is LGBT History Month

The fourth edition of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans History Month got on the way today. Learn more about the month here or find an event near you here .