Homosexual Heroes

[Angharad]

From any walk of life. Any form of heroic act. Household names or everyday heroes like your child or your next door neighbor...

Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated on November 27, 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone.

[Angharad]

Air Force Sergeant Leonard Matlovich (July 7, 1943 – June 22, 1988) was a Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, who openly declared his homosexuality in order to challenge the ban on homosexuals in the military. He was discharged from the Air Force and then fought a lengthy legal and public relations battle to be reinstated, which became a cause célèbre around which the gay community rallied in the 1970s. Eventually a federal judge ordered that he be reinstated, but by that time Matlovich was no longer interested in reenlisting. When he died in 1988 from complications of HIV/AIDS, his tombstone read "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."

 

[funesthememorious]

Alan Turing. Turing was one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century - a leader in the development of computer algorithms. He was criminally prosecuted as a homosexual in Britain in the early 1950's and subsequently committed suicide. 

 

In a math class one night, my professor took a time out from a tedious lecture on one of Turing's computer models and talked on Turing's personal background and how he was disgraced by the government. Truly eye-opening to learn about him by something other than bits and bytes.

[Angharad]

Thanks so much, Funes...Turing was another bright light snuffed out.

After reading your post, I went back to refresh my memory of him and learned something new...I hadn't known that he was "treated" for his homosexuality by being chemically castrated with estrogen, as an alternative to prison. No wonder he took cyanide. 

Interesting and touching that your professor cared enough to mention something of the man himself.

 

[funesthememorious]

I have not yet begun to byte!

 

 

[Maricel Evasco]

The following are heroes because of their literary or musical achievements that give homosexuals' pride.

Hans Christian Andersen

Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky

Tennessee William

Elton John

 

Other well known homosexuals:

Socrates and Aristotle, Alexander the Great, King Richard the Lion-Hearted, and Leonardo da Vinci

[Angharad]

These are all great men, Maricel. What a mountain of genius and accomplishment they represent!  

I absolutely know you mean the "pride" statement in the best possible way. I just want to clarify that "gay" pride is like every other variety of pride...it comes from within oneself.

[Angharad]

Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a social worker, political activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. After Addams came to see that poverty was not due to character deficits, but, instead, to social conditions that needed changing, she founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889.  At Hull House, people were not only helped to meet their immediate needs, there was ongoing work for social change in areas such as child labor, public health, sanitation, and race relations.  

Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her leadership role in the peace movement, notably the Woman's Peace Party, prior to and during World War I. 

 

 

 

[Angharad]

Kate Brown (1950-) is Oregon's Secretary of State, the second highest political position in Oregon. She is recognized as the highest ranking openly bisexual elected politician in the United States.