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Silverfoxesclub-digest
Monday, May 28 2001
Volume 01 : Number 252

In this issue:

-Rosie Comes Out
-Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: 176 Years of Pride in 2001
-Gay China of the past
-Some famous gay people

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From: "Ben Boxer" benboxer@mediaone.net
Subject: Rosie Comes Out

"I'm gay," says American chat show queen Rosie O'Donnell.

The 39-year-old US actress, who has been at the centre of lesbian rumours for years, came out of the closet at a Los Angeles awards ceremony. Rosie, the mother of three adopted children, stunned the crowd at the Daytime Emmys by recognising a woman known as her "gal pal." Holding her award, she said: "This is for Kelly...I love you." Gay-rights groups have criticised Rosie in the past for not revealing her sexuality. Insiders claim Rosie - known as TV's Queen of Nice - had been banned by her production company from discussing her private life.
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From: Mal123nash@aol.com
Subject: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: 176 Years of Pride in 2001

This is a personal invitation to celebrate the 176th birthday anniversary of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first known person to speak out publicly in defense of same-sex rights more than 130 years ago.

I've prepared a text and picture website with the details of the invitation: CELEBRATION 2001: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs The Memory Book section is new and tells about the 2000 celebration http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/celebration2000 [also in French, Spanish, and German]

It takes about a half-hour to read. I've used the word Gay to be inclusive of everyone interested in same-sex love -- that "riddle of nature."

I hope you enjoy the website and will celebrate this great man's life with people from around the world on August 28, 2001, and throughout the whole

year. Let's find unity via the Web! Stop the hate...educate!

With best wishes,
Paul Nash
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: 176 Years of Pride in 2001
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From: "Ben Boxer" benboxer@mediaone.net
Subject: Gay China of the past

Before the all-pervasive foreign influence of the West fell over China during the 19th century, homosexuality was widely accepted in Chinese culture, particularly in the ruling class. In 1806, an English traveler wrote about gay life in China: "The commission of this detestable and unnatural act is attended with so little sense of shame, or feelings of delicacy that many of the first officers of the state seemed to make no hesitation in publicly avowing it."

****
Chinese poet Ruan Ji wrote the following lines about gay lovers 2000 years ago:

"Roving glances gave rise to beautiful seductions;
Speech and laughter expelled fragrance.
Hand in hand they shared love's rapture,
Sharing coverlcts and bedclothes.

"Couples of birds in flight,
Paired wings soaring.
Cinnabar and green pigments record a vow:
'I'll never forget you for all eternity.'"

****
Here's a Chinese gay classic, "The Story of Pan Zhang"
(Zhou Dynasty, 2000 years ago):

When Pan Zhang was young he had a beautiful [mei] appearance and bearing, and so people of that time were exceedingly fond of him. Wang Zhongxian of the state of Chu heard of his reputation and came to request his writings. Thereafter Wang Zhongxian wanted to study together with him. They fell in love at first sight and were as affectionate as husband and wife, sharing the same coverlet and pillow with unbounded intimacy for one another.

Afterwards they died together and everyone mourned them. When they were buried together at Lofu Mountain, on the peak a tree with long branches and leafy twigs suddenly grew. All of these embraced one another! At the time people considered this a miracle. It was called the "Shared Pillow Tree."

****
Here are some interesting facts about ancient Chinese royals:

Just as Edward Gibbon observed that all but one of the first 14 Roman emperors were either bisexual or exclusively homosexual, for two centuires at the height of the Han Dynasty, China was ruled by ten openly bisexual emperors. The names of the emperors, with their acknowledged favorites were recorded in the official histories of the period by Sima Qian and Ban Gu.

The Han Dynasty existed around the time of the Greek and Roman Empires. It was the time Confucius lived. It seems that it was also a time of homosexual flowering worldwide. Do you suppose there was something in the rainwater people drank in those days? Divine nectar, perhaps? Are we a gift from the gods?

In later centuries, there were nine such emperors acknowledged, including the last emperor of China, Pu Yi, who was the subject of Bernardo Bertolucci's beautiful film, "The Last Emperor." Although Bertolucci flirted with the truth by means of implication, he could have made it a better film by zeroing in on Pu Yi's gay side.
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From: "Ben Boxer" benboxer@mediaone.net
Subject: Some famous gay people

Some famous names known to be gay or lesbian, compiled in 1997:

Sports
* Martina Navratilova, pro tennis champion
* Billie Jean King, pro tennis champion
* David Kopay, retired NFL football player
* Greg Louganis, 3-time Olympic gold medalist in diving
* Glenn Burke, Ex-Major League baseball player
* Dave Pallone, Ex-Major League baseball umpire
* Bruce Hayes, Olympic swimmer
* Bob Jackson, professional bodybuilder
* Babe Didrikson Zaharias, professional golfer
* Tom Waddell, Olympic decathelete

Music
* Elton John, musician
* k.d. lang, musician
* Melissa Etheridge, musician
* Boy George, musician (Culture Club)
* Ani DiFranco, musician
* Brian Epstein, First manager for the Beatles
* Liberace, pianist/entertainer
* Aaron Copeland, composer
* Johnny Mathis, musician
* Iggy Pop, musician
* Janis Ian, musician
* Michael Stipe, (lead singer of R.E.M.)
* Joan Baez, musician
* Cole Porter, song writer
* Leonard Berstein*, Composer (West Side Story, etc.)
* Pete Townsend, musician (The Who)
* Jimmy Somerville, musician (Bronski Beat)
* Paul Rutherford, singer (Frankie goes to Hollywood)
* Holly Johnson, lead singer (Frankie goes to Hollywood)
* Emily Sailers, musician (Indigo Girls)
* Amy Ray, musician (Indigo Girls)
* Franz Schubert, composer
* Peter Tchaikovsky, composer
* Josephine Baker, singer
* Andy Bell, musician
* Benjamin Britten, composer
* Bessie Smith, singer
* Patty Schemel, drummer (Hole)
* Dave Navaro, musician (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

Politicians and Activists
* Barney Frank, U.S. Congressman
* Gerry Studds, U.S. Congressman
* Allan Spear, Senator (Minnesota)
* Roberta Achtenberg, Asst Secy of HUD,
* Jon Hinson, former congressman (MS)
* Candace Gingrich, Newt Gingrich's sister
* Steve Gunderson, U.S. Congressman (WI)
* Stewart McKinney, U.S. Congressman
* Tammy Baldwin, state legislator (WI)
* Deborah Batts, federal judge
* Keith Boykin, presidential aide
* Will Fitzpatrick, state senator (RI)
* Angie Fa, board of education (San Francisco)
* Kenneth Reeves, mayor (Cambridge, MA)
* Sherry Harris, city council (Seattle)
* Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady
* Susan B. Anthony, human rights activist

Writers, Poets and Playwrights
* Willa Cather*, writer (My Antonia, etc.)
* Radclyffe Hall, writer (The Well of Loneliness)
* James Baldwin, writer (Giovanni's Room, etc.)
* Andrew Sullivan, editor and columnist
* May Sarton, writer
* Randy Shilts, journalist (And the Band Played On)
* Deb Price, Gannett newspapers columnist
* Edward Albee, playwright (Who's afraid of Virginia
Woolf?)
* Sir James M. Barrie, playwright/novelist (Peter Pan)
* Armistead Maupin, writer (Tales of the City)
* Audre Lorde, African-American poet
* Rita Mae Brown, novelist
* William S. Burroughs, novelist
* John Boswell, historian/writer
* Gertrude Stein, writer
* Walt Whitman, poet (Leaves of Grass)
* Tennessee Williams, playwright (The Glass Menagerie, etc.)
* Hans Christian Anderson, writer of fairy tales
* Malcolm Forbes, publisher
* Somerset Maugham, writer
* Sappho, Greek poet
* Oscar Wilde, playwright/novelist
* Marcel Proust, writer (Remembrance of Things Past)
* Emily Dickinson, poet
* Gore Vidal, novelist
* Chastity Bono, writer for The Advocate
* E.M. Forster, writer (Maurice, etc.)
* Amy Lowell, poet
* Virginia Woolf,writer
* Alice B. Toklas, writer
* Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet
* Henry James,writer
* Sir Francis Bacon, writer
* Lord Byron, poet
* Allen Ginsberg, poet Entertainers, Directors, Producers
* Rock Hudson, actor
* Amanda Bearsey, actress
* Ellen DeGeneres, actress/comedian
* Gus Van Sant, filmmaker (My Own Private Idaho)
* Sandra Bernhardt, comedian/actress
* Siegfried and Roy, entertainers
* Dick Sargent, actor (second Darrin on Bewitched)
* David Geffen, film producer/music business
* RuPaul, entertainer
* Julie Cypher, director (Teresa's Tattoo)
* Kate Clinton, comedian
* Sir Ian McKellen, actor
* Tom Hulce, actor (Mozart in Amadeus)
* Marie Schneider, actress (Last Tango in Paris)
* Lily Tomlin, actress/comedian
* James Dean, actor
* Pedro Almodovar, director
* Lea DeLaria, comedian
* Errol Flynn, actor
* Montgomery Clift, actor

Artists
* Andy Warhol
* Jean Cocteau
* Michelangelo
* Georgia O'Keefe
* Frieda Kahlo
* Leonardo da Vinci
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End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #252
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