Mattachine Society.

Founded in 1950,was one of the earliest homophile organizations,in the United States,a probably second only to Chicago's short-lived Society for Rights (1924).Harry Hay and a group of of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals.Because of concerns for secrecy and the founders' leftist ideology,they adopted the cell organization of the Communist Party in the anti-Communist atmosphere of the 1950s,the Society's growing membership replaced the group's early Communist model with a more traditional ameliorative civil rights leadership style and agenda.Then as branches formed in other cities,the Society splintered in regional groups by 1961.Harry Hay conceived of the idea of a homosexual activist group in 1948.After signing a petition for Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace. Hay spoke with other gay men at a party about forming a gay support organization

"Gaysweek."

Was New York City's first mainstream weekly lesbian and gay newspaper.It was founded by Alan Bell in 1977.Gaysweek began as an 8-page single-colored tabloid and when it ceased publication in 1979 after 104 issues,it had grown to a 24-page two-color publication.Its monthly arts supplement,"Gaysweek  Arts and Letters,"was edited by Byrne Fone.During its run,Gaysweek was one of only three gay weeklies in the world and the only mainstream gay publication owned by An African American.A portion of Gaysweek archieves are housed at Cornell University Library,Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.Althrough it was eventually granted Gaysweek's application to the U.S.Patent and Trademark  Office for registration of the Gaysweek trademark,was opposed by Newsweek,Inc.because,according to attorneys for the publication,they are similar "both phonetically and in apperance.Gaysweek made news brirfly in 2002, when the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston,in  relation to a lawsuit filled against it by the attorney of a man who accused Boston-based Father Paul Shanley of repeated rape,turned over a copy of the February 12,1979,issue of Gaysweek which included an article titled "men &boys"that described a meeting in Boston in which Paul defended a realtionship between a man and a boy.

Melissa Etheridge - Bring Me Some Water (Live)

Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29,1961).

Is an American rock singer/songwriter and musician.She has received fifteen Grammy Awards nominations winning two,one Academy Award and has sold twenty million albums worldwide and almost fourteen million in the United States.Known for her mixture of confessional lyrics,pop-based folk-rock,and raspy vocals,Etheridge has been has been an iconic gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993.Melissa was born in Leavenworth,Kansas,the younger of two girls to John Etheridge a psychology teacher at Leavenworth High School,and Elizabeth Williamson,a computer consultant.She attended David Brewer School,she graduated in 1979 from Leavenworth High School (LHS).Melissa was a member of the first Power and "Life musical/dance group at LHS which is still active today.Melissa interest in music began early;she picked up her first guitar at 8.She began to play in all-men country groups throughout her teenage years,until she moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music.During her time in Berklee,she befriended fellow student Lauren Passarelli,now a guitar professor at Berklee.Melissa played the club circuit around Boston,but after three semesters decided to drop out of Berklee and head to Los Angeles to attempt a career in music.Melissa was discovered in a bar called Vermie's in Pasadena CA.She had made some friends on a women's soccer team and they came to see her play.One of the women was Karla Leopold,whose husband Bill Leopold,was a manager in the music business.Karla convinced Bill to see her perform live.He was impressed,and has remained a pivotal part of Melissa career ever since.This, addition to her gigs in lesbians bars around Los Angeles,got her discovered by Island Records chief Chris Blackwell.She got a publishing deal to write songs for movies including the 1986 movie weeds.In 1985,prior to her signing,Melissa sent her demo to Olivia Record, a lesbian record label,but was ultimately rejected.She saved the rejection letter,signed by "the women of Olivia,which was later featured in Intimate Portrait:Melissa Etheridge,the Lifetime Television documentary of her life.After an unreleased first effort that was rejected by Island Records as being too polished and glossy,she completed her stripped down self-titled debut in in just four days.Her eponymous debut album Melissa Etheridge was an underground hit,and the single,"Bring Me Some Water,"a turntable hit,was nominated for a Grammy.Melissa followed up her first album's modest success by contributing background and contributing vocals to Don Henley's album The End of the Innocence.She went into the studio and recorded her sophomore effort Brave and Crazy which was released in 1989.Brave and Crazy followed the same musical formula as her eponymous debut garnering a Grammy nomination.The Album peaked at #22 on the Billboard charts (equal to her first album).Melissa then went on the road,taking a page from one of her musical influences Bruce Springsteen,and built a loyal fan base.Melissa is a Bruce Springsteen fan,and she has covered his songs "Thunder Road"and Born to Run"during live shows.In 1992,Melissa released her third album Never Enough.Similar to her prior two albums,Never Enough didn"t reach the top of the charts peaking at #21 but gave Melissa her first Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance,Female for single "Ain"t it Heavy".Never Enough was considered a more personal and mature album from Melissa from Melissa at that time.With rumors circulating around her sexuality (Melissa was not out yet at this point),the album seemed to inadvertently address these rumors.In 1992 She established a performing arts scholarship at LHS in honor of her father.She said her father used to "spend his weekends driving me to Kansas and points around there so i could play in bands.I was underage so couldn't have gone without him."On September 21,1993,Melissa released what would become her mainstream breakthrough recording Yes I Am.Co-produced with former The Police and Genesis Grammy-Winning and producer Hugh Padgham,Yes I Am.Co-produced with spent 138 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts and peaked at #15 and scored mainstream hits "Come to My Window"and her only Billboard Top 10 singles "I'm the Only One,"which also hit #1 Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart.Sale-Wise,Yes I Am earned a RIAA certification of  6x Platinum making it her biggest selling album to date.Melissa earned her second Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance,Female for single "Come to My Window,"She also garnered two additional nominations in the Best Rock Song category for "I'm the Only One"and come to My Window"losing to Bruce Springsteen's "Street of Philadelphia."Many theorize that Yes I Am's title refer to Melissa acknowledge of her lesbianism.Melissa was still not out when the album was released but did  so soon thereafter at the Gay Lesbian Triangle Ball during the inaugural celebration of President Bill Clinton's victory.In 1993,Melissa boycotted playing shows in Colorado over its passage of Amendment 2.In a visit Leavenworth in November 1994,she performed a benefit concert for a new park to be built near the high school.A ball field at the park will be named after her father.While she was there,she also donated money to help refurbish the Performing Arts Center in Leavenworth.In 1994,Melissa played a cover version of "Burning Love"live in Memphis,during the "It's Now or Never,The Tribute To Elvis."The success of Yes I Am was the moderately successful Your Little Secret which wasn't as well received by critics as prior recordings.Your Little Secret is the highest charting album of Melissa career reaching #6 on the Billboard album charts,but only spent 41on the chart.The album produced two top 40 singles "I Want to Come Over"(Billboard#22)and "Nowhere to go"(Billboard#40) and earned a RIAA certification of 2x Platinum,less than "Yes I Am."In 1996,Melissa won ASCAP songwriter of the year award,but took a lengthy break from the music business to concentrate on her domestic arrangements.In 1997 she appeared as herself  on the sitcom Ellen on "Puppy Episode Part 2."Melissa returned to the music charts with the release of of Breakdown in October 1999.Breakdown peaked at #12 on the Billboard charts and spent 18 weeks on the charts.Despite this,Breakdown was the only album of Melissa career to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album (losing to Santana's Supernatural).In additional,her single "Angels Would Fall"was nominated in two categories:Best Rock Vocal Performance,Female (losing to Sheryl Crow) and Best Rock Song Vocal Performance,Female (losing to  Red Hot Chili Peppers) in 2000.A year later,another single from the album "Enough of me"was nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance,Female (also losing to Sheryl Crow).The album earned a RIAA certification of Gold,below her prior 5 albums.2001 saw the release of skin an album she described as the "the closets I've ever come to recording a concept album was a more joyful Melissa who was now in the midst of celebrating a new relationship with actress Tammy Lynn Michael's whom she began dating in 2001.Lucky performed similarly to skin,selling less than 500,000 copies,peaking on the Billboard charts at #15 and spending 13 weeks on the charts.It also garnered a Grammy nomination for Melissa cover of the Greenwheel song "Breathe for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance,Solo (losing to Bruce Springsteen).In October 2004,Melissa was diagnosed with breath cancer.At the 2005 Grammy Awards (the same ceremony for which "Breathe"was nominated),she made a return to stage and,although bald from chemotherapy,performed a tribute to Janis Joplin with the song "Piece of My Hear."Melissa was praised for her performance,which was considered one of the highlights of the show.Melissa bravery was lauded in song in India Arie's "I AM Not My Hair."On September 10,2005,Melissa participated in React Now:Music &Relief,a telethon in support for the victims of Hurricane Katerina.React Now,part of an ongoing effort by MTV,VH1,CMT seeks to raise funds for the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army,and American'Second Harvest.Melissa introduced a new song specially written for the occasion called "Four Days"The acppella song included themes and images that were on the news during the aftermath of the hurricane.Other charities she supports include The Dream Foundation and Love Our Children USA.On November 15,2005,Melissa appeared on the Tonight Show to perform her song "I Run for Life"which references her own fight with breast cancer and her determination to overcome it,and seeks to encourage other breast cancer survivors and their families.After her performance Jay Leno told her,"Thanks for being a fighter,kiddo."Melissa wrote the song "I Need to Wake Up"for the film documentary An Inconvenient Truth,which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2006.The song was released only on the enhanced version of her greatest hits album,The Road Less Traveled.Melissa was also a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists'careers.On July 7, 2007,performed at the Giants Stadium on the American Leg of Live Earth.Melissa performed the songs "Imagine That"and What Happens Tomorrow"from The Awakening,her tenth album,released  on September 25, 2007,as well as the song "I Need To Wake Up"before introducing Al Gore.On December 11 2007 she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo,Norway,together with a variety of artists,which was broadcast live to over 100 countries.I'm addition,she performed at the U.S. 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 27, 2008.In July 2009,Melissa announce through her website that she and John Shanks would begin recording her 11th studio album the following summer.This was the first time since 1999 Melissa and Shanks were the only ones involved in the production of a project.Melissa will be featured in UniGlobe Entertainment breast cancer docudrama titled  1 a Minute scheduled for released for released in 2010.Documentary is being made by actress Namrata Singh Gujra and will also feature breast cancer survivors Olivia Newton-John,Diahann Carroll,Namrata Singh Gujara,Mumtaz and Jaclyn Smith as well William Baldwin,Daniel Baldwin and Priya Dutt.The feature is narrated by Kelly McGillis.The film will also star Barbara Mori,Lisa Ray,Deepak Chopra and Morgan Brittany.Melissa also held a private listening party hosted at Michele Clark's Sunset Sessions 2010. She debuted her new album Fearless Love at the event held at the Rancho Bernardo inn where she did a question and answer and played an acoustic set of her new singles in front of convention attendees and about 50 listeners of host station KPR/SAN DIEGO.Melissa peformed her title track "Fearless Love" from her new album and Come to My Window"from 1993 on the airing of April 27,2010's "Dancing With The Stars" on ABC.

Black Inches Magazine

Was a US-based gay pornographic magazine featuring African-American men.

Published by Mavety Media magazine, which published a line of men's magazines such as Mandate,  Black Inches was established in 1993 and folded in 2009.

The photos appearing in the magazine had various sources; some are obtained from other companies that produce pornographic films (although most layouts depict individual men, rather than simulated "action scenes.") 

Photographers whose works appeared in Black Inches include Anneli Adolfsson, Ken Kavanagh, Brian Lantelme, and Abednego (formerly associated with Mansurf.com)  The magazine also carried film reviews, erotic stories, and advertisements.  Black Inches featured every major gay black porn star in photo shoots and interviews from Bobby Blake and Tyson Cane to Tiger Tyson, J C. Carter, and  T-Malone.

Bobby writes of his relationship with the magazine,"Black Inches was always very supportive of me, they reviewed every film I made, did photo-shoots, interviewed me, and gave me my own column."

Karla Jay (b. February 22, 1947)

Is a professor of English and the director of the women's and gender studies program at Pace University.

A pioneer in the field of lesbian and gay studies, she is widely published.  Karla was born Karla Jayne Berlin in Brooklyn, New York, to a conservative Jewish family.  She attended the Berkeley institute, a private girl's school in Brooklyn now called the Berkeley Carroll School.  Later she attended Barnard College where she majored in French, and graduated in 1968 after having taken part in the student demonstrations at Columbia University.

While she shared many of the goals of the radical left-wing of the late 1960s, Karla was uncomfortable with the male-supremacist behavior of many of the movement's leaders.  In 1969, she became a member of Red stockings.  At around the same time she begin using the name Karla Jay to reflect her feminist principles. 

When activists founded the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), in the wake of the Stonewall Riots of June 1969, Jay, who was openly lesbian , was an early member, and became an active participant, balancing attendance at meetings with working and attending graduate school at New York University, majoring in comparative literature.  She was one of the few women actively involved in the early gay rights movement on both cost.  At Pace University's 10th Annual Dyson Distinguished Achievement  Awards, that took place April 6, 2006 Karla Jay was honored with the Distinguished Faculty Award.

Esera Tuaolo (b. July 11,1968)

Is a retired professional football player.  Tuaolo was a defensive lineman in the NFL for nine years.

Tuaolo who is of Samoan ancestry, born in Honolulu Hawaii, and was raised in poverty poverty in a banana farming family.  His father died when he was 10.

He played college football at Oregon State University and was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.  He was selected in the 1991 NFL draft.  Nicknamed  "Mr Aloha," Tuaolo played nose tackle for several teams in his career, reaching the super Bowl in 1999 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons.  He also played for the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers during his career.
He also recorded the last tackle of football legend John Elway. 

In 2002 having retire from sports, he announced to the public that he is gay, coming out on HBO'S Real Sports.  This made him the third former NFL player to come out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons.  He has since worked with the NFL to attempt to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.  He also made an appearance on Oprah in in 2004 to share his coming-out story as well.

In 2006, Tuaolo sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games VII, a quadrennial Olympics-style event. (During his career with the packers, Tuaolo once sang the anthem before a game against the Chicago bears.)  Kopay administered the offical's oath during the opening ceremony.  Also that year,  he testified at the State Legislature Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in opposition to an anti-gay-marriage bill.

Esera's autobiography, "Alone in The Trenches: My Life As A Gay Man In The NFL," was released in Spring. 

He also appeared on The Tyra Banks Show talking about his becoming open about his homosexuality to the NFL and speaking  out against their "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which is similarly held by U.S. Scouts groups and the U.S. military services.

Tuaolo's relationship with Mitchell Wherley ended in July 2007.  Esera was arrested for domestic violence in June 2010.  He was released on $2000 bail with a court date set for August.  Esera stated that the person he was accused of assaulting was his current boyfriend and that it was personal matter that was overblown by the media.

Kenneth D."KEN" Cheuvront (born May 11,1961).

Is a Democratic politician.  Since 2002  he has served as Arizona State Senator for District 15,which centers on Phoenix.

Earlier he was elected to represent the 15th district in the State House of Representatives in 1994 and held the seat until he was termed out in 2002.  He was the Democratic Leader in that chamber in the 2001-02 session.  In 2002, he was elected to represent the district in the State Senate winning the general election by a margin of 63% to 37%.  He had previously run for the Senate in 1990,winning 44% of the primary election vote but losing to Chuck Blanchard.  He won reelection in 2004 with 65% of the vote in 2006 with 69%.  He ran unopposed in 2008, and term limits will prevent him from seeking a fifth two-year term in 2010.  A supporter of Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign, Cheuvront was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.  An openly gay man, his campaigns have been supported by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.  He is one of five openly LGBT members of the Arizona State Legislature, serving alongside senator Paula  Abound (D-Tucson), as well reps. Robert Menza (D-Phoenix), Kysten Sinema( D-Phoenix) and Matt Heinz (D-Tucson).  He also a member of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Alan Bray.

Was a British historian and gay rights activists.He was born on October 13 1948 and died on November 25 2001.He was a Roman Catholic and had a particular interest in Christian attudes to homosexuality.A series of Alan Bray Memorial Lectures have been instituted in his memory.British historians Michael Hunter,Miri Rubin,and Laura Gowing have co-edited the book Love,Friendship and Faith in Europe,1300-1800(Palgrave Macmillan,2005),which is a collection of essays inspired by Bray's idea of finding some universal component of homosexuality within the experences of intimacy and friendship without "locating a discourse that identifies a persons as homosexual.

Joseph Fairchild Beam

(December 30, 1954 in Philadelphia, PA - December 27, 1988 in Philadelphia)

Beam was an African-American gay rights activist and author who worked to foster greater acceptance of gay life in the black community by relating the gay experience with the struggle for civil rights in the united states.

Beam's father, Sun Beam, worked as bank security guard in Philadelphia. His mother, Dorothy, became a wage earner while still an adolescent, and attended evening classes to obtain her high school diploma. She later earned a college degree in elementary education and a master's degree from Temple University. She worked for more than twenty years as a teacher and guidance counselor in the Philadelphia School System.

Baptised a Catholic,the young Beam studied mainly in parochial schools, including the Malvern Preparatory School, St. Thomas More High School and Franklin College, a small liberal arts college by American Baptists in Franklin, IN (20 miles south of Indianapolis). 

An only child, his boyhood was difficult and solitary; he was often the only non-white pupil in his classes. Later, at Franklin College, he was influenced by the civil rights and the Black Power movements, and played an active role in the local Black Student Union.  Also, as a member of the Franklin independent men, he helped organize several conferences on campus and was active in college journalism and radio programming.

After graduation in 1976, Beam remained in the Midwest, enrolling first in a Master's Degree program in communications and then working as a waiter in Ames, Iowa.

He returned to Philadelphia in 1979. Giovanni's Room in the Center City District in Philadelphia was one of the main bookstores and contact points for lesbians and gays in the 1970s and 1980s.  Beam himself gay, became well acquainted with local and national gay figures and institutions while employed in the Early 1980s.  His articles and short stores began appearing around the same time in numerous gay newspapers and magazine, including "Au Courant," "Black Heart," "Changing Men,"  "Gay Community News," "Philadelphia Gay News," "The Advocate," "New York Native," "Body Politic" and the "Windy City Times." 

The Lesbian and Gay Press Association Awarded him a certificate for outstanding achievement by a minority journalist in 1984.

The following year, Beam was hired as a consultant by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Friends Service Committee.  He joined the Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays in 1985, and became the editor of their new journal "Black/Out." 

Joseph began preparing and collecting materials for an anthology of writings by and about black gay men in 1982.  His goal was to counteract the absence of positive images of gay men of color in the media and their exclusion from the cultural world of white gay rights activist.  Inspired by the humanism of the black feminist and lesbian movement,he saw his work as part of a broad effort to correct and redefine the reality of race, class and gender in the United States.  Through his writings, he sought to alleviate the alienation of black homosexuals and help create a community of their own. 

In the Life was published by Allyson Press in 1986; it was the first anthology of writing by black men. It was ignored by most African-American critics and institutions, but was greeted as a literary and cultural milestone in the gay community.

Joseph was working on a sequel to In the Life at the time of his death of HIV related disease 1989.  This work was completed by Dorthy Beam and the gay poet Essex Hemphill, and published under the title Brother to Brother in 1991. 

Both books were featured in a T.V. documentary, Tongues Untied in 1991. 

"As a writer Joseph was more profound than prolific," wrote his friend Craig Harris after his death. His articles and essays were poetic, containing turned phrases and puns metaphors in meters that made his writing musical with penetrating meaning. He took great pride in his skill and devoted time to multiple rewrites, crafting his work to create the style which other writers of the black genre dubbed 'Beamesque.'