A place for LGBTQ spirituality and the arts. Home of the gay Jesus and queer saints. Uniting body, mind and spirit. Open to all. Renamed Q Spirit blog and moved to Qspirit.net in 2017.
Tyler Clementi (1992-2010) brought international attention to bullying-related suicide of LGBT youth by jumping to his death on this date (Sept. 22) in 2010.
Clementi’s highly publicized tragedy made him into a gay martyr whose untimely death put a public face on the problems of LGBT teenagers. His story sparked efforts to support LGBT youth, raise awareness of the harassment they face, and prevent suicide among queer young people. Another result is new legislation stiffening penalties for cyber harassment.
His parents once considered suing Rutgers over their son's death, but in February 2013 they announced that they were working with the university to form the Tyler Clementi Center at Rutgers. It sponsors conferences and academic research to help students make the transition to college. They also established the Tyler Clementi Foundation to promote acceptance of LGBT youth and more inclusive society.
Clementi was an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey when he was driven to suicide by his room mate's anti-gay cyber-bullying.
A talented violinist, Clementi came out to his parents as gay before leaving home for college. Three days before the suicide, Clementi’s room mate used a webcam to secretly record Clementi kissing another man in their dorm room and streamed the video live over the Internet. In messages posted online before he took his own life, Clementi told how he complained to authorities about the cyber-bullying and asked for a new room assignment. Then he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. It took a week to find his body.
The room mate, Dharum Ravi, also 18 at the time, was convicted on 15 counts, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, in connection with Clementi’s suicide. Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail; 3 years of probation; 300 hours of community service; fined $10,000; and ordered to undergo counseling on cyberbullying and alternate lifestyles. His accomplice, Molly Wei, avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Ravi.
Anti-LGBT statements by public figures are also partly responsible for Clementi’s death. They created the hostile environment that drove Clementi to suicide. Artist Louisa Bertman emphasizes this point in her powerful ink illustration, “Tyler Clementi, JUMP!” She makes visible the hateful voices that may have been in Clementi’s mind. In her drawing, his head overflows with people urging him to jump. They are politicians as well as the actual students who bullied him. Their names are listed in a stark statement at the bottom of the drawing:
“Message brought to you by Sally Kern, Kim Meltzer, Nathan Deal, Carl Paladino, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Tom Emmer, Jeremy Walters, Rick Perry, Bob Vander Plaats, Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei.”
Bertman, an artist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is known for her non-traditional portraits.
Clementi helped inspire the founding of the It Gets Better Project and Spirit Day. The It Get Better Project aims to stop suicide among LGBT teens with videos of adults assuring them that “it gets better.” Spirit Day, first observed on Oct. 20, 2010, is a day when people wear purple to show support for young LGBT victims of bullying.
Unfortunately Clementi’s experience is far from rare. Openly lesbian talk show host Ellen Degeneres spoke for many in a video message that put his suicide into context shortly after he died:
“I am devastated by the death of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi….Something must be done. This month alone, there has been a shocking number of news stories about teens who have been teased and bullied and then committed suicide; like 13-year-old Seth Walsh in Tehachapi, California, Asher Brown, 13, of Cypress, Texas and 15-year-old Billy Lucas in Greensberg, Indiana. This needs to be a wake-up call to everyone: teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing.”
Help is available right now from the Trevor Project, a 24-hour national help line for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens. Contact them at 866 4U TREVOR or their website: thetrevorproject.org.
Tyler Clementi’s webcam photo of himself (Wikimedia Commons)
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
“Judith and Her Maidservant” by Artemisia Gentileschi
Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi inspires many with her paintings of strong Biblical women -- created despite the discrimination and sexual violence that she faced as a woman in 17th-century Italy. She was born more than 400 years ago today (July 8, 1593).
Gentileschi was apparently heterosexual, but lesbians have drawn energy from her life and art. Many queer people can relate to her battles against prejudice and sexual violence, documented in her rape trial in 1612. She can be considered the patron saint of lesbian artists, women artists, and everyone who breaks gender rules.
Gentileschi (1593–1652) was successful in her own day, but was mostly written out of art history until the 1970s, when feminist scholars rediscovered her work. Now she is celebrated in many books, films and plays, and her work is widely reproduced. Her greatest paintings include “Judith Beheading Holofernes” and “Susanna and the Elders.”
Lesbians who have created tributes to Gentileschi include painter Becki Jayne Harrelson and playwright Carolyn Gage. In the play “Artemisia and Hildegard,” Gage has two of history’s great women artists debate their contrasting survival strategies: Gentileschi battled to achieve in the male-dominated art world while Hildegard of Bingen found support for her art in the women-only community of a medieval German nunnery.
The daughter of a painter, Gentileschi was born in Rome and trained as a painter in her father’s workshop there. She was refused admission to the art academy because she was a woman, so her father arranged for her to have a private painting teacher -- who raped her when she was about 19. Gentileschi herself was tortured by thumbscrews during the seven-month rape trial, but she stuck to her testimony. The teacher was convicted, but received a suspended sentence.
“Judith Beheading Holofernes”
by Artemisia Gentileschi
Gentileschi used art to express her outrage. During the trial Artemisia began painting the Biblical scene of “Judith Beheading Holofernes” (left). Judith, a daring and beautiful Hebrew widow, saves Israel by cutting off the head of the invading general Holofernes. Judith and Holofernes became one of Gentileschi’s favorite subjects, and she painted several variations during her lifetime.
Her realistic style, influenced by the artist Caravaggio, shows dramatic contrasts between light and dark. But Gentileschi usually created her own unique interpretation expressing a strong female viewpoint. The violence of Judith beheading the male general Holofernes speaks for itself. Another example is her painting (below left) of the Biblical story of the Hebrew wife Susanna and the lustful elders who spied on her while she was bathing. Although her male contemporaries painted the scene as a voyeuristic fantasy, Gentileschi presents it as a violation of the vulnerable Susanna by the predatory elders.
“Susanna and the Elders”
by Artemisia Gentileschi
Soon after the rape trial Gentileschi married and moved to Florence, where she became the first woman accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (Academy of the Arts of Drawing). She had a full career, producing many paintings of powerful women from Christianity, history and mythology. She worked in various Italian cities and even spent a few years painting in London, England. It is believed that she died when she was about 60 years old in a plague that swept Naples in 1656.
Today Gentileschi’s life and work are admired by many, including artist Becki Jayne Harrelson. She is best known for her LGBT-affirming version of “The Crucifixion of the Christ” with the word “faggot” above Jesus on the cross, but Harrelson has also honored Gentileschi in her art and blog.
Harrelson offers this tribute in celebration of Gentileschi’s birthday: “Artemisia Gentileschi’s talent and mastery was equal to her male counterparts, yet because of sexism and misogyny, she was denied the recognition she deserved as a master painter until many centuries later. She also suffered sexual violence and was treated unjustly for standing up against it. Her art and life inspires me to persevere despite adversity and prejudice.”
“Tribute to Artemisia’s Judith” by Becki Jayne Harrelson, www.beckijayne.com
Oil on canvas | 36”w X 48”h
Gentileschi's story is told in a variety of movies and novels, including "The Passion of Artemisia" by Susan Vreeland.
Artemisia Gentileschi is included in the LGBT saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog because she has inspired so many lesbians with her paintings of women and her success despite gender barriers and sexual violence.
This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
Suggestions for an art series on the LGBT civil rights movement are requested by New York artist Stephen Mead.
He wants to present pre-Stonewall figures, especially the obscure and unsung, with his new LGBT series.
In addition, Mead responded to the recent mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando by issuing a special invitation. Victims and their loved ones are invited to share their stories and photos for the new LGBT art series. “The only legacy I can think of at the moment, against terrorism, is love,” he said.
Mead is a gay mixed-media artist and poet. His work has appeared internationally in books, galleries and cyberspace, including here at the Jesus in Love Blog. He often addresses spiritual themes or reveals the spiritual dimension within secular subjects.
Images, ideas and stories may be submitted to Mead via email.
“I am working on montages for this series tentatively titled ‘From Nostalgia Though Now and Beyond’ as a way of paying homage to the international LGBT Civil Rights movement, especially prior to Stonewall, where so many lived ‘in the life’ but unsung,” Mead said. “I see this as an ongoing series as I learn of new stories and imagine either gathering them on a website such as Weebly or published through CreateSpace, but I am open to ideas as to what presentation platform might works best.”
He has already created several photo-montage images for the series, including a tribute to Willem Arondeus, a gay Dutch artist who participated in the Nazi resistance movement and died in the Holocaust. His last message before his execution was, “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”
“Sergius and Bacchus Eternal Love in Thee” by Stephen Mead
The new series also includes religious figures such as Sergius and Bacchus, a pair of third-century Christian martyrs who are often considered gay saints.
“The swords side by side at the bottom-most layer represent the layers of history burying the lovers who are still symbolized by the power within their proximity. The Jesus and Sacred Heart message of course represents both the theory that Jesus loved all, but that it was not anathema to be gay, soldiers, a couple, and religiously devout,” Mead explained.
“We Beg Your Pardon, Sir Alan Turing” by Stephen Mead
In a related series, Mead has created hundreds of images of Alan Turing, the British computer scientist and codebreaker who was driven to suicide in the face of “chemical castration” after his conviction for homosexual acts. The images are featured on a short-collage film at Vimeo.
Mead’s most recent book is “According to the Order of Nature (We too are Cosmos Made): Art and Text for Gay Spiritual Sensuality.” published in 2016. This mixed-media series of paintings aims to reverse persecution, exploring LGBT sensuality for its spiritual roots and profound bonding. The cover image is “No Doubts, Thomas,” a reference to the apostle Thomas, who doubted Christ's resurrection until he could see and feel the wounds that Jesus received on the cross.
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.
Rosa Bonheur, the most famous female painter of the 19th century, was a queer cross-dresser who honored what she called the “androgyne Christ.” She had two consecutive long-term relationships with women. She died on this date (May 25) in 1899.
Born in France in 1822, Bonheur received much acclaim in her lifetime for her paintings of animals. In recent decades she has been celebrated as a queer pioneer, feminist icon, and role model for the LGBT community. Her achievements grew out of an unusual religious upbringing in the proto-feminist Saint-Simonian sect, and the queer Christian ideals that she expressed in adulthood. Bonheur’s gender-bending lifestyle has been covered extensively by scholars, but her spirituality has received much less attention.
Her parents raised her in Saint-Simonianism, a French utopian Christian-socialist movement that advocated equality for women and prophesied the coming of a female messiah. Her father was an artist and an ardent apostle for the Saint-Simonian religion. Bonheur writes a whole chapter about growing up as a Saint-Simonian in the book “Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's (Auto)biography,” which she wrote with her companion Anna Klumpke.
The Saint-Simonian concept of gender equality paved the way for Bonheur’s father to train her as a painter -- and for her own defiance of gender norms. As she put it, “To his doctrines I owe my great and glorious ambition for the sex to which I proudly belong and whose independence I shall defend until my dying day.”
Cross-dressing was illegal in France at that time, but she got permission from the police to wear men’s trousers so she could sketch at such male-dominated places as horse fairs and slaughterhouses. She broke rules of feminine behavior by smoking cigars and wearing her hair short. She was never arrested for wearing men’s clothes, but she was arrested once in female attire when a policeman thought she was a man pretending to be a woman!
Bonheur had two female companions in her lifetime. She spent 50 years living with her childhood sweetheart Nathalie Micas, who died in 1889. Bonheur grieved deeply and then shared the last years of her life with a new companion, American artist Anna Klumpke.
One of their joint projects was writing Bonheur’s autobiography. In it she discusses her religious beliefs, stating, “I get blamed for not going to church! I may have more religion than the folks who, instead of doing their best to lead a blameless life, go mutter prayers there every day in a language they don’t understand…. I’ve written my own versions of the most important Catholic prayers.”
Here are some excerpts from prayers written by Bonheur and published in her autobiography:
Bonheur’s version of the Hail Mary prayer:
Hail, O earth full of grace, the living God is with you. Blessed are you among all the planets, the fruit of your womb is our salvation. Holy earth, mother of love, pour out your grace on those who suffer, now and in our divine transformation.
From Bonheur’s Creed:
I believe in God the all-powerful, everlasting Father, creator of all things eternal. I believe in his beloved Son, the saving Two, androgyne Christ, the highest point of human transformation, the sublime manifestation of the living God who is in everything that is.
Bonheur died at age 77, and Klumpke went on to champion Bonheur’s work until she died in 1942. They are buried together in a grave in Paris. Bonheur’s most famous paintings are “The Horse Fair” and “Plowing in the Nivernais,” but she leaves a large legacy of art depicting horses, cattle, sheep, lions, dogs, and many other creatures. A selection of her work is posted below.
The portrait at the top of this post is part of the “Butch Heroes” series by Ria Brodell, a culturally Catholic gender-queer artist in the Boston area. For more about Brodell, see my previous post “Artist paints history’s butch heroes: Ria Brodell interview.”
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.
“Los 41 Maricones” (The 41 Queers) by Jose Guadalupe Posada, 1901 (Wikipedia)
One of the world’s most notorious police raids on a queer gathering occurred on this date (Nov. 17-18) in 1901, when police arrested 41 men at a drag ball in Mexico City.
The raid on the “Dance of the 41” caused a huge scandal with lasting repercussions against LGBT people. The incident was widely reported and was used thereafter to justify years of police harassment, including more raids, blackmail, beatings and imprisonment. The number 41 entered popular culture in Mexico and continues to be used as a negative way to refer to gay men, evoking shame.
About half of the men at the Dance of the 41 were dressed as women, with silk and satin dresses, elegant wigs, jewelry and make-up. Police raided the private house where the “transvestite ball” was underway. They never released the names of those arrested because they came from the upper class of Mexican society.
As punishment the 41 detainees were humiliated in jail and then forced into the army, where they dug ditches and cleaned latrines in the Yucatan. A lesbian gathering in Santa Maria was raided soon after on Dec. 4, 1901, but it received much less publicity.
The vivid reports of the Dance of the 41 included a famous series of caricatures by popular Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada. These mocking images stand in contrast to the LGBT Stations of the Cross by Mary Button, whose paintings connect police raids of queer bars with the suffering of Jesus. The raid on the Dance of the 41 is an example of police harassment that happened in many countries and continues in some.
Today same-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City and the Dance of the 41 is being reclaimed and reinterpreted by LGBT activists and scholars. A non-profit organization called “Honor 41” honors and celebrates Latina/o LGBTQ individuals who are role models. Their English-language video on the Dance of the 41 gives an accessible overview of the history.
The event is known in Spanish as simply as “el baile de los cuarenta y uno” (the dance of the forty-one) or with an added anti-gay insult “el baile de los cuarenta y uno maricones” (the dance of the forty-one fags).
All the facts and the full context concerning the Dance of the 41 are examined in the scholarly book “The Famous 41: Sexuality and Social Control in Mexico” by Robert McKee Irwin, Edward J. McCaughan and Michelle Rocio Nasser.
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.
Tony O'Connell prepares to kiss St Sebastian in his new film
Prayers to queer saints and a re-enactment of Saint Sebastian’s martyrdom make a strong statement against homophobic violence in a new short film for All Saints Day by queer British artist Tony O’Connell.
He sculpted a life-size statue of Sebastian and filmed his dramatic interactions with the figure, who is widely recognized as the patron saint of homosexuality.
The 12-minute video film of his performance art premieres today for All Saints Day at a private viewing in Liverpool and also on YouTube. The multimedia event includes an art exhibit of the Sebastian statue and related “relics” -- small sculptural assemblages fashioned by O’Connell from props in the film.
O’Connell’s script can serve as a model prayer for people of faith, while sharply criticizing church leaders who incite violence against LGBTQ people. He calls upon Sebastian “not to punish but only to humble those who dedicate themselves to oppression and evil,” listing more than a dozen of them by name.
Then he invites Sebastian to “be glorified with the host of our own queer saints,” who are also named. They include a wide variety of LGBTQ leaders and martyrs throughout history as well as traditional saints who broke gender taboos.
The text is reprinted below in full with O’Connell’s permission.
Sebastian was an early Christian martyr who was shot with arrows and executed in 288 on orders from the Roman emperor. In addition to his longstanding but unofficial status as patron saint of gay men, he is known as a protector against plague and a patron saint of soldiers, archers and athletes.
Hinting at a love-hate relationship and the complexity of the queer spiritual path, O’Connell plays three different roles in the film: A priest who kisses Sebastian on the lips and then spits on the ground. The police executioner who strips Sebastian and shoots arrows into his chest. A queer activist/devotee who honors the martyr with prayers and offerings.
The action occurs in the Bridewell, a former police station that has been converted to art studios in Liverpool. The film is titled “Sancte Sebastian ora pro nobis.” The Latin words mean “Saint Sebastian, pray for us,” a phrase that recurs many times in O’Connell’s voice-over narration.
St Sebastian is martyred by arrows in O'Connell's film
This is O’Connell’s first film, but he has spent years creating art on themes of queer sainthood, democratizing sacredness, and reclaiming the holiness in ordinary life, especially in LGBT experience, His ongoing series include pilgrimages to LGBT historical sites and photos of people with haloes formed by round objects from daily life.
The new film weaves together aspects of O’Connell’s own queer and religious background. He was raised in the Roman Catholic church, but has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995. While playing a priest in the film, he spreads smoky incense with a golden thurible like the one he remembers from his childhood stint as an altar boy. Later in the film he wears the 25-year-old T-shirt that he wore during the early years of the radical British LGBT-rights group Outrage!
“I feel like making this sculpture has not only taken me back to my roots as a sculptor but allowed for genuine spiritual practice,” O’Connell told the Jesus in Love Blog. “I am careful never to work with unwashed hands or not to start touching him before I have made incense offerings to him.”
Filming finished in late October, but the project is far from done. For today’s premiere, O’Connell transformed his Sebastian sculpture by filling him with fragrant oils so he smells like roses, covering his face with gold leaf and building him a halo to indicate that he is now a saint.
Later Sebastian may be reincarnated as a Buddha. “After he has been Saint Sebastian it is possible he will be broken down and reused to build a seated Buddha Shakyamuni for our Liverpool Centre,” O’Connell said. “It would be suitable for me to see becoming a Buddha as a symbol for spiritual evolution -- or even a reward for martyrdom.”
O’Connell worked with many camera people on the film. They include another Liverpool queer artist, Colin Cairns, who is exhibiting his art about pagan deities at the premiere today. Others on the camera crew include Claire Martin, Heather Snow Gum, Kelsang Tenwang, Damian Cruikshank (who also shot O’Connell’s Alan Turing pilgrimage), Dave Elis and Fiona Filby.
Sancte Sebastian ora pro nobis
By Tony O’Connell
Welcoming the saint when others do not
Saint Sebastian, Glorious martyr, I invite you and welcome you to this space. Please bless us with your presence. My father was born in your parish and I knew you from childhood. Now it seems images of your sacrifice are no longer in currency in church shops. Statues, rupas and paintings of you are disappearing. Our Poets and artists have always adored you. Perhaps your association with us has led to removal. If this is true and others turn away from you, know that I do not and we do not, therefore I offer you this litany in celebration and remembrance.
Offerings to the saint and prostrations at his lotus feet
Glorious warrior and martyr of Christ, Pray for us.
Patron and mirror of soldiers, Pray for us.
Despiser of the world, Pray for us.
Conqueror of Satan, Pray for us.
Comfort of the dying, Pray for us.
Consoler of the afflicted, Pray for us.
Announcer of the truth, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, perfect in virtue and wisdom, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, mighty in word and work, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, who strengthens the persecuted Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, who by example gives courage to the down-trodden Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, empowered to avert pestilence and contagious diseases, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian empowered to protect from plague and AIDS, Pray for us
St. Sebastian, surrounded by celestial light, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, instructed by holy Angels, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, giving speech to those without a voice, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, lover of God and men, Pray for us.
St Sebastian, loved and then abandoned by the Roman Emperor, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, loved and increasingly abandoned by the Roman Church, Pray for us
St. Sebastian, Loved by our people, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, who, inflamed with love despised the pains inflicted by the tyrant, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, unafraid of worldly authority or law, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, unbowed by physical violence, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, with the courage to defy your abusers, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, who was wounded by arrows, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, who was murdered with clubs, Pray for us.
St. Sebastian, who was crowned with eternal glory, Pray for us.
Protection by the saint from enemies
Glorious Martyr and undefeated warrior, we ask that you protect the persecuted from tyrants and enemies. Use your unstoppable energy not to punish but only to humble those who dedicate themselves to oppression and evil.
Please humble all members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church
Please Humble Anne Coulson, speaker of hate and supporter of the WBC
Please humble Grindr using Rev Matthew Makela, who drove Tyler Kish to consider suicide by saying “he was going to hell either way”
Please humble Westcity Bible Baptist Church pastor Logan Robertson who called a gay Christian author a "filthy child molesting fag".
Please humble hypocrite Clerk of Rowan County, Kim Davis
Please humble Steven Anderson, Baptist pastor in Arizona who called for the death of all gays.
Please humble televangelist Pat Robertson who has dedicated his life to poison and hate.
Please humble Pope Benedict and Pope Francis who failed our people beyond measure.
Please humble Hate preacher Scott Lively to stand trial for crimes against humanity
Please humble Pastor James David Manning, who’s homophobic sign oppresses the vulnerable
Please humble Hull vicar Melvin Tinker who compares homosexuality to paedophilia and adultery
Please humble Brian Brown of the National Organisation for Marriage who spread hate as far as Russia
Please humble Vitaly Milonov sponsor of legislation criminalizing "homosexual propaganda.” who dedicates his life to hate.
Please humble Ugandan Dictator, Yoweri Museveni, whose law condemns homosexuals to life imprisonment.
And causing these enemies to fall from public grace, allow them the shame to recognise the harm they have caused and repent it.
Litany of the Queer Saints
Seeing that your image seems increasingly sanitised from church shops but knowing that we have not forgotten your name, we invite you and welcome you to sit and be glorified with the host of our own queer saints. Take your place with the brave, the gentle and the fierce to be honoured for ever and ever in knowing that we have never abandoned you.
Saint Derek Jarman of Dungeness, hero, artist, Disciple of St Sebastian, martyred by deliberate lack of funding into HIV, Pray for us.
Saint Peter Tatchel, fierce protector of the west, unbowed in the face of violence and hate, Pray for us.
Saint Nikolay Alexeyev, fierce protector of the East, resistant to tyranny, Pray for us.
Saint Uncumber, gender defiant bearded lady, patron of purity and refusal, Pray for us.
Saint Joan of Arc, Fearless warrior and gender-queer martyr, Pray for us.
Saint Aderonke Apata, protector of Nigeria, courageous in the face of humiliation and violence, Pray for us.
Saint Mark Ashton LGSM, hero of solidarity with the miners, Pray for us.
Saint David Kato: Ugandan activist and resilient martyr, Pray for us.
Saint Matthew Shepard, crucified by hateful men, young forever, Pray for us.
Saint Mychal Judge, Fire-brigade chaplain and First martyr of 9/11, ordained but un-canonised by the church on account of your queer spirit, Pray for us.
Saint Alan Turing, who ended war, saved millions and changed the world- martyred by the judiciary, Pray for us.
Saint Oscar Wilde, our saint of humour, grace and elegance, whose gentle hands were put to hard labour, Pray for us.
Saint Harvey Milk, courageous and compassionate, mayor and martyr of San Francisco, Pray for us.
Holy Innocents of the Nazi death camps, Pray for us.
Holy Innocents martyred by ISIS, Pray for us.
Holy Innocents driven to death by the church, Pray for us.
Saint Leelah Alcorn, our sister who walked into the oncoming tide for the benefit of others, Pray for us.
Saint Sebastian we prostrate to you and thank you. Empowered by the benison of your protection we go forward with courage and grace to face the arrows of oppressors and tyrants, and to defeat them.
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.
Tyler Clementi (1992-2010) brought international attention to bullying-related suicide of LGBT youth by jumping to his death on this date (Sept. 22) in 2010.
Clementi’s highly publicized tragedy made him into a gay martyr whose untimely death put a public face on the problems of LGBT teenagers. His story sparked efforts to support LGBT youth, raise awareness of the harassment they face, and prevent suicide among queer young people. Another result is new legislation stiffening penalties for cyber harassment.
His parents once considered suing Rutgers over their son's death, but in February 2013 they announced that they were working with the university to form the Tyler Clementi Center at Rutgers. It sponsors conferences and academic research to help students make the transition to college. They also established the Tyler Clementi Foundation to promote acceptance of LGBT youth and more inclusive society.
Clementi was an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey when he was driven to suicide by his room mate's anti-gay cyber-bullying.
A talented violinist, Clementi came out to his parents as gay before leaving home for college. Three days before the suicide, Clementi’s room mate used a webcam to secretly record Clementi kissing another man in their dorm room and streamed the video live over the Internet. In messages posted online before he took his own life, Clementi told how he complained to authorities about the cyber-bullying and asked for a new room assignment. Then he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. It took a week to find his body.
The room mate, Dharum Ravi, also 18 at the time, was convicted on 15 counts, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, in connection with Clementi’s suicide. Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail; 3 years of probation; 300 hours of community service; fined $10,000; and ordered to undergo counseling on cyberbullying and alternate lifestyles. His accomplice, Molly Wei, avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Ravi.
Anti-LGBT statements by public figures are also partly responsible for Clementi’s death. They created the hostile environment that drove Clementi to suicide. Artist Louisa Bertman emphasizes this point in her powerful ink illustration, “Tyler Clementi, JUMP!” She makes visible the hateful voices that may have been in Clementi’s mind. In her drawing, his head overflows with people urging him to jump. They are politicians as well as the actual students who bullied him. Their names are listed in a stark statement at the bottom of the drawing:
“Message brought to you by Sally Kern, Kim Meltzer, Nathan Deal, Carl Paladino, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Tom Emmer, Jeremy Walters, Rick Perry, Bob Vander Plaats, Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei.”
Bertman, an artist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is known for her non-traditional portraits.
Clementi helped inspire the founding of the It Gets Better Project and Spirit Day. The It Get Better Project aims to stop suicide among LGBT teens with videos of adults assuring them that “it gets better.” Spirit Day, first observed on Oct. 20, 2010, is a day when people wear purple to show support for young LGBT victims of bullying.
Unfortunately Clementi’s experience is far from rare. Openly lesbian talk show host Ellen Degeneres spoke for many in a video message that put his suicide into context shortly after he died:
“I am devastated by the death of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi….Something must be done. This month alone, there has been a shocking number of news stories about teens who have been teased and bullied and then committed suicide; like 13-year-old Seth Walsh in Tehachapi, California, Asher Brown, 13, of Cypress, Texas and 15-year-old Billy Lucas in Greensberg, Indiana. This needs to be a wake-up call to everyone: teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing.”
Help is available right now from the Trevor Project, a 24-hour national help line for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens. Contact them at 866 4U TREVOR or their website: thetrevorproject.org.
Tyler Clementi’s webcam photo of himself (Wikimedia Commons)
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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
Presidents Obama and Putin are shown as gay saints in “Divine Love,” part of a controversial Danish art exhibit that opens Aug. 29.
Danish artist Jim Lyngvild portrays Russian president Vladimir Putin and U.S. president Barack Obama as a gay couple in a variety of settings with “Icons” exhibition, which is getting international attention.
Lyngvild told the Jesus in Love Blog that the “Divine Love” image is based upon “the old saintly motifs,” but not on any particular painting from history. Haloes shine around both men’s heads as Obama cradles Putin in a Pieta-like pose.
In media interviews, the artist said he depicted the opposing leaders in love as a way to reflect his own sexuality and challenge viewers to understand the power of love.
In other Lyngvild images the two presidents express their love for each other by riding a lavender horse together and sharing a caress at an outdoor tea party for two.
Originally scheduled for January 2015, the “Icons” exhibit is set to run from Aug. 29 through Oct. 4 at the Flintholm Gallery in the town of Vester Skerninge in central Denmark.
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.
“Judith and Her Maidservant” by Artemisia Gentileschi
Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi inspires many with her paintings of strong Biblical women -- created despite the discrimination and sexual violence that she faced as a woman in 17th-century Italy. She was born more than 400 years ago today (July 8, 1593).
Gentileschi was apparently heterosexual, but lesbians have drawn energy from her life and art. Many queer people can relate to her battles against prejudice and sexual violence, documented in her rape trial in 1612. She can be considered the patron saint of lesbian artists, women artists, and everyone who breaks gender rules.
Gentileschi (1593–1652) was successful in her own day, but was mostly written out of art history until the 1970s, when feminist scholars rediscovered her work. Now she is celebrated in many books, films and plays, and her work is widely reproduced. Her greatest paintings include “Judith Beheading Holofernes” and “Susanna and the Elders.”
Lesbians who have created tributes to Gentileschi include painter Becki Jayne Harrelson and playwright Carolyn Gage. In the play “Artemisia and Hildegard,” Gage has two of history’s great women artists debate their contrasting survival strategies: Gentileschi battled to achieve in the male-dominated art world while Hildegard of Bingen found support for her art in the women-only community of a medieval German nunnery.
The daughter of a painter, Gentileschi was born in Rome and trained as a painter in her father’s workshop there. She was refused admission to the art academy because she was a woman, so her father arranged for her to have a private painting teacher -- who raped her when she was about 19. Gentileschi herself was tortured by thumbscrews during the seven-month rape trial, but she stuck to her testimony. The teacher was convicted, but received a suspended sentence.
“Judith Beheading Holofernes”
by Artemisia Gentileschi
Gentileschi used art to express her outrage. During the trial Artemisia began painting the Biblical scene of “Judith Beheading Holofernes” (left). Judith, a daring and beautiful Hebrew widow, saves Israel by cutting off the head of the invading general Holofernes. Judith and Holofernes became one of Gentileschi’s favorite subjects, and she painted several variations during her lifetime.
Her realistic style, influenced by the artist Caravaggio, shows dramatic contrasts between light and dark. But Gentileschi usually created her own unique interpretation expressing a strong female viewpoint. The violence of Judith beheading the male general Holofernes speaks for itself. Another example is her painting (below left) of the Biblical story of the Hebrew wife Susanna and the lustful elders who spied on her while she was bathing. Although her male contemporaries painted the scene as a voyeuristic fantasy, Gentileschi presents it as a violation of the vulnerable Susanna by the predatory elders.
“Susanna and the Elders”
by Artemisia Gentileschi
Soon after the rape trial Gentileschi married and moved to Florence, where she became the first woman accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (Academy of the Arts of Drawing). She had a full career, producing many paintings of powerful women from Christianity, history and mythology. She worked in various Italian cities and even spent a few years painting in London, England. It is believed that she died when she was about 60 years old in a plague that swept Naples in 1656.
Today Gentileschi’s life and work are admired by many, including artist Becki Jayne Harrelson. She is best known for her LGBT-affirming version of “The Crucifixion of the Christ” with the word “faggot” above Jesus on the cross, but Harrelson has also honored Gentileschi in her art and blog.
Harrelson offers this tribute in celebration of Gentileschi’s birthday: “Artemisia Gentileschi’s talent and mastery was equal to her male counterparts, yet because of sexism and misogyny, she was denied the recognition she deserved as a master painter until many centuries later. She also suffered sexual violence and was treated unjustly for standing up against it. Her art and life inspires me to persevere despite adversity and prejudice.”
“Tribute to Artemisia’s Judith” by Becki Jayne Harrelson, www.beckijayne.com
Oil on canvas | 36”w X 48”h
Gentileschi's story is told in a variety of movies and novels, including "The Passion of Artemisia" by Susan Vreeland.
Artemisia Gentileschi is included in the LGBT saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog because she has inspired so many lesbians with her paintings of women and her success despite gender barriers and sexual violence.
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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
Gay history hidden in Vatican religious art can now be seen firsthand through new LGBT-friendly tours never offered before.
In a sign of the Vatican’s increasing acceptance of queer people, Italian travel company Quiiky has begun leading two gay-oriented day tours based on the lives, loves and masterpieces of Renaissance artists Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.
Same-sex kisses in the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s love for a young male poet are the focus of Quiiky's queer tour of Rome. Moving north to Milan, the LGBT Da Vinci tour reveals how the artist’s own beloved male disciple Salai was probably the model for Christ’s apostle John in the Last Supper.
The most popular part of the tour comes in the Sistine Chapel when guides point to the top right corner of “Last Judgment,” just behind Saint Peter. Michelangelo painted three pairs of male figures kissing and embracing to celebrate their ascent to heaven.
Detail from “Last Judgement” by Michelangelo
“Our customers like the Sistine Chapel painting of a kiss between two men going to Paradise, not in Hell,” Quiiky CEO Alessio Virgili told the Jesus in Love Blog.
Using slang and simple language, Quiiky guides point out details that other guides ignore -- details related to the homosexuality of the artists. The tours were conceived especially, but not exclusively, for an LGBT audience.
“This gay tour gives finally the right importance homosexuality had in the Renaissance period and in the Italian art itself, a role that has been hidden until now because of the bigotry of certain environments,” the Quiiky.com website states.
Plans are underway to add two more gay excursions: a Caravaggio tour of Baroque Rome and a tour of Tivoli highlighting ancient Roman emperor Hadrian and his male lover Antinous.
“There is an untold history that some gays know, but I think it is time for everybody to find out,” Virgili said in an interview with Jesus in Love. “When I traveled abroad I always used to meet LGBT people who told me that they liked visiting Italy to look for history, especially places and art made by gay men and lesbians.” So he launched the gay tours.
The Quiiky Vatican Museum tour begins with ancient statues, such as Hadrian and his beloved Antinous, and concludes with a visit to the Gallery of Tapestries and St. Peter’s Basilica. But the highlight is the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings were controversial even in his own time because they include many sensous male nudes who are modeled on manual laborers. The models were probably men whom Michelangelo saw at gay bathhouses and brothels, according to historian Elena Lazzarini of Pisa University. Michelangelo's homoerotic interests are evident not only in his paintings, but also in the hundreds of love poems that he wrote during his lifetime.
"John the Baptist" by Da Vinci
The Da Vinci tour visits different sites in Milan linked to the artistic genius, including the Biblioteca Ambrosiana library where his work is preserved and the Sforza Castle where he painted on commission for a noble family.
The centerpiece of the tour is viewing “The Last Supper” in the convent refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie. Next to Christ is his beloved disciple John, who resembles Da Vinci’s apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti. Nicknamed Salai (“little devil”), he was also Da Vinci’s frequent model and most likely lover. Salai is also presumed to be the model for a painting of an almost coquettish John the Baptist by Da Vinci.
Historical documents show that Da Vinci was accused of sodomy as a young man. The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence, but speculation has continued for centuries as viewers perceived proof in his artwork.
Quiiky’s gay tours have been popular since their inception in November 2014. Every day about 15 people take the gay tours, which are designed for an intimate, small-group experience. About 70 percent of customers come from the United States, followed by England and Spain.
Vatican officials are aware of the gay tours, but have done nothing to stop them. “It is not a secret that Quiiky is a LGBT tour operator open to everybody, and we have access to Vatican Museum with official guides. This is, I think, because Vatican wants to open its doors to everybody, with no difference,” Virgili explained.
Pope Francis set a new tone in 2013 when he told reporters that his attitude about LGBT people is: “Who am I to judge?”
Virgili said that nonjudgmental attitude extends to the gay tours that he offers: “And so the Vatican doesn’t judge if you are looking for your personal identity and history in a place created to embrace the whole human being.”
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Special thanks to Marco Wooster for the news tip.
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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.
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