They Were a Bit, Ken, 'Than Wey' Brian Dempsey

They were a bit, ken, 'than wey' Brian Dempsey GGLC Underdogs looking for whacks, Come all ye persons of goodwill, Indomitably spring-heeled dykes From Newton Mearns to Maryhill, Sweeping up on mountain bikes, Rattle the chains and launch the boat Jessies with attitude, closet cases, Part 1 And get it properly afloat. Solicitors with bright red braces, lthough Scotland possesses I bash this poem against the bow, Levis with a coloured hanky om incredibly rich sources Name it G.G.L.C., and endow To signal the right hanky-panky, or lesbian, gay, bisexual Its future cruise with benedictions, Lurex and Spandex and other ex-es and/or transsexual (lgbt) history, this Sailing past all feuds and frictions. To mix the senses and the sexes, is a sadly neglected aspect of our Come all ye lovers and affairs, But if you should prefer a suit national history. Worthy of study in Singles, discrete souls, and bears, We'll certainly no pit ye oot, their own right, such sources also Straightest of straights, bentest of For this is where we all can meet have the potential to inform Scottish bents, Down by the river in Dixon Street, social history in general. Carbolic scrub, Armani scents, And the Broomielaw rolls on to the sea Outwith Scotland, there is an Doc Martens girls, minikilt boys, With the happy cargo of G.G.L.C. enormous amount of theoretical Buyers of exotic toys, writing on the history of lgbt people, Opera queens, ballet queens, Poem by Edwin Morgan on the and this first article will only give a And all the hesitant in-betweens, opening of the Glasgow Gay and brief indication of the issues. Much Trendsetters and anoraks, Lesbian Centre, 4 November 1995. of this theoretical work is exciting and innovative, especially that close ly linked to substantive social histo ry, but some, admittedly, seems deliberately abstruse and even ster ile. The big theoretical issue in lgbt studies is 'social constructionism' versus 'essentialism'. Social con structionism is generally traced back to Mary Mcintosh's 1968 article 'The Homosexual Role' and is often associated with the French philoso pher Michel Foucault and his 1976 book The History of Sexuality (vol.i). Social constructionists, who argue that elements of our personal iden tities like race, sex, gender, and sex ual orientation and their expression are not somehow 'natural', inherent, ) and determined by biology but are I contingent upon the societies in which we live, consider that there are serious dangers in using a fixed cat egory to describe people of different cultures. Even the term 'sexual ori entation' is problematised and while it may be used informally it is per haps better to speak of same-sex sex ual desires, behaviours and identi ties. For social constructionists, an interesting example of which is Jonathan Ned Katz's The Invention of Heterosexuality, it does not make sense, or at least it does not help us Poster publicising the 'LBGT History Month - Scotland' indicating a grow ing interest in lgbt history. HISTO RY SC OTLAND - SE PTEMBER/O C TOBER 2009 46 understand much, to say that, for essentialist, is the historian Rictor handle sens1t1ve information we example, Hadrian was either a gay or Norton: www.rictornorton.co.uk/ uncover about individuals and what bisexual man, or that Sappho was a Good starting points for under responsibilities do we have to avoid lesbian, when life in their cultures was standing the 'social constructionism v plundering past lives for our own so fundamentally different to ours. essentialism' argument are the essays ends? Equally, it often does not help, even in in Forms of Desire edited by Edward A major new source for social his our globalised world, to apply a single Stein and Which Homosexuality?, edit torians, whether specifically looking at category 'gay man' to someone who ed by Dennis Altman. More recently, lgbt lives or more widely, is the grow lives in an open, marriage-like rela gay studies has had the benefit of ing number of oral history projects in tionship with another man and who rather difficult 'queer critical theory' many countries. For Scotland the socialises and works in a 'gay positive' through the work of Eve Kosofsky most significant sources are Bob atmosphere, as well as to a married Sedgwick and others. 'Queer' in this Cant's Footsteps and Witnesses and the family man who may at times have sex context is affirmative and reflects a websites ,vww.ourstory.org.uk and with other men but rejects any 'gay rejection of such concepts as fixed ht;tp:/ /1ivingmem ory. org. uk/remcm identity'. identities and binaries like berwhen. Oral history certainly offers Essentialists, on the other hand, male/female and gay/straight. a way to capture the experiences of argue that sexuality and its expression Other issues in lgbt history, some of those generally marginalised or is innate, perhaps even genetic, and which are explored in David silenced but also raises issues about that although people living in different Halperin's How to Do the History of how reliable are conclusions based on cultures and subcultures will develop Homosexuality, are familiar to all his such evidence. Some of these com different ways of being and expressing torians: whose experiences were plexities are discussed in a recent arti themselves we can use categories like deemed important enough to be cle by Nan Boyd, 'Who is the Subject; 'lesbian' or 'bisexual' across cultural recorded and preserved; how typical Queer Theory Meets Oral History'. divides- Sappho was not only 'a right of the wider population were the rel on woman' but, if only there was atively few lives we can glimpse; how Where is the LBGT history of enough evidence, it would be mean can we understand lives lived in such Scotland? ingful to say that she was a lesbian. different social, religious and eco The leading critic of social construc nomic contexts to our own; should we One of the most basic and rewarding tionism, though he would reject the seek to understand these lives in their ways of exploring lgbt history is the simplistic and 'contemptuous' label of own terms or in ours; how should we production of lists and biographies of Demonstration outside The Scotsman Offices 1974. (Scotsman licensed via www.scran.ac.uk) } I HISTORY SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2009 47 famous or infamous people like tively identified as a lesbian with Eleanor Roosevelt, Radclyffe Hall, Maud Galt (jl.1648/9) and Pirie and Sappho, Alexander the Great, St Woods (see below) "accused" of les Aelred of Rievaulx, King James VI, bianism. In the entry on the cross Oscar Wilde, and Sir Hector Mac dressing writer Mary Diana Dods donald. They, depending on your (c.1790-c.1830) a same-sex relation approach, were either lesbian or gay or ship is implied though the nature of bisexual, or else were people who the relationship is not made clear. probably had an attraction to persons But Scotland can lay claim to two of the same sex, or were 'queer', what of the most famous reputed lesbians ever their personal sexual identity. in history in Jane Pirie and Marianne Admittedly this is not perhaps the Woods, whose story was made most sophisticated of research famous as the inspiration for Lillian approaches but it can be a useful start Hellman's 1934 play 'The Children's ing point and is validating for those Hour'. The young ladies briefly ran a marginalised and denigrated by the small residential school in society in which they live. Nor is it Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, for easy to uncover, let alone evaluate, upper-class girls but their careers were evidence of same-sex attraction even destroyed in 1810 when Lady Helen among those whose lives are known in Cumming Gordon removed her detail. There are strong presumptions teenaged grand daughter from the that everyone is heterosexual (hete school and spread the child's accusa rocentrism) and of course many peo tion among the parents of the other ple who felt other than 'normal' James VI. Can we apply modern con students that the teachers had nonetheless married, either to provide cepts of "gay" and "bisexual" to figures engaged in sexual intimacy together. a smokescreen or in an attempt to from the past? (National Galleries of Pirie and Woods sued for defamation become 'normal'. Even when people Scoland licensed via www,scran.ac,uk) and the destruction of their livelihood are widely known to be gay or lesbian and, while they won their case, Cum within their own circle any evidence of ming Gordon's wealth and tactics their same-sex attraction may be ensured that there was a long delay lacking after they die or may, indeed, while the case went all the way to the be destroyed by family. House of Lords. Their story is exam It should also be remembered ined at length in Lillian Faderman's that, despite our intrusive media, somewhat idiosyncratic 1983 book most people did not know that the Scotch ~rdict. Scots Makar, Edwin Morgan, was gay The treatment of this case by the until he 'came out' on his seventieth criminologist William Roughead in his birthday in 1990. While the decision 1931 book Bad Companions, presum to be public about a personal life is a ably the source for Hellman's play, is matter for the individual, it is benefi also interesting as it tells us something cial for lgbt people and society as a about lesbianism at the time of the whole to see the contributions people Scots Makar Edwin Morgan, who "came case and also at the time Roughead of different backgrounds and persua out" on his seventieth birthday (Gerry was writing.

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