Aug98 to Jul99
A round-up of GALHA’s activities during 1999
In 1999 the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association celebrated its 20th anniversary. The five highlights of the year were:
- its successful proposal of a comprehensive resolution on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people’s rights at the World Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (10-14 January, India) – a resolution drafted by Dutch member Hans Hoekzema and proposed by UK founder member Jim Herrick.
- its dramatised tribute to the great US freethinker Robert Green Ingersoll on the centenary of his death, devised and produced by GALHA committee member Derek Lennard and co-sponsored by the South Place Ethical Society and the Leicester Secular Society (9 July and 26 November in London and 2 October in Leicester).
- its residential weekend gathering (11-13 September, York) at which the guest speaker was former National Secular Society General Secretary and Freethinker Editor Bill McIlroy.
- its participation (as official co-sponsor) in the Queer Remembrance Ceremony organised by OutRage! and held at the Cenotaph, Whitehall (14 November, London) to commemorate those lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people who died fighting Nazism or died in the concentration camps.
- its anniversary dinner (11 December, London) which was addressed by representatives of five kindred humanist organisations (the British Humanist Association, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the National Secular Society, the Rationalist Press Association and the South Place Ethical Society) and as keynote speaker Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and party spokesperson on Higher Education and Women’s Issues.
We continued to play a part in the ongoing campaign to achieve lesbian and gay equality. We initiated a protest campaign against Laura Ashley after the company appointed US Christian homophobe Pat Robertson as a non-executive director. We twice lobbied the Home Secretary concerning anti-gay discrimination – first after the issue of the report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and second after the Admiral Duncan bombing. We made a detailed submission to the Home Office team reviewing sex offences.
Following several joint meetings with Amnesty International UK’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Network, our committee decided to affiliate to Amnesty International.
Following a talk on GALHA and gay rights issues given by Jim Herrick, the Tyneside Humanist Group, one of the largest and most active such groups in the country, decided to affiliate to GALHA.
Other events
Friday 9 July 1999, 7.30pm: Conway Hall The time to be happy... A dramatisation based on the life and works of the great nineteenth-century American freethinker Robert Green Ingersoll, on the centenary of his death – organised by GALHA committee member Derek Lennard and jointly sponsored by GALHA and the South Place Ethical Society. More information:
“The Time To Be Happy”
A Dramatisation of the Life and Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
devised by Derek Lennard
at 7.30pm on Friday 9th July 1999 in the Library of Conway Hall, London
An evening’s entertainment including:
- A question-time session with Ingersoll and his rival the Brooklyn evangelist Rev. De Witt Talmage who vehemently opposed Ingersoll.
- A re-creation of a public meeting in 1875 when police were present to arrest Ingersoll for blasphemy.
- What the papers said about Ingersoll, presented by author and columnist Terry Sanderson.
- A hilarious biblical guide to where you should go on holiday, a heaven-and-hell interview session and a fire-and-brimstone speech by an evangelical maniac.
The event is celebratory about Ingersoll’s life and works and upbeat about humanism today. This is a public event – all are welcome and admission is free. A voluntary contribution towards the cost of preparation and refreshments will be requested.
Prominent members of the UK humanist movement playing guest roles in the question-time session include George Broadhead, Jim Herrick, Jennifer Jeynes, Barbara Smoker and Keith Porteous Wood. Among those who have accepted an invitation to join the audience are the distinguished author and journalist Rt. Hon. Michael Foot, president of the Thomas Paine Society and former leader of the Labour Party.
A special centenary souvenir programme will be available. This will include a guide to The South Place Ethical Society and The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, the joint hosts of the event, as well as information about the life and works of Robert Ingersoll. There will also be an opportunity to order literature about Ingersoll.
Who was Ingersoll?
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) was one of the most famous personalities in America in the latter part of the nineteenth century. He was well known for his brilliance as a lawyer, famously defending a contemporary from the charge of “blasphemy”.
He was a nationally known Republican politician whose nomination speech in favour of that party’s presidential candidate in 1876 continues to be regarded as a classic of its type. Above all, he was a brilliant orator who advanced the concept of freethought with courage, wit and panache.
His public meetings, which took place in fields, streets, meeting rooms and opera houses, were often attended by thousands of people. When he spoke to an audience at the Chicago Exhibition Hall, for example, the Chicago Tribune reported that 50,000 came to hear him speak with “boys literally hanging from the rafters”.
Fellow celebrities such as Mark Twain and Walt Whitman were inspired by his life and works, and he was an early advocate of the rights of women and civil rights for blacks.
