I remember reading materials with Faygele benMiriam's signature on it from the old days... historic documents for our community, in the basement of the old LGBT Center on Pike. Actual documents from the era, news article clippings, deeds, etc. Gay Community Social Services entrusted the Center to care for those precious documents. I wonder where those are now since the Center closed all those years ago.
Someone changed his name to Faygele? That's quite possibly the gayest thing I've ever heard.
@2: There was an eyewash bottle in my high-school chemistry classroom with an ancient label declaring it to be "Fresh Water". Someone had crossed out "Fresh" and written "stale" instead.
"Someone changed his name to Faygele? That's quite possibly the gayest thing I've ever heard."
That's exactly why he did it. Back in the 1970's straight America would do most anything to acknowledge that there were a sizable number of queer folks who lived among them. Faygele's father was one of those people, so he changed his name, in English it means "Faggot, son of Miriam". He, and I, wanted to make sure that everyone we met would know that at least once in their life they had interacted with a gay person.
40 years! Thanks for demonstrating the gravity of this in such a crystal way.
I remember reading materials with Faygele benMiriam's signature on it from the old days... historic documents for our community, in the basement of the old LGBT Center on Pike. Actual documents from the era, news article clippings, deeds, etc. Gay Community Social Services entrusted the Center to care for those precious documents. I wonder where those are now since the Center closed all those years ago.
@2: There was an eyewash bottle in my high-school chemistry classroom with an ancient label declaring it to be "Fresh Water". Someone had crossed out "Fresh" and written "stale" instead.
That's exactly why he did it. Back in the 1970's straight America would do most anything to acknowledge that there were a sizable number of queer folks who lived among them. Faygele's father was one of those people, so he changed his name, in English it means "Faggot, son of Miriam". He, and I, wanted to make sure that everyone we met would know that at least once in their life they had interacted with a gay person.