Charles Pierce, by A. Loudermilk.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“The most famous Bette Davis impersonator in the world, he impersonated other stars too, like Mae West, Katherine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, bigger than life females who were, as Pierce often noted, ‘almost female impersonators themselves’.”

Neneh Cherry, ‘Manchild’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“And then those sumptuous 50 piece Abbey Road strings sweep in and you were away, an amused, bemused and only slightly confused 19 year old homosexualist making his first knee trembling suburban journeys into London, off hand-in-hand down an alley with the big sister you never had.”

Shakespears Sister, ‘Stay’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

” I was absolutely terrified of Death in this video, the alarm in me building with each step she took down the stairs. Now that I think about it, I sometimes react the same way with some drag queens, too.”

Cyril Wild, by Paul Burgess.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“Cyril Wild is my own personal LGBT Hero. He is also an important lesson for parents of LGBT people everywhere: You too can change. You too can learn to accept all and love unconditionally.”

Jayne County, by Rupert Smith.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“This is the woman who, in the bitterly homophobic ’70s, stood in front of straight audiences looking like Dolly Parton’s trashier daughter, singing songs about sex and difference, making people laugh and think and sometimes fight. .”

Maurice, ‘This Is Acid’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“My debut as a gay man was also my introduction to a genre of music that would change my life. Previously, my musical tastes had reflected my sense of sadness, of difference, of division. But, coming out made me feel happy.”

Dudley Cave, by Wendyl Harris.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“His awareness of the struggles facing bereaved LGBT partners in a society that gave them no legal recognition – exclusion from a lover’s funeral, eviction from a joint home, denial of inheritance – led Dudley and Bernard to found the Lesbian and Gay Bereavement Project in 1980.”

Air, ‘Sexy Boy’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

” ‘Sexy Boy’ took on a whole new meaning to me after this. It set off a firework of thoughts and feelings I hadn’t realised were there. It was my sexuality awakening.”

Gore Vidal, by Christopher Bryant.

To celebrate LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari is publishing a daily series of LGBT Heroes, selected by the magazine’s team of writers and special contributors.

“Larry Kramer pressed Vidal in an interview to say he was a homosexual person, to which he responded, ‘Look, what I’m preaching is: don’t be ghettoized, don’t be categorized. Every state tries to categorize its citizens in order to assert control of them.’ He subscribed to an ideal politics.”

John Holt, ‘Mr Bojangles’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“In the years that followed, more memorials and funerals. Some close friends and a partner. Sadness upon sadness. ‘Mr. Bojangles’ became the song that got me through.”