Kenneth Allott, by Daniel Milford-Cottam.

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.

“I was realising that I was not like other people, yet barely understood what “gay” was. Only Allott seemed to empathise, and he spoke in riddles.”

No Doubt, ‘Sunday Morning’.

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

“No Doubt were a hot breath of peppy, poppy, Californian ska-punk, into my very grey and deliberately unobtrusive existence. Bright, unabashedly straightforward, jumpy-up-and-downy fun with the obligatory ‘life’s tough’ lyrics and hook-laden bounciness.”

[rating=5]
Released 1959

The second album from the comedy icon Lenny Bruce. Religion, Sexuality, and Airlines. Classic Music Review.

“What truly shocked audiences in the ’50s wasn’t the language, it was the targets of Lenny’s bits. Here’s a man poking fun at tragedy, political corruption, sexual deviance and religion.”

[rating=4]
Cert: U • US: 55 min • Frameline • July 14, 1989

The 1989 documentary Tongues Untied: Black Men Loving Black Men looks at the African-American experience from the inside out..

“The insults are sped up and repeated, creating a cruel rhythmic song which seems to encircle both Riggs and ourselves. Thus the viewer become aware on an experiential level of the marginalizing effect of such taunts.”

Kate Hutton, 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.

“In 1984, Hutton gave a tour of the seismology lab to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Scientists, and that is when she came out both personally and professionally.”

Dr. Frank-N-Furter, ‘Sweet Transvestite’.

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

“My relationship with Rocky Horror blossomed and developed as I grew and in many ways it knew me before I knew myself.”

Venue and Nationality Confusion.

Gay Relationship Column. Scottie find his very identity challenged when he meets a girl in a gay bar.

“Once she heard my Irish accent, her eyes lit up, telling me how much she loved Ireland and that her ex-boyfriend was from Donegal.”

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As the Boy Scouts of America leadership prepares to vote on overturning its ban on GBT scouts, Walter Beck recalls how he was banned for the political views he had aired online.

“I had been a camp counselor for nine years and had more than a bit of a reputation as a rabble-rouser, an unapologetic freak who took the Scout Oath and Law beyond the rote meanings laid down by National Council.”

Sarah Waters, by BJ Epstein.

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.

“Sarah Waters is a writer who both seems to revel in the “lesbian” label and also manages to cross over into the mainstream at the same time. Her novels are literary texts that just so happen to feature lesbian characters and lesbian lives.”

Stomu Yamash’ta, ‘My Little Partner’.

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

“At 10 years old, it genuinely frightened me. Whose it was, how we got it, I didn’t care – I scrabbled to lift the needle so quickly that I dropped it again – this time what I heard made me freeze on the spot.”