Bona Equality.

Yvonne Aburrow recalls a reading of the Bible in Polari and writes about the role of the Unitarians in achieving LGBT equality.

“Before Polari became the name of this online magazine it was a secret form of language, spoken mostly by gay men and lesbians, with a complex and eclectic history encompassing drag queens, actors, travelling circus people, sailors, Italians, American airforce men and even Punch and Judy entertainers.”

In the beginning Gloria created the heaven and the earth.

Paul Baker celebrates a record breaking reading from the Bible … in your actual Polari.

“Before Polari became the name of this online magazine it was a secret form of language, spoken mostly by gay men and lesbians, with a complex and eclectic history encompassing drag queens, actors, travelling circus people, sailors, Italians, American airforce men and even Punch and Judy entertainers.”

Bona to Nellyarda!

Polari’s editor, alongside Clayton Littlewood and David Benson, talks about what Polari meant at the height of its use in the 1950s and ’60s.

“At the start of the London 2012 Olympics, Polari Magazine joined Clayton Littlewood at the BBC’s new building in Portland Place to talk about the meaning of the slang Polari.”

Vada that omee ajax

The Editor writes all about the word Polari, and explains why the magazine is called Polari.

“As a form of slang, it developed as the times required. It made its way into the music halls, where it was picked up by actors, and found its way across the English Channel to the London gay scene.”

Polari-ing all the way to the Malvinas/Falklands Conflict.

Jo Stanley writes about the hidden queer history of the South Atlantic conflict that ended 30 years ago this month.

“The presence of queer, indeed high camp, seafarers on the troop carriers has been written out. It doesn’t fit the story of rufty-tufty Brits, including Marines and Paras sailing forth in the hyper-masculine style of imperial conquest.”

Paul Baker

Polari Magazine’s editor selects Paul Baker for its list of LGBT Heroes. For UK LGBT History Month 2012.

It is always a great pleasure to read his work because it is so well thought out, so very reasonable and so very human. He is one of the LGBT community’s greatest assets, and one of its greatest spokesmen.

Janis Joplin, Me & Bobby McGee

The Readers Wifes second choice of song with LGBT significance. For UK LGBT History Month.

Joplin inhabits the song’s masculine narrative trousers so completely the genders feel blurry and it barely matters, in fact, whether the ambiguously named ‘Bobby’ in question is a boy or a girl.

Morrissey, Piccadilly Palare

The Readers Wifes first choice of song with LGBT significance. For UK LGBT History Month.

The 1990 single ‘Piccadilly Palare’ sees the bard inhabit the tragic-comic lives of 1950s rent boys in the seedy West End of the capital’s good old bad old days.

[rating=4]
260 pages • Quartet • June 01, 2011 [PB]

Tim Bennett-Goodman takes pleasure in Death in Bordeaux, which charts the working and personal life of a police detective from the fall of France through the establishment and early days of the Vichy Republic.

Massie doesn’t shrink from the casual homophobia of the times. Even the most sympathetic of his characters find homosexuality impossible to comprehend, if not actually repellant.

Clementine’s wishes

Clementine the Living Fashion Doll wishes happy Christmas to all and a happy 2nd birthday to Polari.

“Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!!!”