EDGAR DEGAS (né Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas) born (d: 1917); In Gay Geniuses, a strange book published a few years ago now, the author W.H. Kayy comes to the conclusion that the great Impressionist painter and sculptor Degas was gay because he was obsessed with callipygous buttocks, both of ballet dancers and of horses. Moreover, Kayy repeats the old canard (are there young canards?) about Degas as a woman-hater because he painted his ballet dancers in tortured poses.

Apparently any woman-hater who also likes tushies is, according to Kayy, ipso facto, homosexual. There are of course, several things wrong with this theory. In the first place, more than a few straight studs have been known to refer to a woman as a “piece of ass,” and, what’s more, seem pretty obsessed by buttocks themselves.

Second, most dance positions are pretty tortuous in and for themselves and are hardly dictated by the artist who paints or sculpts merely what the choreographer creates. And if you don’t believe that most dance poses are painful, try a couple if your body is not in perfect shape.

Third, why are homosexuals automatically deemed woman-haters? Are the victims of battered-wife syndrome all married to gay men? Yes, Degas painted many ballerinas bending down to tie a slipper, massage a leg, but these are common scenes in the backstage world of dance. Why does this make the artist buttock-crazed? It seems to us as if Degas has been given a bum rap.

FABIAN STRACHAN WOODLEY, British poet (d: 1957) was a poet of the Uranian school. He was born in Bristol and educated at Oxford. After fighting in World War I (during which he won the Military Cross), he taught English at several schools. His only book of poetry, A Crown of Friendship, was published in 1921.

The Iranian Government publicly executed two teenage boys on July 19th 2005, in the city of Mashad. Their names were Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, one eighteen and the other seventeen or possibly sixteen-years-old.

They were accused of raping a thirteen-year-old boy, but it has been established that the authorities invented the charge of rape to prevent public sympathy for the true reason for their execution, that they were gay. After their arrest the two boys endured a year of imprisonment and torture before the high court of Iran upheld their sentence and their execution by hanging was carried out in a public square in the city of Mashad.

International outrage was met with arrogance and impunity by the religious and conservative Iranian government, and a systematic persecution soon began against gays, which has led to an unverified report of a second execution, and untold numbers of arrests and torture. These events indicate that the worldwide struggle for Gay Freedom has not decreased but has become more violent and inhumane.

LUCARIA. Roman festival – The Lucaria was an ancient Roman feast, solemnized in the woods, where the Romans, defeated and pursued by the Gauls, retired and concealed themselves; it was held, on July 19, in a wood, between the Tiber River and the road called Via Salaria. This is a time to honor the woodlands and the spirits that protect them, the Genii Loci or the Fae as they are known in English. It is important that we develop a good relationship with the Genii Loci of the land on which we live.

This day is known as MIDSUMMER to most of the English-speaking world, and this day is honored in a similar manner, celebrating the Apollo at his Zenith, the sacrificial God, Bacchus, and the Earth Goddess, Ceres, pregnant with the harvest.

SALEM WITCH TRIALS: Five women (and unknown numbers of homosexual men) are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS: The first, two day Womens Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention. It still took another 72 years before women were “granted” the vote. New developments soon to be announced. Film at 11.