Florida Agenda

By Bob Kecskemety

Axel Axgil 1915 – 2011

Axel Axgil, the last half of the world’s first registered gay couple, died last Saturday, October 29 at the age 96 from complications from a fall.

Axel Axgil and Eigil Axgil were Danish gay activists and a longtime couple. They were the first gay couple to enter into a registered partnership anywhere in the world following Denmark’s legalization of same-sex partnership registration in 1989, a landmark legislation they were instrumental in passing. They adopted the shared surname, Axgil, a combination of their given names. They chose this combination of their given names as an expression of their commitment after they met in the 1940s.

Axel (born Axel Lundahl-Madsen) and Eigil (born Eigil Eskildsen), inspired by the 1948 United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights along with several friends, founded F-48 or Forbundet af 1948 (The Association of 1948), Europe’s first gay rights organization. By 1951, F-48’s membership had grown to 1,339 and there were branches in Sweden and Norway. In 1985,
F-48 became the Danish National Association of Gays and Lesbians. The couple launched a magazine, Vennen (The Friend).

Axel’s sexuality gave him problems in his home town of Aalborg, where he was expelled from membership of the Justice Foundation, lost his job and was banished from the boarding house where he lived and ate, according to journalist Bjarne Henry Lundis who wrote a biography about Axgil.

At that time, Danish police would hunt for gay men. Together, they both saw their businesses destroyed.

In 1950 Axel and Eigil owned a small publishing company, the International Modelfoto Service, which produced and discretely sold photos of nude men. The IMS was run from premises that also housed Vennen.

In March 1955, both were arrested and confined in isolation for 11 months then sentenced to 12 and 18 months of prison, respectively, for distribution of material which, “although not obscene may be deemed a commercial speculation with a sensual intent.”

The police search of the premises of Vennen and the IMS, which led to the arrest of a large number of sexually active gay men and triggered the so-called Pornography Scandal.

In 1954, the Axgils founded The International Homosexual World Organization (IHWO), which mainly worked through correspondence between individual members.

Between 1968-69 the IHWO published the magazine UNI with articles in seven languages. In 1970, the IHWO successfully appealed to Willy Brandt, the German Federal Chancellor, to discontinue seizure by German authorities of pornographic material mailed from Denmark to individuals in Germany.

The International Committee for Sexual Equality (ISCE) and the Danish and Dutch national organizations for homosexuals kept a certain distance from the IHWO, which ceased its activities in 1970.

Both Axel and Eigil continued their activism and remained important figures in the gay rights movement.

Later they started boarding at the Hotel Axelhuus at Ringsted, Copenhagen, a refuge for many gay men especially from Germany, Sweden and Norway.

In 1989, after years of lobbying by the Axgils and other advocates, Denmark became the first nation in the world to recognize domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. On October 1, 1989, the Axgils and ten other Danish couples were married by the deputy mayor of Copenhagen, in the city hall, accompanied by worldwide media attention.

This made the Axgils the first gay couple to enter into a registered partnership anywhere in the world. Denmark, which still recognizes registered partnerships, is expected to move to full marriage equality next year.

Axel was described as a modest man who never cast himself as a lonely warrior and that he always underscored that there were many involved in the work and that it was a common cause.

Axel was honored at the August 2009 World OutGames which were held in Copenhagen and was a speaker at the

OutGames Conference on Human Rights.

“You have to be impressed by the colossal enthusiasm Axel Axgil has shown throughout his entire life for helping other homosexuals. Regardless of how hard they were hit themselves, he and Eigil tirelessly worked on,” said LGBT Denmark spokeswoman Vivi Jelstrup said in a written statement.

Axgil, she said, had lived “a long life focused on creating something for other homosexuals, regardless of the price.”

Eigil Axgil died in 1995, while Axel Axgil continued his active work for gay people into the 2000s. The Axgils had been a couple for 40 years.

By Alex Vaughn

A Rhode Island woman who pleaded with state lawmakers to legalize gay marriage before she succumbed to cancer has died.

Marriage Equality Rhode Island says Johnston resident Patricia Baker died Sunday at Kent Hospital. She was 55.

Baker was struggling with the final stages of lung cancer when she testified on behalf of gay marriage legislation this year at the Statehouse. Occasionally using her oxygen tank to breathe, the retired corrections officer told lawmakers she was angry that her wife would receive no benefits from the government after her death.

Baker and Deborah Tevyaw (TEV’-yah) married in Massachusetts, but wanted their relationship recognized in their home state.

Baker’s testimony made her a spokeswoman for gay marriage advocates in the Ocean State.

As the gay-rights debate intensified nationwide, Pat Baker emerged as a face of the strife on the local front.

Battling terminal lung cancer, Baker spent sleepless nights urging lawmakers to repeal a law that forbids the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages.

Twice, the longtime corrections officer at the Adult Correctional Institutions dragged herself, oxygen tank in tow, to the State House in March to testify for equal rights for gays and lesbians.

“I worked for those benefits,” Baker said then. “ And when I say worked, I worked hard.

You name it, it’s happened. I’ve found inmates hanging; I’ve found inmates dead from suicide. I’ve been traumatized mentally and physically, only to get to this point in my life when I’m terminally ill … and I find out my wife is being begrudged $1,861 a month.”

“This kind of bigotry has to be rectified,” Baker said in an interview at her home, vowing to fight until her last breath.

Baker, is survived by her wife of six years, Deborah Tevyaw, whom she married in Massachusetts; two brothers, Richard Baker and Frederick Divers; a sister, Deborah Baker; and her beloved dog, Hooch.

“She had the biggest heart in the world,” Tevyaw, who met Baker about nine years ago through mutual friends, said Monday. The two married in Provincetown on Aug. 4, 2005, and had planned to renew their vows there this month, but called off the plans as Baker was hospitalized.

“I’m so devastated and so heartbroken,” Tevyaw said, her voice breaking. “I lost my best friend, my partner, my confidant and my wife, and she died without her wish.”

Tevyaw vowed to “fight for the dream that Pat worked so hard” for — her promise to her wife.

“I know it’s a long, hard road, but I don’t think anybody should tell anybody [else] who they should love,” Tevyaw said. “I don’t know what’s ahead of me, but I’m willing to fight it.”

Marriage Equality Rhode Island, a group that works for same-sex marriage, issued a statement mourning Baker’s death.

“Rhode Island has lost a great champion for civil rights, and we have all lost a dear friend,” said Martha Holt, Marriage Equality Rhode Island Board chairwoman. “Pat Baker personified courage and demonstrated remarkable strength in her lifetime. Her gentle, determined voice became synonymous with the equality movement, and she demonstrated to all that love truly does make a family.”

Nashville TN –A gay activist group has taken credit for an elaborate online hoax attacking the Southern Baptist Convention for its opposition to gay marriage, calling the nation’s largest Protestant denomination “irresponsible and un-Christian.”

A group calling itself the Center for Responsible Christian Living created a phony website, a fake telephone number along with a press release that was sent to members of the national media.

The Nashville-based, pro-gay activists said they wanted their attack to coincide with New York’s legalization of same-sex marriage and the 42nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, long believed to be a turning point in the history of the gay rights movement.

“The SBC’s intolerant and even hateful stance toward homosexuals directly leads to violence nationwide, and is in direct opposition to the Good News as demonstrated by Jesus Christ,” the group wrote in a press release. They called their attack a “friendly prank.”

However, executives with the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee were not amused and they are looking into possible legal action against the attackers.

“It is a concern whenever anybody does anything that is false and gives a false impression to the public about who we are,” said Roger Oldham, vice president for communication and convention relations for the SBC Executive Committee.

The release falsely announced that the Southern Baptists had met in “extraordinary emergency session” to affirm gay rights and repent “of any past homophobia that not only hurt gay people but kept them ostracized from the church.”

The release included phony quotes and comments affirming homosexuality from real denominational leaders, including Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright.

SBC President Bryant Wright said he suspected the culprits were those in opposition to the denomination’s stance on homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

“We can’t apologize for teaching what Scripture says about sexual purity,” Wright said.

“That’s true for heterosexual sex or homosexual sex.” Wright denied charges from gay rights groups that the denomination’s opposition to homosexuality is hate speech. “When I preach on adultery, I’m sure there are people in the congregation that are involved in the sin of adultery, but I don’t hate them,” he said.

“I’m just teaching what the Bible says. When I talk to teenagers on premarital sex, I’m sure some of them are not abstaining, but I don’t hate them. I’m just sharing with them what God’s word says about sexual purity.

MIAMI BEACH, FL – South Beach gay activist Herb Sosa has called for end to South Beach’s Urban Weekend, calling the 10-year old hip-hop Memorial Day Weekend event a “war zone”. This year included an early Monday morning shooting leaving one person dead, four more wounded and three injured police officers, despite the heavier than normal police presence keeping an eye on the party-goers.

Many South Beach residents are known to take a short Memorial Day Weekend vacation to Fort Lauderdale to avoid the annual event.

In Sousa’s open letter to the Miami Beach City Commission, he wrote that the problem is the lack of respect the partiers have for the city. “There isn’t a residential street in South Beach not affected by tons of garbage, crime to our vehicles, excessive noise 24 hours a day, and simply a lack of respect for our community, citizens and property.”

Sousa is the former executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League and the Art Deco Weekend Festival.