November 19th in Queer History

Born this day

Clifton Webb (1889 –  1966), US. Actor,  Dancer, Singer

American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in film,and in the theatrical world for his appearances in the plays of Noël Coward.

Webb, who never married, lived with his mother until her death at age ninety-one in 1960. Actor Robert Wagner, who co-starred with Webb in the movies Stars and Stripes Forever and Titanic stated in his memoirs that "Clifton Webb was gay, of course, but he never made a pass at me, not that he would have."

Anton Walbrook (1896 –1967), Austrian. Actor
Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom, making a speciality of playing continental Europeans.


Nathan Leopold (1904 –  1971), US.  Murderer

Leopold and his partner Richard Loeb were highly educated young men from Chicago who saw themselves as Nietzchean supermen who were entitled to ignore the moral codes that bind lesser men. Beginning with minor delinquency, they embarked on a deliberate life of crime, leading up to the murder of a 14 year old boy, with the sole motive of committing the perfect crime.

Allegations that there was a sexual element in the boy's abduction and murder have not been proven, but their own relationship was sexual.

Morris Kight (1919 –  2003), US.  Labor and Gay Rights Activist.

Based in Los Angeles, Kight was active in many political, civil rights, and labor rights groups. He is considered one of the original founders of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States. A key figure in the West Coast fight to end discrimination against homosexuals, who founded the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, he led the 1970 demonstration outside Barney's Beanery, the well-known West Hollywood bar, which had a bar sign reading "Faggots Stay Out!"
In 2003 the City of Los Angeles dedicated the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and McCadden Place, in Hollywood, California as "Morris Kight Square."

Tom Villard (1953 –  1994), US.  Actor

American actor. He is best known for his leading role in the 1980s series We Got it Made as Jay Bostwick, as well as roles in feature films One Crazy Summer, Heartbreak Ridge, My Girl, and Popcorn.

Toward the end of his life, Tom Villard became one of the few actors in Hollywood in the early 1990s who chose to be open about his homosexuality, and the challenge of living with HIV and AIDS.

In February 1994 Villard made an unprecedented appearance on the CBS tabloid-style news show Entertainment Tonight, admitting to "...more than 13 million viewers that he was gay, that he had AIDS, and that he needed some help."

Timothy Conigrave ( 1959 – 1994), Australian.  Actor, Playwright, Activist

Australian actor, writer, and activist. His major work is the autobiographical Holding the Man (1995), the story of his 15-year love affair with John Caleo. They met at Xavier when John was captain of the football team and Tim wanted to be an actor. Conigrave finished the book shortly before dying of an AIDS-related illness.

Jodie Foster (1962 – ),  US. Actress, Director.

American actress, film director, and producer, the winner of two Acadamy Awards for best actress.

Foster is intensely private about certain aspects of her personal life, notably her sexual orientation, which has been the subject of speculation. However, in 1997 her brother Bud wrote a book titled Foster Child in which he stated "I have always assumed Jodie was gay or bisexual." In December 2007, Foster made headlines when, during an acceptance speech. she paid tribute to film producer Cydney Bernard,[58] referring to her as "my beautiful Cydney, who sticks with me through the rotten and the bliss." Some media interpreted this as Foster coming out.

Klaus Bondam (1963 – ), Danish.  Actor, Politician

Danish actor and politician. who got his breakthrough in the movie Festen and has starred in the series Langt fra Las Vegas as the sexually driven boss Buckingham. He stopped his acting career in 2003.

Died this day

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (1898 - 1958),  German / US.  Actor

Twardowski appeared in numerous films from the 1920's to 1944, first in Germany, later in Hollywood. Thereafter, he continued to write and direct for the stage.

He was homosexual, and left Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime.

Louise Fitzhugh (1928 - 1974), US.  Author, Illustrator

American author and illustrator of young adult and children's literature. Her work includes Harriet the Spy, its sequels The Long Secret and Sport, and Nobody's Family is Going to Change.

Sodomy laws in history, November 19

1925 — The Nebraska Supreme Court reverses the sodomy conviction of a man that was based solely on the deathbed declaration of a syphilis victim that he got syphilis from the defendant.

1959 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit votes 3-0 to order the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to furnish an attorney to a man charged with solicitation and appealing his conviction.

Source: Calendar of Sodomy, November