Thursday, 23 February 2012

February 23rd in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – The Colorado House approves a domestic partner benefits bill that would make it easier for unmarried couples (including LGBT) to make medical decisions for incapacitated partners and leave property to their partners [or 24th February 2009]

Born this day

Robin Wood  (1931 –  2009) UK / Canadian

Canada-based film critic and educator.
In September 1974, Wood and his wife divorced. Around this time, he also had a relationship with John Anderson, the dedicatee in at least one of Wood's books. Later he was to meet Richard Lippe, with whom he lived from 1977 until his death in 2009.
After his coming out as a gay man, Wood's writings became more political, primarily from a stance associated with Marxist and Freudian thinking, and with gay rights.


Sugar Lee Hooper (1948 – 2010) Dutch
Stage name of Marja van der Toorn, a Dutch singer and television personality, known for her forthright presentation, shaven head and brightly colored dresses. In 1988, she formed a registered partnership with Andrea van der Kaap. In 2001,the pair converted the partnership into full marriage under the new Dutch law - the first Dutch entertainer to do so.

Glen Maxey  (1952 – )  US
Politician from Austin, Texas, who was the first openly gay member of the Texas Legislature.


Mary Glasspool  (1954 –  ) US
Suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. She is the first open lesbian to be consecrated a bishop in the Anglican Communion.

Michael Hardwick (1954 –  1991) US
Barman / Activist

Karin Wolff  (1959 – )  German
Politician and vice-president of the German state of Hesse, for the conservative Christian Democratic Union. Her academic training and early professional career was in history and evangelical theology, and she remains active in religion. She is a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN), and of the Board of Education of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
In July 2007 she came out publicly, and lives in an openly lesbian relationship in Darmstadt.



Olivier Ducastel  (1962 – )  French
Film director, screenwriter and sound editor who currently works in collaboration with his professional and personal partner Jacques Martineau.

Vaginal Davis  (1969 – )  US
Genderqueer performing artist, painter, independent curator, composer, and writer. Davis's name is a homage to activist Angela Davis.


Michael Ausiello  (1972 – )  US
Television industry journalist and actor.

Died this day

William Bonin (1947  - 1996 ) US
Serial killer and a twice-paroled sex offender, also known as the Freeway Killer, a nickname he shares with two other serial killers. Between 1979 and 1980, Bonin tortured, raped and killed a minimum of 21 boys and young men, and is suspected of committing a further fifteen murders. Bonin was convicted and eventually executed in 1996 for 14 of these murders.


Tuulikki Pietila  (1917 - 2009) Finnish
Graphic artist and professor, one of the most influential people in Finnish graphic arts, whose work has been shown in numerous art exhibitions.


Scott Symons (1933 -2009)  Canadian
Author, who wrote two novels with homoerotic themes before leaving Canada to live in Morocco.
He was openly gay at a time when this was very difficult, publishing his first novel, Place d'Armes, which dealt directly with homosexuality, two years before gay sex was decriminalized in Canada.

Sodomy in history, February 23rd

1921 — The Washington Supreme Court denies the right of defendants in sodomy cases to challenge the morality of the prosecuting witness.

1966 — The Maine Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law, but overturns the conviction of an openly Gay man because of prejudicial remarks of the prosecutor.

1966 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction even though a witness not connected to the case was permitted to testify.

1983 — The New York Court of Appeals strikes down the state’s loitering law in a case brought by a Gay man.

1989 — A Michigan appellate court overturns a gross indecency charge against a man for fondling an undercover police officer’s clothed crotch area and refuses to follow case law in the state by limiting the scope of the law to nonconsensual acts.


Sources:

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