March 26th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – Lawmakers in Serbia give final approval to ban discrimination whether based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or other factors
2009 – New Hampshire House votes for same-sex marriage (after first voting against it) (USA)

Born this day

A. E. Housman (1859 –  1936) UK Poet

Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983), US

Writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater, but also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs. Williams won a Tony Award for best play for The Rose Tattoo (1951) and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). He is today acknowledged as one of the most accomplished playwrights in the history of English speaking theater.

After some early attempts at heterosexual relationships, by the late 1930s Williams had accepted his homosexuality. However, he wrote directly about homosexuality only in his short stories, his poetry, and his late plays.

Billy Lyall    (  ?? - 1953) UK

A keyboard player and vocalist with Pilot, and an early member of the Bay City Rollers. He also contributed to The Alan Parsons Project with fellow Pilot members, and released a solo album, Solo Casting in 1976.

Lyall died of AIDS-related causes in 1989, aged 36.

1936 – James L White – US Poet / Editor / Teacher – Died ?? July 1981

Dorothy Porter (1954 - 2008 ) Australian

Poet / Librettist / Author

Leigh Bowery (1961 - 1994) Australian
Performance artist, club promoter, actor, pop star, model and fashion designer, based in London.


Paul de Leeuw  (1962 – ) Dutch
Comedian / Actor / Singer / Presenter

Bonnie Curtis  (1966 – )  US
Producer

Rennae Stubbs  (1971 – ) Australian
Tennis

T. R. Knight  (1973 – ) US
Actor

Daniel Boys  (1979 – ) UK
Actor / Singer / Reality TV

Jonathan Groff  (1985 – ) US
Actor / Singer / Songwriter

Died this day

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892 )  US
Poet / Author / Journalist

Cecil Rhodes  (1853 - 1902 ) South African
Politician

Sarah Bernhardt (1844 - 1923) Dutch / French
Stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah".

Sir Noel Coward (1899 –  1973) UK 

Playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".

Coward was knighted in 1969 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The Noël Coward Theatre in St Martin's Lane, originally opened in 1903 as the New Theatre and later called the Albery, was renamed in his honour.

Coward was homosexual but, following the convention of his times, this was never publicly mentioned. Coward firmly believed his private business was not for public discussion, considering "any sexual activities when over-advertised" to be tasteless.[104] Even in the 1960s, Coward refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly, wryly observing, "There are still a few old ladies in Worthing who don't know."

Beauford Delaney (1901 – 1979) US  

Modernist painter. In Greenwich Village, where his studio was, Delaney became part of a gay bohemian circle of mainly white friends; but he was furtive and rarely comfortable with his sexuality.

Anthony Blunt  (1907 - 1983)  UK
Spy / Historian / Professor

Halston  (1932 - 1990)  US
Fashion Designer 

Anselmo Feleppa  (1956 - 1993)  Brazilian
Fashion Designer

Marshall Herff Applewhite  (1931 - 1997) US
Cult Leader

Sodomy in history, March

1796 — New York reduces the penalty for sodomy from death to ten years in prison.

1892 — Iowa outlaws sodomy, leaving it legal only in the District of Columbia. The law states that it will become effective upon publication in the two Des Moines newspapers, giving the papers a veto power over the law if they fail to print it. Both print it without delay.

1926 — The Puerto Rico Supreme Court rules that the "crime against nature" does not have to be only between persons of the same sex.

1991 — Montana enacts a law stating that a person’s seeking treatment for HIV-related disease can not have that fact used as a basis for initiating a sodomy conviction.

Sources:

Wikipedia

glbtq emcyclopedia

On this gay day

Calendar of Sodomy, March