Queers in History

Saturday, 30 March 2013

March 30th in Queer History

Born this day

Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)French

Poet associated with the Symbolist movement, and considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.

In 1872 he left his wife for what became a stormy relationship with Arthur Rimbaud.

Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946 ) US
Poet

Leen Jongewaard  (1927 –  1996)  Dutch
Actor / Singer / Comedian

Jean-Claude Brialy  (1933 –   2007) French
Actor / Director

Gerrit Komrij  (1944 – ) Dutch
Author / Poet / Playwright / Critic

Cydney Bernard  (1953 – )  US
Producer

Tracy Chapman  (1964 – ) US
Singer / Songwriter / Musician

Richard Bluestein  (1967 – )  US
Entertainer

Gerald McCullouch  (1967 – )  US
Actor / Singer / Screenwriter / Director / Boxer

Died this day

Gaetan Dugas (1953 – 1984 ) Canadian
Flight Attendant [Alleged to be Patient Zero in the AIDS epidemic]

Arnie Zane (1988 – 1947) US
Photographer / Dancer / Choreographer

Nick Enright (1950 – 2003) Australian

Playwright / Author

Michael Jeter (1952 - 2003) US
Actor – Born 26th August

Rupesh Mandal (? - 2006) Nepalese Hate Crime Victim

Sodomy in history, March 30th

1867 — Alaska is purchased from Russia. All Russian law had been abrogated there five years earlier, and Congress passes no criminal code for it, meaning that sodomy is legal.

1911 — Missouri amends its sodomy law to include oral sex.

1922 — The Michigan Supreme Court rules that indictments under the "gross indecency" law do not have to be specific.

1961 — The New York Court of Appeals rules that the state’s sodomy law applies only to the partner who is "active" in fucking. This decision is overturned by legislation.

1964 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds that state’s sodomy law against a vagueness challenge.

1966 — The Oregon Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of two lovers, one of whom has cross-dressed.

Sources:

Friday, 29 March 2013

March 29th in Queer History

Born this day

Cardinal Carlo Carafa  (1517 - 1561),
Catholic cardinal, who was appointed by his uncle, Paul IV, who protected him from assorted accusations of  avarice, cruelty and licentiousness, as well as for sodomy. In January 1559, Paul IV finally accepted the accuracy of the accusations made and exiled Carlo from Rome.
After thedeath of Paul IV he was imprisoned and judged by the new pope, Pius IV , for a lengthy series of crimes ranging from homicide to heresy, which also included sodomy, for which. Carlo was condemned and executed.

Dora Carrington (1893 - 1932) UK
Dora de Houghton Carrington, known generally as simply "Carrington", was a British painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey. Distinguished by her cropped pageboy hair style (before it was fashionable) and somewhat androgynous appearance, she was troubled by her sexuality; she is known to have had at least one lesbian affair (with Henrietta Bingham). She also had a significant relationship with the writer Gerald Brenan.

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett  (1936 – )  UK
Composer

John Laird  (1950 – ) US
Politician / Activist

Victor Salva  (1958 – )  US
Director

Paddy Chew  (1960 –1999 ) Singaporean
Choreographer / Actor / Activist

Matt McCoy  (1966 – )  US
Politician

Thomas Bickman [aka Tomboy]  (1975 – )  Danish
Reality TV [Big Brother] / Presenter / Singer

Jay Brannan  (1982 – ) US
Actor / Singer / Songwriter

Died this day

Karl Meier (1897 - 1974 ) Swiss

Entertainer / Director / Editor

Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers, The Singing Nun (1933 - 1985) Belgian
Nun / Singer

Antony Hamilton (1952 -1995) Australian
Actor / Model / Dancer – Born 4th May

Hollis Sigler (1948 – 2001), US
Chicago-based openly lesbian artist whose paintings addressed her life with breast cancer.

Sodomy in history, March

1951 — Arizona raises the penalty for sodomy from 1-5 years to 5-20 years.

1962 — Kentucky outlaws "indecent conduct" with a person over 15, which probably covers oral sex.

1967 — Nevada lowers its penalty for the "crime against nature" from 1 year-life to 1-6 years.

1979 — A California appellate court upholds the right of the state to prosecute consensual sexual relations of prisoners even though non-prisoners have the right to consensual sex.

1995 — Pennsylvania repeals its court-voided sodomy law 15 years after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck it down.

Sources:

Thursday, 28 March 2013

March 28th in Queer History

Born this day

Sir Dirk Bogarde (1921 – 1999), UK
Actor

Jane Rule (1931 - 2007 ) Canadian.

Writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. She claimed she was a tomboy growing up and felt like an outsider for reaching six feet tall and being dyslexic. When she was 15 she read The Well of Loneliness and wrote later, "suddenly discovered that I was a freak."

In 1964, Rule published "Desert of the Heart", which featured two women who fall in love with each other and caused Rule to receive a flood of letters from "very unhappy, even desperate" women who felt they were alone and would be miserable. The novel caused her to be sought out by Canadian media, and Rule later wrote, "I became, for the media, the only lesbian in Canada. A role I gradually and very reluctantly accepted and used to educate people as I could."

The book was later made into a movie by Donna Deitch, released as "Desert Hearts" , which quickly became a lesbian classic. The Globe and Mail said of it, "the film is one of the first and most highly regarded works in which a lesbian relationship is depicted favourably."

James Bidgood  (1933 – ) US
Artist / Photographer

James E West  (1951 –  2006) US
Army / Politician

Alexandra Billings  (1962 – )  US
Actress

Faith Soloway  (1964 – )  US
Singer / Songwriter / Musician / Comedian

Scott Mills  (1974 – ) UK
Presenter

Angelo Garcia  (1976 – ) US
Singer / Songwriter

Lady Gaga (1986 – ) US
Singer / Songwriter / Musician

Died this day

Katharine Lee Bates  (1859 - 1929)  US
Author

Karol Szymanowski  (1882 - 1937)  Polish
Composer / Pianist

Virginia Woolf  (1882 - 1941) UK
Author

Sodomy in history, March

1954 — The Sydney Morning Herald editorializes in favor of decriminalization of sodomy in Australia.

1960 — A New Jersey appellate court upholds the conviction of an attorney (and McCarthy backer) for engaging in fellatio with numerous teenage males.

1972 — The Michigan Court of Appeals again rejects the contention that heterosexuals are exempt from the "crime against nature."

1973 — North Dakota, in passing a new criminal code, becomes the eighth state to repeal its sodomy law.

1973 — The North Carolina Court of Appeals upholds the "crime against nature" law against a vagueness challenge.

1977 — Arkansas reinstates its sodomy law as a misdemeanor and applicable only to people of the same sex. Although the vote is overwhelming (66-2 in the House and 25-0 in the Senate), one-third of the 100-member House and 35-member Senate fail to vote.

Sources:

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

March 27th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – Japan acknowledges its nationals same-sex marriages to foreigners from countries or states where same-sex marriages are legal
2010 – First ever Exeter Pride, Devon, UK

Born this day

Denton Welch (1915 - 1948 ) UK

English-American writer and painter, admired for his vivid prose and precise descriptions.

Frank O’Hara  (1926 – )  US
Poet

Maria Schneider (1952 – 2011)French
Actress, best known for playing Jeanne, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.

Reed Gusciora  (1960 – ) US
Politician

Johannes Kerkorrel  (1960 – 2002) South African
Born Ralph John Rabie, Kerkorrel was a South African singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright who worked as a journalist on the Afrikaans-language, government supporting weekly newspaper Rapport. Later, he performed politically-themed cabaret, then became a full-time musician and performer under the name Johannes Kerkorrel ("John Church Organ"), and exposed divergent political views to a new generation of Afrikaners.

Renato Russo (1960 – 1996)Brazilian
Singer and songwriter, who aged 18 outed himself as bisexual to his mother, and in 1988 he made it public by writing the song "Meninos e Meninas" ("Boys n' Girls") with the chorus stating, in English, "I like St. Paulo, I like St. João, I like St. Francisco and St. Sebastião, and I like boys and girls."
His death in 1996 was due to complications caused by AIDS

Dave Koz  (1963 – )  US
Musician / Presenter

Stacy Ann Ferguson [Fergie] (1975 – )  US
Singer / Songwriter / Rapper / Model / Actress

Sanne van Kerkhof  (1987 – ) Dutch
Speed Skater

Died this day

James I   (1566 - 1625)  English
Monarch

Gordon Merrick  (1916 -1988 )  US
Actor / Author

Ed Savitz   (1942 - 1993)  US
Businessman

Sodomy in history, March

1874 — Illinois reduces the penalty for sodomy from life to a maximum of 10 years in prison.

1958 — A New York court decides that loitering for sodomy is legal if there is no attempt to breach the peace.

1959 — A California appellate court upholds the revocation of the license of a Turkish bath for allowing sex on the premises. The Court ridicules the defense of privacy and says that morality is more important.

1972 — Idaho reenacts its entire pre-1971 criminal code, reinstating common-law crimes and the sodomy law with a penalty of up to life imprisonment.

1976 — Wisconsin repeals its law prohibiting the publicizing of the names of victims of sexual crimes, including sodomy.

Sources:

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

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:

Monday, 25 March 2013

March 25th in Queer History

Born this day

Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow, (1479 - 1533)
Prince and military general. Vasily was homosexual throughout his life. He went to the extent of announcing this fact to other gay men of his time by shaving off his beard when his twenty-year marriage to his first wife was terminated--being beardless was a sort of gay password at the time.

During Vasily's second marriage, he was able to perform his conjugal duties only when an officer of his guard joined him and his wife in bed in the nude

Tobias Schneebaum (1922 – 2005) US
Artist, anthropologist, and AIDS activist. He is best known for his experiences living, and traveling among the Harakmbut people of Peru, and the Asmat people of Papua, Western New Guinea

Cecil Taylor (1929 – ) US
Pianist and poet.Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz.

Bernard King (1934 - 2002 ) Australian

Stage actor, celebrity chef, and television personality.

Elton John  (1947 – ) UK
Singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor.With his civil partner David Furnish he is well a known champion for LGBT social movements.

Susie Bright  (1958 – )  US
Author / Presenter / Activist

John Maybury  (1958 – )  UK
Director / Screenwriter

Thom Bierdz  (1962 – ) US
Actor / Author / Painter

Sheryl Swoopes (1971 – ) US
Professional basketball player with the Houston Comets in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is called "the female Michael Jordan."

Ramon te Wake  (1976 – ) New Zealand
Presenter / Singer / Songwriter

Daniel Vosovic  (1981 – ) US
Reality TV [Project: Runway] / Fashion Designer

Andrew Goldstein  (1983 – ) US
Lacrosse

Died this day

Roland Barthes ( 1915 – 1980 ) French.

Literary Critic, Philosopher

Robert Joffrey (1928/30 – 1988) US
Dancer, teacher, producer and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets for his company, the Joffrey Ballet. Joffrey died on March 25, 1988 of AIDS at the age of 57. In 2000, Joffrey was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame.

Joop Admiraal (1937 - 2006) Dutch
Actor

Sodomy in history, March 25th

1734 — A Georgia man receives 300 lashes for sodomy in a religious colony. No law authorizes the penalty.

1938 — A California appellate court overturns a sodomy conviction based on hearsay evidence. The "evidence" was merely that the defendant owned a Turkish bath where sodomy was presumed to take place.

1940 — The Indiana Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after the trial judge refused to allow all of the defendant’s character witnesses to testify.

1953 — The Oklahoma Court of Appeals rules that the state’s lewdness law covers same-sex activity.

1963 — New Mexico passes a new criminal code, but does not repeal its sodomy law. The sentence is set at 2-10 years and/or $5,000.

1993 — Idaho enacts a sex offender registration law that includes consensual sodomy.

Sources:

Sunday, 24 March 2013

March 24th in Queer History

Born this day

Kenneth Nelson (1930 – 1993) US
Actor,who appeared in several television series in the late 1940s, Captain Video and His Video Rangers and The Aldrich Family among them. In 1968, Nelson accepted the lead in the controversial and groundbreaking off-Broadway production of The Boys in the Band, the first play to explore the milieu of gay life in New York City in a graphically frank manner. He and the rest of the cast went on to appear in the 1970 film version directed by William Friedkin.

Lanford Wilson (1937 – 2011) US
Playwright

Margarethe Cammermeyer  (1942 – ) Norwegian / US
Colonel Cammermeyer had a long, distinguished and impeccable nursing career as a National Guard officer and Vietnam veteran, who earned the Bronze Star for her US military service as well as several citations.
During an interview for a security clearance in 1989, she honestly acknowledged that she is a lesbian. Greta was fired in 1992, with a dishonorable discharge from the armed forces, becoming the highest ranking officer in the US military to contest its anti-gay policies.

Jose Perez Ocana  (1947 – 1983) Spanish
Spanish anarchist, LGBT activist, drag artist and painter José Ángel Pérez Ocaña was a fixture of the counter-cultural scene in Barcelona in the 1970s. He was the subject of a milestone film in Spanish cinema, Ocaña, retrat intermitent, by gay director Ventura Pons.

Andrea Goldsmith  (1950 – ) Australian
Writer and novelist.
Goldsmith lived with her partner, the poet Dorothy Porter, in Melbourne's inner suburbs until Porter's death in 2008.

Grayson Perry  (1960 – ) UK
Ceramic Artist

Ivo Chundro  (1976 – )  Dutch
Singer, dancer and actor in musicals.

Died this day

Bob Mellors (1950 - 1996) UK
British gay rights activist, associated with the Gay Liberation Front. In 1994 he moved to Warsaw, where in 1996 he was stabbed to death in a burglary at his flat.

Dominic Agostino (1959 - 2004) Canadian
Politician who represented the riding of Hamilton East for the Liberal Party in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Sodomy in history, March 24th

1882 — West Virginia passes a law to raise the penalties for various consensual sexual activities, claiming that the penalties are not severe enough to deter immorality. Sodomy is one of the few crimes for which the penalty is not changed.

1911 — California forbids the conviction of any person based on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, a law that benefits Gay men and Lesbians prosecuted for private, consensual sodomy.

1939 — Georgia bans probation for sodomy.

1953 — A California appellate court upholds a conviction for assault to commit oral copulation. A hitchhiker was picked up and solicited, but he refused and was let out of the car.

1989 — Montana enacts a sex offender registration law that covers consensual sodomy and gives a judge the power to limit the employment opportunities of those subject to the law

Sources:

Saturday, 23 March 2013

March 23rd in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – Vermont Senate passes a bill legalising same-sex marriages (USA)

Born this day

J. C. Leyendecker  (1874 –  1951) German / US
Illustrator

George Hopkins (1896 - 1985 ) US
Set Designer

Jimmy Edwards  (1920 – 1988)  UK
Actor / Scriptwriter / Musician

Diane Sands  (1947 – ) US
Politician

Bruce Bastion  (1948 – )  US
Computer Programmer / Businessman / Activist

Jac Goderic  (1951 – ) Dutch
Presenter / Columnist

Steven Saylor  (1956 – )  US
Author

Pekka Haavisto  (1958 – )  Finnish
Politician

Terry Sweeney  (1960 – )  US
Actor / Comedian / Screenwriter

George Weber  (1961 – ) US
Presenter / Murder Victim – Died 20th March 2009

Marc Cherry  (1962 – ) US
Producer / Screenwriter

Mitch Cullin  (1968 – ) US
Author

Erki Pehk  (1968 – ) Estonian
Conductor

Perez Hilton   (1978 – )  US Blogger / Cultural Commentator

Died this day

Julius III   (1487 - 1555)  Italian
Pope

Cristobal Balenciaga  (1895 - 1972) Spanish
Fashion Designer

Shaun McGill    (1961 - 1992)  Canadian
Figure Skater

Benno Premsela (1920 – 1997) Dutch
Interior designer, who was a pioneer activist in the cause of gay emancipation. He was one of the first people in the Netherlands to come out publicly, and as early as 1947 was speaking out for equality. In 1964 he was the first homosexual to appear on Dutch television without having his features distorted. From 1962 to 1971 he chaired the gay rights group COC, and in 1995 he was given the prestigious Silver Carnation award, for his contribution to both arts administration and gay emancipation.

Eloy de la Iglesia (1944 – 2006) Spanish

Director

Shaun Fitzpatrick (? - 2008) UK
Hate Crime Victim

Sodomy in history, March

1653 — In New Haven Colony, six teenage males are sentenced to be flogged for "wickedness in a filthy corrupting way with one another."

1661 — Virginia adopts all English laws explicitly, thus making sodomy clearly illegal.

1819 — Illinois enacts its own sodomy law, providing for a fine and imprisonment, and retaining the flogging provision it had received from Indiana.

1921 — The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that emission is not necessary for the completion of an act of sodomy.

1927 — A California appellate court upholds the constitutionality of the 1921 law banning oral sex.

1951 — Nevada establishes a minimum penalty for the crime against nature of one year, but retains the maximum of life imprisonment.

1953 — The Arizona Supreme Court rules that fellatio can not be prosecuted under the crime against nature law, but must be prosecuted under the unnatural and lascivious acts law.

1964 — The Colorado Supreme Court rules that sodomy convictions can be based on the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice.

1995 — The Montana Senate votes 50-0 to delete a provision from a sex offender registration bill for consensual sodomy to be included, after overwhelming public opposition. Sponsor Senator Al Bishop (R-Billings) calls consensual homosexual activity worse than rape.

Sources:

Friday, 22 March 2013

March 22nd in Queer History

Born this day

Wilfrid Brambell (1912 - 1985) UK

Actor

Stephen Sondheim (1930 – ) US
Composer

Robert Chesley (1943 - 1990 ) US.

Playwright / Composer / Theatre Critic / Teacher

Ilana Kloss  (1956 – )   South African
Tennis

Antonia San Juan  (1961 – )  Spanish
Actress / Director / Screenwriter

Meghan Chevalier  (1969 – ) US
Actress / Author / Singer

Guillermo Diaz  (1971 – ) US
Actor

Died this day

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687) French

Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style.

He was known to be a libertine. Although his life is full of meteoric heights, his love affairs with men and women also brought him down in scandal several times at the great displeasure of Louis XIV.

Dan Hartman (1994 - 1950 ) US

American singer, songwriter and record producer, who died of an AIDS-related brain tumor three and a half months past his 43rd birthday .

Ian Stephens (?? - 1996) Canadian
Poet / Journalist / Musician – Born

Sodomy in history, March

1909 — Washington passes a new criminal code and broadens its sodomy law to cover oral sex, prohibits newspaper description of crimes of sodomy, and repeals its slander law cover accusations of sodomy.

1929 — Nebraska outlaws assault to commit sodomy, with a penalty of 2-15 years.

Sources:

Thursday, 21 March 2013

March 21st in Queer History

Born this day

Frank Sargeson (1903 - 1982) New Zealand
Author

Ruth Anderson  (1928 – )  US
Composer / Flautist

James Coco (1930 - 1987), US
Character actor, who won awards for his work on Broadway, television and film

Hubert Fichte (1935 - 1986) German
Novelist, who died of AIDS-related illness in 1986.

Gaye Adegbalola  (1944 –)   US
Singer / Musician / Photographer

Zackie Achmat  (1962 – ) South African
HIV?AIDS Activist / Author / Director

Rosie O’Donnell  (1962 – ) US
Actress / Presenter

Perry Dossett  (1966 – )  Dutch
Singer / Dancer / Choreographer

Jaye Davidson  (1968 – ) UK / US
Actor

Died this day

Lilyan Tashman (1896 - 1934) US

Actress

Newton Arvin (1900 - 1963) US
Author

Candy Darling (1944 – 1974) US. Actress

American actress, best known as a Warhol Superstar. A MTF transsexual, she starred in Andy Warhol's films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and was a muse of the protopunk band The Velvet Underground.

Born James Lawrence Slattery in Queens, NY, she changed her name to Hope Slattery in 1963/1964 after she started going to gay bars in Manhattan and making visits to a doctor on Fifth Avenue for hormone injections. Later, she changed her name again, eventually settling on Candy Darling. After appearing in Warhol's films, she appeared in further independent films, and on stage.

Michael Redgrave (1908 – 1985) UK
Actor / Author / Director

Dack Rambo (1941 – 1994), US.

Actor

Melissa “Mo” Green ( ? - 2006) US
Murder Victim – Born

Sodomy in history, March 21st

1801 — New York raises the maximum penalty for sodomy from 10 years to life imprisonment.

1804 — The Code Napoléon is introduced in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Monaco, maintaining the "hands-off" attitude of the government toward private, consensual sexual relations.

1806 — Pennsylvania denies bail to accused sodomites.

1893 — English Member of Parliament Edward Cobain is convicted of gross indecency and is sentenced to 12 months at hard labor.

1969 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds the trial without a jury of solicitation to commit fellatio.

Sources:

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

March 20th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – Adoption by same-sex couples legalised in Denmark

Born this day

Edmund Goulding (1891 - 1959) US

Film writer and director.

Eyre de Lanux  (1894 –  1996)  US
Author / Artist

Michael Redgrave  (1908 –  1985) UK
Actor / Author / Director

Sviatoslav Richter  (1915 –  1997) Soviet
Pianist

Ernst van Heerden   (1916 – 1997)  South African
Poet

Anthony Blond   (1928 - 2008) UK
British publisher and author. Blond, who was openly bisexual, was twice married, and also had a long relationship with Andrew McCall.

Coos Huijsen  (1939 – ) Dutch
Politician

Jaime Chavarri  (1943 – ) Spanish
Actor / Director / Screenwriter

John Boswell (1947 - 1994 ) US

Prominent historian and a professor at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of homosexuality and religion, specifically homosexuality and Christianity.

Sue Sanders  (1947 – )  UK
Activist / Teacher

Paula Aboud  (1950 – ) US
Politician

Alexandra Potvin (1966 – )  Belgian
Presenter

Cathy DeBuono  (1970 – ) US
Actress

Declan Bennett  (1981 – )  UK
Singer

Ruby Rose  (1986 – )  Australian
Model / Presenter

Xavier Dolan (1989 – ) Canadian
Actor / Director

Died this day

Lord Alfred Douglas (1870 - 1945) UK Author / Poet / Translator

British writer and poet and lover of Oscar Wilde. Bosie, as he was known to his friends, married Olive Cunstance in 1902 and they had a son, Raymond, that same year. The 1997 film 'Wilde' tells the story about his relationship with Oscar Wilde.

Brendan Behan (1923 – 1964) Irish
Poet / Author / Playwright

Agustin Gomez-Arcos (1939 – 1998) Spanish

Author

George Weber (1961 - 2009) US
Presenter / Murder Victim

Sodomy in history, March

1835 — Missouri outlaws consensual sodomy by statute, with a penalty of not less than 10 years and no maximum stated.

1858 — Tennessee adopts a new criminal code and changes the wording of its sodomy law, but leaves the penalty as 5-15 years.

1905 — Delaware eliminates the pillory as a punishment for crime. Since 1852, those convicted of sodomy have been required to stand in the pillory for one hour prior to imprisonment.

1924 — Virginia, responding to the Virginia Supreme Court decision of the preceding year, amends its oral sex provision of the sodomy law to include people of the opposite sex as well.

1957 — The Illinois Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of an optometrist with a male patient after very conflicting witness testimony.

1979 — The North Carolina Court of Appeals rules that the "crime against nature" law applies to heterosexuals.

Sources:

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

March 19th in Queer History

Born this day

Jackie “Moms” Mabley   (1894 –  1975) US
Comedian

Randy Steven Kraft (1945 – )  US
Serial Killer

Ricky Wilson   (1953 –  1985) US
Musician / Singer

Diane Anderson-Minshall  (1968 – ) US
Journalist

Died this day

Arthur C Clarke (1917 – 2008) UK

Science fiction author, inventor,and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them "2001: A Space Odyssey", and as a host and commentator in the British television series ""Mysterious World". For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.

Sodomy in history, March

1860 — Virginia’s new sodomy law eliminates death for slaves, equalizing the penalty for all persons.

1895 — North Dakota becomes the eighth state to amend its sodomy law explicitly to cover oral sex.

1925 — The Virginia Supreme Court reverses the sodomy conviction of a man who had been found drunk in bed with his head on another man’s stomach and with the other man’s penis in his hand.

1929 — The Florida Supreme Court rules that emission is not needed to complete sodomy.

1973 — The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law can not be enforced against married couples, even though the statute does not exempt them.

1981 — A Massachusetts appellate court dismisses a newspaper’s suit to allow reporters to witness restroom arrests.

Sources:

Monday, 18 March 2013

March 18th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

Born this day

LGBT people born 18th March:
1790 – Marquis de Custine – French Author – Died 18th October 1857
1893 – Wilfred Owen – UK Poet / Soldier – Died 4th November 1918
1910 – Pepi Lederer – US Actress / Author – Died 11th June 1935
1927 – John Kander – US Composer / Songwriter
1928 – Charlotte von Mahlsdorf – German Museum Founder – Died 30th April 2002
1931 – John Fraser – UK Actor
1939 – Michael Kirby – Australian Judge
1943 – Jaime Chavarri – Spanish Actor / Director / Screenwriter [or 20th March 1943]
1951 – Tret Fure – US Singer / Songwriter
1961 – Grant Hart – US Musician
1966 – Anne Will – German Presenter
1973 – Patrick Harvie – UK Politician
1974 – Kent Larson – US Porn [or 19th March 1974]
1979 – Brandon Lee – US Navy / Composer / Actor / Porn / Hate Crime Victim
1983 – Corbin Michaels – US Porn
1987 – Gari McDonald – Bahaman Beauty Queen / Model
And those who died:
1980 – Tamara de Lempicka – Polish Artist – Born 16th May 1898
2003 – Karl Gorath – German Imprisoned for homosexuality – Born 12thDecember 1912
2008 – Hazel Barnes – US Philosopher / Author – Born 16th December 1915

Died this day

Sodomy in history, March 18th

1796 — New Jersey passes its first sodomy law in nearly a century and eliminates the death penalty. The maximum sentence is set at 21 years at solitary and hard labor. The law still applies only to males.

1916 — Virginia outlaws oral sex between persons of the same sex only, while retaining anal sex as a crime between persons regardless of sex.

1941 — A California appellate court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man. The corroborative evidence was a tube of vaseline "similar" to the one his partner claimed was used.

1964 — Georgia allows the reduction of felony sentences for sodomy to a misdemeanor.

1971 — Idaho adopts a new criminal code, repealing its sodomy law and abrogating common-law crimes. The repeal doesn’t last long due to religious opposition.

1994 — A Florida appellate court overturns a sex conviction for acts in closed restroom stalls, finding a right to privacy therein.

Sources:

Sunday, 17 March 2013

March 17th in Queer History

Born this day

Alice Austen (1866 – 1952), US
Photographer

Bayard Rustin (1912 – 1987) US
Activist

Rudolf Nureyev (1938 - 1993) Russian

Dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.

Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn became longstanding dance partners and continued to dance together for many years after Nureyev's departure from the Royal Ballet.

Nureyev met Erik Bruhn, the celebrated Danish dancer, after Nureyev defected to the West in 1961. Nureyev was a great admirer of Bruhn,, although stylistically the two dancers were very different. Bruhn and Nureyev became a couple and the two remained together for 25 years, until Bruhn's death in 1986

John Wayne Gacy  (1942 –  1994)  US
Serial Killer

Richard Kwietniowski  (1957 – )  UK
Director

Alexander Bard  (1961 – )  Swedish
Musician / Artist / Music Producer / Philosopher

Jeremy Sheffield  (1966 – ) UK
Actor / Dancer

Chris Steele  (1966 – )  US
Porn / Director / Producer

Finnegan the Poet  (1969 – )  US
Poet / Author / Performance Artist

Alexander McQueen (1969 - 2010 ) UK
Fashion Designer

Stephen Gately  (1976 –  2009)  Irish
Singer / Actor / Presenter

Saint's day

Saint Patrick of Ireland

Died this day

Luchino Visconti (1906 – 1976) Italian

Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is notably known for his films The Leopard (1963) and Death in Venice (1971).

Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality. His last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in Visconti's film The Damned. Berger also appeared in Visconti's Ludwig in 1972 and Conversation Piece in 1974 along with Burt Lancaster. Other lovers included Franco Zeffirelli, who also worked as part of the crew (i.e. production design, assistant director, etc.) in a number of Visconti's films and theatrical productions.

Ronnie Kray (1933 - 1995), UK
Criminal – Born 24th October
Ronald "Ronnie" Kray and his twin brother Reginald "Reggie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s. Ronald, commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, most likely suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, violent assaults including torture and the murders of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and George Cornell. As West End nightclub owners, they mixed with prominent entertainers including Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and politicians. The Krays were highly feared within their social environment, and in the 1960s they became celebrities in their own right, being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television.

Perry Watkins  (1948 - 1996)  US
Soldier / Activist

Jermaine Stewart (1957 - 1997)  US
Singer / Songwriter / Dancer

Phool Chand Yadav  (?? - 2005) Indian
Murder Victim

Clodovil Hernandes (1937 - 2009 ) Brazilian
Fashion Designer / Politician / Presenter / Actor / Singer

Sodomy in history, March 17th

1921 — In the Virgin Islands, the communities of St. Thomas and St. John pass a sodomy law with a penalty of up to 10 years, thus going off the Danish law.

Sources:

Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights Activist (1910 -1987)

b. March 17, 1910
d. August 24, 1987

Bayard Rustin was the chief organizer for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington. Rustin's expertise in nonviolent direct action assisted King in shaping the African-American Civil Rights movement.

"We are all one. And if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way."

Bayard Rustin was raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania by Quaker grandparents who espoused pacifism. Rustin moved to Harlem in the 1930's, the time of the Harlem Renaissance. He paid his New York City College tuition by singing with folk artist Josh White and became an organizer for the Young Communist League in their work against racial segregation.

Rustin's refusal to register for the draft in World War II resulted in his serving three years in a federal penitentiary. Although he was arrested 23 times for nonviolent protest, he never lost his conviction that equality should be pursued through nonviolent means.

In the 1940's and 1950's, Rustin organized nonviolent groups that became the foundation of the African-American Civil Rights movement, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1947, he coordinated the Journey of Reconciliation, an event that became the model for the Freedom Rides of the 1960's. In 1955, Rustin was instrumental in organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

As an expert in Gandhian nonviolent tactics, Bayard Rustin fostered nonviolence in the African-American civil rights movement. When Rustin arrived in Montgomery to assist with the bus boycott, there were guns inside Martin Luther King, Jr.'s house and armed guards posted at his doors. Rustin persuaded King and the other boycott leaders to commit the movement to complete nonviolence.

A superb strategist, Bayard Rustin experienced prejudice because of his sexual orientation and his controversial political positions. He was often relegated to a behind-the-scenes role.

Shortly before he died 1987, Rustin said at a gay rights rally: "Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, [or] lesbian."

Bibliography:

Selected works by Bayard Rustin:

Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin. Cleis Press, 2003.

Saturday, 16 March 2013

March 16th in Queer History

Born this day

Rosa Bonheur  (1822 –  1899), French
Artist

IAR Wylie (1885 –  1959), Australian
Author

Karl Meier  (1897 – 1974), Swiss
Entertainer / Director / Editor

Sybille Bedford  (1911 –  2006),UK
Author

David del Tredici  (1937 – ) US
Composer / Pianist

Jack Nichols  (1938 – 2005), US
Author / Activist

Jon Hinson (1942 – 1995), US
Politician

David Sweetman  (1943 –  2002), UK
Author / Poet / Director

Erling Lae (1947 –  ), Norwegian
Politician

Victor Garber (1949 – ), US
Actor / Singer

Anthony Gallo  (1962 – )  Brazilian
Porn / Actor

Pall Oskar [Paul Oscar]  (1962 – )  Icelandic
Singer / Songwriter / DJ

Donal Og Cusack  (1977 –  ) Irish
Hurler

Andrea Zimbardi  (1980 – )  US
Softball

Tommy Hansen [Filip Trojovsky]  (1982 – )  Czech
Porn / Model / Presenter

Died this day

Harold Monro (1879 - 1932), UK
Poet

Antonio Botto (1892 - 1959), Portuguese
Poet

Sodomy in history, March

1679 — New Hampshire outlaws sodomy between men only, with a sentence of death.

1805 — Massachusetts reduces the penalty for sodomy from death to 20 years, but retains the language making the law applicable only to two males.

1855 — Nebraska passes a criminal code, receiving all of the laws of Iowa, which does not have a sodomy law, but also adopting all English common-law crimes, making sodomy a capital offense in the territory.

1961 — The Maryland Court of Appeals upholds a sodomy conviction based on an indictment for "buggery," a word not found in the state’s criminal code.

1970 — Kentucky repeals the sodomy provision of its state UCMJ.

1976 — The Mississippi Supreme Court upholds the state’s crime against nature law against a vagueness challenge.

1987 — A Louisiana appellate court upholds the solicitation conviction of a man for placing his finger through a glory hole in a bookstore and then placing his mouth at the hole, without saying a word.

Sources:

Friday, 15 March 2013

March 15th in Queer History

Born this day

Lionel Pigot Johnson  (1867 –  1902) UK
Poet / Author / Journalist

Colin McPhee  (1900 –  1964) Canadian
Composer

Ruth Simpson   (1926 –  2008) US
Author / Activist

Cecil Taylor  (1929 – ) US
Pianist / Poet

Kate Bornstein  (1948 – ) US
Author / Playwright

Saint's day

Longinus the Centurion – The Gay Centurion?
Longinus is the name given to the Roman centurion said to have pierced Christ's sword on the cross, but the name is also associated with the (unnamed) Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his sick "slave". The slave, or "pais" (boy) is likely to have served as a sexual partner, as well as a domestic servant.

Died this day

Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC) Roman
Emperor

Friedrich Radszuweit (1876 – 1932) German
Author

Sodomy in history, March

1820 — Maine enters the Union and receives the Massachusetts sodomy law.

1963 — A California appellate court upholds the oral copulation conviction of a man who stopped in a restroom for "relief sexually" while "waiting to pick up his wife." He said he’d done this several times before.

2001 — A Texas appellate court upholds that state’s consensual sodomy law.

Sources:

Gotthold Frederick Enslin

Who was the first American soldier to be discharged for being gay? No, it wasn’t a modern day marine under DADT, but Lt Frederick Gotthold Enslin, in 1778.

From Wikipedia:

Frederick Gotthold Enslin was the focus of one of three possible cases of sodomy documented in the Continental Army under General George Washington. The case began with a charge against an ensign for slander against another soldier. At Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in February 1778, Ensign Anthony Maxwell was brought before a court-martial charged with "propogating a scandalous report prejudicial to the character of Lieutt. Enslin." The Ensign was ultimately acquitted of the charge. In March 1778, Lieut. Enslin was brought to trial before a court-martial. According to General Washington's report: "...Lieutt. Enslin of Colo. Malcolm's Regiment tried for attempting to commit Sodomy ..." Washington's secretary continues to describe the results of the trial in negative, descriptive terms: "His Excellency the Commander in Chief approves the sentence and with Abhorrence & Detestation of such Infamous Crimes orders Lieutt. Enslin to be drummed out of Camp tomorrow morning...."

The diary of Lieut. James McMichael records the sentence being carried out on 15 Mar 1778: "March 15. — I this morning proceeded to the grand parade, where I was a spectator to the drumming out of Lieut. Enslin of Col. Malcom's regiment. He was first drum'd from right to left of the parade, thence to the left wing of the army; from that to the centre, and lastly transported over the Schuylkill with orders never to be seen in Camp in the future. This shocking scene was performed by all the drums and fifes in the army— the coat of the delinquent was turned wrong side out." (McMichael, p. 217)

Thursday, 14 March 2013

March 14th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2008 – Bill passed in Victoria, Australia to allow registered partnerships (effective 1st December 2008)

Born this day

Alfred Redl  (1864 –  1913) Austrian
Soldier

Harold Monro  (1879 –  1932) UK
Poet

Sylvia Beach  (1887 –  1962) US
Author

Malka Drucker  (1945 – )  US
Rabbi / Author

Franco Grillini  (1955 – ) Italian
Politician / Activist

Sean Mathias  (1956 –  ) UK
Actor / Director / Screenwriter

Terry George  (1965 – ) UK
Entrepreneur / Club Owner / Photographer / Columnist

Kevin Williamson  (1965 – )  US
Screenwriter

Mary Cheney  (1969 – )  US
Businesswoman

Kayne Gillaspie  (1979 – )  US
Reality TV [Project: Runway] / Fashion Designer

Died this day

Bruno Balz (1902 - 1988 ) German
Songwriter

Howard Ashman US
Playwright / Songwriter / Director / Producer (1950 - 1991)

Ryan Skipper (1981 - 2007) US
Hate Crime Victim

Sodomy in history, March

1778 - Gotthold Frederick Enslin was the first American soldier dismissed from the army for homosexuality.

1848 — Virginia changes the penalty for sodomy to 1-5 years for free persons and keeps the death penalty for slaves.

1878 — Virginia raises the minimum penalty for sodomy from 1 to 2 years.

1890 — Wyoming amends its sodomy law to prohibit fellatio, but not cunnilingus. The maximum penalty for sodomy also is reduced from life to 5 years.

1955 — The Colorado Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction and says the psychopathic offender law is optional with sentencing judges. The defendant wished to be declared such, but the court said that only "dangerous" offenders were. Despite not being "dangerous," he received 2-6 years in prison.

1962 — The Arizona Supreme Court upholds the fellatio conviction of a man with a teenage male. He acknowledged being Gay and said that the arresting police might be, too.

1963 — Nevada prohibits the release of anyone convicted under the "crime against nature" law unless certified by psychiatrists as not harmful to the health, safety or morals of others.

1990 — The Idaho Court of Appeals finds a privacy interest in sex in enclosed restroom stalls.

Sources: