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:

Wikipedia

glbtq emcyclopedia

On this gay day

Calendar of Sodomy, March