Queers in History

Thursday, 20 February 2014

February 20th in Queer History

Born this day

William Lygon  (1872 –   1938) UK
Politician

Baron Jacques D’Adelsward-Fersen  (1880 –  1923) French
Author / Poet / Aristocrat

Robert Andrews  (1895 –  1976) UK
Actor

Roy Cohn  (1927 –  1986) US
Lawyer / Politician

Dr Joel Weisman  (1943 –  2009)  US
Physician

Torstein Dahle  (1947 –  ) Norwegian
Politician

Andre van Duin  (1947 – ) Dutch
Actor / Singer

Lord John Browne  (1948 –  ) UK
Businessman

Mab Segrest  (1949 –  ) US
Poet / Activist

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

Philip Hensher  (1965 –  ) UK
Journalist / Author

Stephen Gendin  (1966 –  2000) US
Author / Activist

Stuart Miles  (1970 –  ) UK
Presenter

Calpernia Addams  (1971 –  ) US
Author / Activist / Actress / Musician

Aditya Bondyopadhyay  (1972 –  ) Indian
Lawyer / Activist

Jeremy Jordan  (1978 –  ) Canadian / US
Porn

Adrian Lamo  (1981 – ) US
Journalist

Died this day

Laurence Housman ( 1865 - 1959) UK
Playwright / Author / Illustrator

Anthony Asquith (1902 - 1968) UK Director

John Paul Hudson (1929 - 2002 ) US Activist / Journalist

Marcella Althaus-Reid (? - 2009 ) Argentinian
Theologian, who applied the principles of the liberation theology she she applied in Argentina under the military theology, to sexual liberation and feminist theology. She was a pioneer in the development of queer theology, best known for her landmark books "Indecent Theology" and "The Queer God".

Jason Wood (1972 -2010) UK
Singer / Drag Queen [Cher Travesty]

Sodomy in history, February 20th

1775 — In Frisia, the Netherlands, two teenage servants are banished for three years for "toleration of sodomy."

1852 — Delaware eliminates the flogging penalty for sodomy and substitutes time in the pillory before imprisonment.

1939 — The Indiana Supreme Court rejects the contention of a man and woman convicted of sodomy that oral sex only between people of the same sex is sodomy.

1959 — The Idaho Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of Gordon Larsen, one of the Boise victims, despite inflammatory remarks by prosecutors at his trial. The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the decision.

1973 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rejects a First Amendment challenge to Gay men soliciting for sex.

1974 — A California appellate court rejects a challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s oral copulation law.

Sources:

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

February 19th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – North Dakota Senate votes to include LGBT in the Human Rights Act
2010 – Football V Homophobia launches in the UK

Born this day

F. O. Matthiessen  (1902 – 1950) US
Historian / Literary Critic

Carson McCullers  (1917 –  1967 ) US
Author / Playwright

George Rose  (1920 – 1988) UK
Actor / Murder Victim

Dudley Cave  (1921 –  1999) UK
Activist

Sheila Kuehl (1941 - ), US
California state legilator

Stuart Challender  (1947 –  1991) Australian
Conductor

Jackie Curtis  (1947 –   1985) US
Actress / Poet / Playwright

Pim Fortuyn  (1948 –   2002)
Dutch Politician

Lari Pittman  (1952 –  ) US
Artist

Stephen F Kolzak  (1953 - 1990) US
Director

Justin Fashanu  (1959/61 - 1998)  UK
Footballer who was known by his early clubs to be gay, and came out to the press later in his career, to become the first and only English professional footballer to be openly homosexual. Until former France international Olivier Rouyer came out in 2008, Fashanu was still the only professional footballer in the world to disclose that he was gay. Fashanu hanged himself in May 1998,at a time when he was wanted in the United States on charges of sexually assaulting a teenager in Maryland. In his suicide note, he insisted that the sex had been consensual.
Since his death, he has been frequently held up as a role model, to encourage other sporting figures to come out publicly.

Jaime Bayly  (1965 – ) Peruvian / US
Author / Journalist / Presenter

Dallas Angguish  (1968 – ) Australian
Author / Poet

Beth Ditto  (1981 –  ) US
Singer

Died this day

Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)  French
Author

Suzanne Malherbe (1892 - 1972) French
Artist

Eric Stryker (1954 - 1988) US
Porn

Derek Jarman (1942 - 1994)  UK
Director / Screenwriter

Charles Trenet (1913 - 2001) French
Singer / Author

Sylvia Rivera  (1951 - 2002 ) US
Activist

Sodomy in history, February 19th

1821 — Maine enacts a new sodomy law. It retains the male-only provision of the Massachusetts statute, but sets a one-year minimum penalty.

1926 — A California appellate court upholds a sodomy conviction based on photographs without any relationship to the case found in the defendant’s vest.

Sources:

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

February 18th in Queer History

Born this day

Tuulikki Pietila (1917 –   2009) Finnish
Artist

David March (1925 – 1999) UK
Actor

Ned Sherrin  (1931 –  2007) UK
Presenter / Author / Director

Duane Michals  (1932 – ) US
Photographer

Audre Lorde  (1934 –  1992) US
Author / Poet / Activist

David Ehrenstein  (1947 –  ) US
Film Critic / Journalist / Author / Blogger

Margaret Smith  (1961 – ) UK
Politician

Christopher Sieber  (1969 –  ) US
Actor / Singer

Ben Harvey  (1979 – ) US
Presenter

Died this day

Michelangelo  (1475 - 1564 ) Italian
Sculptor / Painter / Architect / Poet / Engineer

Charlotte Cushman  (1816 - 1876 ) US
Actress / Singer / Playwright / Director

Scott O’Hara  (1961 - 1998 )  US
Porn / Poet / Editor / Publisher / Author

Laurel Hester  (1956 - 2006)  US
Police Officer

Barbara Gittings (1932 - 2007) US
Activist

A prominent American activist for gay equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government.

Sodomy in history, February

1854 — Alabama is the first state in the nation to make conviction of the "crime against nature" a specific grounds for divorce.

1893 — The Washington Supreme Court notes that Washington has no sodomy law, even though it is indictable under the common-law statute.

1930 — The Iowa Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction despite "conflict and contradictions" in the testimony.

1937 — Vermont outlaws oral sex, which the statute calls "fellation."

1957 — The Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man committed on a blind boy of borderline intelligence, after the trial judge determined him competent to testify because "he believes in God" and had the Bible read to him.

Sources:

Monday, 17 February 2014

February 17th in Queer History

Born this day

Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) Italian
Composer / Violinist

Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1854 - 1902), German.

German industrialist, of the Krupp steel manufacturing company, taking over the leadership of his father's company in 1887. He committed suicide in 1902, a week after the Social Democratic magazine Vorwärts claimed in an article that Friedrich Alfred Krupp was homosexual, and that he had a number of liaisons with local boys and men.

Oskar Seidlin (1911 - 1984) US

Poet / Author

Sir Alan Bates (1934 - 2003) UK

Actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his performance with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, with a renowned fireside naked wrestling scene with Oliver Reed.

Although he was married to Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death from a wasting disease in 1992, Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde, and Olympic skater John Curry. In 1994 Curry died from AIDS in Bates's arms.

Claudia Schoppmann  (1958 – ) German
Historian / Author

Angela Eagle (1961 –  ) UK
Politician

Cheryl Jacques  (1962 –  ) US
Politician / Activist

Peterson Toscano  (1965 – ) US
Playwright / Actor / Blogger / Comedian / Activist / Minister

Peter Karlsson  (1966 –   1995) Swedish Ice Hockey

Billie Joe Armstrong  (1972 – ) US
Singer / Musician

Antton Harri  (1974 –  ) Spanish
Porn

Harisu  (1975 –  ) South Korean
Singer / Model / Actress

Eric Magyar (1975/6 – ??)
Porn / Director

Died this day

Jack Cole (1911 - 1974) US
Dancer / Choreographer

Randy Shilts (1951 - 1994 ) US
Author / Journalist

Sybille Bedford (1911 - 2006) UK
Author

Sodomy in history, February 17th

1755 — Georgia enacts a law making it a crime to deny that Georgian laws are in force, thus showing that English laws are not recognized. Since Georgia has no sodomy law, this shows that the English sodomy law was not considered in force.

1905 — In Ohio, a man is sent to the State Reformatory for sodomy even though the records state that he "proved" his absence from the crime scene. He spends two years in the Reformatory.

1923 — Utah amends its sodomy law to outlaw oral sex and to increase the penalty to 3-20 years.

1950 — Georgia repeals its ban on probation for sodomy.

Sources:

Wikipedia

glbtq emcyclopedia

On this gay day

Calendar of Sodomy, February

Sunday, 16 February 2014

February 16th in Queer History

Born this day

Katharine Cornell (1893 –  1974) US
Actress

John Schlesinger (1926 –   2003)
US Actor / Director

Paul Bailey  (1937 –  ) UK
Author

John Corigliano (1938 –  ) US
Composer

Steve Kmetko  (1953 – ) US
Presenter

John Balance  (1962 – ) UK
Musician

Truong Tan  (1963 – ) Vietnamese
Artist

Michele Clarke  (1973 – ) Trinidad & Tobago / Canadian
Director / Author

Aaron Tanner  (1973/75 – ) US
Porn

John Tartaglia  (1978 –  ) US
Actor / Puppeteer / Singer

Cameron Jackson  (1986 – ) Czech
Porn

Died this day

Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden  (1856 - 1931)  German
Photographer

Keith Haring  (1958 - 1990 )  US
Artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.

Karlien Carstens  (? - 2005 )Namibian
Murder Victim

Aycan Yener (?? – 2010 )Turkish
Hate Crime Victim

Sodomy in history, February 16th

1843 — The Iowa Territory passes its own criminal code and makes no reference to sodomy or common-law crimes, keeping it legal.

1923 — The Wisconsin Attorney General issues an opinion that any person convicted of sodomy can have a professional license taken away.

1945 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds an "indecent assault" conviction in a case of consensual sex in the absence of a sodomy law.

1951 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds a solicitation conviction and rejects the argument that the defendant could not be guilty because of his honorable discharge from the military.

1968 — The Maine Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction even though there are doubts as to the truthfulness of the accusations.

1972 — The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules that the state’s sodomy law applies to married couples.

Sources:

Friday, 14 February 2014

Valentine's Day: February 14th in Queer History

Valentine's Day

Some Same-Sex Lovers in Church History.

Born this day

Kevyn Aucoin (1962 – 2002) US

Make-up artist and photographer. As a child, he used to frequently did his sisters' makeup and photographed the results. After dropping out of high school as a result of continuous bullying, he enrolled in beauty school, hoping to learn more about applying make-up - but ended up teaching the class instead.

He later moved to New York, where he was did several photo shoots and covers for Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and then worked for Revlon and the Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido.

Karen Dior (1967 – 2004) US

Transgender adult film performer, director, and singer, best known as a pioneer in popularizing adult films involving transsexual people.

M. C. Brennan (1969 – ) US

Rock vocalist, screenwriter and filmmaker.

Angela Robinson (1971 – ) US

Film and television director, screenwriter and producer. She is married to fellow television writer and director Alexandra Kondracke

Lisa-Marie Vizaniari (1971 – ) Australian

Retired Australian discus thrower, who competed in the Olympics in 1996 and 2000, in the World Championships in 1997 and in the Commonwealth Games in 1990,1994, 1998

Rie Rasmussen (1978 – ) Danish

Actress, film director, writer, and photographer.

Seany O’Kane (1982 – ) UK

Reality TV [Big Brother]

Milo & Elijah Peters (1990 – ) Czech

Porn twins

Died this day

Tony Holiday (1951 - 1990 ) German

Pop singer and songwriter. He led a clandestine homosexual lifestyle,and died on Valentines Day, 1990 of AIDS at the age 38

Dick Martin (1927 - 1990 ) US

Artist who illustrated a number of books related to The Oz books series.In addition to books, he designed greeting cards, post cards, and posters.

Don Slater (1923 - 1997 ) US

An early leader in the struggle for glbtq rights. He was the founder of the early gay magazine ONE,and also an activist for several gay causes in Los Angeles.

Joel Dorius (1919 - 2006 ) US

One of three gay professors of literature caught in a pornography scandal and forced out by Smith College in 1960 only to be exonerated in a celebrated case of sexual McCarthyism

Sodomy in history, February 14th

1635 — Two men are charged with sodomy in New Hampshire, but are not prosecuted, because it was not thought "fit" to try them there.

1787 — New York, which has been operating under the English sodomy statute for nearly a century, passes its own law, retaining the death penalty.

1902 — A New York appellate court overturns the sodomy conviction of a man for sex with a teenager of limited mentality whose father coached him in what to say in trial.

1963 — The Washington Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after the "victim" was asked leading questions in the trial.

1973 — An Oklahoma appellate court upholds a sentence of 15 years in prison for consensual sodomy.

1975 — Virginia passes a new criminal code, keeps consensual sodomy as a felony, and increases the maximum penalty from three to five years.

Sources:

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

February 12th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

1999 – First National Freedom to Marry Day in the USA (then held annually on this date)
2009 – Hungarian government approve a new registered partnership bill giving the same rights as marriage except in adoption and taking the same surname
2009 – Civil Union Bill passed in Hawaii, USA

Born this day

Philip, Prince of Eulenburg (1847 – 1921) German
Politician

Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby (1900 – 1986) UK
Politician

Franco Zeffirelli (1923 – ) Italian
Director

Andy Milligan (1929 – 1991) US
Playwright / Screenwriter / Actor / Editor / Producer / Director

Paul Shenar (1936 – 1989) US
Actor

John Blankenstein (? - 2006) Dutch
Football Referee

Patrick Quinn  (1950 –   2006) US
Actor

Frans Mulder (1953 – )  Dutch
Actor / Singer / Comedian

Chad Johnson  (1960/2 – )US
Porn / Hairdresser

Lourdes Perez  (1961 –  ) Puerto Rican
Singer / Songwriter / Musician / Composer / Poet

Jacqueline Woodson  (1963/4 –  ) US
Author

Saint's Day:

St Mary /Marinos of Alexandria (? - July 19th 508), Lebanon / Egypt
Ttransman, monk and Christian saint.

Died this day

Olive Custance (1874 - 1944 ) UK
Poet

Sal Mineo (1939 - 1976 ) US
Actor / Murder Victim

Muriel Rukeyser (1913 - 1980) US
Poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Her poetry, which breaks the silence of many aspects of female experience, has been enormously important to many feminist and lesbian readers.

Details of Rukeyser's personal life remain a matter of speculation. However, in 1978, she accepted an invitation to participate in a Lesbian Poetry Reading at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association

Peggy Gilbert (1905 - 2007) US
Musician / Band Leader

Randy Stone (1958 - 2007) US
Actor / Casting Director / Producer

Sodomy in history, February

1951 — The Missouri Supreme Court rules that consent is no defense to a charge of sodomy.

1992 — The Oregon Court of Appeals rules that the state’s public indecency law preempts local ones and that, under the controlling state law, public nudity must be for purposes of sexual gratification in order to trigger a violation.

1999 — The Montana House defeats a bill to remove the invalidated sodomy law from the books on a 50-50 tie.

Sources:

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Tammy Baldwin

b. February 11, 1962

“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now O.K. to express ourselves publicly.We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.”

A self-proclaimed “forceful supporter of civil rights and those whose voices are not heard,” Baldwin spearheaded efforts to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non- Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is the first out lesbian elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As of 2011, she was one of four openly gay members and the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress. In November 2012, she won election to the US Senate election for Wisconsin. In doing so, she became the first openly lesbian or gay US senator.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Baldwin was raised by her mother and maternal grandparents. She graduated from high school at the top of her class and attended Smith College, where she majored in government and mathematics.

In 1986, Baldwin was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, her first public office. During this time, she earned her degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. After practicing law from 1989 to 1992, she won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

In 1998, Baldwin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first congresswoman from Wisconsin. She was elected to her sixth term in 2008. She serves on the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee of Energy and Commerce and on the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the Committee of the Judiciary.

Baldwin is a leading advocate for universal health care, as well as a proponent of renewable fuel sources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A self-proclaimed “forceful supporter of civil rights and those whose voices are not heard,” Baldwin spearheaded efforts to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). She has authored legislation that would extend benefits for same-sex partners to federal employees.

Baldwin lives with her partner, Lauren Azar.

February 11th in Queer History

Born this day

John Wallowitch  (1926 –  2007) US
Singer

Pratibha Parmar  (1955 –  ) UK
Director / Producer / Author

Tammy Baldwin  (1962 –  )
US Politician

Aubrey O’Day (1984 –  ) US
Reality TV [Making the Band]/ Singer / Actress / Songwriter / Fashion Designer

Died this day

Lori Shannon (1938 - 1984 )US
Drag Queen

George Hopkins (1896 - 1985 ) US
Set Designer

Mark Ashton (1961 - 1987) UK
Activist

Bernard Price (1925 - 2000) UK
Actor

Alexander McQueen (1969 - 2010 ) UK
Fashion Designer

Sodomy in history, February 11th

1779 — Vermont adopts English common law, making sodomy a capital crime.

1860 — Texas passes a sodomy law, going off the common-law crimes statute. The new penalty is 2-15 years.

1958 — A New York appellate court overturns the disorderly conduct conviction of a man because there was absolutely no proof that he had loitered or solicited.

1963 — Colorado restores the "crime against nature" law to its indeterminate sentencing law.

1974 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that Gay bath houses are public nuisances per se.

Sources:

Monday, 10 February 2014

February 10 th in Queer History

Born this day

Anne Kaiser  (1968 –  ) US
Politician

Nichcalo Dion Crayton [Jazzmun]  (1969 –  ) US
Drag Queen / Actor / Entertainer

Ivri Lider  (1974 – ) Israeli
Singer / Musician

Brent Everett (1984– ) Canadian
Porn / Director / Actor

Died this day

Paul Monette (1945 - 1995 ) US
Author / Activist / Poet

Edgar de Evia (1910 - 2003 ) Mexican / US
Photograper

Gary Frisch (1969 - 2007 ) UK ,
Businessman

Sodomy in history, February 10th

1798 — Kentucky passes its own sodomy law after six years of living with the law of Virginia.

1831 — A new criminal code in Indiana repeals the state’s sodomy law, but retains the common-law crimes reception statute. This makes sodomy a capital offense again.

1832 — Florida gives juries total discretion to sentence a sodomy (via the common-law reception law) defendant to the penitentiary or to a fine.

1872 — South Carolina passes a new criminal code, setting the penalty at five years in prison. The code retains the term "buggery."

1887 — Idaho eliminates the specific reference to life imprisonment for sodomy, but states no maximum.

1911 — In Germany, the League for the Protection of Mothers endorses repeal of the German sodomy law and opposes its extension to cover women, calling it "a serious mistake."

1950 — A Pennsylvania court convicts a man of sodomy as an accessory before the fact for driving two teenagers to a friends house and watching them have sex.

Sources:

Sunday, 9 February 2014

February 9th in Queer History

Events this day in Queer History

2009 – Domestic Partner Registry opens in Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Born this day

Amy Lowell (1874 – 1925) US
Poet

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

Louis Dusee (1930 – 1999) Dutch
Singer / Actor / Playwright / Presenter

Sheila James Kuehl (1941 – ) US
Actress / Politician

Marc Stevens (1943 – 1989) US
Porn

Alice Walker (1944 – ) US
Author / Poet / Activist

Marie France (1946 – ) French
Actress / Singer

Gabriel Rotello (1953 –) US
Documentary Writer / Producer

Jim J Bullock (1955 – ) US
Actor

Holly Johnson (1960 – ) UK
Singer

Michael Brandon (1965 – ) US
Porn / Director / Producer

Christian Vincent (1980 – ) Canadian
Dancer / Choreographer / Actor

Died this day

Tiffany Berry ( ? - 2006 ) US
Murder Victim

Sodomy in history, February

Sources:

Saturday, 8 February 2014

February 8th in Queer History

Born this day

Georgette LeBlanc (1875 – 1941) French
Singer / Author

Ralph Chubb (1892 – 1960) US
Poet / Artist

Elizabeth Bishop (1911 – 1979) US
Poet

Jack Larson (1928 – ) US
Actor / Producer / Screenwriter / Composer

James Dean (1955 - 1931)
US Actor

Paul Codde (1950 – ) Belgian
Actor / Presenter

Rosario Crocetta (1951 – ) Italian
Politician

Joshua Kadison (1963 – ) US
Singer / Songwriter / Pianist / Author

Nicole LeFavour (1964 – ) US
Politician / Teacher

Carlos Montenegro [aka Fredy Navas] (1972 – ) Argentina
Porn / Bodybuilder / Personal Trainer / Dancer / Model

Erik Rhodes (1982 – ) US
Porn / Model

Jim Verraros (1983 – ) US
Reality TV

Raci Ignacio (1985 – ) Filipino
Reality TV

Died this day

Derya Y (? - 2010 ) Turkish
Hate Crime Victim

Sodomy in history, February

1791 — New Hampshire restricts its sodomy law to male-male acts only, and retains the death penalty.

1826 — Delaware lowers the penalty for sodomy from death to 60 lashes given publicly, a $1,000 fine, and three years of solitary confinement in prison.

1854 — Texas amends its common-law reception statute to create specific penalties for common-law crimes, thus eliminating the death penalty for sodomy.

1949 — Georgia reduces the penalty for sodomy from compulsory life imprisonment to 1-10 years.

1960 — A California appellate court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s oral copulation law.

1963 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds the solicitation conviction of a man with the corroborating evidence that he had put forth no character witnesses for himself.

1973 — The Alabama Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law.

Sources:

Friday, 7 February 2014

February 7th in Queer History

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Thursday, 6 February 2014

February 6th in Queer History

Born this day

Ramon Novarro (1899 – 1968) Mexican
Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was regarded as the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino. Novarro had been troubled all his life as a result of his conflicting views over his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality, and his life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these issues. Novarro was the victim of a violent extortion attempt which resulted in his death.

Donald Friend (1915 – 1989) Australian

Artist, writer and diarist. Much of Friend's life and career were spent outside Australia, in places as diverse as Nigeria, Italy, Sri Lanka, and Bali .
Friend made "no attempt to disguise the homoeroticism which underlay much of his work", despite winning the Blake Prize for religious art in 1955. Nor did he mince words about his sexual preferences, depicting himself in his journal as "a middle-aged pederast who's going to seed".
Friend also published a number of illustrated books, almost all in limited editions, which displayed the same wit and sensuality that informs much of his art.

Arthur Gold (1990 - 1917 ) US
Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale were an American two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts.
Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the Juilliard School. They formed a lifelong personal and professional partnership based on their common interests of music (forming one of the most important piano duos of the 20th century), travel and cooking.

Lionel Blue (1930 – ) UK
British Reform rabbi, journalist and broadcaster. He was the first British rabbi publicly to declare his homosexuality.
He is best known for his longstanding and respected work with the media, most notably the wry and gentle sense of humour on "Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He is also widely respected in the UK as a journalist, cook and author.

Adam Faust (1974 – ) US
Porn / Store Owner

Died this day

August Kopisch (1799 - 1853) German
Poet and painter.

James Merrill (1926 - 1995) US
Poet,whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1977) for Divine Comedies.
The Black Swan, a collection of poems Merrill's Amherst professor (and lover) Kimon Friar published privately in Athens, Greece in 1946, was printed in just one hundred copies when Merrill was 20 years old. Merrill's first mature work, The Black Swan is Merrill's scarcest title and considered one of the 20th century's most collectible literary rarities. Later,
Merrill's partner of more than four decades was David Jackson, also a writer.

Don Dunstan ( 1926 -1999) Australian
South Australian politician, Premier of South Australia from 1967 - 1968, and again from 1970 - 1979.
A reformist, Dunstan brought profound change to South Australian society. His socially progressive administration saw Aboriginal land rights recognised, homosexuality decriminalised and the first female judge appointed.
He was married twice during his political career, but after the death of his second wife and subsequent retirement, he took a male life partner, Stephen Cheng, with whom he opened a restaurant called "Don's Table" in 1994, and with whom he lived until his death.

Sodomy in history, February 6th

1907 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that juveniles are not entitled to a lesser sentence for sodomy.

1918 — Two Oregon prisoners file suit against the sterilization law. One is a Gay man convicted of sodomy. He succeeds in convincing the Eugenics Board to change its position regarding him and the straight prisoner decides to allow himself to be castrated.

1957 — A bill to end the half-century-old ban on probation for sodomy is introduced into the Ohio House of Representatives. It passes committee, but never becomes law.

1991 — The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules that a sodomy defendant can not demand an inquiry into the sex practices of his partner to determine if he is an accomplice.

Sources:

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

William S. Burroughs

b. February 5, 1914

d. August 2, 1997

Novelist, born as William Seward Burroughs in St. Louis, Missouri. Heir to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company fortune. As a teenager, Burroughs was sent off to military school at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he had his first same-sex encounters. He was educated at Harvard and Vienna universities.

Burroughs fell in love and became obsessed with Ginsberg, and they have remained lifelong friends. Following trouble with the law regarding his drug habits, Burroughs settled in Mexico City with his wife Joan. One night in 1951, after a few drinks, they were entertaining some friends with their "William Tell" routine. She put a whiskey glass on her head and he aimed a pistol at the glass. Although he was an expert marksman, the shot was low and Joan was killed instantly. Burroughs had to leave Mexico.

His sexual explicitness (he was an avowed and outspoken bisexual) and the frankness with which he dealt with his own experiences as a drug addict won him a following among writers of the Beat movement. With Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, he was one of the founding members of the Beat generation. He was known to be a lover of young boys and in his later years, he lived with his long-time companion James Grauerholtz.

Books:

Junkie: Confessions of an Unreedemed Drug Addict (1953)
Letters to Allen Ginsburg 1953-1957
The Naked Lunch (1959)
Nova Express (1960)
The Soft Machine (1961)
The Ticket that Exploded (1962)
Dead Fingers Talk (1963)
The Wild Boys (1971)
The Place of Dead Roads (1983)
Queer (1986)
The Western Lands (1987)

February 5th in Queer History

Born this day

William S Burroughs (1914 – 1997) US
Author

Vivica Bandler (1917 – 2004) Finnish
Director

Ronald Jason Palmieri (1950 – ) US
Politician

Russell Grant (1951 – ) UK
Astrologer / presenter

Carol Philipps (1965 – 2009) Canadian
Journalist / / Activist / Editor

Joe Foster (1976 – ) Australian
Porn
Pavel Novotny [aka Jan Dvorak / Jakub Moltin / Max Orloff] – (1977 – ) Czechoslovakian
Porn

Died this day

Ernst Burchard (1876 – 1920) German
Physician / Sexologist / Author / Activist

Brendan Burke (1988 - 2010 ) Canadian/US
Ice Hockey / Manager

Sodomy in history, February 5th

1957 — The Iowa Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a farmer for fellating consenting teenagers.

1993 — A Texas appellate court upholds a public indecency conviction for masturbating in a public restroom. The police had spied the activity through roof holes. The court finds that, because the activity could have been seen by anyone in the restroom, the police could use the roof holes.

Sources:

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

February 15th in Queer History

Born this day

Cesar Romero  (1907 –  1994) US
Film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and as The Joker in television's Batman series.

Herman Meijer  (1947 –  ) Dutch
Fprmer politician for the Dutch Greens, he is a graduate architect and urban planner. He has been active politically for the student movement, as a gay activist, and for peace - and anti- racism committees. He was also one of the founders of the movement Christians for Socialism .

Bill T Jones (1952 – ) US
Artistic director, choreographer and dancer. who has twice won Tony awards for best choreogaphy: in 2007 for "Spring Awakening", and in 2010 for Fela!

Ernesto Scorsone  (1952 – ) US
Politician, lawyer, and judge from Kentucky. A Democrat, he was appointed to the Fayette County Circuit Court in 2008 by Governor Steve Beshear, and later elected to a six-year term on the court. Previously, he had been a member of the Kentucky State Senate

Edwin Cameron (1953 – ) South African
Judge, serving on South Africa's Constitutional Court. Cameron served as a Supreme Court of Appeal judge from 2000 to 2008. He was the first senior South African official to state publicly that he was living with HIV/AIDS. Before his appointment to the bench, he practiced as a human rights lawyer, and has been prominently involved in numerous important court cases affecting LGBT rights and equality, and has won numerous awards, in South African and internationally.
Cameron has also co-authored a number of books, including "Defiant Desire – Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa" (with Mark Gevisser).

Mikey Craig (1960 – ) UK
Former DJ who became the bassist with Culture Club, one of the most popular bands of the 1980s.

Titti de Simone (1970 – ) Italian
Journalist and politician, who was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian parliament) in 2001, and in 2006 was elected secretary to the President of the Chamber.

She is president of the Sicily Queer Filmfest.

Miranda July (1974 – ) US
Performance artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger,[1] she works under the surname of "July,"

Died this day

Henry Brandon (1912 - 1990 ) German / US
A character actor in over 100 films, famous for playing Indian, Arab, Persian, Turkish, Native American and East Asian roles, usually villains.

Frans Kellendonk (1951 – 1990) Dutch

Professor of English language and literature in the Netherlands. He was also a novelist, who won the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 1987 for his novel Mystiek lichaam. This work attracted criticism in gay circles for its alleged homophobia, but Kellendonk was himself gay, and died of complications following AIDS a month after his 39th birthday

Arturo Islas (1938 - 1991) US
Professor of English and a novelist, writing about the experience of Chicano cultural duality. Islas died on February 15, 1991 from complications related to AIDS.

Victor Kovyl (???? - 2002 ) Belarusian
Hate Crime Victim. On 15 February 2002 34 year old accountant Victor Kovyl was found dead in his parents’ flat. He was openly gay both at work and in public. The police refused to give the details of the murder to Kovyl’s partner Alexander and one of the members of the police said to him: “It serves you right, sodomites (faggots)!”.

Yardena Marsh (?? - 2006) Israeli
Transgender Murder Victim

Sodomy in history, February

1839 — Mississippi passes a sodomy law, doing away with its reliance on the common law to prosecute it. The penalty is set at a maximum of 10 years in prison.

1858 — A proposed new criminal code for the District of Columbia, which includes a sodomy law with a penalty of 2-10 years, is defeated 73%-27% by District voters.

1893 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in the first such case in the United States, rules that fellatio is not a "crime against nature."

1913 — The Idaho Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law, with no maximum penalty established, permits a sentence of life imprisonment.

1967 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that police do not have to detain potential defense witnesses in public restrooms when they arrest people for solicitation therein.

Sources:

February 4th in Queer History

Born this day

Julian Bell (1908 – 1937) UK
Poet / Military Ambulance Driver
Wallace Potts (1947 – 2006) US
Screenwriter / Director

Evan Wolfson (1957 – ) US
Lawyer / Activist

Mark Trevorrow (1959- ) Australian
Presenter / Comedian / Singer

David Thompson (? - ???? ) US
Porn / Director

Died this day

Lucius Beebe (1902 - 1966 ) US

Author / Photographer / Journalist

Liberace (1919 - 1987 ) US
Musician

Patricia Highsmith (1921 - 1995) US
Author

Scott Smith (1948 - 1995) US
Activist, Partner of Harvey Milk

Ronald Robertson (1937 -2000) US
Figure Skater

George Nader (1921 - 2002 ) US
American actor and writer, born in Pasadena, California, who was partner to Mark Miller.

Sodomy in history, February 4th

1864 — Idaho outlaws sodomy with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

1869 — South Carolina abolishes the death penalty for sodomy, but fails to include a new penalty.

1893 — A Gay sex scandal begins in Denmark and later Friedrich Hammerich, son of a prominent judge, is arrested. The press claims that Hans Christian Andersen started a seduction chain leading to the present scandal.

1981 — Rep. Jon Hinson (R-MS) resigns from the House following an arrest for attempted sex in a public restroom with another man.

1982 — Police in Kingston, Jamaica use tear gas to disperse a crowd of 2,000 which has gathered at a hospital to see two Lesbians in such a tight embrace that they required medical attention to be separated.

Sources: