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:

Wikipedia

glbtq emcyclopedia

On this gay day

Calendar of Sodomy, March

Jean-Michel Basquiat, painter

b. December 22, 1960
d. August 12, 1988

Basquiat was a graffiti artist whose painting became a major force in revitalizing American art in the late 20th century.

Basquiat grew up in a middle class environment in Brooklyn. His father, an accountant, was Haitian and his mother was Puerto Rican. As a teenager, he left home to live in lower Manhattan, selling hand-painted t-shirts and postcards on the street. His work began to attract attention around 1980 after a group of underground artists held a public exhibition, the Times Square Show.

Basquiat's unique visual lexicon compounded of "graffiti symbols and urban rage" (Publishers Weekly) challenged accepted notions of art. His vivid paintings incorporated such diverse images as African masks, quotes from Leonardo andGray's Anatomy, Egyptian murals, pop culture, and jazz. His personal visual vocabulary included three-pronged crowns and the c symbol. Critics called his work "childlike and menacing" and "neo-primitive."

Basquiat associated with other "Neo-Expressionist" artists whose work drew from popular culture, including Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, and Keith Haring. Haring said of Basquiat's early work: "The stuff I saw on the walls was more poetry than graffiti. They were sort of philosophical poems . . . . On the surface they seemed really simple, but the minute I saw them I knew that they were more than that. From the beginning he was my favorite artist."

Embraced by the art world, Basquiat soared to international fame. In 1982 his work was exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Rome, Rotterdam and Zurich, and he was the youngest artist ever to be included in the prestigious German exhibition, Documenta 7. In 1985 he appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.

The artist's close friends became increasingly concerned about his drug use and erratic behavior. Jean-Michel Basquiat died at the age of 27 of a heroin overdose.

Bibliography:

• Armand, Louis, "Jean-Michel Basquiat©: Identity and the Art of (Dis)empowerment," Litteraria Pragensia 11.21 (2001): 94-106.
• Chiappini, Rudy. Jean-Michel Basquiat. Skira, 2005.
• Hoban, Phoebe. Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art. Penguin, 2006.
• Marshall, Richard. Jean-Michel Basquiat (exhibition catalog). Whitney Museum, 1994.
• McGuigan, Cathleen, "New Art, New Money," New York Times Magazine, Feb. 10, 1985.

Related articles

• Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (boston.com)
• Movie Review | 'Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child': Tamra Davis's Portrait of Elusive Artist at Film Forum (movies.nytimes.com)