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: