Wayland Flowers (1939 – 1988), US. Puppeteer

b. November 26, 1939
d. October 11, 1988

A puppeteer. He was born and raised in Dawson, Georgia. Flowers was best known for the puppet act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Madame" were a major national success on stage and on screen in the 1970s and 1980s.

A puppeteer. He was born and raised in Dawson, Georgia. Flowers was best known for the puppet act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Madame" were a major national success on stage and on screen in the 1970s and 1980s.

Wayland Flowers was born in Dawson, Georgia. He began to practice puppetry at an early age, drawn, perhaps, by a puppet's license to say and do in public a wide variety of things forbidden to its human operator. In the 1960s, Flowers moved to New York, where he was an assistant puppeteer for a number of children's television shows.

But while he entertained children during the day, he also developed "Madame," an "adults-only" puppet, a grotesquely ugly and flamboyantly ribald old crone festooned in outrageous evening gowns, tiaras, and rhinestones.

Flowers performed with "Madame" in nightclubs and gay bars, where her frank and often acerbic observations about sex, men, and life in general, similar to those expressed by drag queens in their acts, gained the "dirty old lady" and - by extension - Flowers a following that led to frequent television guest appearances on variety and talk shows.

By the late 1960s, Flowers and "Madame" had become regulars on the comedy program Laugh-In, one of the most popular television programs at the time and known for its cutting-edge topical humor that frequently challenged network censorship. In this context, Flowers was able to present a campy gay point of view mediated through his puppet.

Naughty old ladies have long been a staple of bawdy comedy, able to indulge sarcastically in double entendre and sexual innuendo and yet be found amusing rather than offensive, if for no other reason than the audience perceives older women, no matter how stereotypical, as being past any serious sexual interest.

This comedic incongruity, then, could be taken to even greater lengths by means of an old lady who was not only extraordinarily ugly (though pretending to be a great beauty) but who was also, in reality, wood and wire rather than flesh and blood.

In this way, Flowers was able to express on prime-time television the attitudes and desires of many gay men in the early days of gay liberation - views that would otherwise have been regarded as pointedly offensive to mainstream audiences - without censure.

Throughout the 1970s, Wayland Flowers and "Madame" appeared frequently on television, as the hosts of Solid Gold, a weekly popular music show, and on the game show Hollywood Squares, where, after nearly a decade of guest appearances, they succeeded Paul Lynde, a gay comic as bitchy and queeny as "Madame," as the all-important "central square."

By the early 1980s, the puppet/human relationship had taken a strange turn in Flowers's career. "Madame" became the star of her own sitcom, Madame's Place, in which she played the lead role, interacting with the other actors as if she were human.

Flowers, ironically, remained completely out of sight, his function as "Madame"'s voice the only outward evidence of his presence. Indeed, she seemed to take on a life of her own, eclipsing Flowers until he became invisible - both literally and figuratively - behind her.

As a result of his invisibility, very little attention was drawn to his personal life, and thus it was a surprise to many when Flowers died in Hollywood of AIDS-realted cancer, "Madame" was buried with him.

He refused to discuss his homosexuality publicly, saying:

"If I can do a good thing for everybody, make everybody laugh and be happy, why fucking kill it?"

Tom Villard (1953 – 1994), US. Actor

b. November 19, 1953
d. November 14, 1994

American actor, best known for his leading role in the 1980s series "We Got it Made" as Jay Bostwick, as well as roles in feature films "One Crazy Summer", "Heartbreak Ridge", "My Girl", and "Popcorn".

Born Thomas Louis Villard in Waipahu Ewa, Hawaii, he grew up in Spencerport, New York. He has two brothers and one sister. After high school Tom attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania for two years. After college he moved to New York City. There he attended the Lee Strasburg Acting Studio and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Although his name wasn't instantly recognizable, Tom Villard's face was, as he appeared throughout his career on television, in feature films, and on stage around the country. He was featured in situation comedies, episodic tv series', and had leading roles in lower and mid-range budgeted features. At the peak of his career Villard was given featured supporting roles in big-budget studio fare, (such as Heartbreak Ridge, and My Girl). Toward the end of his life he had a recurring supporting role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and portrayed multiple characters in the tv episodics The Golden Girls and Baywatch.

Toward the end of his life, Tom Villard became one of the few actors in Hollywood in the early 1990s who chose to be open about his homosexuality, and the challenge of living with HIV and AIDS. In February 1994 Villard made an unprecedented appearance on the CBS tabloid-style news show Entertainment Tonight, admitting to "...more than 13 million viewers that he was gay, that he had AIDS, and that he needed some help."

Tom moved to Los Angeles in 1980. During Tom's film career he landed roles in numerous films and television shows. Tom passed away from AIDS related pneumonia, in Los Angeles, California.

Pedro Pablo Zamora, (1972 - 1994) Cuban-American. AIDS educator, TV personality.

b. February 29, 1972
d. November 11, 1994

As one of the first openly gay with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media,Zamora brought international attention to HIV/AIDS and LGBT issues and prejudices through his appearance on MTV's reality television series, The Real World: San Francisco.

Born as the seventh child of an impoverished Cuban family, his childhood was difficult. The family was divided when he was just eight years old. They were permitted to leave Cuba for Florida - without the four oldest siblings, who were compelled to stay behind. Pedro became very close to his mother, but she died when he was was thirteen. Suppressing his grief, he went into denial by throwing himself into his schoolwork, and by having promiscuous sex. He was ignorant of safe sex,which was not surprising for this early stage of the pandemic, and his circumstances.

In his junior year of high school, Zamora donated blood during a Red Cross blood drive,which led to confirmation in November that he had HIV. After graduating from high school in 1990, he joined a Miami-based HIV/AIDS resource center called Body Positive. Soon thereafter, he came to talk about his condition to others to attempt to raise awareness about the disease in his community. This led to a career as an AIDS educator, and national media attention when Eric Morganthaler wrote a front page article about him for the Wall Street Journal, resulting in talk show interviews by Geraldo Rivera, Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey.

In 1993, he successfully auditioned for a place on the MTV show, "The Real World". For four months of 1994, he lived in the Real World San Francisco loft with castmates who knew of his HIV status, which he openly discussed with them. Some even accompanied him on outings to his AIDS education lectures in the Bay Area.

During his stay in the loft, his health visibly deteriorated, and continued to do so after the end of filming in June 1994, until he died in November the same year. 

After his death, Zamora was publicly praised by President Bill Clinton and Donna Shalala for his leadership and work in educating high school students, saying that through his appearances on The Real World, Pedro had become a part of viewers’ families, and that all people who watched the show could now say that they “knew” someone who had lived with AIDS. MTV broadcast A Tribute to Pedro Zamora, a special memorial program, in his honor.

A street in Miami (SW 59th Street) was given the name "Pedro Zamora Way".

Zamora's family at the dedication of "Pedro Zamora Way

Paul Monette, novelist and poet

b. October 16, 1945
d. February 10, 1995

Born in Lawrence, Massuchusetts, Monette grew up in an upper-middle-class environment; educated at the Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and at Yale University, where he gained a BA in 1967. He subsequently taught at the Milton Academy and at Pine Manor College before settling into the life of a writer.

After moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Monette wrote a number of gay-themed novels, including "Taking Care of Mrs. Carrol" and "The Gold Diggers." In 1985, his world was shattered by the death of his lover of ten years, Roger Horwitz, from AIDS-related illness. Monette produced a book of poetry, "Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog", and "Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir," which became a best-seller in 1988.

Initially closeted, and after futile attempts at heterosexuality, and falling in love with a man, he finally came out. When his longtime lover Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS and suffered from a variety of AIDS-related diseases, and finally died, he became an advocate of gay and lesbian rights, and an active supporter of ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power).

Also Monette was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991, and died four yìears later of AIDS-related complications. Nonetheless, Monette's final years were filled with love (he formed long-term relationships with casting director Stepphen Kolzak, who died in 1990 also to AIDS related illness, and then with Winston Wilde), and were amazingly productive.

Paul Monette won the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction with his autobiographical "Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story." Written after he found out he had AIDS, it is a powerful depiction of the subjects Monette knew best: the nature of the disease, the problems of being in the closet, and the potential in gay relationships.

Source:


Gabriele Griffin, Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay and Writing, Routledge, London, 2002
Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, from WWII to Present Day, Routledge, London, 2001 - et alii

Books:

• Taking Care of Mrs.Carroll (1978)
• The Gold Diggers (1979)
• The Long Shot (1981)
• Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog (1987)
• Borrowed Time: An Aids Memoir (1988)
• Afterlife (1990)
• Halfway Home (1991)
• Becoming a Man - Half a Lifestory (1992)
• Last Watch of the Night (1994)
• Documentary about Monette:
• Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End (1997)

September 6: Sylvester (1946 - 1988), African American genderqueer entertainer

b. 6th September, 1946
d. 1988

Sylvester: 1946. He lived his entire life on the corner of Gay and Black. Born in Los Angeles, he moved to San Francisco where he began performing with the gender-queering troupe known as the Cockettes. He also performed in drag in a musical review of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday songs. He went on to form several bands before finally latching onto the disco craze in the mid-1970s a solo artist. His second album, Step II, yielded his greatest funk/disco hits, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Dance (Disco Heat)”. 

Box Turtle Bulletin

Randy Shilts, Author, Journalist

b. August 8, 1951

d. February 17, 1994

"History is not served when reporters prize trepidation and propriety over the robust journalistic duty to tell the whole story."

Randy Shilts was the first openly gay journalist to cover GLBT issues in the American mainstream press. He held positions at The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle and is the author of three books. 

Shilts came out at age 20 and was head of the Eugene, Oregon Gay People's Alliance. After working as the northwest correspondent for The Advocate, he moved to San Francisco to become a staff writer. He covered gay issues and city politics at San Francisco area television stations. 

Shilts wrote “The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk” (1982), when a biography about a gay political figure was groundbreaking.

His New York Times best seller, “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic," (1987), was the first major book about AIDS. It chronicles the first five years of the epidemic and exposes the infighting and inaction that led the virus to become a pandemic.  The book earned a nomination for the National Book Award and was translated into seven languages. It was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film starring Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Matthew Modine and Lily Tomlin.

While suffering from AIDS-related causes, Shilts dictated the last chapters of “Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military” (1993).  The work examines homophobia in the military and is based on more than 1,000 interviews. 

Shilts never compromised his professional integrity. In 1993, a year before he lost his battle with AIDS, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.


Bibliography
Grimes, William. “Randy Shilts, Author, Dies at 42; One of First to Write About AIDS.” The New York Times. February 18, 1994

Schmalz, Jeffrey. “AT HOME WITH: Randy Shilts; Writing Against Time, Valiantly.” The New York Times. April 22, 1993

Weiss, Mike. “Randy Shilts was Gutsy, Brash and Unforgettable.” The San Francisco Chronicle. February 17, 2007

Articles
Geiger, H. Jack. “Plenty of Blame to go Around.” The New York Times. November 8, 1987

Reinhold, Robert. “AIDS Book Brings Fame to a Gay San Franciscan.” The New York Times. October 31, 1987

Books


“The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk”

“And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1987)

Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military (1993)

Other Resources


Reporter Zero (Documentary Film)

Rev. Thom Savage, Jesuit priest (1947 - 1999) U.S.A.

b.
d. May 10, 1999

Rev. Thom Savage was an American Catholic priest and president of Rockhurst University and a board member for both the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Kansas City Board of Trade who died of AIDS in 1999.

His brother James, also a priest, recalls that when he had his 25th anniversary in the priesthood in 1995, which was also the year of their mother's 90th birthday, they were celebrating together. And he almost didn't make it, because he was so sick.

At the time, James Savage said, family members assumed Thom Savage was having asthma-related problems. He had struggled with asthma all his life.

"And then, from 1995 until he died, those four years, he never said anything to anybody," James Savage said.

As with his illness, Thom Savage also had hidden his homosexuality,forced on him by the necessity of the Catholic clerical closet, and the CDF denunciation of any sexual expression for homosexuals.

"He certainly wasn't open about it," James Savage said. "Otherwise, we could have suspected what he might have. So there was no intimation of that."

After his death, he was widely applauded for the quality of his work as a priest. Bishop Raymond J. Boland of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said "He did a lot of wonderful priestly work while he was living."

During a memorial service for Savage, the Rev. Patrick Rush, vicar general of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, asked those attending to thank Savage for his performance as a community leader and Rockhurst president. Three hundred people stood and applauded.

"Thom Savage was -- let's face it -- a showman," Rush said. "His life was a virtuoso performance of humanity, of Catholic Christian spirituality, of Jesuit mission.

The Rev. Tom Lequin, a priest in Presque Isle, Maine, attended seminary with Thom Savage in the Jesuits' New England Province.

"He was my classmate and a good friend," Lequin said. "He was a creative genius. And gifted? Oh, my God. He was just an exceptional person."

Rockhurst President Edward Kinerk, who was Savage's provincial in St. Louis, noted that Savage had entered the seminary in 1967.

"As a Jesuit, I cannot feel anything but pride and gratitude for a meteor that burned itself out in the service of others," Kinerk said. "On May 10, 1999, God took the gift back.

"Thom is with God. As Jesuits, we rejoice. He has done what God sent him to do."

Kiyoshi Kuromiya , Author/AIDS Activist

"I really believe that activism is therapeutic."

b. May 9, 1943
d. May 10, 2000

Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a Gay Pioneer and an early HIV/AIDS expert.

May 9: Kiyoshi Kuromiya , Author/AIDS Activist

"I really believe that activism is therapeutic."

b. May 9, 1943
d. May 10, 2000

Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a Gay Pioneer and an early HIV/AIDS expert.