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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 23

1616 – On this date the English writer and actor William Shakespeare died. He was born in 1564 and baptised on the 26 April, probably within 2 or 3 days of his birthdate. (One legend is that he died on the day that he was born - which would make his birthdate also today, 23 April)

Shakespeare is the most important playwright and poet in the English or any other language, but Shakespeare's sonnets are cited as evidence of his possible homosexuality.

The poems were initially published, perhaps without his approval, in 1609. One hundred and twenty-six of them appear to be love poems addressed to a beautiful young man whom he addresses as 'Fair Lord' or 'Fair Youth'; this is often assumed to be the same person as the 'Mr W.H.' to whom the sonnets are dedicated. The identity of this figure (if he is indeed based on a real person) is unclear; the most popular candidates are Shakespeare's patrons, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, both of whom were considered handsome in their youth.

It remains unclear whether the Fair Lord and Fair Youth addressed represent real individuals, or even whether the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".

Even though he married Anne Hathaway and had three children, the circumstantial evidence, such as in his sonnets and plays, suggests he did have an erotic interest in men. Evidence of these homosexual tendencies comes from an analysis of his sonnets, which address his "great love," who seems be a young man.

1791 – Today's the birthday of James Buchanan (d.1868), the 15th President of the United States and the nation's only bachelor chief executive, unanimously considered worst president in U.S. history.

For fifteen years in Washington, D.C., prior to his presidency, Buchanan lived with his "close friend," Alabama Senator William Rufus King. King became Vice President under Franklin Pierce. He took ill and died shortly after Pierce's inauguration, and four years before Buchanan became President. Buchanan and King's close relationship prompted the surly Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife." Further, some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan and King's relationship.

William Rufus King

Buchanan's and King's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions as to what relationship the two men had, but the length and intimacy of surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship", and Buchanan wrote of his "communion" with his housemate . The circumstances surrounding Buchanan and King's close emotional ties have led most open historians to speculate that he was America's first homosexual president.

Perry Brass wrote us to tell us that in "several cities, most notably Washington, DC, 'James Buchanan Clubs' popped up, joined by wealthy bachelors. The clubs purported to be a place where bachelor men could 'network,' before that word became a verb, but the actual basis of the club was pretty well known: they were clubs for (somewhat) closeted A-gays. Another version of the clubs were called 'Steamboat clubs,' and I'm not sure where that word came from, although I think it had some connection with the Buchanan era as well."

Why was he such a bad president? Well, in a nutshell, most historians consider him responsible for letting the country fall apart into the Civil War. He acquiesced to Southern states (even though he himself was a Pennsylvanian). Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides. As the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War, Buchanan's opinion was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal; hence he remained inactive.

By the time he left office, popular opinion had turned against him and the Democratic Party had split in two. His handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents in American history.

If you visit Washington, DC, you can see the lovingly restored cottage of Buchanan's successor (and perhaps the second homosexual President) Abraham Lincoln. Located at the Old Soldiers Home near Rock Creek Park, the cottage underwent a complete renovation to return it to period authenticity as the summer home of the Lincolns during the civil war. What does this have to do with Buchanan? Well, if you stand in the front yard of the Lincoln cottage, across the way you'll see the beautiful cottage that was the summer home to Buchanan and King on those hot steamy Washington summers of long ago.

1882 – The Chilean novelist Augusto Goemine Thomson better known as Augusto D'Halmar was born on this date. He is best known as the author of the novel "Pasión y muerte del Cura Deusto" which was published in 1924. It was one of the first novels to deal with homosexuality in an open way. In 1942 D'Halmar was awarded the Premio Nacional de Literatura. He was the first recipient of the honor.

1918 – James Kirkup (d.2009) was a prolific English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote over 30 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and worked for the Forestry Commission and on the land in the Yorkshire Dales.He taught at The Downs School in Colwall, Malvern, where W.H. Auden had earlier been a master. Kirkup wrote his first book of poetry, The Drowned Sailor at the Downs, which was published in 1947.

In 1952 he moved south to Gloucestershire and became visiting poet at Bath Academy of Art for the next three years. Moving on from Bath, he taught in a London grammar school before leaving England in 1956 to live and work in Europe, the Americas and the Far East. In Japan, he found acceptance and appreciation of his work, and he settled there for 30 years, lecturing in English literature at several universities.

Kirkup came to public attention in 1977, after the newspaper Gay News published his poem The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name, in which a Roman centurion describes his lust for and attraction to the crucified Jesus. The paper was successfully prosecuted in the Whitehouse v. Lemon case, along with the editor, Dennis Lemon, for blasphemous libel under the 1697 Blasphemy Act, by Mary Whitehouse, then Secretary of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.

You can read the poem here: The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name

Mister Rogers with Officer Clemmons

1945 – François Clemmons is an American singer, actor, playwright and university lecturer. He is perhaps best known for his appearances as "Officer Clemmons" on the PBS television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from 1968 to 1993.

Clemmons was born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in Youngstown, Ohio. When it was discovered that he had an excellent singing voice, he began performing locally at church functions. He became choir director of his church at the age of 10. His first songs were the spirituals of pre-Civil War America, passed down to him by his mother. He soon branched out across genres, singing with various community groups. For a while, he was the lead singer of a rock 'n' roll group called the Jokers.

Clemmons received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College, and a Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University. He also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts from Middlebury College.For 25 years, Clemmons performed the role of Officer Clemmons, a friendly neighborhood policeman, in the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" on the children's television show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In the neighborhood itself, Clemmons ran a singing and dance studio located in the building diagonally across the street from Mister Rogers' house. He was one of the first African Americans to have a recurring role on a kids' TV series, and his presentation – as both a beloved neighbor to Mister Rogers and as a respected authority figure – has been described as a ground-breaking message in race relations.

While attending Oberlin College, Clemmons realized that he was gay, but remained closeted, fearing disapproval from his religious family and the community. In 1968, Fred Rogers told Clemmons that while his sexuality did not matter to him personally, Clemmons could not be "out" and continue appearing on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, because of the scandal that would arise. In the late 1960s, Rogers and others suggested that Clemmons get married as a way to deal with his sexual orientation, which he did. His marriage to wife Carol did not work out, and Clemmons divorced in 1974 so that he could live openly as a gay man. Rogers remained personally supportive of Clemmons, but required him to avoid any indication of his homosexuality – such as the earring he began to wear as a signifier – on the program.

Clemmons lives and works in Middlebury, Vermont, where he is the Emeritus Artist in Residence of Middlebury College. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music.

1957 – Alex Sanchez's unique background as a youth and family counselor and his experiences as an immigrant have helped make him an important voice in today's young adult glbtq literature canon. Born in Mexico City, Mexico, to parents of both Cuban and German descent, Sanchez immigrated with his family to Texas in 1962 at the age of five.

In a panel discussion at the 2003 National Council of Teachers of English convention, he explained, "Because of my light-skinned father and his German last name (not Sanchez), I learned I could pass as white. I could hide who I was, so that others would like and accept me."

At age 13, Sanchez realized that he was gay. He once again experienced feelings of being an outsider. But this time he felt there was no one he could talk to or relate to. He found no books in the library that described what he was going through, and none to tell him that what he felt was okay.

"So," he explained, "just as I had learned to hide that I was Mexican, I tried to hide that I was gay. I became depressed, quiet, invisible, trying to escape calling attention to myself."

After graduation, he worked as a family and youth counselor for ten years. During that time, he began to write the story that would eventually become Rainbow Boys (2001).

The book features three distinct and well-developed gay teens: an "out-and-proud" gay activist, a jock who starts the book with a girlfriend and family issues, and a low-key closeted teen who experiences prejudice due to his friendship with the more flamboyant character. The characters' stories are continued in Rainbow High (2003) and Rainbow Road (2005).

Considering that the average age most gay Americans now "come out" has dropped from age 21 (in 1979) to around 15 today (and as low as ten), the need for middle-grade glbtq fiction is obvious.

Alex Sanchez is one of today's most influential authors for the glbtq young adult market. His popularity and success is due to many factors, but most notably his believable characters, the timely and relevant storylines of his novels, and the broad appeal of the stories to both gay and straight teens.

Sanchez's books have helped countless gay teens accept themselves while at the same time helping straight readers understand and empathize with gay teens.

1984 – Aras Onur is a Turkish author, poet, and columnist.

Aras Onur was born in Ankara and is a graduate of TED Ankara College and University of Ankara. He started his literary career in the early 2000s. Openly gay, he has been often associated with local LGBT literature.

He is often identified as a socialist in the media, although his conservative tendencies are also often noted. Aras Onur was mastermind of "Kindle a Candle" protests, a wave of civil unrests in Turkey which began on 11 September 2015. The protesters were spurred on by a manifesto released by columnists of the national newspaper Karsi, in which the slogan "Kindle a Candle, Stand Out" was featured.

Onur had written Karsi editorial columns for two years as the acting-editor until he resigned from office in October 2016, following a ban on accessing the paper's website.

1984 – The US Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary holds a press conference announcing that the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered: it’s HTLV-3, known today as HIV ('human immunodeficiency virus'). AIDS was originally named called GRID – 'gay related immune deficiency'.

2013 – The French Senate approves same-sex marriage.

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 27

1906 – Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim (d.circa 2003), born in Lübeck, Germany was an ordinary German man who was imprisoned by the Nazis for the (then) crime of homosexuality under Germany's now-repealed Paragraph 175.

Von Groszheim was one of 230 men arrested in Lübeck on suspicion of being gay by the SS in January 1937 under paragraph 175, which outlawed homosexuality. He was imprisoned for ten months, during which he had to wear a badge emblazoned with a capital A, for Arschficker (arse-fucker):

They beat us to a pulp. I couldn't lie down...my whole back (was) bloody. You were beaten until you finally named names.

Von Groszheim was held in a cell with no heating, very little food, and no toilet facilities. Freed, he was rearrested in 1938 and tortured. Von Groszheim was eventually offered the 'alternative' of castration or Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He 'chose' castration. Terrible as it may seem, it was a decision that probably saved his life. He was then released.

Because of the castration, von Groszheim was rejected as physically unfit for military service in 1940. In 1943 he was arrested a third time, this time as a supporter of the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, and imprisoned as a political prisoner at Neuengamme concentration camp.

After the war, he settled in Hamburg.

Von Groszheim was never acknowledged as a victim of the Nazi regime, and due to on-going persecution of homosexuals in Germany, it took nearly half a century before he broke his silence. Eventually he explained why he began to speak out: 'I'm living proof that Hitler didn't win. I'm aware of that every day. If I don't tell my story, who will know the truth?.' He only told his story in 1992, on We Were Marked with a Big "A", a film in German with English subtitles.

In 1995, he was one of eight signers to a declaration given to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. that called for the "memorializing and documenting of Nazi atrocities against homosexuals and others."

Jack Cole rehearsing Marilyn Monroe

1911 – Jack Cole (d.1974) was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as the father of theatrical jazz dance. He developed an entirely personal mode of jazz-ethnic-ballet that prevails as the dominant look of and technique for dancing in today's musicals, films, nightclub revues, television commercials and music videos.

Jack Cole, a student of Ravi Shankar's older brother Uday (who popularized East Indian dance in the West), danced with the staid orientalist Denishawn troupe, and invented jazz dance by applying what he knew of Indian dance to jazz music.

He stripped in Broadway's Ziegfield Follies Of 1943, opened New York's Rainbow Room, and formed a troupe that eroticized the Radio City Music Hall, Roxy, Ciro's, and the Fairmont and Dunes hotels.

His Hollywood entrance didn't go well: his specialty number for Fox's Moon Over Miami (1941) was cut as too sexy and he was fired by Arthur Freed from MGM's Ziegfield Follies (1946), for "griping about all the 'queen bees' like Cedric Gibbons and Roger Edens." Minnelli, Gibbons, et al, worked within the MGM closet, but Cole was a rebel and didn't hide his gayness.

At Columbia, then a minor studio, he lasted from 1944 until the McCarthy hearings of 1948, when most of his dancers fled to Europe. His first Columbia film was Cover Girl (1944) with Rita Hayworth, working with Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, and Felix. He worked with Ann Miller and thrice more with Hayworth, his eroticism transferred almost intact to her in the 'Put the Blame on Mame' number in Gilda (1946), his homoeroticism most pronounced in the satirical 'Greek Ballet' in Down To Earth (1947). When Gilda describing herself stops in midsentence, the next word could be "stripper," for Cole based her movements on striptease.

At Fox, Cole vitalized Gwen Verdon in On The Riviera, revitalized Betty Grable in Meet Me After The Show (both 1951), surrounded Mitzi Gaynor with slinky catmen in The I Don't Care Girl (1953) and became Marilyn Monroe's dance guru from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) until the end of her life, surrounding her with musclemen in There's No Business Like Show Business (1954).

He returned to Metro for Vincente Minnelli's Kismet (1955; he had done the Broadway show and the 1944 film); Designing Woman; and, with Gene Kelly, Les Girls (1957).

Back at Columbia, he gave Betty Grable a male harem in Three For The Show (1955). His gayness was hidden within his Orientalism, suggesting to Shirley McLean that "masculinity and gay identity" are not necessarily antithetical, erasing gender (unlike true oriental dance), and sought after by female dancers.

But "for gay audiences, the classic Cole number" is 'Is There Anyone Here For Love?' in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, featuring Physique Pictorial-type gymnasts oblivious to Jane Russell's charms: they even pump "their buttocks up and down in rhythm, an outrageous simulation of gay sex."

Cole lived openly in a mansion with his lover, David Gray. Their pool parties were "very naughty and very gay," with Gray on a diving board in high heels. At a 1974 memorial for Cole, Jane Russell reminisced about Cole's penchant for gay porn.

1951 – Luis Zapata Quiroz is Mexico's most prominent gay author. He rose to popularity in the 1970s with books about the youth subculture of Mexico City. His novels examine the connection between daily life and the popular culture of radio, television, and film.

Born into an upper middle-class family in rural Mexico, Zapata escaped the restrictions of his background by losing himself in the cinema. Popular culture, cinema, melodrama and soap opera have all played a significant influence on his writing.

Unusually for a Mexican writer, most of his novels, and stories feature gay and bisexual characters prominently. Where heterosexual characters appear they are usually within the context of the family and there is some element of hypocrisy and concealment, so the happiness of the normal social order is in some way seen as a smokescreen for more interesting goings on beneath the surface - as is the case with much popular drama and soap opera. His style is very heavily reliant on representing convincing dialogue and conversation - often between people of different social classes.

His work includes Hasta en las mejores familias (Even in the Best Families, 1975), Las aventuras, desventuras y sueños de Adonis García, el vampiro de la colonia Roma ( The Aventures, Misadventures, and Dreams of Adonis Garcia, Vampire of the Roman Colony, 1979), Melodrama (1983), En jirones (In Shreds, 1985) and La hermana secreta de Angélica María (The Secret Sister of Angelica María, 1989)

1953 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450 which establishes grounds for investigation and dismissal: "Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction, or sexual perversion." Without explicitly referring to homosexuality, the executive order responded to several years of charges that the presence of homosexual employees in the State Department posed blackmail risks. As a result, more than 640 federal employees lose their jobs over the next year and a half.

1963 – Today's the birthday of Russell T. Davies (born Steven Russell Davies). Davies is a Welsh television producer and writer and the prolific writer best known for controversial drama serials such as Queer as Folk and The Second Coming. He's also garnered major Geek love for spearheading the revival of the popular science-fiction television series Doctor Who, and the spin-off Torchwood. Although Doctor Who always had serious levels of camp, Davies really stretched the series into a much more inclusive and sexually playful character.

Born in Swansea, Davies aspired to work as a comic artist in his adult life, until a careers advisor at his school suggested that he study English literature; he consequently focused on a career of play- and screen-writing. After he graduated from Oxford University, Davies joined the BBC's children's department on a part-time basis in 1985 and worked in varying positions, including writing and producing two series, Dark Season and Century Falls. He left the BBC in the early 1990s to work for Granada Television and later became a freelance writer.

Davies moved into writing adult television dramas in 1994. His early scripts generally explored concepts of religion and sexuality among various backdrops: Revelations was a soap opera about organised religion and featured a lesbian vicar; Springhill was a soap drama about a Catholic family in contemporary Liverpool; The Grand explored society's opinion of subjects such as prostitution, abortion, and homosexuality during the interwar period; and Queer as Folk, his first prolific series, recreated his experiences in the Manchester gay scene. His later series include Bob & Rose, which portrayed a gay man who fell in love with a woman; The Second Coming, which focused on the second coming and deicide of Jesus Christ; Mine All Mine, a comedy about a family who discover they owned the entire city of Swansea; and Casanova, an adaptation of the Venetian lover's complete memoirs.

His most notable achievement is reviving and running the science fiction series Doctor Who after a sixteen year hiatus, with Christopher Eccleston, and later David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi in the title role of the Doctor. Davies was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to drama, which coincided with his announcement that he would step down from as the show's executive producer with his final script, The End of Time (2009-10). Davies moved to Los Angeles, California, to oversee production of Torchwood: Miracle Day and, before the death of Elisabeth Sladen, series five of The Sarah Jane Adventures.He has since returned to Manchester.

His latest show, Cucumber, a spiritual successor to Queer as Folk focuses on middle-aged gay men in the Manchester gay scene, and is accompanied with Banana, an E4 anthology series featuring younger characters across the LGBT spectrum on the periphery of the Cucumber narrative, and Tofu, an online documentary series available on 4oD discussing modern sex, sexuality and issues arisen during the show with the cast and public. The three names reference a urological scale categorising the male erection by hardness from tofu to cucumber, and are used to symbolise differences in sexual attitudes and behaviour between the two generations. Although Cucumber is designed as a self-contained serial focusing on the life of one man, Davies envisions Banana as open-ended and believes it could continue after its sister series finishes.

Davies' next project after Cucumber and Banana will be The Boys, a Channel 4 series about the HIV/AIDS crisis during the 1980s. The Boys will be a dramatised retrospective of the crisis which focuses on the men "living in the bedsits" during the 1980s as opposed to films such as Pride which focus on gay activists; Davies notes that the stories regarding the politics of the crisis and the virus itself has been told, but not those regarding the early victims of the virus itself. Davies describes The Boys as a way of "coming to terms" with his own actions during the 1980s, when the shock of the crisis prevented him from properly mourning the deaths of his close friends. After The Boys, Davies plans to write a series about sextortion that draws inspiration from real-life incidents of blackmail that resulted in suicide.

Davies is openly gay and has been with his partner, customs officer Andrew Smith, since 1999.

1992 – James Duke Mason is an American politician, writer, and political activist. He is the son of singer Belinda Carlisle and film producer Morgan Mason, and the grandson of the late British actor James Mason. In 2010, The Advocate listed Mason as one of the most influential young LGBT Americans in their "Forty Under 40" issue. He was named in OUT magazine's 2011 "Out 100" issue as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the world.

Born in Los Angeles, Mason moved to Europe with his parents as a child. In an Attitude Magazine interview, Mason stated that he is openly gay and that he came out to his family and friends at the age of 14 in 2006. After graduating from Mougins School, an international school in the south of France in July 2010, Mason moved back to the U.S. to study Political Science at California Lutheran University. After a year he moved to West Hollywood, California to focus on his efforts in grassroots advocacy.

He was appointed to serve as a Page in the U.S. House of Representatives during the summer of 2008, and also worked as a volunteer for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries. He has appeared on TV shows such as Dr. Phil, Nancy Grace, and Politicking with Larry King to discuss LGBT issues, has written articles for websites such as The Huffington Post and The Advocate, and did a YouTube video to back the It Gets Better campaign.

In December 2011 it was announced that Mason was appointed to the board of directors of Outfest, making him the youngest member in the organization's 30-year history. He began his term in January 2012.

He served as an official surrogate for the campaign of Barack Obama in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. He had a small acting role in the film What Happens Next, which screened as part of the Hollywood Film Festival. He was a candidate for the West Hollywood City Council in the March 3, 2015 election.

1998 – Ghislaine Landry is a Canadian rugby union player. She won a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games as a member of the Canadian women's rugby sevens team. During the 2016-17 season, Landry succeeded Jen Kish as captain of the national sevens. On 20 October 2018, Landry became the first woman to hit the 1,000 point milestone in the women's sevens World Series.

In 2016, Landry was named to Canada's first ever women's rugby sevens Olympic team, which won the bronze medal in a match against Great Britain. In 2017, Landry moved into first place all-time in HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series scoring with 706 points. In June 2021, Landry was named to Canada's 2020 Summer Olympics team.

Landry attended Saint Francis Xavier University.

She came out as homosexual in 2006 and married her partner in 2018.

In 2021, she announced her retirement from the sport, hanging up the boots at the age of 33 after an illustrious international career that spanned a decade.

2009 – Iowa becomes the third state to allow same-sex marriage.

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