THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY JANUARY 21

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

JANUARY 21

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE…Craig Claiborne and James Beard were both born on this weekend...make someone special something nice for dinner...

JANUARY 20

1944 - The great Black Lesbian poet PAT PARKER was born (d. 1989). Author of many books, including "Movement In Black," "Child of Myself" and "Jonestown and Other Madness."  She is remembered for such incisive writing in poems like "For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend" and "For The Straight Folks Who Don't Mind Gays But Wish They Weren't So BLATANT" (One of the funniest and most right-on poems written on this subject -- see today's "Gay Wisdom"). Her poems were a herald of strength and resistance in the early movement of Gay Liberation. After a long history of writing and teaching, Parker died of cancer in 1989.

1993 - Screen legend Audrey Hepburn died in Switzerland at age 63. She wasn't gay but had such style and class it just felt right to note her passing today. Editorial prerogative.

2001 - On this date some 25,000 protesters gathered in Washington, DC for the inauguration of President George W. Bush along with some 7,000 police. George Bush, the so called "1st President with an MBA," was inaugurated as the nation's 43^rd President in Washington DC. The "compassionate conservative" vowed to lead "through civility, courage, compassion and character."

Four years later on this date in 2005 the inauguration ceremony for Bush was held in Washington DC. Anti-Bush demonstrators jeered the president's motorcade during the inaugural parade. The event was expected to cost $40 million the administration asked DC to use $11.9 million of its own federal homeland security funds to help pay costs. Pres. Bush pledged to spread democracy and support democratic movements worldwide. After 8 years involving two wars, three attacks in the country, near economic collapse, massive hurricane damage, and more than can be listed on this email (like his being the first president to call for the codification of anti-Gay legislation into the constitution), Bush left office with the lowest approval rating of any U.S. President in history (22%, beating the former record holder -- Truman who had 32%).

2003 - on this date in South Africa an execution-style attack at a Cape Town Gay bath house killed eight men and badly wounded two.

2009 - President Barack Obama was inaugurated into office in Washington, DC with great expectation to make sweeping change.  It was a great day with great fanfare (Aretha's hat!) and record crowds for an inaugural in bitterly cold weather. Though his administration has taken on one of the most dire economies since the Great Depression he continues to be blamed by many Americans for the current economic predicament (forgetting the prior right years of disastrous economic and politics.) And while he has, in many ways, been a disappointment to most progressives, he did manage to fulfill the promise of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell last month. Now all someone needs to do is sit down and explain to this man the finer points of real equality and the parallels with "separate but equal"…it wasn't good then…it isn't good now.

For Catholics today is the feast day of ST. SEBASTIAN. Popular among many Gay men why exactly?  Could it have something to do with his commonly being depicted in art and literature tied to a post naked and shot with arrows? Others claim he was the beloved of the emperor Diocletian, who turned against him for embracing Christianity. Given Christianity's common position on homosexuality, Dio could be forgiven for his disappointment, couldn't he?  On a more trivial note Sebastian is the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1880 - British writer and critic LYTTON STRACHEY was born (d. 1932). He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. His 1921 biography Queen Victoria was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Educated at Cambridge, he became close friends with non-Apostles Thoby Stephen and Clive Bell, and they, together with sisters Vanessa and Virginia Stephen (later Bell and Woolf respectively), eventually formed the Bloomsbury group. Strachey is credited with having revolutionized the art of writing biography. In reaction to the copious dull scholarship and the lengthy panegyrics of the 19th century, he determined to write biographies that were swift, selective, critical, witty, and artistic. His work includes Eminent Victorians (1918), a volume of short biographical studies; Queen Victoria (1921), his masterpiece; Elizabeth and Essex (1928); and Portraits in Miniature (1931). As a critic, Strachey was the author of such works as Landmarks in French Literature, a study of the classical spirit (1912), and Books and Characters (1922).

Though Strachey spoke openly about his sexuality with his Bloomsbury friends (he had a relationship with economist JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, who also was part of the Bloomsbury group), it was not widely publicized until the late 1960s, in a biography by Michael Holroyd. He had an odd relationship with the painter Dora Carrington. Allegedly, she loved him; it was unrequited, two months after Strachey's death, she committed suicide and burned all of Strachey's personal possessions.

1895 - The best known Spanish fashion designer, CRISTÓBAL BALENCIAGA was born. Regarded as the master of fashion, his classic designs inspired the fashion industry throughout most of the twentieth century and continue to exert influence.

Born in Guetaria, near San Sebastian, Spain, Cristóbal Balenciaga Eisaguirre was the son of a fisherman. He studied needlework and dressmaking with his mother until 1910. In 1915, he established his own tailoring business under the sponsorship of Marquesa de Casa Torres. By the early 1930s he had established a reputation as Spain's leading couturier. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Balenciaga closed his three couture houses and left Spain. After a brief stay in London, Balenciaga settled in Paris and in 1937 opened The House of Balenciaga on Avenue George V.

Balenciaga never married. This fact, coupled with his career in fashion, has led to speculation and rumors about his sexuality. A deeply private man, he never discussed his personal life publicly. One particular incident reported by writer Jacqueline Demornex may, however, throw a little light on his sexuality. After an argument between the couturier Coco Chanel and Balenciaga, Chanel allegedly made the following observation to a mutual friend: "It is obvious that he dislikes them (women); look at the way he conceals blouses under suits, just to expose the wrinkles in their necks." Inasmuch as such charges are frequently made against gay male designers, Demornex ponders why Chanel attacked Balenciaga in such a way: was it his age, his way of dressing women, or his private life?

So flattering were Balenciaga's creations that women often ordered more than one of each design so that they could wear one while the other was being cleaned or so they could keep one at each of their houses. Remembered as a master of black, Balenciaga often favored a muted palette of colors, especially a combination of black and brown, inspired by the traditional dress of his native Spain. Spain was also the source and inspiration for his use of lace, his heavy embroidery with jet-encrusted trimmings, as well as the brilliant whites and the drama and dignity of stiff formal fabrics reminiscent of those painted by Goya and Velásquez.

In 1968 Balenciaga closed his business rather than see it compromised in a fashion era he did not respect. He retired to Spain and died in 1972.

1903 - American chef and food writer JAMES BEARD was born (d. 1985). Recognized by many as the father of American gastronomy, throughout his life he pursued and advocated the highest standards, and served as a mentor to emerging talents in the field of the culinary arts.

According to the James Beard Foundation, "After a brief stint at Reed College in Portland," (from which he was expelled in 1922 for homosexual activity) "in 1923 Beard went on the road with a theatrical troupe. He lived abroad for several years studying voice and theater, but returned to the United States for good in 1927." He trained initially as a singer and actor, and moved to New York City in 1937. Not having much luck in the theater, he and his friend, Bill Rhodes, capitalized on the cocktail party craze by opening a catering company, "Hors D'Oeuvre, Inc.", which led the publication of Beard's first cookbook, Hors D'Oeuvre and Canapés, a compilation of his catering recipes. In 1946, he appeared on an early televised cooking show, I Love to Eat, on NBC, and thus began his rise as an eminent American food authority.  Beard began lecturing, teaching, and writing books and articles. Child states, "Through the years he gradually became not only the leading culinary figure in the country, but `The Dean of American Cuisine'." In 1955, he established The James Beard Cooking School and taught cooking for the next 30 years around the country. He was a tireless traveler, bringing his message of good food, honestly prepared with fresh, wholesome, American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage.

James Beard is the central figure in the story of the establishment of an American food identity. He was an eccentric personality who brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes in the 1950s. Many consider him the father of American-style cooking. His legacy lives on in twenty books, numerous writings, his own foundation, and his foundation's annual Beard awards in various culinary genres.

Julia Child accurately sums up Beard's personal life in an brief description: "Beard was the quintessential American cook. Well-educated and well-traveled during his eighty-two years, he was familiar with many cuisines but he remained fundamentally American. He was a big man, over six feet tall, with a big belly, and huge hands. An endearing and always lively teacher, he loved people, loved his work, loved gossip, loved to eat, loved a good time."

Child's summary makes two significant omissions. The first is that he was gay. Beard's memoir states: "By the time I was seven, I knew that I was gay. I think it's time to talk about that now." The second was Beard's own admission of possessing "until I was about forty-five, I guess a really violent temper." The New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman (who did not know Beard personally) describes him in a similar way: "In a time when serious cooking meant French cooking, Beard was quintessentially American, a westerner whose mother ran a boardinghouse, a man who grew up with hotcakes and salmon and meatloaf in his blood. A man who was born a hundred years ago on the other side of the county, in a city, Portland, that at the time was every bit as cosmopolitan as, say, Allegheny PA."

Craig Claiborne, Beard's contemporary (his birthday is tomorrow) called Beard "an innovator, an experimenter, a missionary in bringing the gospel of good cooking to the home table.  Physically he was the connoisseur's connoisseur. He was a giant panda, Santa Claus and the Jolly Green Giant rolled into one. On him, a lean and slender physique would have looked like very bad casting." Beard died of heart failure at the age of 81. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over the beach in Gearhart, Oregon, United States, where he spent his summers as a child.

After Beard's death in 1985, Julia Child had the idea to preserve his home in New York City as the gathering place it was throughout his life. Peter Kump, a former student of Beard's and the founder of the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump's New York Cooking School), spearheaded the effort to purchase the house and create the James Beard Foundation. Beard's renovated brownstone is located at 167 West 12^th Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village. It is North America's only historical culinary center, a place where Foundation members, the press, and the general public are encouraged to savor the creations of both established and emerging chefs from across the country and around the globe.  The annual James Beard Foundation Awards are given at the industry's biggest party, part of a fortnight of activities that celebrate fine cuisine and Beard's birthday. Held on the first Monday in May, the Awards ceremony honors the finest chefs, restaurants, journalists, cookbook authors, restaurant designers, and electronic media professionals in the country. It culminates in a reception featuring a tasting of the signature dishes of more than 30 of the James Beard Foundation's very best chefs.  The foundation also publishes a quarterly magazine, Beard House, a comprehensive compendium of the best in culinary journalism. The foundation also publishes the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Directory, a directory of all chefs who have either presented a meal at the Beard House or have participated in one of the foundation's out-of-House fundraising events. (This writer has cooked at the Beard House twice!)

1905 Fashion designer and icon CHRISTIAN DIOR was born on this date (d. 1957). He was born in Granville, Manche, Normandy, France, the younger son of Maurice Dior, a manufacturer of fertilizer and chemicals, and his wife, the former Madeleine Martin. Dior had an elder brother, Raymond, whose daughter was the Nazi sympathizer Françoise Dior. Acceding to his parents' wishes, Dior attended the Ecole des Sciences Politiques from 1920 to 1925. The family, whose fortune was derived from the manufacture of fertilizer, had hopes he would become a diplomat, but Dior only wished to be involved in the arts. After leaving school he received money from his father so that in 1928 he could open a small art gallery, where he sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Max Jacob. After a family financial disaster that resulted in his father losing his business, Dior was forced to shut down the gallery. In the 1930s Dior made a living by doing sketches for haute couture houses. In 1938 he worked with Robert Piguet and later joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. In 1945 he went into business for himself, backed by Marcel Boussac, the cotton-fabric magnate. Dior's fashion house opened in December 1946, and the following February, he presented his first collection, known as Corolle. It was more famously known as the New Look. The actual phrase the "New Look" was coined by Carmel Snow, the powerful editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes; Dior is quoted as saying "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form. The hem of the skirt was very flattering on the calves and ankles, creating a beautiful silhouette. Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. There was also some backlash to Dior's designs form due to the amount of fabrics used in a single dress or suit--during one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over the profligacy of their dresses--but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended. The New Look revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.

Dior died at the health spa town Montecatini. Some reports say that he died of a heart attack after choking on a fish bone. Time magazine's obituary stated that he died of a heart attack after playing a game of cards. However, the Paris socialite and Dior acquaintance Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Rédé stated in his memoirs that contemporary rumor had it that the fashion designer succumbed to a heart attack after a strenuous sexual encounter with two young men. His companion, at the time of his death, was an Algerian-born singer, Jacques Benita.

1926 – VITA SACKVILLE-WEST writes a love letter, dated this date, to VIRGINIA WOOLF that begins their love affair.

1938 - British actor and former policeman JOHN SAVIDENT was born on this date. Best known for his role on TV programs like Yes, Minister (1980), Coronation Street (as Fred Elliot, 1994 - 2006), Sharpe's Regiment (1996), The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996). Savident also appeared in films including Waterloo (1970), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Raging Moon (1971), Galileo (1975), Gandhi (1982), Remains of the Day (1993), Othello (1995)

1966 - Time Magazine publishes an unsigned two-page article, "The Homosexual in America." The article includes statements such as "[Homosexuality] is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life. . . . it deserves no encouragement . . . no pretense that it is anything but a pernicious sickness."

2009 - The Swedish parliament was presented with legislation that would allow gay couples to marry in civil ceremonies or in the Lutheran Church, which until 2000 was the official church of Sweden. "The main proposal in the motion is that ... a person's gender will no longer have any bearing on whether they can marry. The marriage law and other laws concerning spouses will be rendered gender neutral according to the proposal," a statement from Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's conservative Moderates said.

The proposal had wide backing in parliament and is expected to be adopted, though a date has yet to be set for a vote. While heterosexuals in Sweden can choose to marry in either a civil ceremony or a church ceremony, homosexuals are currently only allowed to register their "partnerships" in a civil ceremony. Civil unions granting gays and Lesbians the same legal status as married couples have been allowed in Sweden since 1995. If the new legislation is adopted, Sweden, already a pioneer in giving same-sex couples the right to adopt children, would become the first country in the world to allow gay people to marry within a major Church. Under the proposal, Lutheran pastors will be able to opt-out of performing Gay marriages if they have personal objections.

2009 -  ABC television station in Los Angeles refused to air a Public Service Announcement about gay families claiming it was "too controversial" to run during inauguration coverage.  KABC-TV in Los Angeles refused to run public service announcements from Get To Know Us First, a group that promotes acceptance of LGBT families.

JANUARY 22,

On this date in 1561 the English statesmen, essayist and philosopher SIR FRANCIS BACON was born in London. He is best known for his philosophical works concerning the acquisition of knowledge and the general "scientific method." He was also extremely fond of men. As the British scholar Rictor Norton points out that Bacon did not marry until the late age of forty-eight, and that contemporary figures, such as John Aubrey, related that Bacon was by preference homosexual. He was known for his preference for the "young Welsh serving-men" who were in his employ and who Bacon became a patron to. Rictor points out most a "young Tobie Matthew, who was left only a ring to the value of £30, but who had become Sir Tobie through Bacon's efforts, and who was well able to care for himself. Tobie was the inspiration for one of Bacon's most famous essays, "Of Friendship."

Indeed evidence of Bacon's fondness for "red-cheeked lads from Wales" survives in the form of a letter written by Bacon's own mother, in which she complains about the long list of "servants and envoys" who find their way to his bed. She refers to a gay Spanish envoy as "that bloody Perez and bed companion of my son."

1788 - Romantic poet LORD BYRON was born in London. It's funny how Byron comes down to us as the über-heterosexual romantic, but the evidence of his deep same-sex love is very clear (if still denied by homophobic historians). While a student at Trinity College, Byron fell deeply in love with a fifteen year old choirboy by the name of John Edleston. About his "protégé" Byron wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College. His voice first attracted my attention, his countenance fixed it, and his manners attached me to him for ever." Many years later, upon learning of his friend's death, Byron wrote, "I have heard of a death the other day that shocked me more than any, of one whom I loved more than any, of one whom I loved more than I ever loved a living thing, and one who, I believe, loved me to the last." In his memory Byron composed "Thyrza," a series of elegies, in which he changed the pronouns from masculine to feminine so as not to offend sensibilities. From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour then customary for a young nobleman. The Napoleonic Wars forced him to avoid most of Europe, and he instead turned to the Mediterranean. Correspondence among his circle of Cambridge friends also makes clear that a key motive was the hope of homosexual experience. He was successful in this motive, as evidenced by the subject matter of poems like "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and other writings from this period. Ultimately he was to live abroad to escape the censure of British society, where men could be forgiven for sexual misbehaviour only up to a point, one which Byron far surpassed.

1893 - German actor CONRAD VEIDT was born in Berlin. Best known for his roles in "Casablanca" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," Veidt also also holds the distinction of starring in the first motion picture on the subject of homosexuality; 1919's "Anders als die Anderen (Different from the Others) which was written and produced by German sexologist and early gay-rights champion Magnus Hirschfeld. Veidt also appears in Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories." "Anders als die Anderen" was released in a DVD format a few years back and provides an amazing historical document of the times.

1920 - Restaurant critic, food writer and former food editor for the New York Times, CRAIG CLAIBORNE was born in Sunflower, Mississippi. Claiborne authored numerous cookbooks and an autobiography, "A Feast Made for Laughter," in which he wrote about his being gay. Claiborne made many contributions to gastronomy and food writing over the course of his career. He helped popularize many ethnic, and at the time bizarre sounding, schools of cooking. He lived through a real revolution in culinary culture in the United States. As he explained in the preface to the revised 1980s edition of his bestselling "New York Times Cookbook."

Italian was a strange and foreign form of cooking in the 1960s when the first volume came out and access to things as foreign sounding (in the 1960s) as "pasta" was difficult. Claiborne also helped popularize great chefs like Paul Prudhomme as few people outside the Deep South at the time had any awareness of Louisiana's Cajun culture or its unique culinary traditions. Along with Julia Child, Claiborne has been credited with making the often intimidating world of French and other ethnic cuisine accessible to an American audience and American tastes. Claiborne authored or edited over 20 cookbooks on a wide range of foods and culinary styles.

One of the most famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) episodes in Claiborne's career occurred in 1975 when he placed a $300 winning bid at a charity auction for a no price-limit dinner for two at any restaurant of the winner's choice, sponsored by the American Express company. Selecting his friend Pierre Franey as his dining companion, the two settled on the prestigious Parisian restaurant Chez Denis where they racked up a $4,000 tab on a five-hour, 31-course meal of foie gras, truffles, lobster, caviar and rare wines. When Claiborne later wrote about the experience in his "Times" column, the paper received a deluge of reader mail expressing outrage at such an extravagance at a time when so many in the world went without. Even the Vatican and Pope Paul VI criticized it, calling it "scandalous." Despite its scale and expense, Claiborne gave the meal a mixed review, noting that several dishes fell short in terms of conception, presentation or quality. Claiborne died at age 79 in 2000. He bequeathed his estate to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

1922 - Poet, dramatist, critic and longtime New Yorker poetry editor HOWARD MOSS was born in New York City. Moss was editor at the New Yorker from 1948 until his death in 1987. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1971 and the National Book Award in 1972 for "Selected Poems". His last book of poems, "New Selected Poems" (1986) won the Lenore Marshall-National Prize for Poetry.

He is credited with discovering a number of major American poets, including Anne Sexton and Amy Clampitt. ''He was a tremendous force for poetry in this country,'' said Galway Kinnell. Many prominent poets published their early work with Mr. Moss, including Kinnell, James Dickey, Anne Sexton, Theodore Roethke, Richard Wilbur, Sylvia Plath and Mark Strand.

W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman co-wrote a famously concise clerihew in Howard's honor:

TO THE POETRY EDITOR OF THE NEW YORKER
Is Robert Lowell
Better than Noel
Coward,
Howard?

1942 – Today is the birthday of Mexican director, screenwriter and editor JAIME HUMBERTO HERMOSILLO. Often compared to Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, Hermosillo's films often explore the hypocrisy of middle-class Mexican values. He is also openly Gay and has explored such themes in his work.  His films include Esmeralda Comes by Night, Forbidden Homework, El Misterio de Los Almendros, and the Gay classic Dona Herlinda and Her Son.

1991 - During Operation Desert Storm, ACT UP activist JOHN WEIR and two other activists entered the studio of the CBS Evening News at the beginning of the broadcast. They shouted "Fight AIDS, not Arabs!" and Weir upstaged anchorman Dan Rather before the control room cut to a commercial break. The same night ACT UP demonstrated at the studios of the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. The next day activists displayed banners in Grand Central Station that said "Money for AIDS, not for war" and "One AIDS death every 8 minutes." The banners were attached to bundles of balloons that lifted them up to the ceiling of the station's enormous main room. These actions were part of a coordinated protest called "Day of Desperation."

2003 - American journalist, editor and co-founder of OUT Magazine SARAH PETTIT died of lymphoma.  She was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and raised in Paris, London and Bad Homburg (Germany). In 1988 she graduated from Yale University. In 1999 she became arts and entertainment editor for Newsweek Magazine and went on to found OUT Magazine.

2009 - On this date a sociologist at an Iranian university presented a study showing high levels of homosexual experiences among the country's population. Iran has strict laws against sex outside marriage and other sexual acts such as masturbation. Adultery and same-sex acts are punishable by death. Startling new research from sociologist Parvaneh Abdul Maleki found that 24% of Iranian women and 16% of Iranian men have had at least one homosexual experience. 73% of men and 26% of women surveyed said they had masturbated.

Ms. Maleki presented her findings at the Third Conference on Well-being in the Family and the story was reported in the Iranian press, albeit as a report on sexual deviance in need of treatment. The report also revealed that more than 75% of those who grew up in a conservative religious environment have watched pornography, 86% have had a heterosexual relationship outside of marriage and just over 4% have had Gay or Lesbian relationships. Since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, human rights groups claim that between 3,000 and 4,000 people have been executed under Sharia law for the crime of homosexuality. In September the President of Iran admitted in an interview that there may be "a few" Gay people in his country, but attacked homosexuality as destructive to society.  In an interview with US current affairs TV program Democracy Now, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of the execution of children in Iran.  During a visit to the US in 2007 he said in reply to a question posed about homosexuality during his speech at New York's Columbia University:  "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country… In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it."  In his TV interview in September he condemned American acceptance of Gay people. "It should be of no pride to American society to say they defend something like this," President Ahmadinejad said. "Just because some people want to get votes, they are willing to overlook every morality."

JANUARY 23

1893 - Professional "sissy" actor FRANKLIN PANGBORN was born in Newark, New Jersey. If you don't know the name you've seen his work in old late late show movies. The character actor appeared in dozens of comedies always playing prissy, fluttery clerks, bank tellers, assistant hotel managers, and department store floorwalkers. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films "International House," "The Bank Dick," and "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break." Pangborn was an effective foil for many major comedians, including Fields, Harold Lloyd, Olsen and Johnson, and The Ritz Brothers. He appeared regularly in comedies and musicals of the 1940s. When movie roles became scarce, he worked in television. For a time Pangborn was the announcer on Jack Paar's Tonight Show.

In his book "Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall", the film scholar Richard Barrios wrote that some people "will praise the artistry of Pangborn as they bemoan its misuse, while others will prefer to revel in both the subversiveness of it all and the actor's skill. Still others will just shut the whole matter out and deny that there were any Gay characters in film prior to the late 1960s."  In his essay, "Laughing Hysterically: Sex, Repression, and American Film Comedy," the scholar Ed Sikov argues that Pangborn probably appeared "in more screwball comedies than any other actor -- "My Man Godfrey", "Easy Living", "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife", "A Girl, a Guy and a Gob", "The Palm Beach Story", "Vivacious Lady", "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", "Design for Living", "Joy of Living", "Topper Takes a Trip", and "Fifth Avenue Girl" -- probably because his character (the fussy, flustered, silly, and temperamental proto-Gay male) fits perfectly into screwball's world of urban extremism. A deft comedian, Pangborn elevated effeminacy into an art form. He makes himself an object of mockery in film after film, but he never gives up his dignity."

Pangborn died on July 20, 1958 after undergoing surgery. For his contributions to motion pictures, Pangborn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.

1898 - American motion picture actor RANDOLPH SCOTT was born. He was known for his roles in films as diverse as Follow the Fleet, The Last of the Mohican, High, Wide, and Handsome and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Although Scott achieved fame as a motion picture actor, he managed to keep a fairly low profile with his private life. Off screen he became good friends with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. He met Grant on the set of Hot Saturday and shortly afterwards they began rooming together in a beach house in Malibu that became known as "Bachelor Hall." They would live together, on and off, for about ten years, presumably because they liked each other's company and wanted to save on living expenses. As Scott shared "Bachelor Hall" with Cary Grant for twelve years, it was rumored that the two actors were romantically involved, and that the name "Bachelor Hall" and the reported parade of women there were invented by the studio who wanted to keep their valuable actors away from any public scandal.

In his book, "Cary Grant: Grant's Secret Sixth Marriage," author Marc Eliot claims Grant had a sexual relationship with Scott after they met on the set of Hot Saturday (1932). In his book, Hollywood Gay", Boze Hadleigh, author of numerous books purporting to reveal the sexual orientation of celebrities, makes various claims for Scott's homosexuality. He cites Gay director George Cukor who said about the homosexual relationship between the two: "Oh, Cary won't talk about it. At most, he'll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph will admit it – to a friend." According to William J. Mann's book, "Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969," photographer Jerome Zerbe spent "three Gay months" in the movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, "attesting to their involvement in the Gay scene." In 1995, Richard Blackwell published his autobiography "From Rags to Bitches," where he declared he was lovers to both Cary Grant and Scott.

1974 - The first lobbying effort on part of an alliance of Quebec Gay groups, to include sexual orientation in a proposed provincial human rights charter, culminates in appearance before Justice Committee of Quebec's National Assembly on this date. It became the first appearance of Canadian Gay movement before legislative body.

1989 - The surrealist painter SALVADOR DALI and former lover of Federico Garcia Lorca, died in his native Spain at the age 84 (b. 1904).

1990 - One of the most infamous hateful racist homophobes and general misanthropes Charley Eugene Johns died on this date and was rendered incapable of harming others (b. 1905). Johns was an American politician and the thirty-second governor of Florida from 1953 to 1955. Why cover Johns in a daily list of Gay Wisdom? Because most of us don't know this history and it's important to know what happened so it doesn't happen again. (We won't honor their birth date but we'll mark their date of departure…perhaps with a little dance...)

Johns is most remembered for his support and chairmanship of the infamous Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, nicknamed the "Johns Committee" because of Johns' chairmanship. This committee participated in the Red Scare and Lavender scare by investigating communists, homosexuals, and civil rights advocates among the students and faculty of Florida's university system. They were responsible for revoking teachers' certificates and firing university professors. By 1963, the committee had forced the dismissal or resignation of over 100 professors and deans at the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of South Florida. One professor attempted suicide after being investigated by the committee. The state legislature ended funding for the committee in 1964 after it released a report called Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida, which infamously became known as the "Purple Pamphlet". Its many photographs depicting homosexual acts outraged legislators and reportedly copies of the report were being sold as pornography in New York City. 

The Johns Committee lost its funding from the legislature following the publication of the Purple Pamphlet. In 2005, UF Today, an alumni publication of the University of Florida, included Johns in a list of 81 "outstanding" UF alumni. Johns attended UF only for a few months and did not graduate. The editor apologized for the error, and the alumni association said that including him was a mistake.

1998 - On this date the Italian writer ALFREDO ORMANDO died (b. 1958). How did he die?  Eleven days before this date he set himself on fire in the Vatican to protest the church's treatment of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people. Maybe "Flaming Queen" is a compliment?

1981 - American composer SAMUEL BARBER died (b. 1910); His Adagio for Strings is perhaps one of the best known classical pieces in a world that doesn't have much use for classical music anymore.  Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of Marguerite McLeod (Beatty) and Samuel LeRoy Barber.) At a very early age, Barber became profoundly interested in music, and it was apparent that he had great musical talent and ability.

At the age of nine he wrote to his mother:

Dear Mother: I have written this to tell you my worrying secret. Now don't cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlet [sic]. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I'm sure. I'll ask you one more thing .—Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes I've been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very).

2003 - American singer and television, stage and film actress NELL CARTER died. After Gimme a Break! began, Carter's life took a turbulent turn. She married mathematician and lumber executive George Krynicki, and converted to Judaism in 1982 (she had been born Catholic and raised Presbyterian).

Carter had three children: a daughter Tracy and two sons Daniel and Joshua. She adopted both her sons as newborns over a four month period. She attempted to adopt twice more but both adoptions fell through. In one case she brought home a child, Mary, but the birth parents demanded money before they would sign the adoption papers. In her final attempt, she allowed a young pregnant woman to move into her house with the plan to adopt the child but the mother decided to parent her child.

Having previously survived two brain aneurysms, Carter died at the age of 54, from heart disease complicated by diabetes in her Beverly Hills home that she shared with her partner Ann Kaser, and her two 13-year-old boys, Joshua and Daniel. Her daughter Tracy Ruth lived away from their California home.

And If the aforementioned Johns Committee made you think "well that was way back then" consider this item..

2009 - The Washington Post reported that the Maryland state police considered the LGBT activism group Equality Maryland to be terrorists. "Equality Maryland, the state's largest Gay rights group, was among the peaceful protest groups to be classified as terrorists in a Maryland State Police database. The group was designated a "security threat" by the Homeland Security and Intelligence Division, which also kept dossiers on dozens of activists and at least a dozen groups. Police kept files on Equality Maryland's plans to hold rallies outside the State House in Annapolis to press for legislation reversing the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Police planned to purge the files.  The files were revealed at a news conference, where a dozen Democratic lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation to prevent future surveillance of nonviolent groups. Police would need "reasonable articulated suspicion of actual criminal activity" before they could conduct surveillance, the legislation's sponsors said. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) also planned to call for a similar bill. The measure also would prevent police from keeping files on citizens, unless the information is part of a legitimate criminal investigation."

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