April 19

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1759 – August Wilhelm Iffland the German actor, playwright and librettist was born on this date (d.1814). Iffland was a powerful force in the German theater of the 18th century, even though his plays are generally unknown outside his native country.

In 1810, he was "outed" by Heinrich von Kleist, the poet, author and playright. Kelist offered August Wilhelm Iffland, who at that time was the director of the Nationaltheater, the chance to stage his play Käthchen of Heilbronn. When Iffland refused, Kleist branded him a homosexual.

On 1 October 1810, Kleist surprised the people of Berlin by setting up a daily newspaper. The Berliner Abendblätter appeared every day except Sundays for half a year in the convenient octavo format at a price of eight Pfennigs. The newspaper provided a diverse mixture of information to suit every taste: police announcements, military anecdotes, poems, aesthetic essays such as Kleist's famous article "On the Marionette Theatre", critical looks at the Prussian government, and polemic attacks on Iffland's theatre and his homosexuality. Kleist's paper was shut down by Germain authorities and the attacks ceased. Kleist committed suicide soon after.

Iffland died in Berlin on 22 September 1814. A bronze portrait statue of him was erected in front of the Mannheim theater in 1864. A street in Berlin is named after him. The Iffland-Ring bears Iffland's likeness, and is borne by the most important German-speaking actor, as decided by his predecessor.

1834 – Prince Edmond De Polignac the French composer was born on this date (d.1901). A descendant of one of the more illustrious families of France. His father Auguste Jules Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847) was the Minister of State in the Restoration government of King Charles X, and was the author of the Thirty Ordinances in 1830, which revoked the Constitution, suspended freedom of the press, and gave the king extraordinary powers, including absolute power in the name of "insuring the safety of the state".

In 1875 a new friend entered de Polignac's life, Comte Robert de Montesquiou, a beautiful and intelligent man twenty-one years his junior. They shared many interests, and began an intimate relationship at that time. In his later years, Montesquiou used his wit to shield himself from sincere emotional interaction. He is remembered as a model for Des Esseintes in Huysman's A Rebours, and the Baron de Charlus in Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. Through Montesquiou's circle, Polignac made the acquaintance of Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe and of Gabriel Fauré, and became a member of the Société Nationale de Musique, where his compositions were performed alongside those of Chausson, Debussy, and Fauré.

By 1892, Polignac, inept with money and impoverished through investments in a series of get-rich-quick schemes, was destitute; his nephews helped him with loans, but noted that desperate action was needed. The solution they suggested was marriage to a woman of appropriate means. Polignac discussed the matter with Montesquiou, and Montesquiou with his cousin Élisabeth Greffulhe, and out of these conversations the name of Winnaretta Eugenie Singer, daughter of Isaac Singer, the sewing machine tycoon, with her marriage to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard lately annulled, arose.

Singer's social status could be improved by marrying a prince, even a poor one. And the arrangement would have other benefits: Winnaretta was Lesbian and not sexually interested in men at all. She was intimately interested in music, however, something the two did have in common.

Polignac asked the Comtesse Greffulhe to sound out Madame Singer on the subject of a mariage blanc (unconsummated marriage), in which each partner would have their own bed but would share artistic interests. Montesquiou, who collaborated with Winnaretta on some artistic projects, asked her to speak with Madame Greffulhe, and there the arguments were reviewed; her social position, compromised by divorce, would be improved by an alliance with one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic families in France; with the thirty-one year age difference, and the predilections of the bride and groom, Winnaretta would be free to lead her personal life as she wished, with no sexual demands from Edmond.

The advantages clear, a friendship and affection grew. In November 1893, Edmond proposed marriage to Winnaretta, and she accepted, a year after the idea had first been broached. On 15 December 1893 the couple were married by the Abbé de Broglie in the Chapelle des Carmes. The union received the blessings of Pope Leo XIII.

Montesquiou felt slighted when Edmond was not sufficiently grateful, and the friendship was irrevocably broken.

Ed. Note: The house of Polignac is also (technically) the current Princely House of Monaco; Prince Ranier (late husband of Grace Kelly) was the son of a Monagasque princess and a Polignac. For patriotic reasons, the princely house still keeps the name Grimaldi, though it has passed through the female line a couple of times. This is certainly a family with an interesting past and present.

1890 – A sodomy case in Pennsylvania is reported officially in a daily newspaper, rather than in a law reporter.

1900 – The North Dakota Supreme Court upholds the right of the state to prosecute attempts to commit sodomy under the general attempts statute.

1913 – The Illinois Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus is not a "crime against nature" under that's state's sodomy law, even though the Court had ruled fellatio to be one due to the state's unusually broad language.

1927 – On this date the bawdy screen legend Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

1930 – Dick Sargent, the American actor, was born on this date (d.1994). Sargent is best known for his portrayal as "the second Darrin Stephens" on the television series Bewitched. He remained closeted for most of his career, but came out in 1991 and embraced gay activism as a "new mission in life." He had long hidden his sexual orientation, appearing with Lesbian actress Fannie Flagg on the 1970s game show Tattletales as a couple. The game show featured celebrity married couples, and Sargent and Flagg claimed they were dating.

In his youth, he entered Stanford University, where he studied acting and appeared in a number of student productions. During those years he came to realize that he was gay, which filled him with anxiety and led him to "a couple of good college tries at suicide."

After appearances in several forgettable films, Sargent won roles—albeit still small ones—in more successful productions, including The Great Impostor (1960) and That Touch of Mink (1962). Sargent also did television work, including a recurring role on the situation comedy One Happy Family in 1961.

In 1969 when actor Dick York, who originally played the role, had to withdraw from Bewitched for health reasons, Sargent took over the part of Darrin Stephens, an ordinary middle-class man who was married to a beautiful witch and who had to put up with the shenanigans of her decidedly eccentric supernatural relatives. He joined a cast that included lesbian actress Agnes Moorehead and gay actor Paul Lynde.

Unbeknownst to audiences, Sargent was in a loving and stable relationship with another man, a television screenwriter, whom he later identified publicly simply as Frank. It pained Sargent not to be able to speak openly about their bond and to have to call the love of his life a "business associate." The pair were together for twenty years until Frank died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1979.

Sargent chose October 11, 1991, National Coming Out Day, to announce that he was gay. He stated that factors motivating his decision to come out included California governor Pete Wilson's veto of a bill to protect gay men and lesbians from job discrimination and also his concern about the rate of suicide among young gay people, but he was responding as well to his outing by a tabloid newspaper, The Star, that erroneously reported that he and a new lover had trashed a house and that the police had evicted them.

Sargent lived with his partner Albert Williams until his death. Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1989, Sargent underwent extensive radiation treatment but finally succumbed to the disease on July 8, 1994.

When Sargent was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1975, Sargent was asked why he had changed his name from his birth name of Cox. Sargent said wryly, "No one would have taken Dick Cox seriously".

1933 – Alabama enacts a unique law that outlaws "conspiracy to commit the crime against nature."

 Added 2024

Seyemour Stein with Madonna

1942 – Seymour Stein was an American entrepreneur and music executive (d.2023). He co-founded Sire Records and was vice president of Warner Bros. Records. With Sire, Stein signed bands and singers that became central to the new wave era of the 1970s and 80s: Talking Heads; The Ramones;  The Pretenders; Madonna. He found and signed them all, and then some. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

King Records owner Syd King approached Stein to work for him in Cincinnati, Ohio. Stein's father was skeptical, but King told him “Your son has shellac in his veins Your son is good for one thing and one thing only, and that’s being in the record business. If you don’t let him in the music business, he will wind up delivering newspapers for the rest of your life. If you don’t want that on your conscience, you will let him come with me for the summer.”

He started working for King, working there for two years as an intern, before joining the company in 1961. Homesick he returned to New York in 1963 to work for Herb Abramson, but this was shortlived, lasting only three months. He then joined as an assistant to impresario George Goldner who had formed Red Bird Records with songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller in 1963.

Working there in the Brill Building he became friends with FGG Productions record producer Richard Gottehrer. Seeing that relations between Goldner and Lieber and Stoller were fracturing he decided to start a new venture. He founded Sire Productions in 1966 with Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company, which led to the formation of Sire Records,

Stein then focussed on checking new acts in the New York Clubs and on his wife's recommendation arranged for the Ramones to do a showcase, signing them in 1975. Other signings soon followed including Talking Heads. Stein signed Madonna from his hospital bed after hearing her track "Everybody" in 1982.

Other acts signed by Sire include The Replacements, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Ministry, The Undertones, and Echo & the Bunnymen.

Stein was married to the music promoter and real estate executive Linda Stein and together the couple had two daughters. They divorced, on amicable terms, in the late 1970s. Stein never remarried. He revealed he was gay in 2017. . Stein published his autobiography, Siren Song: My Life in Music, in 2018.

Stein died of cancer at his Los Angeles home on April 2, 2023, at age 80.

1946 – Tim Curry, British actor and famed on-screen outerspace transvestite was born on this date. Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he first met Richard O'Brien who went on to write Curry's next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, but the character evolved into the sly, very upper-class English mad scientist and transvestite that carried over to the movie version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and made Curry both a star and a cult figure.

He continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles, and New York until 1975. For many years, Curry was reluctant to talk about Rocky Horror, feeling that it was a trend that had gone too far and had distracted attention away from his later roles.

On 23 May 2013, Curry was reported to have suffered a major stroke at his home in Los Angeles. Although many sources suggested the stroke had made it difficult for him to speak, his longtime agent Marcia Hurwitz told the Daily Mail "Tim is doing great," and that 'He absolutely can speak and is recovering at this time and in great humour'. Shortly after the initial report, Hurwitz told The Hollywood Reporter that the stroke actually occurred in July 2012, and that Curry had been going to physical therapy. As a result of the stroke, he uses a wheelchair.

1958 – Steve Antin is an American actor, stunt man, screenwriter, producer, and director. Antin was born in Queens, New York, the son of British Jewish immigrants. He is the brother of fellow actor Neil Antin, Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin, and celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Antin.

Antin is remembered as Troy, the bad-guy preppie jock in Steven Spielberg's The Goonies and as a co-lead in the film The Last American Virgin. He also had a memorable performance as one of the rapists in the Academy Award-winning film The Accused. He can also be remembered as Jessie in Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" video. His screenplay Inside Monkey Zetterland was turned into a film featuring many respected independent performers.

In the late 1990s he made several appearances in gay-oriented films including It's My Party, co-starring Eric Roberts and comedian Margaret Cho. Antin himself later came out publicly. Antin also enjoyed a successful career as a stunt performer in dozens of films.

In recent years, Antin has turned to working as a successful screenwriter, writing such films as Gloria (1999) and Chasing Papi. He also created, wrote and produced the television series Young Americans for The WB.

In the late 2000s, Antin turned to directing. He has directed several music videos, and in 2006, the feature film The Good Mother starring Angie Harmon. He is one of the executive producers and creators of The CW's 2007 reality series which seeks to find the next member for the hit pop group, the Pussycat Dolls.

Antin, who is openly gay, was once the boyfriend of David Geffen. They were together for a little more than one year.

Antin directed the film Burlesque, released in 2010, and starring pop singer Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, and Academy Award-winner Cher.

1967 – The Student Homophile League of Columbia University becomes the first U.S. gay college group to obtain a campus charter. The SHL had twelve members who fought with university administrators for a year before the group was officially recognized.

Stephen Donaldson, a bisexual-identified LGBT rights activist is commemorated by a plaque in the Queer Lounge that bears his name in one of Columbia’s residence halls for spearheading the creation of the group.

When the charter was ultimately granted in April 1967, it earned media attention with the New York Times printing a story on the front page. The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that some students believed that the creation of the group was an April Fool’s joke. The group is still in existence to this day and is now called the Columbia Queer Alliance

1978 – James Franco is an American actor, filmmaker, and teacher.

His first prominent acting role was the lead character Daniel Desario on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and Geeks. He later played the title character in the TV biographical film James Dean (2001), for which he won a Golden Globe Award. He played Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). He is also known for his roles in the films Flyboys (2006), Pineapple Express (2008), Milk (2008), 127 Hours (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), Spring Breakers (2013), This Is the End (2013) and The Interview (2014). He had a recurring role in the ABC soap opera General Hospital. For his role in 127 Hours, Franco was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Franco volunteers for the Art of Elysium charity and has taught a class at New York University in feature filmmaking and production. In 2013, he began teaching a course in short film production at the University of Southern California and a course in screenwriting at his alma mater, University of California, Los Angeles.

In response to questions regarding his sexuality now that he has portrayed three gay characters during his acting career, he insists he finds plenty more dimensions to the characters than their bedroom proclivities. "Or, you know what," he quipped, "maybe I’m just gay."

Those rumors led to a Gawker article linking him to a New York Post Page Six blind item about a closeted gay actor, nicknamed "the Gay Rapist". Despite the victim of the alleged attack denying that it was Franco, two magazines then contacted Franco's lawyer to alert them that they might run stories suggesting his involvement, but were unable to, as at least part of their stories were fabricated. However, Gawker refused to take their article down as they were simply reporting what another outlet published and instead offered him a chance to make a comment about the speculation on its website. He declined, hoping it would die down. The actor later called the episode very offensive because he has friends who have been raped.

In I Am Michael (2014), he plays real-life figure Michael Glatze, a former gay activist who leaves his boyfriend (Zachary Quinto) behind after declaring himself straight and becoming a pastor.

Franco says of the gay content of many of his projects:

In a March 2015 interview with Four Two Nine magazine, Franco again opened up about his sexuality, commenting that it is not who you have sex with that defines your sexuality, but instead how you act. "In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would fuck guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren’t considered gay". Franco added, "Well, I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life."

1982 – The Gay Officers Action League, Inc. is founded by NYPD Sergeant Charles Cochrane and retired Detective Sam Ciccone etablishing the first official police fraternal society in the world to represent LGBT people within the criminal justice system.

Sergeant Cochrane, a 14 year veteran of the NYPD, created shock waves by testifying before a NYC Council hearing in favor of a gay rights bill. Following the testimony of a Patrolmens Benevolent Association Vice President, who denounced the bill and declared, "I didn't know of any homosexual police officers.", Cochrane stunned all present as well as NYC as a whole by his testimony: "I am very proud of being a New York City Police Officer, and I am equally proud of being gay."

In 1987, at the persistent urging of GOAL, NYPD began a concerted effort to actively enlist qualified gay candidates. In 2002, GOAL was admitted into COPS, The Committee of Police Societies, an organization consisting of all recognized NYPD religious, ethnic fraternal organizations.

Since its ineption, GOAL has evolved not only as a fraternal organization, but also as an activist organization that represents the interests of its LGBT members in all agencies and branches within the criminal justice system.

1991 – An Ohio trial court dismisses an importuning charge because the undercover police officer led the defendant on.

1992 – James Scully is an American actor, best known for portraying JD in the Paramount Network series Heathers (2018) and Forty Quinn in the Netflix thriller series You.

Scully was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. In his youth, he spent a brief period in England when his father was stationed there as a part of the United States Air Force. He later attended Otterbein University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater. Scully was also a cycling instructor for three and a half years at SWERVE Fitness.

Prior to working in Los Angeles, Scully resided in New York performing Off-Broadway. In 2016, Scully made his acting debut in the web series drama series, Sublets. Following on from his first role, Scully later made appearances in television series, such as Quantico and 9-1-1.

He has also done commercial work for Outback Steakhouse and a public service announcement about Vicodin abuse with Riverdale actress, Camila Mendes.

In 2018, Scully starred in the main role of JD on the Paramount Network series Heathers. In January 2019, it was announced that Scully had been cast as Forty Quinn on the second season of the Netflix thriller series You.

Scully is openly gay

1995 – Arizona revises its sex offender registration law to remove sodomy from the list of compulsory registration categories, but permits judges to order registration if the defendant committed sodomy for "sexual motivation."

2009 – On this date Carrie Prejean came in second place in the Miss USA 2009 pageant. She claimed her loss was due to her response to a question about Gay marriage. She became the darling of the Religious Right accepting multiple speaking gigs to right-wing and anti-Gay gatherings. She became a spokesperson for the anti-Gay National Organization for Marriage and spoke at Pat Robertson's Liberty University.

She sued the Miss California pageant for firing her, stating that she was told by pageant officials not to speak about her faith and was pressured to apologize for her statement.

On November 5, 2009, it was revealed that Prejean dropped her suit when pageant officials showed her footage from an X-rated porn film Prejean had been in -- which she had not bothered to mention to the pageant. No word from the National Organization for Marriage.