August 10

1881 – Harold Witter Bynner (d.1968) was an American poet, writer and scholar, known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at what is now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear. Best remembered for his classic translation of The Way of Life, according to Lao Tzu (1944). Initially he pursued a career in journalism at McClure's Magazine. Bynner then turned to writing. He was a charter member of the Poetry Society of America and was influential in getting the work of A.E. Housman and Ezra Pound published.

In 1916 he was one of the perpetrators, with Arthur Davison Ficke, a friend from Harvard, of an elaborate literary hoax. It involved a purported 'Spectrist' school of poets, along the lines of the Imagists, based in Pittsburgh. Spectra, a slim collection, was published under the pseudonyms of Anne Knish (Ficke) and Emanuel Morgan (Bynner). Marjorie Allen Seiffert, writing as Elijah Hay, was roped in to bulk out the 'movement'. Spectra received accolades from Edgar Lee Masters and William Carlos Williams who were completely taken in by the ruse. Bynner meant it as a critique of the fashion of "ism" schools in poetry that were ruining poetry in his opinion. The incident, while successful, damaged his reputation in certain circles.

He traveled to China, and studied Chinese literature. He subsequently produced many translations from Chinese. His verse showed both Japanese and Chinese influences, but the latter were major. Bynner became more of a modernist in consequence, where previously he had been inclined to parody Imagism.

Bynner settled in Santa Fe, in a steady and acknowledged 30-year homosexual relationship with Robert Hunt. He became a friend of D. H. Lawrence, whom he hosted on Lawrence's first visit to Amerca, and traveled with him and Frieda von Richthofen in Mexico. He and his partner Willard Johnson are portrayed in Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent. Much later, in 1951, he wrote on Lawrence in Journey With Genius.

Bynner and Hunt had numerous parties at their house, hosting many notable writers, actors, and artists, which guests included Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, Igor Stravinsky, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, Aldous Huxley, Clara Bow, Errol Flynn, Rita Hayworth, Christopher Isherwood, Carl Van Vechten, Martha Graham, Georgia O'Keeffe and Thornton Wilder.

On January 18, 1965, Bynner had a severe stroke. He never recovered, and required constant care until he died on June 1, 1968. As of 2008, his house has become the Inn of the Turquoise Bear, a bed and breakfast.

1900 – René Crevel (d.1935), a writer associated with the surrealist movement, was born in Paris to a bourgeois family.

He studied English at the University of Paris, and in 1921 met Andre Breton – the principal founder and theorist of early surrealism - and joined the movement - from which he was excluded in 1925, possibly due to Breton's antipathy towards homosexuality which he believed had corrupted the movement; although many gay artists and writers are associated with surrealism, there was a broad anti-homosexual streak within the Surrealist movement.

During this period, Crevel wrote novels such as Mon corps et moi ("My Body and Me"). Much of Crevel's work deals with his inner turmoil at being bisexual. In 1926, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis which made him start using morphine. The 1929 exile of Léon Trotsky persuaded him to rejoin the surrealists. Remaining faithful to André Breton, he struggled to bring communists and surrealists closer together.

Faced with a worsening of his tuberculosis, in 1935 he turned on the gas stove in his Paris apartment and ended his life. He was 35.

1913 – Erich Schiewek, often incorrectly spelled Schieweck, born in Breslau, Germany, (d. July 1, 1934 in Dachau concentration camp) was a German SA (Brownshirts) member. He is remembered as the youngest one of the victims of the Ernst Röhm affair.

Schiewek, who trained as a locksmith, joined the Nazi party on September 1, 1931. He also became a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), in which he reached the rank of Obertruppführer (troopleader) by 1934.

Hitler had recently secretly decided to politically disempower the SA. For this purpose, he had called the Fiihrer Conference in Bad Wiessee in order to gather as many SA leaders as possible in one place and to be able to eliminate them as safely as possible - isolated from their crowd.

In 1934 Schiewek lived in an aide camp in Breslau as a subordinate to the Nazi politician Edmund Heines. After the 21 year-old Schiewek had done particularly well in a shooting competion, as a reward, Wilhelm Ott, Heines' staff leader, chose him as Heines' companion for a trip to the SA leaders' conference in Bad Wiessee in southern Germany. Schiewek had had no relationship with Heines before that day.

After Schiewek and Heines had flown from Breslau to Bavaria on June 29, both of them stayed at the Hanselbauer guesthouse, where the leaders' meeting was to take place on the following day and where Ernst Röhm , the SA chief of staff, was already staying. Schiewek, who was considered a "sinister fellow", slept in the same bed as Heines, a known homosexual.

In the early morning hours of June 30, 1934, the Pension Hanselbauer was stormed by Adolf Hitler and a raid squad made up of SS men from Hitler's escort squad and police officers. They arrested Röhm and most of the other SA members present, including Heines and Schiewek.

The action in Wiessee marked the beginning of the Röhm affair, which was claimed to be as a self-defense measure by the government against a putsch allegedly planned by Röhm.

According to diary entries from that night: "In the next room (to Röhm) Heines had been engaged in homosexual activities. Heines performed a crying scene before Hitler 'My Führer, I did nothing to the boy.' But his pleasure boy (Schiewek) kissed his darling on the cheek in fear and woe. The Fuehrer grabbed the pleasure boy and threw him against the wall in disgust. The Fuehrer is seized with an unequaled rage to see his SA soiled in this way. He orders the pleasure boy be packed into the cellar and shot."

Schiewek was transferred with the other SA members arrested in Bad Wiessee to the Stadelheim prison. After Heines was shot by SS men in the courtyard of the Stadelheim prison on the evening of June 30, and Ernst Röhm in his cell in Stadelheim by the commander of the Dachau concentration camp, Schiewek together with three other Stadelheim prisoners (Max Vogel, Hans Schweighart, Edmund Paul Neumayer) was taken to the Dachau concentration camp. There they were shot dead against the wall behind the outer detention building at around 7:00 p.m. that same evening by a detachment made up of members of the guards. The shooting was organized by the camp administration as a public spectacle: Numerous prisoners were forced to attend the process. During the execution, as witness by Dachau prisoners, Schiewek stood out for the great courage he, like the other death row inmates, displayed in the face of the firing squad. There is also evidence that one of the four executed, probably Schiewek, shouted "Hoch Heine!" as the last words at the moment of the order to shoot.

Hitler portrayed the Brownshirts as a “Regiment of Perverts” in general, which permeated the German press in the first few days after the Röhm putsch, aiming to stir up anti-homosexual resentment in the population.

Cordier in Paris in 1940

1920 – Daniel Cordier (d.2020) was a French resistance fighter, historian, and art dealer. As a member of the Camelots du Roi, he engaged with Free France in June 1940. He was secretary to Jean Moulin from 1942 to 1943, and his opinions leaned to the left. He was named a Companion of the Resistance in 1944, and, after the war, he became a historian and art dealer. He was an advocate for gay rights.

Daniel Bouyjou was born in Bordeaux. His father, René Bouyjou, worked in the family coffee business, which flourished across Europe. In 1919, René married Jeanne Gauthier, although the couple divorced in 1925. Jeanne remarried in 1927 to Charles Cordier. When Daniel joined the French Resistance in London, he listed his official last name as "Bouyjou-Cordier". With René passing away in 1943, he would officially take the name "Cordier" in 1945.

Throughout his youth, Daniel's father retained custody. He attended various Catholic schools, such as the École Saint-Elme d’Arcachon. Influenced by royalism and Maurrassisme by his stepfather, Cordier joined Action Française at the age of 17 and founded the Cercle Charles-Maurras in Bordeaux. Indeed, Daniel admired Charles Maurras and was anti-Semitic, anti-socialist, anti-communist, anti-democratic, and ultranationalist during this period. However, patriotism for France outlasted his early ideals and he joined the Free French Forces.

In June 1940, while with his family in Bescat, Cordier listened on the radio as Philippe Pétain announced the French surrender to Germany and the armistice. Outraged, he distributed a pamphlet against Pétain. He, along with 16 others, embarked on a Belgian ship headed to Algeria. However, the ship landed in England. He reached Falmouth on 25 June and joined his fellow Frenchmen three days later. He was assigned to the Bataillon de chasseurs de Camberley [fr] to undergo training. Following his training, he was given the rank of Lieutenant.

Entering the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, Cordier parachuted into Montluçon on 26 July 1942. He quickly reached Lyon and began under the service of Jean Moulin of the French National Committee. He took the pseudonym Alain and began work as Moulin's secretary. He managed mail and radio links to London and created various organs of the Resistance.

Cordier's work led to the foundation of the National Council of the Resistance on 27 May 1943. He stayed with Moulin's successor, Claude Bouchinet-Serreulles until 21 March 1944. He crossed the Pyrenees and entered Pamplona, where he was briefly interned at the Miranda concentration camp. He then joined British forces.

After the end of World War II, Cordier dedicated himself to political activism, having given up his far-right beliefs after becoming acquainted with the radical socialist Jean Moulin. He followed humanist and non-Marxist socialist beliefs.

Cordier became very active in the cause for gay rights, he wrote in his autobiography Alias Caracalla : mémoires, 1940-1943. In it, he revealed his homosexuality, which he had kept a secret due to the fact that "the hatred towards homosexuality was terrible".

In 2013, he announced his support for gay marriage. His diary, Les Feux de Saint-Elme, was published in 2014 while the second volume of his autobiography was in production, though that would never be published. He wrote of his sexual awakening while attending an all-boys boarding school in Arcachon. He was a friend of Roland Barthes, as well as a tutor for Hervé Vilard and inspired him to pursue a singing career.

Cordier died in Cannes on 20 November 2020 at the age of 100.

1946 – Renaud Camus is a French writer.

He was born in Chamalières, Puy-de-Dôme, in the Auvergne region of France. He spent some time studying in England and traveling in the United States, particularly New York and California (he taught for a semester in a college in Arkansas). He quickly began to circulate among writers (Louis Aragon, Roland Barthes, Marguerite Duras, etc.) and visual artists (the Warhol circle, the New York School, Gilbert and George, etc.).

He is openly gay and an outspoken defender of gay rights, although, as with social issues in general, he keeps his distance from doctrinaire positions. One of his first published works (and the only one (partially) translated in English), with a preface by Barthes, is Tricks (1979; enlarged and revised in 1982 and 1988), a “chronicle” consisting of over-detailed descriptions of homosexual encounters in France and elsewhere.

Camus is an exceptionally prolific writer. His work could be divided into four categories: straightforward prose (travel writing, traditional-form novels, polemic, and lengthy yearly journals (diary) published from 1989 to the present; “creative” prose: “experimental” novels and a large and ever-growing, largely unpublished web text, Burnt Boats (Vaisseaux brûlés); writings on painting and culture; and personal essays.

He has also formed a political party, "Le Parti de l’In-nocence" (The Party of Non-Nuisance), continually evolving its platform, a curious blend of traditional leftist/socialist political values and conservative social values. It plays no role in French politics, but Camus seems to take it very seriously, adding position statements to the party’s website on a nearly daily basis.

1953 – Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist.

In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested positive for HIV, which drastically changed Doty's writing. Roberts's death in 1994 inspired Doty to write Atlantis. Heaven's Coast: A Memoir also deals with this subject. In 1995, he was the first American poet to win the £10,000 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, for his book My Alexandria.

He has written twelve books of poetry and three memoirs. Firebird told the story of his childhood in the American South and in Arizona. Dog Years was a memoir of the lives of two of his dogs who Doty had while dealing with the death of his partner and the devastation of 9-11.

He now teaches at Rutgers University. From 1995 until 2010, his partner was the writer Paul Lisicky. They were married in 2008 and divorced in 2013. He currently lives with his partner Alexander Hadel in New York City and in the hamlet of The Springs in East Hampton, New York.

  John Goldwyn & Michael C. Hall of "Dexter"

1958 – John Goldwyn is an American film producer.

John Goldwyn was born in Los Angeles, the son of producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., and his wife, film and stage actress Jennifer Howard. He has two brothers: film director and actor Tony Goldwyn and Francis Goldwyn. Goldwyn has produced a total of eight films, according to the Internet Movie Database, and the television series Dexter.

His paternal grandparents were Oscar-winning producer Samuel Goldwyn and actress Frances Howard. His maternal grandparents were Sidney Howard, screenwriter of Gone with the Wind and 70 other films, and Clare Eames, an actress.

Goldwyn and his former wife Colleen Camp have one daughter, Emily Goldwyn, who appeared in the 2005 film Elizabethtown as Star Basketball Player.

On April 30, 2011, Goldwyn and hotelier Jeffrey Michael Klein celebrated their life partnership in a ceremony in Marshall, California. Goldwyn's daughter Emily led the couple in the exchange of vows and rings.

Goldwyn is currently an Executive Producer/Consultant for scripted content at Discovery Channel. In September 2016, Discovery aired the limited series Harley & The Davidsons, which Goldwyn produced in association with RAW UK. He is currently in production on Manhunt: Unabomber, the first installment of Discovery's master criminal anthology series. In 2017, he signed a first look deal with Lionsgate.

1963 – Andrew Sullivan is a British conservative author and political commentator, distinguished by his often personal style of political analysis, and pioneering achievements in the field of blog journalism.

Andrew Michael Sullivan was born in South Godstone, Surrey, England, to a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent, and received a BA in modern history from Oxford University, where in his second year he was elected president of the prestigious Oxford Union. He went on to earn a masters degree in public administration and a Ph.D in government at Harvard University.

In 1986, he began his career with The New Republic magazine, serving as its editor from 1991 to 1996. In that position, he expanded the magazine from its traditional roots in political coverage to cultural politics and the issues around them. This produced some groundbreaking journalism but also courted several high-profile controversies.

Sullivan is known for his unusual personal-political identity (HIV-positive, gay, self-described conservative often at odds with other conservatives, and practising Roman Catholic). He is also the author of three books.

Sullivan is a speaker at major universities, colleges, and civic organisations in the United States, and a frequent guest on many national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. He has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Provincetown, MA.

In 2001, Sullivan was at the center of a sex scandal that has, to some extent, damaged his credibility as a spokesperson for conservative values. Village Voice columnist Michael Musto revealed that Sullivan had placed advertisements for "bareback sex" on a sexually oriented website that promoted unprotected sex. Journalist Michelangelo Signorile, who had earlier been attacked by Sullivan for his practice of outing closeted officials, accused Sullivan of rank hypocrisy for engaging in dangerous sexual activity while inveighing against homosexual promiscuity in his writings. More recently, Signorile has accused Sullivan, whom he dubs "Bareback Andy," of extolling "the virtues of having HIV and the wonders of being positive," and thereby encouraging others to practice unsafe sex.

In late 2000, Sullivan began his blog, The Daily Dish. In the wake of September 11 it became one of the most popular political blogs on the Internet. By the middle of 2003, it was receiving about 300,000 unique visits per month. Between starting his blog and ending his New Republic editorship, Sullivan wrote two works on homosexuality, arguing for its social acceptance on libertarian grounds. He was one of the most popular bloggers at Time Magazine. On Jan. 19, 2007, Sullivan announced through his blog that he would be leaving Time to work at the Atlantic Monthly and has since done so. His writing appears in a number of widely-read publications. He currently serves as a columnist for The Sunday Times.

Sullivan believes recognition of same-sex marriage is a civil-rights issue but is willing to promote it on a state by state legislative federalism basis rather than trying to judicially impose the change. Most of Sullivan's disputes with other conservatives have been over social issues such as these and the handling of postwar Iraq.

Andrew Sullivan identifies himself as a member of the bear community. He married his partner Aaron Tone in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2007.

1970 – Sharon Afek is the current chief military advocate general of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), appointed in October 2015.

Afek graduated cum laude with an LLB degree from Tel Aviv University and completed his master's degree in law, summa cum laude, at Tel Aviv University. Afek also holds a master's degree, cum laude, in national security studies from Haifa University (as a joint program with the IDF's National Security College). Additionally, he attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University.

After receiving his law degree from Tel Aviv University School of Law, Afek joined the Military Advocate General Corps, beginning his career in the International Law Department of the unit. He then fulfilled various senior positions in the Military Advocate General Corps, including the deputy head of the International Law Department, the Air Force District Attorney, the legal advisor for Judea and Samaria Area and the deputy military advocate general.

Afterwards, he served as the commander of the interservice “Afek” course of the IDF's Staff and Command College. On October 22, 2015, Afek was promoted to the rank of Aluf (general officer) and appointed chief military advocate general.

On July 12, 2018, Afek was promoted to the rank of major general from IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.

In an interview to Israel Bar association official magazine, Sharon Afek revealed he is gay, making him the first member of high command and the most senior Israeli military officer to come out.

1977 – Michael McDerman is an American actor, comedian, and writer. McDerman was born in Manhattan, New York. He is of Portuguese ancestry. He attended Baruch College graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor's degree. While in college, he worked as an actor and drag queen.

On September 16, 2003, McDerman appeared as his self-created alter ego, who he originated and portrayed, Carmella Cann, a drag queen judge on an episode of Ricki Lake (TV series) entitled "How Straight Is He?" He has hosted many live events as Carmella Cann, including Rhode Island International Film Festival and The Original LGBT Expo in New York City.

Carmella Cann

He appeared on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit entitled "Brotherhood" in the role of Tyler Henry, a local fraternity pledge master that is sodomized and murdered, aired in January 6, 2004. He was featured in the book Straight Talk with Gay Guys: What Girlfriends Can't Tell You and Straight Men Won't by Daylle Deanna Schwartz.

In 2008, McDerman used the stage name Michael Ferreira when he wrote, produced, and starred in the semi-autobiographical short film It's Me, Matthew! as the title character, alongside the renowned Michael Musto. In 2013, he was the theatre director for the Off-Off-Broadway stage play by Jean Bergantini Grillo, That Afternoon at Fred Campballs at Times Square Art Center, in New York City. Carmella Cann is scheduled to Host the Original LGBT Expo and Gotham Volleyball fundraiser benefiting Aids Walk New York in March 2016.

McDerman, wrote "Leading Ladies: A brief history of gay culture and its Founding Mothers" published in Next Magazine 2006.

 Added 2023

1982 – Vincent Rodriguez III is an American stage and television actor. Rodriguez is known for playing the male lead role of Josh Chan in The CW comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Rodriguez was born in San Francisco to Filipino parents and grew up in nearby Daly City. He is of Filipino, Latino, and Chinese background. He has three older sisters, all born in Manila. In 2003, he graduated from the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. He is also trained in martial arts.

He moved to New York City in 2005 and appeared often as an ensemble cast member regional theatre productions. He also teaches annually at drama schools.

On television he had bit roles on The Onion News Network and Hostages before landing his breakthrough role in 2015, when he was cast as Josh Chan, the romantic lead in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Since 2015 Rodriguez has been married to Gregory Wright. As a gay actor, his performance as the straight lead in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has received praise.

1983 – Hailing from Marietta, Georgia, reality TV star Davis Mallory was born into a strong conservative Southern Baptist family. Davis attended university from 2002-2006 at Stetson University in Florida studying general business, with the aspirations to become a plastic surgeon. He looks and acts just like any blonde hair, blue eyed frat boy (as he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity) except for the fact that he is openly gay.

Despite his southern conservative Christian upbringing, he is gay, something he first realized in the sixth grade, though his family was not pleased with his coming out.

Davis is known for being cast as the "gay guy acting straight" on The Real World: Denver. He has also been cast in The Real World/Road Rules Challenge in South Africa. After finishing The Real World: Denver, Davis is pursuing a career in modeling and is also traveling to colleges and universities around the United States to offer seminars.

He has a boyfriend named P.J.

1986 – New Zealand – Homosexual Law Reform Act goes into effect decriminalizing consensual sex between homosexual men.

2011 – Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie (no last name) are gay and a same-sex couple, right? Didn't you just always think that? After all, they live in the same apartment, share a bedroom (though not a bed,) spend a lot of time together, and are "very good" friends, despite repeated statements from the Sesame Workshop which states emphatically that Bert and Ernie are "just friends." Well, Change?.org wants to change that. Or, specifically, Change?.org wants Sesame Workshop to acknowledge that Bert and Ernie are gay and a same-sex couple.

A petition started in 2011 by Lair Scott at Change?.org, stated,

In 1997, Ernie said, "All that stuff about me and Bert? It's not true. We're both very happy, but we're not gay." But people in show business have historically denied their sexuality:

You can see the now-closed the petition at Out Bert and Ernie @ Change.org

Or a similar closed petition at Let Bert and Ernie Get Married @ Change.org

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Today's Gay Wisdom:
   Andrew Sullivan: