July 26

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1888 – Marcel Jouhandeau (d.1979) was a French writer.

Born in Guéret, Creuse, France, Marcel Jouhandeau grew up in a world of women presided over by his grandmother. Under the influence of a young woman from the Carmel of Limoges, he embraced a spiritual form of Catholicism and considered entering the orders for a time. However, in 1908 he left for Paris where he studied first at the Lycée Henri-IV, and then at the Sorbonne, where he began to write. In 1912 he became a professor at a school at Passy.

In his youth, Marcel Jouhandeau began experiencing homosexual urges. Although he felt guilty and believed he was offending God, his feelings of shame did not prevent him from engaging in numerous homosexual acts. Throughout his life, Jouhandeau alternated between celebrating the male body and feeling mortified in regards to his sexuality. In 1914, during a spiritual crisis, he burned his manuscripts and attempted suicide. Once the crisis had passed, he turned again to writing. He created Pincegrain, the village chronicles that brought him his first literary success.

During World War I, he was a secretary in his hometown of Guéret. In 1924, he published Pincegrain, a chronicle of the inhabitants of Guéret, which shocked the people of the town. His voyages became an opportunity to indulge in homosexuality, as he recounted in the Amateur d'imprudences.

At age 40, he married a dancer, Élisabeth Toulemont, known as Caryathis, the former mistress of Charles Dullin and an intimate friend of Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob. She hoped to rid him of his homosexual leanings. During this period he undertook a work of Christian moralism (De l'abjection) before, much to the dismay of his wife, tumbling again into the arms of men, which he wrote about in Chronique d'une passion and Eloge de la volupté.

Nevertheless, Jouhandeau and his wife adopted a girl named Céline, who gave birth to Jouhandeau's grandson, Marc. Following Élise's death in 1971, Jouhandeau lived his last days in Rueil-Malmaison with Marc.

In 1938, Jouhandeau published four anti-Semitic articles in a short volume, "Le Péril Juif" (The Jewish Peril). During the Nazi occupation of France, he accepted Goebbels' invitation to visit Germany.

1927 – Born Daniel Patrick Carroll in County Cork, Eire, young Danny La Rue (d.2009) followed in his father's footsteps and served in the Royal Navy, but his career was to take a quite different direction. As Danny La Rue, he became probably the most famous female impersonator in the UK - or 'comic in a frock' - of the 20th century. Danny's very successful career extended to theatre, film, TV and records. He owned his own club at one time, and appeared in the West End in 1982 as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!

At the height of his fame in the 1960s, he was one of Britain's highest paid entertainers, although his impersonations of stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marlene Dietrich were little more than immaculate wig and costume changes. His tastefully bawdy camp humour was the epitome of British comedy. He was made an OBE in 2002.

For many years, Mr La Rue pretended to be a perfectly heterosexual bloke under the wigs, sequins and padding - he would often appear in masculine attire during his shows - but the drag went deeper than that, and as attitudes have changed in recent years, La Rue became more open about being gay. Danny lived for many years with his partner and manager, Jack Hanson, until his death in Australia following a major stroke.

Danny La Rue suffered a mild stroke in 2006 and cancelled all his work commitments, but he issued a statement in tribute to the late John Inman in March 2007.

In late 2007, La Rue appeared in Spain in a tribute show called Hello Danny in which for the most part he was played by Jerry Lane with a full cast to recreate his early career, with La Rue appearing as himself to perform some songs and for an interview section.

Danny La Rue died on 1 June 2009 after a short illness.

 Mick Jagger (R) and David Bowie

1943 – Mick Jagger, English musician, born. Best known as the lead singer of the English rock band The Rolling Stones he is indisputably regarded one of the greatest front men in the history of rock and roll, and has a stage presence that is largely inimitable. Jagger has become well known over the years for his high profile relationships. He has seven children by four different women, and has been the subject of many scandals over the years. He was also rumored to have been lovers with — or was at least caught in bed with — David Bowie.

Another shot of Bowie with Jagger

In the December 1983 issue of The Face, Jagger admitted to having some homosexual encounters, including the sexual relationship with fellow musician David Bowie.

1950 – Martin Beer (d.2011) was a German Protestant pastor and cathedral preacher at the Berlin Cathedral. He was considered an influential “celebrity preacher” but was dismissed from the office of cathedral preacher in January 2000 after complaints over his alcohol consumption and his homosexuality and transferred to another post.

Martin Beer grew up as the son of a pastor in the Ore Mountains. He studied theology at the University of Greifswald. From 1978 he worked as a clergyman for the regional church in Greifswald (later Pomeranian Evangelical Church ) and pastor in Bobbin on Rügen . From the beginning of October 1989 he was cathedral preacher at the Berlin Cathedral, the former palace church in Berlin.

In the 1990s, Martin Beer was known as a “celebrity preacher” and maintained important contacts in political and aristocratic circles, especially with the Hohenzollern family. He was received twice in private audiences by Pope John Paul II , and he was on friendly terms with Helmut Kohl and Roman Herzog.

At the beginning of 1998, Martin Beer was publicly accused of being an unofficial employee of the State Security under the code name "Maria" during his time as a pastor in the GDR. In exchange for verbal reports, Beer received gifts from the Stasi: money, books and spirits. When allegations and rumors about Beer's GDR past began to circulate, Beer was suspended from his post as cathedral preacher as early as Easter 1998. After the investigation, which was completed in October 1998, Beer was again allowed to preach in the cathedral.

In January 2000 Beer was deposed as cathedral preacher by the Evangelical Church of the Union after a series of legal and intra-church disputes. The EKU accused him of alcoholism, homosexuality and sexual contact with the (adult) son of a lawyer he knew. She initiated disciplinary proceedings that ended with his admissiom tof his homosexuality and a settlement.

Beer was transferred to the St. Elisabeth monastery in the Prenzlauer Berg district as a pastor. In January 2000 he gave his last sermon as cathedral preacher.

In spring 2011, Martin Beer died after a long hospital stay at the Charité .

1959 –Kevin Spacey (Fowler), KBE, is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s that culminated in his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects (1995), and an Academy Award for Best Actor for midlife crisis-themed drama American Beauty (1999).

His other starring roles have included the comedy-drama film Swimming with Sharks (1994), psychological thriller Seven (1995), the neo-noir crime film L.A. Confidential (1997), the drama Pay It Forward (2000), the science fiction-mystery film K-PAX (2001), Lex Luthor in the superhero film Superman Returns (2006), and Doc, a criminal kingpin in the action film Baby Driver (2017).

In Broadway theatre, Spacey won a Tony Award for his role in Lost in Yonkers. In 2017, he hosted the 71st Tony Awards. He was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 until stepping down in mid-2015. Since 2013, Spacey has played Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards. For his role as Underwood, he has won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.

Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann Fowler, a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler , a technical writer and data consultant.He has two older siblings: a sister and a brother. He has English, Swedish, and Welsh ancestry. His family relocated to Southern California when Spacey was four years old.

At Chatsworth school, Spacey starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp. He started using his middle name "Spacey", which is also his paternal grandmother's maiden name. He had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, a member of Group 12, where he studied drama, between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.

"I chose for a long time not to answer these questions because of the manner in which they were asked, and because I was never talking to someone I trusted, so why should I? Recently I chose to participate because it's a little hard on the people I love."

In 2007, Gotham magazine quoted Spacey saying: "I've never believed in pimping my personal life out for publicity. Although I might be interested in doing it, I will never do it. People can gossip all they want; they can speculate all they want. I just happened to believe that there's a separation between the public life and the private life. Everybody has the right to a private life no matter what their professions are."

In late October 2017, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey, while appearing drunk, made a sexual advance to him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 years old. In response, Spacey said he did not remember the encounter, but that if he behaved as described by Rapp, he owes him "the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior." Spacey disclosed that "I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man." Spacey's statement drew negative reactions for its combination of the two topics, as many noted Rapp's gender was not the issue. The public argued on social media that Spacey's decision to come out was used to distract from allegations of underage sexual assault.

The producers and Netflix announced the cancellation of House of Cards the same day, saying they were deeply troubled by the revelations.

1979 – The Advocate magazine first mentions "bears" in print. Bears are "usually hunky chunky types reminiscent of railroad engineers and former football greats. Bears are one of many LGBT communities with events, codes, and a culture-specific identity. However, in San Francisco in the 1970s, any hairy man of whatever shape was referred to as a 'bear' until the term was appropriated by larger men as well.

The term bear was popularized by Richard Bulger, who, along with his then partner Chris Nelson  founded Bear Magazine in 1987. There is some contention surrounding whether Bulger originated the term and the subculture's conventions. George Mazzei wrote an article for The Advocate in 1979 called "Who's Who in the Zoo?",that characterized gay men as seven types of animals, including bears.

 Added 2023

1979 – Andrew Gillum is an American politician who served as the 126th mayor of Tallahassee, Florida from 2014 to 2018 and was the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Florida in the 2018 election. He served as a Tallahassee City Commissioner from 2003 until 2014, first elected at the age of 23.

In 2018, Gillum became the nominee of the Florida Democratic Party for Governor of Florida when he won the Democratic primary election over a field of five other candidates. He competed against and lost to Republican U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis in a close election. Gillum is considered to a progressive Democrat.

In May 2009, Gillum married Rashada Jai Howard, a fellow FAMU graduate. The couple have three children.

In March 2020 the Tallahassee Democrat reported that Gillum was one of three men, one of whom was suffering from a drug overdose, who were found with "plastic baggies of suspected crystal meth" in a hotel room in Miami Beach, however no arrests were made. The person who overdosed has been reported by numerous outlets as a gay escort. Initially, Gillum was too inebriated to speak with the officers.

On March 16, Gillum stated that he would enter rehabilitation, citing struggles with alcohol after narrowly losing the 2018 Florida gubernatorial race.

In September 2020, Gillum came out as bisexual in an interview with Tamron Hall on ABC.

Depp was born in Glen Cove, New York, son of a New York Police officer. As a child he struggled with his sexuality. .

Peter Depp is featured alongside his best friend Kristen Sabata in the new season of Sundance Channel's critically acclaimed original series Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, which takes place this season in Nashville, Tenn. Peter is a Nashville-based gay comic and is known for his very aggressive, very gay, and very filthy comedic style. He refuses to tame his humor for a hetero audience, and his unapologetic attitude has won over crowds across Tennessee and the South, regardless of sexual orientation. Peter Depp's comedy plays on the common stereotypes about homosexuality and challenges his audience to open their minds and laugh. Refusing to believe in people's intolerance, his aims to use his boyish charm to change homophobes' mind about their own insecurities

His children are featured on the program. He came out to his daughter during one of the season's episodes.

1989 – In a response to political outcries over a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit, Jesse Helms leads a fight in the U.S. Senate to curtail National Endowment for the Arts funding for "obscene or indecent art," including artworks that depict "sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts." The measure was overwhelmingly adopted.

1990 – President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act which prohibits discrimination against various groups of people including those living with AIDS.

1991 – Paul "Peewee Herman" Reubens (1953-2023) is arrested in a Sarasota, Florida theater for exposing himself. After the arrest Reubens drifted from public view. He used the arrest as a chance to escape Pee-wee and play other roles as Paul Reubens. But in late summer 2006 Paul announced that Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie has been green-lighted. The film went into production around February 2007. In October 2006, Reubens made a rare public appearance at an east coast fan convention, "Chiller Theater," with "Pee Wee's Playhouse" co-star, Lynne Marie Stewart. There he donned a gray suit with a bold red necktie, and signed autographed pictures and other memorabilia and posed for photographs with fans. For the first time in fifteen years, Reubens appeared in full character as Pee-wee at the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards in June 2007 to present the Funniest MF Award.

In late 2009, Reubens began promoting his new live stage show. He has appeared in character as Pee-wee on late night programs. Pee-wee would also return for a cameo on the penultimate episode of Tonight with Conan O'Brien as host and during O'Brien's stop at Radio City Music Hall in NYC for The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.

Original plans for a November 2009 stage debut were scrapped when demand for tickets prompted a move to a larger theater. Much like the original stage show, the new production revolves around Pee-wee's desire to fly. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show's first production since 1982. The show has employed many of the same set artists and the musical composer from Pee-wee's original stage show as well as some of the original cast members, including Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne, John Moody as Mailman Mike and John Paragon as Jambi the Genie. Reubens cited his desire to make a film version of Pee-wee's Playhouse as reasoning for the show and expressed a desire to "introduce Pee-wee to the new generation that didn't know about it." The show moved to Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theater on November 11, 2010 and ran for 62 performances.

Reubens died of cancer in July 2023.

1993 – Richard Akuson is a Nigerian lawyer, LGBT rights activist, writer, editor, and the founder of A Nasty Boy magazine, Nigeria's first LGBTQ+ publication. In 2019, Richard was named one of Forbes Africa's 30 Under 30 change-makers for challenging rigid notions of masculinity, gender, and sexuality in Nigeria where homosexual acts can be punished with 14 years in prison. In 2017, he was nominated for The Future Awards Africa's New Media Innovation Award. Richard is also a two-time Abryanz Style & Fashion Award Best Fashion Writer nominee. Following the launch of A Nasty Boy magazine in 2017, Richard was named one of the 40 Most Powerful Nigerians under the age of 40 by Ynaija.

Richard was born in Akwanga, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The second of three boys, he was raised in an upper-middle-class family; his father, a politician, and his mother, a college lecturer. He attended Shepherd's International College, a private, co-educational Christian boarding school, before heading to the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, for his first professional degree in law. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2017, upon his graduation from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.

Akuson started his career as a style intern at the age of 18. In 2014, he co-founded ILLUDED, an online photo-sharing platform. In 2016, he was offered a position to head BellaNaija's fashion and style sections — a position that launched his career through the roof. His work at BellaNaija earned him an Abryanz Style & Fashion Award nomination for Fashion Writer of the Year in 2016. Later that year, Richard left BellaNaija to launch The PR Boy, a boutique PR firm that catered primarily to Nigerian startups. In 2017, while at the Nigerian Law School, he launched A Nasty Boy, the boundary-pushing LGTBQ+ publication that soon grew in stature and international acclaim.

Richard sought asylum in America in 2018 after fleeing Nigeria upon surviving a brutal homophobic attack. In the U.S., he continues to speak openly about the attack and the insidious culture of homophobia in Nigeria. He has granted interviews to OkayAfrica, Very Good Light, and The Black Youth Project, where he gave great detail surrounding the unfortunate event. Richard continues to be an outspoken activist for the LGBTQ+ and asylum communities in America.

2006 – Supreme Court in Washington State upheld the state ban on gay marriage.

2006 – Montreal hosts the 2006 World Outgames. On July 29, the Declaration of Montreal, an international statement of principle pertaining to the human rights of LGBT people around the world, is adopted at a conference held as part of the festivities.

2007 – Fox News host/homophobe Bill O’Reilly apologizes on the air for errors in a widely criticized June 21 segment that reported a “nationwide epidemic” of violent lesbian gangs terrorizing neighborhoods and schools. O’Reilly was fired in 2017 for sexual harassment.