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presents THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …
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1844 – Paul Verlaine, French poet, born, (d.1896); Born in Metz, he was educated in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age. Verlaine's private life spills over into his work, beginning with his love for Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville. Mauté became Verlaine's wife in 1870. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in the same year, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the Garde nationale, turning Communard on 18 March 1871. He became head of the press bureau of the Central Committee of the Paris Commune. Verlaine escaped the deadly street fighting known as the Bloody Week, or Semaine Sanglante, and went into hiding in the Pas-de-Calais. Verlaine returned to Paris in 1871, and, in September, he received the first letter from Arthur Rimbaud. By 1872, he had lost interest in Mathilde, and effectively abandoned her and their son, preferring the company of his new lover, Rimbaud. Rimbaud and Verlaine's stormy affair took them to London in 1872. In July 1873 in a drunken, jealous rage, he fired two shots with a pistol at Rimbaud, wounding his left wrist, though not seriously injuring the poet. As an indirect result of this incident, Verlaine was arrested and imprisoned at Mons, where he underwent a conversion to Roman Catholicism, which again influenced his work and provoked Rimbaud's sharp criticism. The poems collected in Romances sans paroles (1874) were inspired by Verlaine's recollections of his life with Mathilde on the one hand and impressionistic sketches of his on-again off-again year-long escapade with Rimbaud on the other. Romances sans paroles was published while Verlaine was imprisoned. Following his release from prison, Verlaine again traveled to England, where he worked for some years as a teacher, Boston, and Bournemouth. He returned to France in 1877 and, while teaching English, fell in love with one of his pupils, Lucien Létinois, who inspired Verlaine to write further poems. Verlaine was devastated when Létinois died of typhus in 1883. Verlaine's last years saw his descent into drug addiction, alcoholism, and poverty. He lived in slums and public hospitals, and spent his days drinking absinthe in Paris cafes. His drug dependence and alcoholism caught up with him and took a toll on his life. Paul Verlaine died in Paris at the age of 51 on 8 January 1896; But did he in fact write a poem that is almost certain
never to be taught in French 101 — the so-called "Sonnet to an Asshole"? The
chances are that he did. Even in English, the poem reflects the musical quality
that was Verlaine's hallmark:
1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia. All Russian law had been abrogated there five years earlier, and Congress passes no criminal code for it, meaning that sodomy is legal.
1905 – Mary Louise Weston, nicknamed “the Devonshire Wonder”, was one of the best British field athletes of the 1920s. She was a national champion in the women’s javelin throw and discus throw in 1929 and won the women’s shot put title in 1925, 1928 and 1929. At the 1926 Women’s World Games she finished sixth in the two-handed shot put, where the final result was a sum of two best throws with the right hand and with the left hand. On August 6 1936, the interview article "The Girl who Became a Bridegroom" is published. Weston had a genital abnormality and was assigned as female at birth and raised as a girl. In April–May 1936, Weston underwent a series of gender changing operations at the Charing Cross Hospital. He changed his first name to Mark, retired from competitions and later worked as a masseur. In July, 1936, Weston married Alberta Matilda Bray and they had three children. Following his example, his elder sibling Harry (previously Hilda) also changed his gender and name in the 1930s. Harry hanged himself during a depression in 1942. Mark Weston died in the Freedom Fields Hospital in Plymouth in 1978.
1933 – Jean-Claude Brialy, French actor and director, born (d.2007); a French actor, director and socialite who starred in French films, Brialy was born in Aumale, French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland France with his family in 1942, to Paris in 1954, and appeared in his first film in 1955. When he went to Paris in 1954 it was without much money because his parents refused to help him, but with the hope of an acting career. He became friendly with a group of young critics on the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, but before he could achieve his ambition, he was called up for military service in Germany. While on leave, he and a number of friends, among them Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette, piled into an old Buick and drove from Paris to Provence to appear as extras in Jean Renoir's production of Julius Cesar in the Roman arena in Arles. "All night they spoke of cinema, in a manner that I hadn't heard before," Brialy recalled. "They were like a clandestine group plotting revolution. Most of them were hardly 20 years old. They spoke with incredible clarity of Rossellini, Hitchcock and Renoir as connoisseurs speak of Mozart and Beethoven." In France, he went on to become one of the most prominent figures in the arts, prolific in films, on television and in the theatre; a brilliant raconteur with the air of a boulevardier, he was also one of the few French stars to be openly gay. He became a star in the late 1950s when he was one of the most prolific actors of the French "nouvelle vague." He made films with such important nouvelle vague filmmakers as Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda and Jacques Rozier; and with other filmmakers such as Roger Vadim, Claude Lelouche and Luis Bunuel. He was also himself a director of a number of films, including Eglantine (1971). In his autobiographies, Le Ruisseau des singes (River of Monkeys) (2000) and J'ai oublié de vous dire... (I Forgot to Tell You ...) (2004), he revealed that he was bisexual.
1949 – Tank aka Paul Clark Tankersley, American artist, born in Nassau County, NY, died 1992 in Dallas, Texas. The overriding aesthetic of his work was the glorification of the American Cowboy. Working mainly in graphite and colored pencil, occasionally in oils, Tank displayed a strong eye for realism. In his drawings, one had a sense that each man stood alone, strong and upright - truly capturing the spirit of the cowboy, the farmhand and other stoic men. His work also underscored the bond between men, and suggested a strong current of eroticism.  "Roped" (Click for larger) He was very fond of the work he created and rarely parted with an original. Instead, he produced high quality photo prints available by mail order and at Gay Rodeo weekends. TANK's career was tragically interrupted by his sudden death of AIDS complications in 1992. His artwork has been showcased in several national publications across Canada, Europe and Australia.
1961 – The New York Court of Appeals rules that the state's sodomy law applies only to the partner who is "active" in fucking. This decision is overturned by legislation.
Intended for a 'mainstream' gay audience it reflected cautious reformism, defending the rights and normalcy of a constituency living in a hostile environment. This was not unlike the political activism emerging in a few large American and European cities before more confrontational activism. Gay also published on Toronto police raids on bars, and on the calls for social and political change that were beginning to surface. The first five-hundred-copy issue sold out almost immediately. Printing rose to two thousand copies by issue three, distributed to a number of outlets in Toronto and Montreal. Shortly, Gay expanded into the United States as Gay International. It quickly outstripped American publications' distributions, and by the spring of 1965 it was publishing twenty thousand copies across North America and selling about eight thousand. Publication ended in 1966 when criminal charges were levied against one of its central creators.
1964 – Tracy Chapman, American singer, born; Although
Chapman has never spoken publicly about her sexuality, Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Alice Walker discussed her love affair with Chapman in an interview with
The Guardian on December 15th 2006. She explained why they did not go public
with their relationship at the time (the mid 1990s), and said After waiting to graduate college, Chapman signed to Elektra Records, releasing Tracy Chapman (1988). The album was critically acclaimed, and she began touring and building a fanbase. Soon after she performed it at the televised Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in June 1988, Chapman's "Fast Car" began its rise on the US charts, eventually becoming a Top 10 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100. "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution," the follow-up, charted at #75, and was followed by "Baby Can I Hold You," which peaked at #48 The album sold well, going multi- platinum and winning three Grammys, including an honor for Chapman as Best New Artist. In 1988, Chapman was a featured performer on the worldwide Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour. Chapman often performs at and attends AIDS charity events such as AMFAR and AIDS/LifeCycle Chapman maintains a strong separation between her personal and professional life. "I have a public life that's my work life and I have my personal life," she said. "In some ways, the decision to keep the two things separate relates to the work I do."
1966 – The Oregon Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of two lovers, one of whom has cross-dressed.
1967 – Gerald McCullouch is an award-winning American actor, director, screenwriter, and singer. He is best known for playing Bobby Dawson on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. McCullouch, an Irish-American, was born in Huntsville, Alabama. He first got his professional performing job at 16 was as a singer in the country western revue at Six Flags Over Georgia. He declined a scholarship to Savannah College of Art and Design to study in the BFA Musical Theatre Program at Florida State University. After surviving a near fatal car crash during his sophomore year, which left him in a coma, he began his career in Atlanta, Georgia. McCullouch has been interviewedin many publications, including the New York Daily News, Los Angeles Daily News, Jezebel, The Advocate, and the Instinct. In January 2009, McCullough was on the New York City subway when a man attempted to steal his laptop; McCullough, a trained boxer, successfully fought him off, even when the thief attempted to stab him with a kitchen knife. The thief was arrested by New York City police officers. He had previously been robbed at gunpoint in Atlanta in 2001. McCullough is openly gay and has directed and starred in several gay-themed productions, including Bear City and Bear City 2. In 2014, he revealed that he was in a relationship with college basketball player Derrick Gordon.
1972 – Vestal McIntyre is an American author currently based in the UK. He was born in Nampa, Idaho, and educated at Tufts University, Massachusetts. He lived for many years in New York City, where he was a waiter at Restaurant Florent in the Meatpacking District. He claims to have three gay siblings, brothers and sisters, and tells of how his mother handled the fact:
It was very difficult at first, especially for my mother who was deeply religious and had led a sheltered life. She said she hadn't even known gay people existed growing up! But she and my dad both loved us a lot and were open-minded, intelligent people. My mother ended up standing up for us in church. American Baptist churches all had to vote whether they'd be "open and affirming" or "open and transforming" to gay people. (Transforming, meaning gays and lesbians would have to become straight in order to stay members.) My mom stood up at a deacon's meeting and said, "I have four gay children, and they grew up in this church and we need to make them feel welcome!" This, from a woman who, a few years before, could not get the word "gay" out of her mouth! I tell that story all the time—I'm so proud of her. His first collection of short stories, You Are Not the One, was published by the independent Scottish publisher Canongate in 2006. His follow-up book, Lake Overturn, was published in 2009, and won the Grub Street National Book Prize and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. He now lives in southeast London, where he is working on a second novel and wrapping up a collection of stories based on his years in New York.
1983 – Max Miller is an American YouTuber residing in Burbank, California, United States, the creator and host of Tasting History with Max Miller, a culinary and history fusion web-show, and Drinking History, a web-show about historic beverages. Tasting History explores ancient recipes and the history of the cultures surrounding them. Before starting on YouTube, Max worked at Walt Disney Studios for 6 years. He was hired as a Media Planner in May of 2014 and was promoted to a Marking Operator in August 2016. Unfortunately, in March 2020 he was furloughed from his job at Disney due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has spent his time furloughed working on his YouTube channel and online presence. Max created his channel after a coworker suggested that he start a YouTube channel based on his hobby of historical recipes. While working at Disney, Max would make old recipes and bring them to work and have his coworkers try them out with him. Max was also inspired by The Great British Bake Off and how the hosts, Mel and Sue, would discuss the history of the dishes the contestants were preparing in a humorous manner. Each episode starts with an introduction to the recipe and a tease of the history behind it. After the intro, Max starts with the recipe listing the ingredients and reading the historical document that has the instructions on how to make the said recipe. When the recipe reaches a point where you would normally wait, like in boiling; baking; or rising, Max then goes into depth about the history surrounding the recipe or its main ingredients. During the history section of his videos Max references multiple historical documents and figures. After the recipe is finished, Max then tastes the recipe and gives it a review. Drinking History videos are shorter and more causal than his main show, and focuses more on the history than the recipe. Max is openly gay and has been with his fiancé José since 2013. Both Max and José are Pokémon fans and Pokémon plushies are often in the background of Tasting History videos. They own two cats, Cersei and Jaime, both cats often appear on their second channel. In October 8th, 2021, Max and José officially became married. They had their wedding in Hawaii. In April 14th, 2021, Max posted an update video on his channel that explained that he got a call from Disney informing him that he was no longer furloughed. After the call, Max decided to quit his job at Disney to pursue Tasting History full-time because he deemed it impossible to do both.
A study published in the American Journal of Medicine in 1984 traced many of New York City's early HIV infections to an unnamed infected homosexual male flight attendant. Epidemiologists hypothesized that Dugas had carried the virus out of Africa and introduced it into the Western gay community. Dugas was described as being a charming, handsome sexual athlete, who, according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners a year. He claimed to have had over 2,500 sexual partners across North America since becoming sexually active in 1972. As a flight attendant Dugas was able to travel the globe, at little cost, to such early HIV epicenters as London and Paris in Europe and Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in the U.S. Being diagnosed with Kaposi's Sarcoma in June 1980, and after being warned that this could be caused and spread by a sexually transmitted virus, Dugas refused to stop having unprotected sex, claiming that he could do what he wanted with his body. He allegedly informed some of his sex partners, just after having sex, that he had the "gay cancer" and perhaps they would get it too. Dugas died in Quebec City on March 30, 1984 as a result of kidney failure caused by continual AIDS-related infections.
[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]|[{(o)}]| [{(o)}]|[{(o)}] TODAY'S GAY WISDOMTranslation Note: This is the only poem known to have been composed jointly by Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. The Parnassien poet Albert Mérat had published a book of sonnets entitled L'Idole, in which each poem extolled a part of his mistress' body — with one omission, which the two young homosexual poets and lovers proceeded to "rectify." This sonnet appeared in the Album Zutique, a book of scabrous parodies by the Parisian literary circle who called themselves Les Zutistes.
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Mary/Mark Weston (R) with Matilda Bray
1964 – Gay Magazine was one of Toronto's first gay magazines, published almost simultaneously with ASK Newsletter, and together they were Canada's first gay magazines. The earliest periodical anywhere to use 'Gay' in its title, Gay was produced by four Toronto men in a commercial venture, the Gay Publishing Company. Gay ran serious articles, letters to the editor, a diary, gossip columns, a feature called the "Gabrial Club", poetry, fiction, politics and a discrete personals column. Gay was illustrated, usually with photographs of drag queens, but also including 'physique' photography.
