September 22

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1929 – Albert Cecil Williams is an American pastor, community leader, and author who is the pastor emeritus of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.

One of six children, Williams was born in San Angelo, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Huston–Tillotson University in 1952. He was one of the first five African American graduates of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in 1955.

He became the pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, California in 1963, and founded the Council on Religion and the Homosexual the following year. He welcomed everyone to participate in services and hosted political rallies in which Angela Davis and the Black Panthers spoke and lectures by personalities as diverse as Bill Cosby and Billy Graham. When Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, Williams attempted to negotiate a deal for her release.

Drawing on his experiences in the civil rights movement, Williams was one of the first African-Americans to become involved in the gay rights movement. In 1964, he gave a speech at the Society for Individual Rights in San Francisco, which was more outspoken than the contemporary Mattachine Society. Based on the contemporary campaign for African-American voting rights, he suggested that gays should use their votes to gain political power and effect change.

Under his leadership, Glide Memorial became a 10,000-member congregation of all races, ages, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and religions. It is the largest provider of social services in the city, serving over three thousand meals a day, providing AIDS/HIV screenings, offering adult education programs, and giving assistance to women dealing with homelessness, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health issues.

In August 2013, the intersection of Ellis and Taylor Streets (location of the Glide church in San Francisco) was renamed "Rev. Cecil Williams Way" in honor of Williams.

1939 – Bette Bourne, born Peter Bourne, is a British actor, drag queen and equal rights activist.

Born Peter Bourne in Hackney, east London, he made his stage debut at the age of four as one of the members of Madame Behenna and her Dancing Children. Encouraged to take part in amateur dramatics by his mother, he chose a career in the theatre at 16, working backstage at the Garrick Theatre, London.

He studied drama at Central School of Speech and Drama in London and went on to act on stage and on television throughout the 1960s. He appeared in TV series such as The Avengers and The Prisoner, and in 1969, he appeared alongside Sir Ian McKellen in a touring double bill of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and Shakespeare's Richard II.

In the 1970s, he put his acting career on hold to become an activist with the Gay Liberation Front, becoming part of a gay commune in London. It was during this period that he started wearing drag and changed his name to "Bette".

In 1976, he joined the New York-based gay cabaret group, the Hot Peaches, performing with them in Europe, culminating in a show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. When this group went back to New York, Bourne formed his own troupe, Bloolips. Featuring songs such as Let's Scream Our Tits Off, the shows were mostly written by playwright John Taylor with titles like Lust in Space and The Ugly Duckling. He toured the UK and the rest of Europe throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, winning an Obie Award (Off Broadway Theater Award) for the New York production of Lust in Space.

1946 – Maurice Richard is a Canadian politician in the province of Quebec. He was a Liberal member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1985 to 1994 and was the mayor of Bécancour, a position to which he was first elected in 1976.

Richard was born in Sainte-Angèle-de-Laval, Quebec and received his early education there and in Nicolet. He attained certification from the Institut national des viandes in 1973 and later operated a food market in Bécancour. He has also been an artist and painter since 1976.

Richard was a councillor in Bécancour from 1971 to 1976 and first served as the town's mayor from 1976 to 1985. He was interviewed by the Globe and Mail in 1983 as part of a feature piece on the community's industrial projects; in the course of the interview, he highlighted Bécancour's port on the St. Lawrence River, its efficient road and rail system, and its low-cost electricity.

1953 – Richard Fairbrass is an English singer and television presenter, born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey and raised in East Grinstead, West Sussex. He is the singer with the band Right Said Fred alongside his brother Fred Fairbrass, who became very popular for a short time in the UK in 1991 with their number 2 hit I'm Too Sexy, which they followed with Don't Talk Just Kiss and in 1992 Deeply Dippy, which was a number 1. Since then they have only occasionally troubled the lower reaches of the charts although they have had success in Europe and elsewhere.

I'm Too Sexy has entered popular culture and is often spoofed or parodied in shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy.

In April 2007 Fairbrass was reported to be planning to run for Mayor of London in the 2008 election. Shortly after, during a gay rights rally in Red Square, Moscow, on 27 May 2007 commemorating the 14th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia, Richard and Fred Fairbrass were assaulted by members of a counter-demonstration staged by ultra-nationalists. Richard Fairbrass sustained a cut under his eye. Speaking about the incident upon his return to the UK, Richard Fairbrass commented, "When it was over I actually felt more sorry for the guy that whacked me than I did for me ... How threatened can he be, how insecure is he to be threatened by a bisexual pop singer who's most famous for singing "I'm Too Sexy"?".

He is very open about his sexual orientation (bisexual) and once co-hosted (with Rhona Cameron) a TV series aimed at a lesbian and gay audience called Gaytime TV on BBC2. Richard had come out as bisexual in 1991 to The Sun. Richard's long term partner, from the early 1980s until the early 2000s, was Stuart Pantry, a BBC make-up artist. At the end In 2007, Richard said to the Metro: "My last relationship was with a girl, so I am on the cusp. I have never described myself as completely gay". Fairbrass has also said he appreciates "pretty guys who look like girls and girls who look like pretty guys."

1958 – Tim Miller was a little-known performance artist until he came to national attention as one of four people denied grants from the National Endowment for the Arts because of homosexual content in their shows. Since then he has built a reputation for his witty and engaging performances that are both poignant and politically acute. Miller's performances are rooted in his own life experiences, but they are also a form of glbtq activism.

Miller, the youngest of their four children, was born in Pasadena but grew up in nearby Whittier. As a youth Miller read the works of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg and always felt a sense of otherness. In Boys Like Us, he wrote:

He had an epiphany while watching a PBS show about Oscar Wilde, Feasting with Panthers (directed by Adrian Hall and Rick Hauser) in 1975. As he recalled in a 1992 interview, "It was like a lightning bolt from Zeus or Diana or somebody came right into our living room in Whittier, California. It was like I watched it and I said, 'Oh, OK. I'm gay, just like Oscar Wilde, just like Socrates.'" He shared the revelation with his family, all of whom were very supportive.

Miller's interest in performance began in high school, where he took classes in theater and dance. At nineteen he moved to New York and studied dance with Merce Cunningham.

Two years later, in 1980, Miller joined with Charles Moulton and Charles Dennis to found P.S. 122, a space for performance art. The name derives from the former school building that houses the project. After seven years in New York, Miller returned to California and founded another performance space, Highways, in Santa Monica.

Miller developed shows based on his personal life as a gay man and also as an activist on behalf of the glbtq community. As a member of ACT UP and other organizations Miller has participated in numerous demonstrations to call for funding of AIDS research and treatment and to promote equal rights for glbtq people. His civil disobedience has led to his arrest on several occasions. He was beaten up by police when he protested at the Republican National Convention in 1992.

Supported in part by grants for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Miller staged his autobiographical shows before small houses until May 1990, when he suddenly found himself at the center of a political maelstrom. In the wake of the controversy over NEA sponsorship of a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit, Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina led a campaign to prevent the NEA from funding "obscene or indecent" art.

In September 1989 a congressional committee adopted language to prohibit federal grants for art that "may be considered obscene, including, but not limited to, depictions of sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts and which, when taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." On the basis of this amendment, in June 1990 NEA chairman John E. Frohnmayer denied four of eighteen proposed grants despite the unanimous favorable recommendation of a panel of artists. Three of the artists—Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes—are openly gay or lesbian, and the fourth, Karen Finley, deals in her work with various aspects of sexuality including homosexuality. All were previous recipients of NEA grants. The NEA Four, as the group came to be known, sued the agency and Frohnmayer in federal court on the grounds that political rather than artistic motivations had led to the rejection of the grants.

"There is no question that the work of these artists is considered excellent in the arts community," stated Ellen Yaroshefsky, one of their lawyers, adding, "The works talk about the victimization and powerlessness of women in our culture, the victimization of gay people, and the victimization of people with AIDS, and all of them express the views that heterosexuals and homosexuals should be treated equally."

The case was eventually settled out of court in June 1993. The four plaintiffs each received their original grants and also $6,000 to compensate them for invasion of privacy because of alleged leaks of information about them by the NEA. The case cost the NEA over $200,000 in compensation to the plaintiffs' lawyers and also cost Frohnmayer his job after he admitted that he had departed from regular procedure by rejecting the panel's decisions on the NEA Four and by not permitting them to appeal his action.

Despite the settlement, however, the Clinton Justice Department appealed to preserve the "decency clause." After a trial court and a court of appeals declared the clause unconstitutional, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that the NEA could use "general standards of decency"--a decidedly vague concept--in making funding choices.

Mark Patton was born in Kansas City, Missouri. After graduating high school, Patton moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. Within a few months he landed the role of Joe Qualley in the 1982 Broadway production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Patton reprised the role in the 1982 film of the same name. Although his character in the play and film was gay, Patton was not allowed to do an interview with the LGBT-interest magazine, The Advocate. Patton identified this as an early indicator of the homophobia in Hollywood at that time.

He is perhaps best known for his role in the 1985 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge as Jesse Walsh, a teen whose body becomes possessed by Freddy Krueger. Critics and audiences noted the gay subtext of the film, something deliberately inserted by screenwriter David Chaskin. Chaskin initially blamed the subtext on Patton's portrayal of Jesse.

Patton says he gave up on his acting career following being cast in a planned CBS series in which he would have played a gay character.

In 2004, on his 46th birthday, Patton was diagnosed with HIV along with pneumonia, thrush and tuberculosis. His medications interacted badly and he was hospitalized. Upon recovering, he moved to Mexico, where he met and later married Hector Morales Mondragon. The couple owns and operates an art store in Puerto Vallearta.

Patton appears in the A Nightmare on Elm Street documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, directed by Dan Farrands. In the documentary screenwriter Chaskin acknowledged that he was responsible for the film's gay subtext. Following his appearance in the documentary Patton began touring horror conventions where he is lauded as mainstream cinema's first male "scream queen". He donates most of his appearance fees to HIV treatment groups and charities benefiting LGBT youth such as The Trevor Project.

In December of 2015, it was announced that Patton was cast in the independent paranormal horror film, "Family Possessions", which is written and directed by Tommy Faircloth of Horse Creek Productions.

1965 – Dan Bucatinsky is an American actor, writer and producer, best known for his role as James Novak in the Shonda Rhimes drama series Scandal, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2013. In 2014, Bucatinsky starred on NBC's Marry Me, as well as the newly revived HBO series The Comeback, which he also executive produces.

Bucatinsky was the writer, producer and star of the 2001 romantic comedy All Over the Guy. He has appeared in episodes of many television series, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Weeds, Friends, NYPD Blue, That '80s Show, Frasier, and Will & Grace, as well as an episode of Grey's Anatomy (where Bucatinsky also serves as a consulting producer). He executive produced and acted in the 2005 HBO series The Comeback along with his producing partner, actress Lisa Kudrow. In 2008, Bucatinsky and Lisa Kudrow again worked as producers for the innovative and largely improvisational web series, Web Therapy, in which Kudrow starred and Bucatinsky also acted; Don Roos, his husband, directed.

Bucatinsky had a recurring role as a journalist and husband of the President's Chief of Staff on the ABC drama series, Scandal, for which he won the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

From 2014 to 2015, Bucatinsky co-starred on the short-lived NBC sitcom Marry Me, where he and Tim Meadows play "The Kevins", the gay dads of Annie (played by Casey Wilson) who are both named Kevin. He started out as a recurring guest star, but was promoted to series regular midway through the series.

He also wrote the book Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?: Confessions of a Gay Dad, which has been optioned for television.

Bucatinsky met his future husband, screenwriter Don Roos, in 1992 when Roos invited him to be his date at the premiere of Love Field. They married in 2008, during the four months same-sex marriage in California was first recognized. The couple has two children, daughter Eliza and son Jonah.

In February 2007, Langbehn and Pond, along with three of their four children, were in Miami, FL to depart on a cruise. Pond collapsed before the cruise departed and was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital's (JMH) Ryder Trauma Center. When Langbehn and their children arrived, a JMH social worker told Langbehn she was in an "anti-gay city and state" and required a health care proxy to see Pond. Langbehn had a power of attorney (POA) which was faxed to the hospital within an hour of Pond's arrival. However, Langbehn and their 3 young children were kept from Pond's side for eight hours. Pond slipped into a coma from a brain aneurysm and died without her partner of 18 years or her children by her side.

When Langbehn unsuccessfully sought an apology from the hospital, she turned to Lambda Legal Defense Fund. Lambda Legal filed suit against Jackson Memorial on June 25, 2008, in the Federal District Court of Miami, FL. The case was dismissed.

Langbehn was asked to publicly about her partner's death for the first time at the Olympia, WA Pride gathering on June 18, 2007, four months after Pond's death. As the family's story caught national attention they were featured in the New York Times by writer Tara Parker-Pope. As a result of the article, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel brought the article to the attention of President Barack Obama.

The hospital visitaiton rule requiring all hospital receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding to allow for LGBT family visitation went into effect January 18, 2011.

A short film,"Quiet" a fictionalized version of Lisa's death is receiving awards and showing at Academy Award qualify festivals. The film is dedicated to the memory of Lisa Pond and how her death catapulted LGBT hospital visitation to the forefront of publicly policy.

Langbehn resides in Lacey, WA raising the children that Pond and she adopted from the Washington State foster care program.

 (Click for Full Monty)

1972 – Matthew Rush is a bi-racial American gay pornographic film actor, magazine model, and a bodybuilder and personal trainer. He has competed at the Gay Games in Amsterdam and Sydney, Australia.

Rush was under a lifetime exclusive pornographic career contract with Falcon Studios that ended in 2009 so he could pursue other projects in the pornographic industry. His first post-Falcon project was a pornographic video and photo shoot with photographer Jon Royce on January 22, 2009.

Rush is a powerful top in many of his film roles, but he can also perform as a vocal bottom. His first post-Falcon porn shoot was with Pantheon Productions in San Francisco on January 23, 2009. In the film, titled Brief Encounters (Real Men, Vol. 17), Rush played a nasty son that "flip-flopped" with hairy daddy Tim Kelly. Rush's career was revitalized when he joined the website MenOver30.com in 2009. His easy going attitude and versatility has resulted with him receiving the 2010 Grabby Award and GayVN Award in the category "Best Versatile Performer".

Rush has appeared in the TV detective film Third Man Out, starring Chad Allen, and in the motion picture Another Gay Movie. From 2002 to 2005, he acted in a traveling stage production of Ronnie Larsen's Making Porn.

His retirement from the pornographic industry, announced in October 2011, was short lived when he returned to making pornographic films in January 2012.

1975 – On this date Oliver Sipple saved President Gerald Ford's life.

Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, just seventeen days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had also tried to kill the president. Moore was 40 feet away from Ford when she fired a single shot at him. The bullet missed the President because bystander Oliver Sipple grabbed Moore's arm and then pulled her to the ground, using his hand to keep the gun from firing a second time. Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off."

Sipple, a decorated Marine and Vietnam War veteran, was immediately commended by the police and the Secret Service for his action at the scene. The news media portrayed Sipple as a hero. Though he was known to be Gay by various fellow members of the Gay community, Sipple had not made this public, and his sexual orientation was a secret from his family. He requested the press did not report this. Several days later Herb Caen, a columnist at The San Francisco Chronicle, exposed Sipple as a Gay man and a friend of Harvey Milk.

1975

2003 – John Alcorn has a role as a jazz singer in Timothy Findley's The Piano Man's Daughter. John Alcorn is a Canadian jazz singer who is active in the Toronto jazz scene.

Born in Toronto, Ontario and raised in Trinidad, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New Hampshire, Alcorn returned to Toronto as an adult and began performing in jazz clubs. He released his first album in 1999, and was named Male Vocalist of the Year by the Jazz Report Awards. He also earned a Dora Award in 1997 as music director and composer for Theresa Tova's play Still the Night.

Alcorn has also acted in a number of television films, including Must Be Santa and The Piano Man's Daughter.

Alcorn is the partner of puppeteer and dramatist Ronnie Burkett. His daughter, Coco Love Alcorn, is also a noted Canadian jazz and pop singer.