JEAN O’LEARY, American Gay and Lesbian rights activist and politician, born (d. 2005); Born in Kingston, New York and raised in Ohio, O'Leary joined the Sisters of the Holy Humility convent in 1966, just out of high school, to "have an impact on the world." After graduating from Cleveland State University with a psychology degree, she left the convent in 1970 and would later write about her experience in Rosemary Curb’s 1984 anthology, Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence. She moved to New York and did doctoral work at Yeshiva University. She was further interviewed on this subject in Lucy Kaylin’s 2000 book For the Love of God: The Faith and Future of the American Nun (ISBN 0060937076)

In 1970 she became involved with the nascent Gay Rights movement, joining the Gay Activists' Alliance (GAA) and lobbying state politicians. In 1972, she left the male-dominated GAA and founded Lesbian Feminist Liberation, one of the first Lesbian activist groups in the women's movement. Two years later, she joined the National Gay task Force, negotiating gender parity in its executive with director Bruce Voeller and joining as co-executive director.

In 1977 she organized the first meeting of Gay Rights activists in the White House, and was the first openly gay person appointed to a presidential commission, the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, by Jimmy Carter. In this role she negotiated for Gay and Lesbian Rights to be included on the discussion in a conference marking the year in Houston, Texas. She was the first openly Lesbian delegate to a national political convention, attending the Democratic convention in 1976, and served on the Democratic National Committee for twelve years, eight of those on the Executive Committee, another first.

During the early 1980s she focused on building National Lesbian and Gay Advocates, then one of the largest national Gay and Lesbian Rights groups. It was one of the first to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic's implications for legal and civil liberties, using aggressive litigation to ensure AIDS patients' access to treatment. She co-founded National Coming Out Day with Rob Eichberg in 1987. She died in San Clemente, California of lung cancer, aged fifty-seven. She was survived by her partner Lisa Phelps, their daughter Victoria, their son David de Maria, his life partner James Springer, and David and James' son Aiden de Maria.

WASH WEST, English Gay porn film director born; West recently emerged as a nationally-known independent film director with his 2006 release, "Quinceañera", which had a double Sundance win (Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize), and also picked up the Humanitas Prize, and the John Cassavetes Spirit Award. He has directed under the names Wash Westmoreland, Bobby Dazzler and Bud Light.

His first work in film was in Gay porn. Toolbox and Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard were his first significant films both for BIG Video, a minor label and directed under the name Wash West. He wrote and directed Naked Highway for BIG Video. This film received high praise from many critics.

The film is about one man's across country trip to find his boyfriend and meeting an outlaw in a stolen car. They decide to ride together. The film was filled with daring music, deep saturated color alternating with washed out sections and black and white sequences. The lead performances were engaging and the film was made for a fraction of the budget of most major porn releases of the time. The film was also released in a softcore edit and made available in more mainstream outlets.

In 1997, he won the award for "Best Video of the Year" at the Adult Erotic Video Awards for this film. He also won directing, writing and videography awards at the 1998 AVN Awards, the "BestGay Video" award. West also won an editing award for his work on Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard and lead star Jim Buck was honored as the "Best Actor" for his performance in Naked Highway, "Newcomer of the Year" and "Performer of the Year" awards at the same ceremony. West directed the mainstream film The Fluffer, a film which was set in the Gay porn industry but contained no explicit sex. The film received generally favorable reviews and was successful enough that West proved he could helm more mainstream films. He co-directed this film with his professional and personal partner, Richard Glatzer.

CHAZ BONO, American actor and Gay and trangender rights activist; The only child from entertainer Cher’s marriage to Sonny Bono. Need we say anything more? Well, actually, yes, we do.

In 1995, after several years of being outed as Lesbian by the tabloid press, Bono publicly self-identified as such in a cover story in a leading American gay monthly magazine, The Advocate, eventually going on to discuss the process of coming out to oneself and to others in two books. Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families includes his coming out account. The memoir The End of Innocence discusses his outing, music career, and partner Joan's death from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Between 2008 and 2010, Bono underwent female-to-male gender transition. A two-part Entertainment Tonight feature in June 2009 explained that his transition had started a year before. In May 2010, he legally changed his gender and name. A documentary on Bono's experience, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In September 2011, he became a competitor on the 13^th of  season of the US version of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional ballroom dancer Lacey Schwimmer.

ANTONIN ARTAUD, French playwright, actor/director, poet died (b. 1896); Artaud believed that the theater should affect the audience as much as possible, therefore he used a mixture of strange and disturbing forms of lighting, sound and performance.

In his book The Theatre and Its Double, which contained the first and second manifesto for a "Theatre of Cruelty," Artaud expressed his admiration for Eastern forms of theatre, particularly the Balinese. He admired Eastern theatre because of the codified, highly ritualized and precise physicality of Balinese dance performance, and advocated what he called a "Theatre of Cruelty". At one point, he stated that by cruelty, he meant not exclusively sadism or causing pain, but just as often a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality. He believed that text had been a tyrant over meaning, and advocated, instead, for a theatre made up of a unique language, halfway between thought and gesture. Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all theatre is physical expression in space.

Theatrical practitioner Peter Brook took inspiration from Artaud's "Theatre of Cruelty" in a series of workshops that lead up to his well-known production of Marat/Sade. The Living Theatre was also heavily influenced by him, as was much English-language experimental theater and performance art; Karen Finley, Spalding Gray, Liz LeCompte, Richard Foreman, Charles Marowitz, Sam Shepard, Joseph Chaiken, and more all named Artaud as one of their influences.

BOB HATTOY, American activist died (b. 1950); an American activist on issues related to gay rights, HIV-AIDS, and the environment. Hattoy worked in the White House under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1999. He also served as chairman of the research committee of the Presidential Commission on HIV/AIDS, having himself been diagnosed HIV positive in 1990. He won renown as an outspoken critic of presidents Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush for their policies on issues such as conservation, the response to HIV/AIDS, and the ban on gay or bisexual men and women serving openly in the U.S. military. In 2002 he started working for the California Fish and Game Commission. He was appointed president of the commission in February 2007, shortly before his death from AIDS-related causes.

This writer and Bob Hattoy worked together for the Los Angeles City Council in the late 70’s. Hattoy was Deputy City Councilman for Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and I was deputy for Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson (West Hollywood before the partition.) Equally one of the wittiest and most exasperating people I have ever known, he had a mind like a steel trap and was enormously proud of having been employed as Winnie the Pooh at Disneyland while in high school. He was also one of the funniest people I knew. He is missed. There was no one else quite like him.

Gay Rights: ONCALE V SUNDOWNER OFFSHORE SERVICES: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.