GAVIN ARTHUR, American writer, grandson of President Chester A. Arthur (d: 1972); Grandson and namesake of U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur, he was Alan Watts' father in law. An adventurous soul, he worked his way around the world as a merchant seaman. He managed, through his strong and attractive personality

JAMES COCO, American actor (d. 1987); Coco's first collaboration with gay American playwright Terrence McNally was an off-Broadway double-bill of one-act plays entitled Sweet Eros/Witness (1968), followed by Here’s Where I Belong, a disastrous Broadway musical adaptation of Steinbeck’s East of Eden that closed on opening night.

They had far greater success with their next project, Next, which ran for more than 700 performances and won Coco the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. Sixteen years later, the two would reunite for the Manhattan Theatre Club production of It's Only a Play. Coco also achieved success with Neil Simon, who wrote The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) specifically for him. It won him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Play. The two later joined forces for a Broadway revival of the musical Little Me and the films Murder By Death, The Cheap Detective, and Only When I Laugh, for which he was Oscar nominated.

ROSIE O’DONNELL, American comedian, actress, talk show host, and publisher, born; An 11-time Emmy Award-winning American comedian, TV talk show host, author and film and television actress, O’Donnell has also been magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, and, it must be said, a somewhat reluctant LGBT civil rights activist. In her January 2002 appearance on the sitcom Will & Grace, she played a Lesbian mom. A month later as part of her act at the Ovarian Cancer Research benefit at Caroline’s Comedy Club O'Donnell came out as a Lesbian, announcing "I'm a dyke!" "I don't know why people make such a big deal about the gay thing. ... People are confused, they're shocked, like this is a big revelation to somebody." The announcement came two months before the end of the hosting of her talk show.

Although she also cited the need to put a face to Gays and Lesbians her primary reason was to bring attention to the gay adoption issue. O'Donnell also is a foster — and adoptive — mother. She protested against adoption agencies, particularly in Florida, that refused adoptive rights to Gay and Lesbian parents.

Diane Sawyer interviewed O'Donnell in an episode of PrimeTime Thursday, she told USA Today she chose to talk to Sawyer because she wanted an investigative piece on Florida's ban on gayadoption. She told Sawyer if that was done, "I would like to talk about my life and how (the case) pertains to me." She spoke about the two Gay men in Florida who face having a foster child they raised removed from their home. State law won't let them adopt because Florida bans gay or bisexual people from adopting.

O’Donnell returned to the television talk show The View, but announced after only eight months that she was leaving to spend more time with her children and because she and her wife were divorcing.

O’Donnell is the focus of the current occupant of the White House who never seems to tire of making offensive and insulting comments about her. O’Donnell, perfectly capable of giving as good as she gets, often returns the favor. There was a great deal of excitement that Rosie might appear on Saturday Night Live as White House resident Nazi Steve Bannon. We live in hope.

BOBBY SHORT, American singer died (b. 1924); an American cabaret singer known for his interpretation of songs by 20^th century composers such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke and George Gershwin. He also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Randy Razaf, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, presenting their work not in a polemical way, but as simply the obvious equal of that of their paler contemporaries. His dedication to his great love – what he called the "Great American Song" – left him equally adept at performing the witty lyrics of Bessie Smith's "Gimme a Pigfoot" or Gershwin and Duke's I Can't Get Started with You.