RAPHAEL, Italian Renaissance painter and architect born (d. 1520); Almost every Renaissance painter has been thought to be homosexual by one writer or another over the years, and Raphael, “the divine painter” is no exception.

The clues, however, may be purely coincidental in Raphael’s case. (1) As a young man he was exceedingly beautiful. (2) As an adult he lived together with his two favorite students, Giulio Romano, reputed to be bisexual, and Gianfrancesco Penni. (3) When he died at 37, he left the larger part of his estate to the two young men. (4) As the New York Times would have put it, “he never married.” Reach your own conclusions.

WILLIAM RUFUS DE VANE KING, U.S. Senator, born (d: 1853); A U.S. Representative from North Carolina, a Senator from Alabama, and the 13th Vice President of the United States. Excluding John Tyler and Andrew Johnson — both of whom ascended to the Presidency — he was the shortest-serving person to occupy that office (45 days).

He was also the “best friend” of America’s only bachelor president, James Buchanan. And he paid a political price for the closeness of that friendship. Andrew Jackson, called him “Miss Nancy,” and others referred to him as “her” and “Aunt Fancy” while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife." When an attempt was made to check the gossip by shipping King off as Ambassador to France, jokes circulated about the presidential “divorce.” Buchanan wrote in 1844, after King left for France:

 "I am now 'solitary and alone,' having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection."

King was elected Vice President in 1852 and because of his poor health, traveled to Cuba. By a special act of Congress he was permitted to take the oath of office in Matanzas. Cuba on March 24 1853. His health did not improve and he returned to Alabama where he died at his plantation.

Hollywood boy-toy ANDERSON LAWLER died on this date. As early as November 1929, Photoplay explained to its readers  "How bachelors manage their homes". Described as a "playboy", WILLIAM HAINES appeared in a photograph captioned "at home, fastidious housekeeper and host, art connoisseur. The commode is Venetian, the portrait a Sir Peter Lely." Well of course it is!

Tea with RAMON NOVARRO was served by his "man" (Novarro's "valet" and éminence grise Frank Hansen) and consisted of "tiny finger sandwiches, cut in hearts and shamrocks, and luscious little petit fours" and that GARY COOPER lived with his mother (such a good boy). She noted a banling ham in the kitchen, a gift from Anderson Lawlor's mother in Virginia. Modern research suggest overwhelmingly that Cooper was involved in a long-term relationship with Andy Lawlor aka ANDERSON LAWLER.

Lawler was born Sidney Lawler on May 5, 1902 in Russellville, Alabama. Prior to 1927, Lawler would move to New York City, and change his professional name to Anderson. In 1927 he would have a featured role in the Broadway production Her First Affaire, which premiered in August 1927. 

In 1929 he would move to Los Angeles, where he would begin his career in the film industry. His first role would be in 1929's River of Romance. Just arrived in Hollywood, he met Cooper. Lawler acted in thirty-nine films over the next ten years, his last film credit being in 1939. Seventeen of those roles however were uncredited bit parts, and in addition one role was deleted before the film was published. Lawler frequently stayed at the Cooper house at 7511 Franklin Avenue while Cooper's parents were away. When Cooper eventually took his own apartment on Argyle Avenue, Anderson casually moved in...

While in Hollywood, he appeared in almost thirty films during this time, mostly in supporting roles, before moving behind the scenes in 1939. Aside from his professional career, he was also popular with many Hollywood luminaries, such as  William Haines, George Cukor, Gary Cooper and Katharine Hepburn (anyone notice a theme there?) 

Lawler was a enthusiastically Gay (and if Gary Cooper was your boyfriend wouldn't you be, too?) although he was frequently linked with women, though this was usually a Hollywood smoke screen. In 1935 he accompanied Kay Francis on a trip to Europe, ostensibly sent by the studios to keep her out of trouble. Walter Winchell helpfully started a rumor that the two were engaged. Let's just say....probably not. Repeat after me: Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper.

Lawler produced the 1946 film, Somewhere in the Night, which was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starred John Hodiak, Nancy Guild and Lloyd Nolan. Lee Strasberg adapted the screenplay, and was an assistant director on the project. Shortly after this, both Lawler and Strasberg were transferred to the New York office of Twentieth Century-Fox. Lawler and Strasberg had a close friendship, Lawler becoming the godfather of Strasberg's daughter, Susan. 

In New York, Lawler worked in Fox's talent department, but he also began a second career as a producer of legitimate theater. At least one of those plays, Oh Men, Oh Women, would be turned into a film in 1957. On April 6, 1959, Lawler died suddenly from a heart attack

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized by Joseph Smith Jr. and others at Fayette, New York, proving that people will buy just about any cockamamie story if it's mystical and magical enough and has either magic beans or golden tablets or patriarchal hierarchy. Or all three. And just an observations, LDS imagery tends to the Disney end of the artistic scale.

OSCAR WILDE is arrested (in Cadogan Hotel, London) after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas 9th Marquess of Queensberry. 

Wilde: “The love that dares not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as "the love that dares not speak its name," and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it."

Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." Thus he begins Salt Satyagraha.

And speaking of Tonys...Playwright TERRENCE MCNALLY weds Tom Kirdahy in Washington D.C. ceremony. During a small ceremony under a tree blooming with white flowers, Kirdahy read from a scene in McNally's play "Corpus Christi," in which a Gay, Christ-like figure named Joshua marries two apostles:

"It is good when two men love as James and Bartholomew do and we recognize their union," Kirdahy read. "Love each other in sickness and in health."

Kirdahy, a lawyer and Broadway producer, choked up as he recalled seeing the play before meeting the playwright. Actress Tyne Daly, who was then starring in McNally's "Master Class" at the Kennedy Center festival, served as a witness at the sunlit wedding and read Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. Actors John Glover and Malcolm Gets, both starring in "Traviata," also looked on. 

The Rev. George Walker of the People's Congregational United Church of Christ presented them as husbands and signed their marriage certificate.

In 2015, in celebration of the Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality, the couple renewed their vows at a ceremony officiated by Kirdahy's former college roommate, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

McNally's most recent play, Mothers and Sons opened on Broadway in March, 2014. Kirdahy is the lead producer of last season's runaway hit It's Only A Play on Broadway and the five-time Tony Nominated Broadway premiere of The Visit.