RICHARD RODRIGUEZ, is a Mexican-American writer born on this date, who became famous for his 1981 book, Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, a narrative about his development as a literate, American student.

Rodriguez received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from Columbia University, was a Ph.D. candidate in English Renaissance literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the Warburg Institute in London on a Fulbright fellowship.

A noted prose stylist, Rodriguez has worked as a teacher, international journalist, and educational consultant, in addition to writing, lecturing and appearing regularly on the PBS program, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, for which he received the 1997 George Foster Peabody Award. Rodriguez’s books include Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982), a collection of autobiographical essays; Mexico’s Children (1990); Days of Obligation: An Argument With My Mexican Father (1992), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; and Brown: The Last discovery of America. In addition, he has been published in The American Scholar, Change, College English, Harper's Magazine, Mother Jones, and Time. Rodriguez came out in his book of essays, Days of Obligation. This caused some readers and critics, especially Latinos, to be less willing to be critical of his ideas.

The Australian athlete and rugby star IAN ROBERTS was born on this date.  The former professional rugby league player and actor. Late in his football career he announced he was gay which gained him much attention in Australia and worldwide as a result.

Well known in Sydney gay circles for some time, Roberts came out publicly in 1995, discussing his sexuality in magazines and on television over the following year. The rugby league world was generally very supportive, with other players commenting that it was important to be "true to yourself", while The NRL Footy Show principals Paul Vautin, Peter Sterling and Steve Roach appeared in a poster campaign against homophobia conducted by the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project. He has been praised for helping to question prevailing myths about gays and sport. Paul Freeman's book Ian Roberts - Finding Out was published in 1997 (ISBN 0-09-183336-1).

Roberts finished playing professional football in 1998, and began studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney. In 1999 Roberts was taken to court by Garry Jack over an on-field brawl that occurred in 1991. Jack was, in his view, taking a stand against a cowardly, yet devastating beating he received by several players. He attempted to sue Roberts for $100,000 in damages, alleging he suffered shock, traumatic injuries to his face and eyes, cuts, headaches and numbness and was embarrassed by scarring to his face. Jack and Roberts eventually settled the dispute outside the court with Roberts handing over more than $50,000.

In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league. Roberts served on the National Rugby League Judiciary in 2001. Roberts gave evidence to the State Coroner of New South Wales in regard to the murder of Arron Light, a street prostitute who was set to give evidence against a pedophile syndicate. He disappeared in 1997, and his remains were recovered in 2002. This story was the subject of an episode of the Australian TV program Australian Story, entitled "The Lost Boy", which first aired on September 26, 2005. In 2004 Roberts was named by Souths in their South Sydney Dream Team, consisting of seventeen players and a coach representing the club from 1908 through to 2004.

Early in 2005, he appeared in the second series of the Australian television series Dancing With The Stars, dancing with Natalie Lowe. He became the runner up in the competition, losing out to Tom Williams. On July 1,  2006, Roberts was charged over an incident involving his former partner, Ben Prideaux; the 30-year-old male was alleged to have suffered cuts and bruises on his forearms in the incident. On May 25, 2007, Roberts was cleared of these charges by a court in Sydney.

He also appeared in the 2006 motion picture Superman Returns as Riley, a henchman of Lex Luthor.

Roberts appeared on the April 17, 2007 cover of The Advocate magazine in an exclusive interview with Canadian author and journalist Michael Rowe, along with a photo layout by celebrity photographer Eric Schwabel.

BARBARA GITTINGS was a prominent American activist for gay equality and this was her birthday. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government.

Her early experiences with trying to learn more about lesbianism fueled her lifetime work with libraries. In the 1970s Gittings was most involved in the American Library Association, forming the first gay caucus in a professional organization, in order to promote positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was a part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in 1972. Her self-described life mission was to tear away the "shroud of invisibility" related to homosexuality that associated it with crime and mental illness.

She was awarded a lifetime membership in the American Library Association, and the ALA named an annual award for the best gay or lesbian novel the The Barbara Gittings Award. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) also named an activist award for her. At her memorial service, Matt Foreman, the directory of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said, "What do we owe Barbara? Everything." She died in 2007 and is survived by her life partner, KAY LAHUSEN, who lives in Philadelphia.