Singer, actress, living mannequin for Bob Mackie costumes CHER, was born on this date as Cherilyn Sarkisian. She has the rare distinction of having won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. Cher has been imitated by drag queens across the world for decades. Her transition to dance music and social activism in recent years has further contributed to her iconic popularity within the Gay community. The NBC sitcom Will & Grace acknowledged her status by making her the idol of Gay character Jack McFarland. Cher guest-starred as herself twice on the sitcom. In 2000 Cher made a cameo on the show, in which Jack believed her to be a drag queen, and said he could "do" a better Cher himself. Cher has become one of the Gay community's most vocal advocates.

At several of her live concert appearances, Cher acknowledged the audience by declaring, "good evening, ladies and gentlemen... and flamboyant gentlemen!" In 2003 Cher staged a huge “farewell” tour that saw the smoldering diva play to more than 1.5 million fans in North America alone. She is now, perhaps, as famous for being the struggling-to-understand mother of FTM-transgendered son, CHAZ BONO.

TED ALLEN was born on this date. He was the "food and wine connoisseur" on the American Emmy-winning television program "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." He is a frequent host and guest on TV cooking shows like "Top Chef" “The Iron Chef” and author of magazine articles and books.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE's Sonnets were first published on this date in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe who was known to steal manuscripts. Even so, if it weren’t for him we would not have this priceless work by the master. Among the greatest and well known and loved poems in the English language, most people do not realize that Shakespeare wrote these sonnets to "a fair youth." The 'Fair Youth' is an unnamed young man to whom sonnets 1-126 are addressed. Shakespeare clearly writes of the young man in romantic and loving language, a fact which serves to confirm a homosexual relationship between them.

The more prudish and near-sighted prefer to call it "platonic." But it is quite clear that he addresses a man and once read, "platonic" seems a ridiculous attempt at denying the obvious. Do you remember Shakespeare's famous Sonnet 18? ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"). That poem, taught to us as a poem of heterosexual love, is in fact written between men, and is from Shakespeare to another man in a tone of clear romantic intimacy. While Sonnet 20 explicitly laments that the young man is not a woman.

Through the years there have been many attempts to identify “the Fair Youth.” Shakespeare's one-time patron, the Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton is the most commonly suggested candidate, although Shakespeare's later patron, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, has recently become a popular candidate. Both claims have much to do with the dedication of the sonnets to 'Mr. W.H.', "the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets": the initials could apply to either Earl. However, while Shakespeare's language often seems to imply that the 'friend' is of higher social status than himself, this may not be the case.

The apparent references to the poet's inferiority may simply be part of the rhetoric of romantic submission. An alternative theory, most famously espoused by Oscar Wilde's short story "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." notes a series of puns that may suggest the sonnets are written to a boy actor called William Hughes; however, Wilde's story acknowledges that there is no evidence for such a person's existence. Samuel Butler believed that the friend was a seaman, and recently Joseph Pequigney in "Such Is My love" argued for the idea that "Mr. W.H." was an unknown commoner.

On this date the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that Colorado's Amendment 2 was unconstitutional. In the case of "ROMER V. EVANS," the court ruled that "Amendment 2," that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and Lesbians, was unconstitutional.

It was a significant step forward for Gay Rights. A few interesting points in the story: The legal case was named for Richard Evans, a Gay man who was challenging the law, and Roy Romer, who was governor of the state of Colorado at the time of its passage by statewide ballot initiative. By legal custom, the governor's name is attached to a case like this. Which was ironic because Governor Romer had not only opposed passage of the anti-Gay initiative, he had publicly spoken out for Gay Rights and was one of the first governors in the country to address a state-wide Pride rally.

The passage of Amendment 2 caused a boycott of Colorado tourism and products by many Gay Rights groups. This was ironic as the very existence of the law was proof that many municipalities in Colorado had actually passed protections for Gay people. The most populous areas of Colorado (Denver, Boulder and Aspen) had passed protections. The boycott of the skiing industry had the effect of punishing the very cities that had protected Gays in the housing, and employment.

An added irony was the boycott by Gay groups and newspapers in cities and regions of the country with far less *no* protections for Gay people (Dallas, Charlotte and Nashville for example). These communities located in much more Gay hostile areas of the country were boycotting municipalities that did actually have protections on the book.

Amendment 2 had been passed by the more rural and conservative parts of the state but the boycott had the effect of punishing the more liberal and Gay-affirming areas that had made Amendment 2 necessary (in the minds of anti-Gay activists). Given the complexity of the case, the entire process brought the effectiveness of boycotts under greater scrutiny in the Gay press. In any case there was much rejoicing of the Supreme Court's decision. It would factor in heavily in the eventual overturning of Sodomy laws across the land in the Lawrence v. Texas case.

On this date Portland, Oregon voters elect openly Gay Commissioner SAM ADAMS as their new mayor, making Portland the largest American city ever to be helmed by an out Gay person... until 2009 when Houston, (which ranks at #4) elected its new mayor.

TODAY’S GAYWISDOM

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.