ERROL FLYNN, Australian actor (d. 1959); What a surprise to most people when the news broke that this greatest of Hollywood womanizers also slept with men. Flynn, of course, had made his reputation on his body and on his magnificent Black Irish good looks, so it made no difference whatever that he couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. When he smiled that dazzlingly wicked smile of his at the camera, he melted panties and B.V.D.s in darkened theaters all over the world.

The actor’s trial for rape during WWII only increased his popularity, thanks to the candid details printed in the daily newspapers, even though by modern standards one would be hard-pressed to know whether the two girls in question had actually been raped or whether Flynn had been engaged in building a secret munitions depot for the Allies.

“And then what did Mr. Flynn do?”
“He took out this thing.”
“And what did Mr. Flynn do with this thing?”
“He told me to close my eyes.”
“Yes?”
“He took his pleasure with me.”
“You mean you had sexual intercourse?”
“I think so.”

Well buckle my swash! I mean, a stud like that could have whomever he wanted, the cream of the crop, the salt of the earth, the most desirable men and women in the universe. Flynn’s biographer, a tease if there ever was one, finally names only three men, two of them, uh, Truman Capote and Howard Hughes. Oh, well. It gives new meaning to the old phrase, “In like Flynn.”

Writer and memoirist DONALD VINING was born on this date. In the 1950s he served as Drama Editor of What's Cookin' magazine and wrote numerous freelance articles and stories for other varied publications and periodicals. After a thirty year career at Teacher's College, Columbia University, he took early retirement to start his own publishing company, The Pepys Press.

This publishing firm produced five volumes of his acclaimed A Gay Diary as well as a book of diaries from the Second World War, American Diaries of World War II, and other works.

Vining published essays on gay relationships — his own with his partner Richmond Morell Purinton lasted more than 43 years — which appeared in varied American periodicals; in 1986, the Crossing Press published a volume of his collected essays, How Can You Come Out If You've Never Been In? He also wrote numerous scripts, plays, poems and stories throughout his lifetime. His first story published in book form was in Cross-Section 1945 with his Show Me The Way To Go Home. Vining's short story The Old Dog was later published in Story Magazine, soon after immortalized in the book Story: The Fiction of The Forties, and today continues to be used in schools across the USA.

At best, Vining had a minor success as a playwright and short story writer. His importance rests in the five volumes of his published diary, appearing between 1979 and 1993. In his review of the first volume of the diary in Body Politic, John D'Emilio said that "A Gay Diary is, unquestionably, the richest historical document of gay male life in the United States that I have ever encountered.... It chronicles a whole life in which homosexuality is but one part and an ever-changing part at that.... It illuminates a critical period in gay male American history." D'Emilio discusses the earlier years of the diary at some length in his Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority.

The strength of Vining's diary lies precisely in his detailed chronicle of the daily life of non-professional Gay men in Manhattan over a period of more than forty years. Paul Robinson emphasizes the cheerful tone of the diary in his Gay Lives: "Again and again it tells a story of perseverance, of triumph over adversity, of making the most of the hand one is dealt in life" [p. 285]. Joseph Cady calls it "a goldmine of information about earlier American Gay male social life, especially during World War II and the immediate post-war years."

JOHN MAHONEY, British actor, born (d: 2018); An award-winning English/American actor known for playing the retired police officer father, Martin “Marty” Crane, of Kelsey Grammar’s character, Dr. Frazier Crane in the popular TV series Frazier (NBC 1993-2004). He plays the gay bar owner in the 2000 The Broken Hearts Club. Mahoney co-starred as The Old Man in the Broadway revival of the play Prelude to A Kiss at the American Airlines Theater in 2007. He appeared in season thirteen of ER as an elderly drag queen in the episode, "Somebody to Love", and in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dan in Real Life, co-starring as the father of Steve Carell and Dane Cook. Mahoney passed away in February 2018.

VIKRAM SETH, poet, novelist, travel writer and librettist. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Pravasi Bharativa Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award.

Seth's collections of poetry such as "Mappings" and "Beastly tales", are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry Canon.

E. LYNN HARRIS, (d: 2009); E. Lynn Harris was an openly Gay African American author, most known for his depictions of African American men “on the down low” or in the closet.

Born in Flint, Michigan, he had homes in both Atlanta, Georgia and Fayetteville, Arkansas. In his writings, Harris maintained a poignant motif, occasionally emotive, that incorporates vernacular and slang from popular culture. Harris became the first black male cheerleader while attending the University of Arkansas. After graduation he became a computer salesman with IBM for a time.

He was initially unable to land a book deal with a reputable publishing house for his first work, Invisible Life, so he self-published it through a vanity publisher and sold copies from his car trunk. Since then, five of his novels have achieved New York Times bestseller status.

Harris died on July 23, 2009 while in Los Angeles for a business meeting. He was found unconscious at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, and was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center there. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was heart disease. As a tribute to Harris, several authors came together to host a national book tour for the release of Harris's last novel, Mama Dearest. RM Johnson, Eric Jerome Dickey, Tracie Howard, Tina McElroy Ansa, Clarence Nero and Laura Gilmore hosted the release of the novel on September 22, 2009 at Outwrite Book in Atlanta, GA.

In Montreal the third annual Gay Pride Week (called "Gai-e lon la") draws nearly fifteen thousand Lesbians and Gay men. Coincides with La fête nationale.