MARCIA BROWN, a children’s book illustrator and a three-time winner of the Caldecott Medal was born on this date (d: 2015); One of the country’s most lauded picture-book artists, Ms. Brown illustrated dozens of titles. For some she also wrote the text; for many others she retold well-loved folk and fairy-tales, sometimes translating them from original French. She won the Caldecott Medal, presented by the American Library Association for the year’s best children’s book illustrations, in 1955 for “Cinderella” which she translated from Perrault’s version; in 1962 for “Once a Mouse” her retelling of a traditional fable from India; and in 1983 for “Shadow,” her translation and adaptation of “La Feticheuse,” a mystical poem by Blaise Dendrars. She is one of only two artists – the other is David Wiesner – to receive the Caldecott Medal three times.

She also illustrated six Caldecott Honor Books, as runners up are known, among them “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story; “Puss in Boots,” from Perrault and “Stone Soup.” In a speech, Ms. Brown wrote of her lifetime of telling stories, “The heritage of childhood is the sense of life bequeathed to it by the folk wisdom of the ages. It is a privilege to pass these truths on to children who have a right to the fullest expression we can give them.” Brown died at her home in Laguna Hills, California in April 2015 and is survived by her life companion, Janet Loranger.

JOSEPH NICHOLSON, the first openly Gay reporter at a big-city daily, and who covered high-profile court cases, international affairs, and gay and AIDS issues was born on this date (d: 2014). Nicholson, who worked for the New York Post from 1971 to 1993 (the Dorothy Schiff era), began coming out to colleagues in the late 1970s and by 1980 was out to all his major editors, noted a 1990 American Society of Newspaper Editors report on gay people in journalism. He recognized the importance of coming out because of the increasingly anti-Gay editorial stance at the Post after its purchase by Rupert Murdoch in 1976.

In 1980, after a gunman fired shots into a New York Gay bar, killing two people and wounding several others, Nicholson offered his Post editors a story about his “reaction as a Gay person,” according to the Columbia Journalism Review The Post did not publish the piece, but the New York Native, a now-defunct Gay weekly, ran an expanded version of it, according to Nicholson’s family. Another version later ran in CJR.

He covered the trials of Jean Harris for the murder of “Scarsdale Diet” Dr. Herman Tarnower; of Claus von Bulow for the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny; of William Kennedy Smith for rape; and a civil proceeding involving Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. He also interviewed world leaders such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Israel’s Ariel Sharon, and for several years was medicine and science editor. He covered gay issues as well. “In 1993, during the height of debate on gays in the military, he wrote a first-person account on his experiences as closeted Navy officer when he served in the mid-1960s.”

Long before that, in 1971, one of the first stories he proposed and wrote for the Post was on anti-Gay job discrimination and efforts to get the City Council to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance — which it finally did in 1986. His reporting on Gay and AIDS issues brought the Post a GLAAD award in 1992. The advocacy organization had been founded partly in response to the paper’s earlier derogatory coverage of Gay people and their concerns. Nicholson also worked for the Associated Press, the New York Daily News, and Editor & Publisher,and freelanced for numerous publications.

He wrote two books, Inside Cuba and A Woman Obsessed: The Murder Trial of Jean Harris. Nicholson died of cancer in October 2014. He is survived by his husband, Sherwin T. Nicholson

ROBERT GANT, American actor, born; Beginning in 2001, the handsome Gant starred in television in Showtime's Queer As Folk as Ben Bruckner, his best-known role to date. He attended undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania and law school at Georgetown University. While studying law, he never gave up on his true passion, acting, and performed in numerous theatrical productions.

It was his career as a lawyer that brought him to Los Angeles when he accepted a position with the world’s largest law firm; the firm's Los Angeles office was closed soon after, so he decided to focus all of his time on acting. Prior to Queer as Folk, he appeared on the WB's Popular and on NBC's Caroline in the City.

Gant has made guest appearances on TV programs such as Friends, Veronica’s Closet, Becker, Melrose Place, Ellen, Providence and Nip/Tuck. He also appeared in the independent films The Contract, Fits and Starts and Marie and Bruce, starring Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick.

In June 2004, Gant, along with actress Cady Huffman (star of Broadway play The Producers), filmed Billy’s Dad is a Fudgepacker. The short film is an homage to 1950s educational films.

Along with producing partners Chad Allen, and Christopher Racster, Robert has started the film and television production company, "Mythgarden". They have optioned a slate of initial projects, each with varying degrees of Gay-focused content, and are developing a number of other films and television shows. While he gives time to a number of philanthropic and political causes, Gant's “torch issue” is that of aging in the Gay community. He supports such organizations as SAGE (Senior Advocacy for GLBT Elders) and GLEH (Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing). He is also developing a website devoted entirely to Gay elders and matters that affect them.