LEONARD BERNSTEIN, American conductor and composer, born (d. 1990) Highly regarded as a conductor, composer, and educator, and probably best known to the public as longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story, Bernstein wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces. During his married life, Bernstein tried to be as discreet as possible with his extramarital liaisons. But as he grew older, and as the Gay Liberation movement made great strides, Bernstein became more emboldened, eventually leaving Felicia to live with companion Tom Cothran. Sometime after, Bernstein learned that his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. Bernstein moved back in with his wife and cared for her until she died.

It has been suggested that Bernstein was actually bisexual (an assertion supported by comments Bernstein himself made about not preferring any particular cuisine, musical genre, or form of sex), and it has been alleged that he was conflicted between his devotion to his family and his Gay desires, but Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in West Side Story), said that Bernstein was simply "a Gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just Gay." Shelly Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein’s, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally." Bernstein is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

CHRIS DICKERSON was born on this date. Dickerson is an American bodybuilder and a former Mr. America and Mr. Olympia. One of the world's most titled bodybuilders, Dickerson's competitive career spanned thirty years; he was known for both his heavily muscled, symmetrical physique and for his skills on the posing dais.

Dickerson first entered bodybuilding competition in 1965 by taking third place at that year's Mr. Long Beach competition. He was the first African-American AAU Mr. America, the oldest winner of the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest at age 43, and one of only two bodybuilders (along with Dexter Jackson) to win titles in both the Mr. Olympia and Masters Olympia competitions.

Dickerson won the Mr. Olympia once (1982), a distinction he shares with Samir Bannout (1983) and Dexter Jackson (2008). Dickerson retired in 1994 and was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000.Today, Dickerson lives in Florida where he continues to train, conduct seminars, and correspond with current athletes. His complete bodybuilding resume: 1967: Mr. California; 1968: Mr. USA; 1970: Mr. America; 1973: Amateur Mr. Universe; 1974: Professional Mr. America; 1974: Professional Mr. Universe; 1982: Mr. Olympia

During the 1960s, Dickerson did much physique modeling. His 1970's nude work for photographer Jim French is today considered some of the best in an admittedly limited field. Chris appeared in French's hardcover photo essay, Man (1972) and also posed for the photographer ten years later. These photos ran in an issue of Olympus, published by Colt Studios. His revealing body art can be appreciated here: http://vgmh2.blogspot.com/2010/01/gay-mr-america-chris-dickerson.html 

ALFRED KINSEY, American research biologist, died (b. 1894) who in 1947 founded the Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. Kinsey's research on human sexuality profoundly influenced social and cultural values in the United States and many other countries in the West which went through the sexual revolution starting in the 1960s.

Kinsey is generally regarded as the father of sexology, the systematic, scientific study of human sexuality. He initially became interested in the different forms of sexual practices around 1933, after discussing the topic extensively with a colleague, Robert Kroc. It is likely that Kinsey's study of the variation of mating practices among gall wasps led him to wonder how widely varied sexual practices among humans were.

During this work, he developed a bell curve scale measuring sexual orientation now known as the Kinsey Scale which ranks from 0 to 6, where 0 is exclusively heterosexual and 6 is exclusively homosexual. Kinsey maintained that people do not clearly fall into the categories of exclusive heterosexuality or exclusive homosexuality, but that most can be placed somewhere between, in a continuum of sexual orientations with homo- and heterosexuality at the extremes and bisexuality at the midpoint.

As a result of the work done by Kinsey and others, the American Psychiatric Association, in 1973, removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. In 1935, Kinsey delivered a lecture to a faculty discussion group at Indiana University, his first public discussion of the topic, wherein he attacked the "widespread ignorance of sexual structure and physiology" and promoted his view that "delayed marriage" (that is, delayed sexual experience) was psychologically harmful. Kinsey obtained research funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, which enabled him to inquire into human sexual behavior. One of his main sources for much of the "non mainstream" sex study was none other than tattoo artist and lover of playwright Thornton Wilder, Samuel Steward (for a nice read on Steward check out Justin Spring's Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade 

His Kinsey Reports - starting with the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 followed in 1953 by Sexual Behavior in the Human Female - reached the top of bestseller lists and turned Kinsey into an instant celebrity, and are still the bestselling scientific books of all time. Articles about him appeared in magazines such as Time, Look, Life and McCalls. Kinsey's reports, which led to a storm of controversy, are regarded by many as an enabler for the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Indiana University's president Herman B. Wells defended Kinsey's research in what became a well-known test of academic freedom.

TRUMAN CAPOTE, American author died (b. 1924) an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel" and was co-written by an uncredited Harper Lee, Capote’s childhood friend. Lee modeled the character of Dill on Capote, known then as Truman Persons. A recent memoir by Chicago Tribune reporter, Marja Mills, The Mockingbird Next Door, quotes childhood friend of Capote’s, Harper Lee calling him “a psychopath.”

At least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays. Capote, all of 5 feet 4 inches tall and openly gay in a time when it was common among artists, but rarely talked about, was well known for his distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms, his offbeat manner of dress and his fabrications. One of his first serious lovers was Smith College literature professor Newton Arvin, who won the National Book Award for his Herman Melville biography.

Capote often claimed to know intimately people he had in fact never met, such as Greta Garbo. He professed to have had numerous liaisons with men thought to be heterosexual, including, he claimed, Errol Flynn. He traveled in eclectic circles, hobnobbing with authors, critics, business tycoons, philanthropists, Hollywood and theatrical celebrities, royalty, and members of high society, both in the U.S. and abroad. Part of his public persona was a long-standing rivalry with writer Gore Vidal ("Truman Capote has tried, with some success, to get into a world that I have tried, with some success, to get out of."). He famously commented on Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, "[It] isn't writing at all -- it's typing"

The wisdom of Truman Capote

All literature is gossip.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

Fame is only good for one thing - they will cash your check in a small town.

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.

I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.

Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.

Love is a chain of love as nature is a chain of life.

Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad.

My major regret in life is that my childhood was unnecessarily lonely.

No one will ever know what 'In Cold Blood' took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.

Sometimes when I think how good my book can be, I can hardly breathe.

The quietness of his tone italicized the malice of his reply.

Well, I'm about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy.