HARRIET HOSMER, American sculptor, born (d: 1908); Hosmer’s widowed father raised her as a boy, encouraging her to become a physician, but absolutely supported her decision to become a sculptor, too.

At about the age of 20, she fell under the spell of Charlotte Cushing, who convinced her to study sculpting in Italy, where Cushing presided over a colony of Lesbians who called themselves the “Jolly Bachelors.” Hosmer, with her masculine demeanor and habit of dressing, fit right in. While in Rome, she was associated with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thorvaldsen, Flaxman, Thackeray, George Eliot and George Sand; and she was frequently the guest of the Brownings at Casa Guidi, in Florence. Later she also lived in Chicago and Terre Haute, Indiana.

Novelist Henry James snidely referred to the Jolly Bachelors as "The White Marmorean Flock," borrowing a term from Hawthorne in The Marble Faun. These artists included Anne Whitney, Emma Stebbins, Edmonia Lewis and others.

Hosmer and Cushing would shock the Roman gentry by riding astride horses as men rode. Hosmer went on to become one of the most successful sculptors of her day. Her most famous work, “Puck” was perhaps one of the most frequently reproduced words of the late 19^th century. Her body of work [in some cases literally many beautiful bodies] is exquisite.

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS, French composer, born. French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, known especially for his orchestral works The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson et Dalila, and Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony). Saint-Saëns began his musical career as a child prodigy and pursued a life in music until he died at age 86. He was a pianist and organist who composed works, as he put it, “as an apple-tree produces apples.” He brought forth prodigious quantities of musical apples, and if some, to modern ears, are a little green or even rotten, they are more than made up for by the large number of perfect polished fruit. It cost a great deal of money to be a full-time composer, and Saint-Saëns was no struggling artist in a rooftop garret. He was supported by a large behest from an older friend, Henri Libon, and the nature of their friendship has always been open to interpretation.

There’s no interpretation necessary, however, to understand Saint- Saëns own sexuality. Though he is reported to have had a marked preference for Algerian boys, he was a devotee of Parisian pissoirs even in old age. In an amusing memoir, the composer Henri Busser records coaxing his ancient colleague, now reduced to merely peeking, from the local pissoirs. In 1875, Saint-Saëns married Marie-Laure Truffot and they had two children, André and Jean-François, who died within six weeks of each other in 1878. Saint-Saëns left his wife three years later. The two never divorced, but lived the rest of their lives apart from one another. On being accused of homosexuality at a social occasion, he is reported to have countered 'Non. Je ne suis pas homosexuel, je suis pédéraste!' “No, no, my dear, I am not a homosexual. I am a pederast.” Not everyone, after all, acknowledges that the two are not synonymous.

SIMEON SOLOMON, Today was the birthday of this British artist (d. 1905) Solomon lived as an openly Gay man in a time when it was not socially acceptable to do so. He and Algernon Swinburne were frequently seen chasing each other naked through Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s house.

In 1873 his career was cut short when he was arrested in a public toilet in London and charged with indecent exposure and attempting to commit sodomy. He was sentenced to serve eighteen months' hard labor in prison, but this was later reduced to police supervision. He fled to the French Third Republic. He was however arrested again in 1874, after which he was sentenced to spend three months in prison. Upon his arrest, though, Swinburne turned into a fair weather friend and would no longer deign to be seen with Solomon, much less romp naked through Dante’s house. For a time, Solomon was lovers with Eton master and Cambridge tutor, Oscar Browning who himself was forced to leave both schools because of his own little homosexual scandals. Solomon’s own art has never been collected and published, probably because most of it is erotic and explicitly Gay, much as the artist’s name seems to have been expunged from all but the most complete art reference books. Their loss as his work has been said in many ways to virtually define Victorian art.

NONA HENDRYX, American singer (LaBelle) vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress, born. Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Marmalade." Her music has ranged from soul, funk, dance and rhythm and blues to hard rock, art rock and new age. Labelle had emerged from the traditional "girl group" Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, a quartet that became a trio with Cindy Birdsong’s departure for The Supremes.

It was manager Vicki Wickham who re-imagined the group as Labelle; as glam rock/space age divas, Labelle created a sound and look previously unheard of for a black, all-female crew, what with the "girl group" pigeon-holing of the time. Hendryx embraced the new concept whole-heartedly (much more so than Patti LaBelle, in particular, who stated her own adoration for "big ballads"; bandmate Sarah Dash remained fairly neutral throughout their time together).

Hendryx and Wickham paired off on a creative level. Other artists with whom Hendryx has recorded with over the years include: David Johansen, Yoko Ono, Cameo Talking Heads (3 albums, 80’s band, Our Daughter’s Wedding, Garland Jeffreys, Dan Hartman, Afrika Bambaata (performing a duet of "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" with Boy George), Canadian band Rough Trade, Curtis Hairston, and Graham Parker on the hit single, "Soul Christmas." In 2001 she discussed her bisexuality in an interview with the Advocate magazine and has appeared as herself on three episodes of the Lesbian hit show, The L Word.”