SIR ROGER CASEMENT is born in Kingston, Ireland (d: 1916). A former British diplomat he was knighted for his services to the crown after exposing the horrible working conditions of worker in British colonies in the Congo and in South America. This made him a hero to workers suffering from colonial hardship throughout the British empire.

However, the Ulster Protestant became an ardent Irish nationalist and was captured and tried for treason after returning from a trip to secure Germany's aid for the Irish Revolution of 1916. What sealed his doom was the admission into evidence of Casement's diaries where he meticulously detailed the names and descriptions of his numerous sexual partners. That he was on trial for treason and not for buggery did not matter.

When he was found guilty, protest was world-wide. But then the British government leaked word of the contents of Casement's "black diaries," all protest suddenly stopped. Roger Casement was hanged on August 6, 1916. A good man who'd been knighted for his service to humanity had become a martyr to men who love men everywhere.

GEORGE MAHARIS, gay American actor, born. In 1960, Maharis shot to stardom with his successful turn as Buz Murdock in the popular TV series Route 66, which co-starred Martin Milner as formerly rich, now orphaned Tod Stiles. The show featured the two rebel-hunks traveling throughout the U.S. along Route 66 (and elsewhere) in a new Corvette that belonged to Milner's character. The series featured directors as acclaimed as Sam Peckinpah and Arthur Hiller, as well as guest stars as renowned as Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Buster Keaton, Ethel Waters and Martin Sheen. Even in such company, Maharis' own acting skills did not go unnoticed, as he received an Emmy nomination in 1962 for his continuing performance as Buz. Maharis also recorded numerous pop music albums at the height of his fame, and later starred in the short-lived TV series The Most Dangerous Game.

Maharis departed Route 66 without completing his third season on the series. His participation that season had been spotty due to health problems, including two bouts of infectious hepatitis beginning in April 1962 Maharis insisted that he left Route 66 entirely for health reasons, due to the long hours and grueling conditions he frequently experienced while shooting episodes on location. "I have to protect my future," Maharis said in a 1963 interview. "If I keep going at the present pace, I'm a fool. Even if you have $4,000,000 in the bank, you can't buy another liver." This interpretation of events was disputed by series producers Stirling Siliphant and Herbert B. Leonard, who believed that the health issue camouflaged Maharis' desire to break his contract and make movies. Another claim was that there were conflicts between Milner and Maharis over acting styles, but this appears to have been less of an issue than was reported at the time. After Maharis' departure, the show's appeal declined. Glenn Corbett stepped in as Milner's new sidekick on the road, Linc Case, but a year later, Route 66 was canceled.

Maharis was the second ever centerfold in Playgirl in July 1973 and in 1974, he was arrested and charged with Commission of a Lewd Act after being caught having sex with Perfecto Telles, a 33-year old hairdresser, in the men's room of a Los Angeles gas station. Police said he was booked on a "sex perversion charge" and released on $500 bail. Maharis had previously been arrested in 1967, by a vice officer who said the actor had made a pass at him in the men's room of a Hollywood restaurant; that charge had been dropped when Maharis pleaded guilty to one count of disturbing the peace and paid a $50 fine.

The last professional appearance Maharis made was in the film Doppelganger in 1993 with Drew Barrymore.

ANN RICHARDS, American politician and teacher from Texas, born (d: – September 13, 2006) She first came to national attention as the Texas state treasurer, when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. The address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention put her in the national spotlight when she uttered her famous line about the wealthy, then-Vice President George H. W. Bush: "Poor George, he can't help it...He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

Ann Richards was a topic in the film Bush's Brain (by Joseph Mealey and Michael Shoob), in a long segment regarding her defeat in the 1994 election for Texas Governor. The film presents the case that the defeat of Richards involved a whispering campaign that the governor (mother of four children) was a Lesbian because she had allegedly hired many Gay men and Lesbians to work on her re-election campaign. Her daughter Cecile Richards is the current President of Planned Parenthood.

LILY TOMLIN, American actress and comedian was born on this date; Though Tomlin has now long-since confirmed that she is a Lesbian, in the press, it was, for many years, an open secret among many, including the Gay press. Before she officially "came out", she was known for her involvement in feminist and Gay-friendly film productions, and would often refer to her girlfriend (now wife) Jane Wagner. On her 1975 album Modern Scream she mocked straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their Gay characters; answering the pseudo-interview question, How did it feel to play a heterosexual? she replied, "I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ... ."

Her narration of the documentary The Celluloid Closet in 1995 was also largely considered a nod to the open secret of her orientation.

Tomlin has received numerous awards, including: six Emmys; a Tony for her one woman Broadway show, Appearing Nitely; a second Tony as Best Actress, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for her one woman performance in Jane Wagner’s The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe; a CableACE Award for Executive Producing the film adaptation of The Search…; a Grammy Award for her comedy album, This is a Recording as well as nominations for her subsequent albums Modern Scream, And That's the Truth, and On Stage; and two Peabody Awards — the first for the ABC television special, Edith Ann’s Christmas: Just Say Noël and the second for narrating and executive producing the HBO film, The Celluloid Closet. Tomlin was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2003 she was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Tomlin now appears in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie with Jane Fonda. As Grace and Frankie, respectively, Fonda and Tomlin play women in their 70s whose husbands, Robert and Sol (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston), have left them to marry each other. Grace and Frankie start out as rivals, but eventually become roommates, besties and business partners. The third season, now streaming, shows them selling vibrators designed for older women.

On this date the present-day LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS organization is founded as the "Gay Republicans" club, a group of assimilationist Lesbians and Gays within the United States' Republican Party. Like Jews for Jesus it remains a mystery what could possibly motivate these people other than very limited and narrowly defined self-interest. 

SIEGFRIED SASSOON, English poet died (b. 1886) Gay English poet and author known as a writer of satirical anti-war verse during World War I, but later won acclaim for his prose work. Despite having been decorated for bravery in the war, he decided, in 1917, to make a stand against the conduct of the war. One of the reasons for his violent anti-war feeling was the death of his friend, David Cuthbert Thomas (called "Dick Tiltwood" in the Sherston trilogy).

He would spend years trying to overcome his grief. He had a succession of love affairs with men, including the actor Ivor Novello; Novello's former lover, the actor Glen Byam Shaw; German aristocrat Prince Philipp of Hesse; the writer Beverley Nichols; and an effete aristocrat, the Hon. Stephen Tennant. Only the last of these made a permanent impression, though Shaw remained his close friend throughout his life.

In December 1933, to many people's surprise, Sassoon married Hester Gatty, who was many years his junior; this led to the birth of a child, something which he had long craved. This child, their only child, George (1936-2006) became a noted scientist, linguist and author, and was adored by Siegfried, who wrote several poems addressed to him.

WEST GERMANY repeals its laws prohibiting homosexual acts between consenting adults. It's interesting to note that this change didn't affect Lesbians, as West German sex laws had never acknowledged the existence of Lesbians.

Researchers at Columbia University issue a report that concludes that homosexuality is a result of nurture, not nature ("upbringing and psychological causes"). We beg to disagree.

JOHN BOSWELL'S Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality debuts in book stores. The groundbreaking work which, according to Chauncey et al. (1989), "offered a revolutionary interpretation of the Western tradition, arguing that the Roman Catholic Church had not condemned gay people throughout its history, but rather, at least until the twelfth century, had alternately evinced no special concern about homosexuality or actually celebrated love between men." The book won a National Book Award and the Stonewall Book Award in 1981.  The historical breadth of Boswell’s research (from the Greeks to Aquinas) and the variety of sources consulted make this one of the most extensive treatments of any single aspect of Western social history.

John McNeill was a pioneer of Gay spirituality and stood up to the Vatican and then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, on many an occasion with brave, intellectual force. His was one of the first and most important voices for Roman Catholic Gay men and Lesbians. This excerpt is from the Preface to the Fourth Edition of his groundbreaking 1993 work, The Church and The Homosexual (Beacon Press ISBN-10: 0807079316):

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

I still remember our joy that Sunday in 1976 when I announced at the New York Dignity liturgy that I had received an official Imprimi Potest, the approval for the publication of my book The Church and the Homosexual  from my superiors in the Society of Jesus. It was, I believe, one of the first theological works in recent times that called for a revision of the traditional Catholic Church teaching on homosexuality.

After more than four years of exhaustive research to write the book, the Imprimi Potest was obtained only after an additional two years of intense review by leading moral theologians both in the United States and in Rome. They were unanimous in recommending that the book be published. I naively assumed that by granting me an Imprimi Potest, the Church, in the liberating spirit that followed Vatican II, was ready and willing to reexamine its teaching on homosexuality and that approving my book for publication was the first step in that process. The theologians who reviewed the manuscript believed, as I did, that the new evidence coming from the fields of scriptural studies, history, psychology, sociology, and moral theology seriously challenged every premise on which the traditional teaching was based. They anticipated, as I did, that my book would begin a public debate on Church teaching that would eventually lead to the Church's revision of its understanding of homosexuality. I had hoped that my book would lead to a revision of teaching on homosexuality not only in the Roman Catholic Church but also in the entire Christian community.

From the beginning, I envisioned the personal witness of Gay and Lesbian Catholics and other Christians to be an essential contribution to that debate. They could testify about what happened to them when they strove to live both as Gays and according to Church teachings. My own work in the Gay community as priest and psychotherapist and as one of the founders of Dignity/New York, an organization for Gay and Lesbian Catholics, made me keenly aware of the enormous amount of pain, psychological trauma, and potential emotional breakdown there. Because this unnecessary suffering was caused by the interiorization of Church teaching, I felt a certain urgency for the need of public debate. What was bad psychology had to be bad theology and vice versa.

Our early joy was short-lived, however. One year later, in 1977, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) ordered the removal of the Imprimi Potest from my book. Because of my appearances on popular television programs such as "Today" and "The Phil Donahue Show," they accused me of violating a nonexistent agreement that the public discussion would take place only among my peers in the theological community. A blanket silence was imposed on me by the CDF and I was forbidden to discuss the issue of homosexuality and morality in the public arena.

Instead of allowing public debate on homosexuality, the Church fell back on its "creeping infallibility," claiming that its teaching was based on "divine revelation" and, therefore, was not open to change, regardless of any new evidence to support that change. (In fact, no moral teaching on sexuality is infallibly defined.) They justified their silencing me by claiming that I had created the false impression that the Church had changed or was about to change its teaching on homosexuality. The CDF hastened to assure the world that no matter how much evidence supported the argument for change, the Church would never alter its teaching in this matter. "This is true because we say it is true. Don't bother us with the facts!"

From that day to this, for nearly seventeen years, the hierarchical Church has used its power and influence to silence any critic of its teaching on homosexuality. The dismissal of Charles Curran from the theology faculty at the Catholic University of America is another example. The debate has continued, however, among the laity. There has been such a massive shift of opinion in the pews that now more than 84 percent of Catholics support Gay civil rights.

For ten years, until 1987, I observed the silence imposed on me by not speaking in public. During that period, my book was published around the world in five different languages. I had agreed to observe the silence, again in the hope that over time the Church would consider the evidence and begin a process of reevaluation. The American bishops did take several progressive steps toward liberalizing pastoral practice based on the distinction between homosexual orientation, which is neither chosen nor changeable, and homosexual behavior, which they continued to judge as contrary to God's will. They also called for legislation protecting the civil rights of Gay people. But every time any move was made toward a better understanding and spiritual care of Gay people, the Vatican intervened demanding that the Catholic Church in the United States maintain a homophobic stance on all Gay issues. The best example of that interference is the Vatican demand in 1987 that all Dignity chapters be denied their right to meet on Church grounds.

One major event in the struggle between Gay Catholics and the Vatican was the release of the Vatican "Halloween" letter by Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 31 October 1986: "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons." Rome took a giant step backward when it asserted that homosexual orientation was not a natural condition but represented an "objective disorder" and was an 'orientation to evil." Since most Gay people experience their homosexual orientation as a part of creation, if they accept this Church teaching, they must see God as sadistically creating them with an intrinsic orientation to evil. Most Gays would prefer to see the Church teaching as wrong, rather than believe God is sadistic.

The Vatican document went so far in its hatred of all things Gay as to assert that if homosexuals continue to claim "unthinkable" civil rights, then they should not be surprised by the violence inflicted upon them by Gay-bashers and have only themselves to blame. This statement has been interpreted in some quarters as encouraging violence against Gay people. Cardinal Ratzinger's letter even suggested that it is Gay activists and the professionals who try to help Gays achieve self-acceptance who are responsible for the AIDS epidemic: "Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people, its advocates remained undeterred and refused to consider the magnitude of the risks involved."

In my more than twenty years' experience of pastoral care with thousands of Gay Catholics and other Christians, the Gay men most likely to act out their sexual needs in an unsafe, compulsive way and, therefore, to expose themselves to the HIV virus, are precisely those persons who have internalized the self-hatred that their religions impose on them. They are precisely the ones who, while they find it impossible to suppress and deny their sexual needs totally, cannot enter into a healthy and committed intimacy with anyone because of this self-hatred.

In a recent letter to the New York Times (September 2, 1992), Richard Isay, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association committee on Gay, Lesbian, and bisexual affairs, points out that the suppression of sexuality, whether by religion, the state, or therapists who claim they can change homosexuals into heterosexuals, significantly damages the self-esteem of Gay men and Lesbians. It subverts their capacity to express their sexuality in mutually loving relationships. Interiorized self-hatred contributes to the extraordinarily high suicide rate of Gay and Lesbian youth, estimated at more than 30 percent of all youth suicide.

In perhaps one of the strongest statements ever against a Vatican document, the Major Superiors of Religious Men said:

We view ["Some Considerations Concerning... Homosexual Persons"] as a hindrance to the Church leaders of the United States in this most difficult and sensitive area of human living. It is particularly open to misrepresentation and confusion during the present political campaign in the United States.

We are shocked that the statement calls for discrimination against Gay men and Lesbian women. We find the reasoning for supporting such discrimination to be strained, unconvincing and counterproductive to our statements and actions to support the pastoral needs and personal dignity of such persons. Far from a help to the Bishops and other religious leaders in the United States Catholic Church, the statement complicates our already complex ministry to all people. Moreover, we find the arguments used to justify discrimination based on stereotypes and falsehoods that are out of touch with modern psychological and sociological understandings of human sexuality. We regret such actions by the CDF and we reaffirm our support for the human rights of all our brothers and sisters.

As a Gay Catholic theologian and psychotherapist, I am fully aware of the enormous destruction recent Vatican documents will cause in the psychic life of young Catholic Gays, and of the violence they will provoke against all Gay people. I find myself in a dilemma; What kind of faith and trust can I place in a teaching authority that I see clearly acts in an unloving, hateful, and destructive way toward my Gay family?

At this point, the ignorance and distortion of homosexuality, the use of "stereotypes and falsehoods" in an official Vatican document, leads us who are Gay Catholics to issue the Vatican a serious warning. Your ignorance can no longer be excused as inculpable; it has become of necessity a deliberate and malicious ignorance.

In the name of all Catholic Gays, and Gays and Lesbians everywhere, I cry out "Enough!" Enough of your distortions of Scripture that make homosexuals the scapegoats of every disaster! Jesus himself in Luke 10:10 recognized the sin of Sodom as inhospitality to the stranger, yet you support the interpretation of that sin as homosexual activity. Through the centuries you have supported sodomy laws that have sent thousands of Gays to their deaths. You continue to claim that a loving homosexual act is condemned in Scripture, when competent scholars are nearly unanimous in admitting that nowhere in Scripture is there a clear condemnation of sexual acts between two Gay men or Lesbians who love each other.

"Enough!" Enough of your effort to reduce all homosexual acts to expressions of lust, and of your refusal to see them as expressions of deep, genuine human love! Enough of your effort to lead young Gays to internalize self-hatred with the result that they are able to relate to God only as a God of fear and hate, and lose all hope in a God of love! Enough of your recent efforts to foster hatred and discrimination against us in the human community! Enough of an ignorance for which there is no excuse. Enough of driving us from the home of our mother, the Church, and denying us the fullness of human life and sexual love. Enough of fostering discrimination against us, even violence and Gay-bashing. We cried out to you for bread, you gave us a scorpion instead!

Obviously, you could enter into dialogue with the rest of the human community, especially the Gay members of that community, to search for the truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the complex issue of homosexuality. But never was there a mandate from Jesus Christ for you to create the truth by fiat.

At this point the words of Ezekiel apply to you Catholic shepherds:

Trouble for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shepherds ought to feed their flock.... You have failed to make weak sheep strong, or to care for the sick ones, or bandage the wounded ones. You have failed to bring back strays or look for the lost.

On the contrary, you have ruled them cruelly and violently. For lack of a shepherd they have scattered, to become the prey of any wild animal; they have scattered far.... Well then, shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh. As I live, I swear it -it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.... I am going to call my shepherds to account.

I am going to take back my flock from them and I shall not allow them to feed my flock.... I shall rescue my sheep from their mouths; they will not prey on them anymore.  (Ezekiel 34:2-10)

We Gay and Lesbian Catholics pray daily that the Holy Spirit will lead you into a spirit of repentance. Just as you apologized to the Jews for supporting anti-Semitism for centuries, so today you must repent and apologize for the centuries of support you have given homophobia. We pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen you so that you can let go of the hubris that does not allow you to admit past errors. We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to search humbly for the truth concerning homosexuality through dialogue with your Gay brothers and Lesbian sisters.

The only consolation I can offer Gays and Lesbians in the meantime is the profound hope that the very absurdity and hateful spirit of the Vatican documents will lead lay Catholics to refuse them and to recognize the contradiction between their message and that of Jesus, who never once spoke a negative word concerning homosexuality.

I work, hope, and pray that Lesbian and Gay Catholics and other Christians will exercise their legitimate freedom of conscience, discerning what God is saying to them directly through their Gay experience. I hope, too, that they will be able to defang the poisons of pathologically homophobic religion, accepting the good news that God loves and accepts them as Gay and refusing to be caught in the vortex of self-hatred vis-à-vis a God of fear.

I am aware of hundreds of Gay people who have found peace and self-acceptance in part because of this book. I hope and pray that God will continue to use my work as an instrument of peace and reconciliation for hundreds of others.

John McNeill’s books include The Church and the Homosexual, Taking a Chance on God, Freedom, Glorious Freedom, and Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair. His latest book is Sex the Way God Meant it to Be was published in 2008

The Wit and Wisdom of Lily Tomlin

Years ago, this writer did a bit of acting and appeared with Ms. Tomlin on a KPFK radio play called The Gay Liberation Follies written by Len Richardson. We did some silly skits, but Tomlin did her famous character, Edith Ann.

Her bit went something like this: “My name is Edith Ann and there are these two ladies who live down the block from me and they don’t have a daddy. So I asked my mama and she told me about them. So…I’ve decided to change my name…from Edith Ann to Lesbi Ann. And that’s the truth!

• Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.
• For fast-acting relief try slowing down.
• I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
• I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.
• I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
• I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain.
• I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else.
• I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.