1944-01-20

The great Black Lesbian poet PAT PARKER was born (d. 1989). Author of many books, including “Movement In Black,” “Child of Myself” and “Jonestown and Other Madness.” She is remembered for such incisive writing in poems like “For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend” and “For The Straight Folks Who Don’t Mind Gays But Wish They Weren’t So BLATANT” (One of the funniest and most right-on poems written on this subject — see today’s “Gay Wisdom”). Her poems were a herald of strength and resistance in the early movement of Gay Liberation. After a long history of writing and teaching, Parker died of cancer in 1989.