Today in Gay History

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March 15

Born
Lionel Johnson
1867 -

LIONEL JOHNSON, a British literary critic, was born (d: 1902); Johnson was an influential literary critic in his time and wrote, among other books, the first critical study of Thomas Hardy (1894). He was also the victim of one of the oldest ironies in the history of love.

He introduced his young lover to a friend who promptly walked off with him. The young lover was Lord Alfred Douglas; the friend, Oscar Wilde. Johnson’s poem, “The Destroyer of a Soul” (“I hate you with a necessary hate ...”) is, naturally enough, directed to Wilde. Johnson lived only long enough to see Oscar get his, and at thirty-five, died of a fractured skull after falling off a bar stool.

I just hate it when that happens. Don't you?


Edmund Goulding
1891 -

On this date the British singer, screenwriter, composer, actor and director EDMUND GOULDING was born (d. 1959). Goulding's best remembered for directing cultured dramas and such as Grand Hotel (1932) with Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, Dark Victory (1939) with Bette Davis, and The Razor's Edge (1946) with Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power. He also directed the classic film noir Nightmare Alley (1947) with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, and the action drama The Dawn Patrol. He was also a successful songwriter, composer, and producer.

There is a paradox to Goulding. His sensitivity to women's emotions brought him enduring success, as witnessed by his swooning melodramas, but his private life reflects a lack of sensitivity. Goulding was bisexual, with a decided taste for promiscuity and voyeurism. His sex parties and casting couch were notorious.

But he cannot be dismissed simply as a sex addict or sexual exploiter. For every excoriation of his morals, there are accounts of his loyalty to friends, generosity to family, gentlemanly manner on the set, and preternatural ability to bring out the best in his actors.


Ruth Simpson
1926 -

On this date the pioneering Gay Rights activist RUTH SIMPSON was born (d. 2008).  Simpson was the founder of the United States' first Lesbian community center, an author, and former president of Daughters of Bilitis, New York. 

As president of the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), Simpson organized Gay rights demonstrations and educational programs for DOB members during the period 1969-71. Several times when NYC police, without warrants, illegally entered DOB's Lesbian center in lower Manhattan, Simpson stood between the police and the DOB women.

On three occasions she was cited for court appearances by the police. She was also arrested at a Women Against Richard Nixon (WARN) rally, along with Ellen Povill, Ti-Grace Atkinson and Flo Kennedy, and spent most of a day in jail until the women's attorney gained their release.

In Ruth Simpson's 1976 pioneering work From the Closet to the Courts she documented her history in the early days of the Gay movement and the actions taken to achieve justice, civil rights and equal treatment under the law for the large, diverse LGBT population.

Ruth produced a weekly, hour-long television program, "Minority Report", in Woodstock, New York. She served as the Board President of the Woodstock Public Library from 1982-2001 and continued as an Officer until her death. Ruth has had her poetry published in literary magazines, and she has given a number of talks on college campuses in the Hudson Valley area.


Pianist Cecil Taylor
1929 -

Today's the birthday of the American pianist and poet CECIL TAYLOR. (d: 2018); Classically trained, Taylor was generally acknowledged as one of the inventors of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. His piano technique has been likened to percussion, for example described as "eighty-eight tuned drums" (referring to the number of keys on a piano).

Taylor began playing piano at age six and studied at the New York College of Music and New England Conservatory. After first steps in R&B and swing-styled small groups in the early 1950s, he formed his own band with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1956.

Taylor's first recording, Jazz Advance, featured Lacy and was released in 1956. It is described by Cook and Morton in the Penguin Guide to Jazz: "While there are still many nods to conventional post-bop form in this set, it already points to the freedoms which the pianist would later immerse himself in." Taylor's Quartet featuring Lacy also appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. He collaborated with saxophonist John Coltrane (Stereo Drive, 1958), a session which was not a happy experience.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Taylor's music grew more complex and moved away from existing jazz styles. Gigs were often hard to come by, and club owners found Taylor's approach to performance (long pieces) unhelpful in conducting business. Landmark recordings, like Unit Structures (1966), continued to appear, although sporadically. Many albums, like Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come, remained unreleased for years, even decades. 

By 1961, Taylor was working regularly with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, one of his most important and consistent collaborators. Taylor, Lyons and drummer Sunny Murray (and later Andrew Cyrille) formed the core personnel of 'The Unit', Taylor's primary group effort until Lyons's premature death in 1986. With 'the Unit', musicians developed often volcanic new forms of conversational interplay.

Taylor began to perform solo concerts in the early 1970s. Many of these were released on album and include Indent (1973), Silent Tongues (1974), Garden (1982), For Olim (1987), Erzulie Maketh Scent (1989) and The Tree of Life (1998). He began to garner critical, if not popular, acclaim, playing for Jimmy Carter on the White House Lawn, lecturing as an in-residence artist at universities, and eventually being awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and then a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991.

Taylor was also an accomplished poet, citing Robert Duncan, Charles Olson and Amiri Baraka as major influences. He often integrated his poems into his musical performances, and they frequently appeared in the liner notes of his albums.  Taylor was featured in the 1981 documentary film Imagine the Sound, in which he discussed and performed his music, poetry and dance.

In 1982, jazz critic Stanley Crouch wrote that Taylor was gay, prompting an angry response. In 1991, Taylor told a New York Times reporter "[s]omeone once asked me if I was gay. I said, 'Do you think a three-letter word defines the complexity of my humanity?' I avoid the trap of easy definition."

Taylor moved to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in 1983. He died at his Brooklyn residence on April 5, 2018, at the age of 89.


Kate Bornstein
1948 -

KATE BORNSTEIN, American author, born; Born Albert Bornstein, in Neptune, New Jersey, Bornstein went on to study at Brown University, where she study medicine. She also experimented with peyote, alcohol, and Scientology.

Bornstein underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1986. As of 2006, Bornstein was writing an autobiography and resides with her partner, Barbara Carrellas, in New York City


Land O'Lakes CEO and businesswoman Beth E. Ford
1964 -

BETH E. FORD is an American businessperson born this month. Ford is most notable for being the CEO of Land O'Lakes, an American agricultural cooperative which she assumed leadership of in 2018. She is the first out gay female CEO of an American Fortune 500 company.

Ford was born in Sioux City, Iowa, the fifth in a family of eight children. Her father was a truck driver and a used car salesman, and her mother was a nurse. She started working in the agriculture business at age 12, making $2 an hour de-tasseling corn.

Ford completed her undergraduate degree at Iowa State University, where she pursued her interests in marketing, finance and operations. Her first job was with Mobil Oil Company when she was in her 20s on the tanker, the marketing and refining side. She then worked in supply-chain management at ExxonMobil, Pepsi, and Scholastic, among other companies.

Ford joined Land O'Lakes in 2011, being named as chief supply chain and operations officer. She continued at the company, eventually being promoted to COO, and in August 2018 was appointed as President/CEO by an all-male board. At the time Ford became CEO, she was one of 25 women leading Fortune 500 companies. She is the ninth person to hold this position. She became the first openly-gay female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a fact remarked upon by several sources. As CEO, Ford has invested heavily in Land O'Lakes implementation of new technologies in agriculture as well as the vibrancy of rural communities.

Ford has stated that the biggest challenges facing American farmers is policy uncertainty, weather and the changing climate, and a lack of broadband access. In Ford's view, the key to preserving American agriculture relies upon innovation, technology, and political stability. Ford has been an advocate for getting high-speed Internet access to rural and underserved areas, calling on the government to provide funds to close the 'digital divide' that is impacting employment, education, and progress. She has also called on major companies and organizations to join the American Connection Project, an effort started by Land O'Lakes to advocate for three main principles: robust federal funding for broadband infrastructure, improved broadband connectivity mapping and better coordination of federal and state agencies to deploy funding.

Ford sits on the Board of Directors of the Business Roundtable, US Global Leadership Coalition, Paccar, and the Columbia University Deming Center as well as Iowa State University College of Business.

In August 2019, Ford was one of 181 leading CEOs in the United States to sign Business Roundtable's new Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation. The new Statement include that companies should serve not only their shareholders, but also deliver value to their customers, invest in employees, deal fairly with suppliers, and support the communities in which they operate. Ford is quoted as saying the new Statement matches the history of Land O'Lakes as a farmer-owned cooperative.

In February 2020, the Land O'Lakes company removed the Native American woman as its logo on its butter and cheese products. Ford is quoted as saying the removal of the "butter maiden" to the words "farmer owned" was more about what the farmer-owned co-op wanted to communicate rather than what it didn't, that the change did not come from pressure placed on the company.

Ford was named to the Fortune Most Powerful Women List in 2020 for the third year in a row.

Beth Ford is married to Jill Schurtz, who is also a businesswoman. Schurtz is an executive director and the CEO of the St. Paul’s Teachers’ Retirement Fund Association. The couple has three teenage daughters and the family lives in Minneapolis.


Fred C. Martinez, Nadleehi
1985 -

One of our martyrs, our many martyrs, FRED C. MARTINEZ was born on this date.  Martinez was a 16-year-old Navajo boy who thought of himself as female. Another term for Martinez among indigenous peoples is nadleehi or "two-spirit."  His friends adored him. Had he been born a woman, one of his teacher's said, he'd have been the most popular girl in town.

They also feared what a violent world might have in store for someone like Fred C. Martinez Jr.  Martinez died on June 16, 2001 at the hands of a man who beat him to death because he was different.  He was beaten to death by one Shaun Murphy who bragged about the killing.  Murphy was later sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering Martinez. Martinez's mother spoke about her son a few days after his murder: No one could say it better:

"I am his mother and now I want to make sure the truth is told about Fred by people who loved him. With more and more talk about his death, the police looking into his murder, and the details of my son's personal life in the media, it is time to speak the truth about Fred's life. The most important thing I can say is that I loved Fred. I loved my son exactly for who he was, for his courage in being honest and gentle and friendly. It is sad that he had to face pain in his daily life and in school.

"What I wanted for my son was for him to be accepted and loved, just like I accepted and loved him.  Fred was always proud to be Navajo. Fred did not struggle with who he was, but he was hurt because of the people who had problems with my son expressing himself honestly. I hope that the police and the District Attorney will talk about this and bring justice for the death of my son. I am grateful to Fred's friends for accepting him the way he was and remembering him for who he was.  Fred's family loved and cared deeply for all of who he was. We firmly believe that Fred's murder was a hate crime. Because he was different his life was taken from him, and we will never know the person Fred would have become."

An excellent documentary film was made about this called Two Spirit Directed by Lydia Nibley. Also Known As: Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender, and the Murder of Fred Martinez a trailer  can be seen and a DVD is available for sale here: http://twospirits.org


Olympic champion skier, Hig Roberts
1991 -

HIG ROBERTS is an American Alpine skier born on this date. He had 31 starts in the World Cup between 2015 and 2019 and won two giant slalom national titles competing on the U.S. Ski Team.

Roberts was born and raised in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where he started skiing at two years old. He competed in a large tournament for the first time at the age of nine and broke his femur, resulting in a risky surgery. He says began questioning his sexuality when he was twelve but did not come out. Roberts placed 7th in the giant slalom at the 2013 Winter Universiade.

Roberts graduated from Middlebury College in 2014. He was one the few former college skiers to join the United States Ski Team B. In 2017, Roberts beat Tim Jitloff in the giant slalom at Sugarloaf, Maine to earn his first national title. He won again in 2018. He was the first alternate U.S. team at the 2018 Winter Olympics. After retiring from sports in 2019, Roberts worked in finance in Norway and continues to ski recreationally.

In December 2020, Roberts came out as gay. "I just woke up one morning and I said, 'Enough is enough.'" He is the first current or former Alpine skier to come out. "Not being able to be openly gay as a professional athlete was truly hindering my performance.


Died
2017 -

THE IDES OF MARCH, The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other eight months. In Roman times, the Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated, in 44 BC.

Americans who opposed the policies of President Donald Trump made their objections known on March 15, 2017 by flooding the White House with postcards in an event dubbed the Ides of Trump by organizers, who hoped to see delivery of a million or more cards expressing disapproval of Trump and his agenda to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the days following. Et tu Bill Barr?


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