July 19th

07-19-1875 – 09-18-1935 Alice Dunbar Nelson – Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, she was the daughter of a former slave and a white seaman. At the age of 15, she entered a teacher-training program at Straight College (now Dillard University). Alice was a poet, journalist, political activist, and one of the prominent African-Americans involved in the Harlem Renaissance. While teaching at the all-black Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware, she entered a long same-sex relationship with its principal, Edwina Kruse. Alice and her first husband, Paul Dunbar separated in 1902. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. She married a second time but it ended in divorce. She married her third husband, African-American journalist Robert Nelson. He learned of her extramarital lesbian affairs—including those with journalist Fay Jackson Robinson and artist Helene London—by reading her diary. He tolerated these affairs, and the marriage lasted until Alice’s death in 1935.

07-19-1892 – 02-19-1972 Marcel Moore (born Suzanne Alberte Malherbe) – Born in Nantes, France. She was a French illustrator, designer, and photographer. Moore, along with her romantic partner, Claude Cahun (born Lucy Schwob), was a surrealist writer and photographer. They took gender-neutral pseudonyms: Malherbe became Marcel Moore, and Schwob became Claude Cahun. In 1937, the couple moved from Paris to the island of Jersey, off the coast of France and England, to escape the increasing anti-Semitism and the political unrest leading up to WWII. They remained on the island of Jersey when German troops invaded in 1940. For several years, the two women risked their lives distributing anti-Nazi propaganda to the German soldiers. In 1944, the women were arrested and sentenced to death. They were saved by the Liberation of Jersey in 1945. The Germans had confiscated their home and much of their art was destroyed. Cahun’s health suffered during her imprisonment and she died in 1954. Moore committed suicide in 1972. The couple is buried together in St. Brelade’s Church.

07-19-1972   Zanele Muholi – Born in Umlazi, Durban, South Africa. She is a South African artist and photographer whose work focuses on black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex people. She is dedicated to increasing the visibility of black LGBT people. In 2009, Muholi founded Inkanyiso, a non-profit organization focused on LGBT visual activism. In 2012, Muholi received world attention from the art world at Documenta, a world-famous exhibition of modern and contemporary art in Germany, for a series of portraits of lesbians. The photos were also exhibited at Stedelijk Museumm Amsterdam. She co-directed a documentary called We Live in Fear that was released in 2013 by Human Rights Watch. (Photo is of Zanele Muholi at the 2011 International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.)

07-19-1943 – 10-15-1986 Jerry Smith – Born in Eugene, Oregon. He was a professional American football tight-end for the Washington Redskins from 1965-1977. By the time he retired he held the NFL record for most career touchdowns by a tight end. A 2014 documentary from the NFL Network’s A Football Life series profiles his career, as well as his double life as a closeted gay man and a star athlete. Smith died of AIDS on October 15, 1986. He was the first former professional athlete to die of the disease. The Redskins logo, along with Jerry Smith’s uniform number 87, was part of the AIDS quilt.

07-19-1983 Ryan O’Callaghan – Born in Susanville, California. He is a former American football offensive tackle. O’Callaghan is 6 foot 7 inches and weighs 330 pounds. In 2006 he was drafted by the New England Patriots. In 2009, he played for the Kansas City Chiefs until 2011. On December 20, 2014, O’Callaghan was inducted into the Shasta County Sports Hall of Fame. In an interview with Outsports magazine on June 20, 2017, he revealed that he is gay. His autobiography, My Life on the Line: Ho the NFL Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life, was published in 2019. He also started the Ryan O’Callaghan Foundation, which provides scholarships to LGBT youth.

07-19-1985   Misty Kathrine Snow – Born in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is an American politician and one of the first out transgender people in the US to have been nominated by a major political party for a national office. Snow is a progressive Democrat and lost the November 2016 vote to Republican incumbent Mike Lee. On April 13, 2017, Snow announced her run for Utah’s 2nd congressional district. She dropped out of the race in March 2018.

07-19-1888 – 08-08-1957 Fabian S. Woodley – Born in Bristol, England and educated at Cheltenham College and University College, Oxford. He was a British poet of the Uranian school. After fighting in WWI, during which he won the Military Cross, he taught English at several schools. His only book of poetry, A Crown of Friendship, was published in 1921. He is listed as gay in Wikipedia list of gay, lesbian, or bisexual people both in the U.S. and U.K. list. These categories list notable writers who identify, or who have been reliably identified as gay.

07-19-1950 Per-Kristian Foss – Born in Oslo, Norway. He is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party and 2nd Vice President of Storting. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1981 and was re-elected six more times. From 2001-2005 Foss was the minister of finance. He also acted as Prime Minister very briefly in 2002. Foss was the first openly gay minister in a Norwegian government and the first openly gay national leader.