August 19th
08-19-1919 – 02-24-1990 Malcomb Forbes – Born in Brooklyn, New York. He was an American publisher of Forbes Magazine (founded by his father) and an entrepreneur. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalism and free-market trade, and for an extravagant lifestyle, spending on parties, travel, and his collection of homes, yachts, aircraft, art, motorcycles, and Fabergé eggs. Forbes died in 1990 of a heart attack. In March 1990, soon after his death, OutWeek magazine published a story with the cover headline “The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes,” by Michelangelo Signorile, which outed Forbes as a gay man. Signorile was critical of the media for helping Forbes publicize many aspects of his life while keeping his homosexuality a secret. Signorile asked, “Is our society so overwhelmingly repressive that even individuals as all-powerful as the late Malcolm Forbes feel they absolutely cannot come out of the closet?” Even in death, the media was reluctant to disclose his sexuality.
08-19-1982 Arundhati Katju – Born in Allahabad, India. She is a lawyer that is qualified to practice in India and New York. She and her partner, Menaka Guruswamy, (both professional and personal), were responsible for having the Supreme Court of India strike down the 157-year-old sodomy law and uphold the rights of LGBT Indians to equality and dignity. Arundhati is also a yoga teacher and practitioner and has taught yoga in New Delhi and New York.
08-19-1885 – 05-15-1969 Grace Hutchins – Born to a wealthy family in Boston, Massachusetts. She was an American labor reformer and researcher, journalist, political activist, and communist. In 1919, while living in New York, she met Anna Rochester. Both Hutchins and Rochester were firm believers in the doctrine of non-violence. They became lifetime companions for forty-five years. They were known for promoting radical Christian pacifism in the United States. According to Janet Lee, author of a biography about the two women, they “were a part of [a] cohort of women whose commitment to social activism was integrated with their lesbian orientation.”
08-19-1909 – 04-19-1983 Jerzy Andrzejewski – Born in Warsaw, Poland. He was a prolific Polish author. His best-known work is Ashes and Diamonds. In spite of being married with two children, he had many sexual relations with men. On September 23, 2006, he was posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Polonia Restituta by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski.
08-19-1934 Renee Richards – Born in New York City, New York. She is an American transgender pioneer, ophthalmologist, author, and former professional tennis player. Richards underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1975. She was denied entry into the 1976 US Open by the US Tennis Association, citing an unprecedented women-born-women policy. She disputed the ban, and the New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1977. This was a landmark decision in favor of transsexual rights. She became a role model and spokesperson for the transgender community.
08-19-1957 Gerda Verburg – Born in Zwammerdam, The Netherlands. She is a Dutch diplomat, former politician, and trade union leader. Since July 1, 2011, she became a Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations for Food and Agriculture. Verburg is openly lesbian and lives with her partner Willy Westerlaken in Woerden.