August 20th

08-20-1841 – 05-18-1898 Maria Louise Pool – Born in Rockland, Massachusetts into a well-to-do manufacturing family. An American writer, she taught school for a year before settling down to a life of writing. Her first stories were published by Moses Dow in the Waverly Magazine when she was sixteen years old. She moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1870, where she first wrote for a Philadelphia paper and afterward for the New York Evening Post and the New York Tribune. In 1887 she became widely known through her A Vacation in a Buggy. Most of her literary work appeared in periodicals and were later issued in book form. During her twenties, Pool met Caroline M. Branson who became her life-long companion. The two women lived together for thirty-two years. Her novel, Sand ’N’ Bushes (1898) is not only one of the first novels set on Cape Cod but is also the first lesbian vacation novel set in Provincetown.

08-20-1958 Patricia Rozema – Born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. Her first feature film, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987), won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, it was voted one of Canada’s ten best films ever as polled by 100 international critics. She has written and directed, edited and produced, a number of short films. Rozema has also worked for television, including HBO. Her film Into the Forest, starring Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood, was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015. Rozema is openly lesbian and has two daughters with her former partner, film composer Lesley Barber.

08-20-1961 Greg Herren – Born in Alabama, place unknown. He is an American writer and editor. He writes two series, the Chanse MacLeod mysteries and the Scotty Bradley adventures. Both private eyes are gay men who live in New Orleans. His novel Murder in the Rue Chartres won a Lambda Literary Award in the Gay Mystery category in 2008. Openly gay, Herren lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with his partner of over seventeen years. He also works as an HIV/AIDS counselor and educator. Herren co-founded the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival that specializes in LGBT literature which is held in the French Quarter of the city of New Orleans each May.

08-20-1992   Demi Lovato – Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her career as an actress began as a child appearing on the television series Barney & Friends. In 2008 she appeared in the Disney Channel television film Camp Rock (2008) and its sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). As a recording artist, Lovato has had seven top-twenty entries on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 2014 became the face for the Human Rights Campaign for marriage equality. In April 2016, Lovato was honored with the GLAAD Vanguard Award for her activism. She has had personal struggles with depression, drugs, and alcohol. On June 21, 2018, Lovato released Sober, in which she revealed she had relapsed after six years of sobriety. In December 2018, on Twitter, she thanked her fans for their support and that she is now clean and happy.

As of 2021, Lovato says they may identify as trans in the future because they’re a “very fluid person.”

(Photo by Frank Schwichtenberg)

08-20-1993   MK Nobilette (b. Michaela Anne Nobilette) – Born in San Francisco, California. She was adopted and raised by two lesbian women and is publicly out as a lesbian herself. Her moms separated when she was four, and both now have girlfriends, resulting in a large extended family, which she characterized as “very San Francisco.” MK is the first finalist of American Idol to be openly gay going into the top contestant rounds, and the first openly gay female to compete in the finals. In the fall of 2014, Nobilette signed a record deal with Velvet Rhythm Entertainment and her debut single Make Believe was released on May 12, 2015.