August 9th

08-09-1963 – 02-11-2012 Whitney Houston – Born in Newark, New Jersey. She was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. She is one of pop music’s best-selling music artists of all-time, with an estimated 170-200 million records sold worldwide. Houston is the only artist to have seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. Her first acting role was in The Bodyguard (1992). The film’s soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. I Will Always Love You from the film, became the best-selling single in music history. On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead in her guest room at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, California. The official coroner’s report was that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. Bobby Brown has revealed that Whitney Houston was bisexual and was involved with Robyn Crawford. Although Houston denied the claims, Brown alleged it could have been because her family, including her mother, Cissy Houston, didn’t approve of the lesbian relationship—even insisting Crawford be fired. Brown stated, “I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney’s life, Whitney would still be alive today. She didn’t have close friends with her anymore.” In 2017, Rosie O’Donnell confirmed that she knew Whitney was a lesbian and involved with Robyn Crawford on the Andy Cohen Show.

In 2019, A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston by Robyn Crawford was released. She confirmed that she and Houston had been lovers.

08-09-1878 – 10-31-1976 Eileen Gray – Born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland. She was an Irish architect and furniture designer and a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Her first decorating job was for Madame Mathieu Lévy, a successful boutique owner in Paris, France. It took four years, from 1917 to 1921, Gray designing most of its furniture, including her famous Bibendum chair, the Serpent (Dragon) chair, and the Pirogue Boat Bed. Art critics gave favorable reviews. Gray then opened up a small shop in Paris to sell her works and those of her artist friends. Gray’s innovative Bibendum Chair is one of the 20th century’s most recognizable furniture designs. She chose the name Bibendum, otherwise known as the Michelin Man, which inspired her design. Gray was bisexual and mixed in the lesbian circles of the time, being associated with Romaine Brooks, Gabrielle Bloch, Loie Fuller, the singer Damia, and Natalie Barney. She had an intimate relationship with Damia, which ended in 1938. She also had an affair with Jean Badovici, the Romanian architect and writer. She died in Paris at the age of 98. The National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland has a permanent display of her work.

08-09-1914 – 06-27-2001 Tove Jansson – Born in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire. She was a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator, and comic strip author. In 1966, she won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her contribution as a children’s writer. Her series of the Moomins (a Moomin is a roundish, white fairy tale character), the first published in 1945, is what she is best known for. A total of nine books were in the series, five picture books, and a comic strip was published between 1945 and 1993. The Moomins have also been the basis for numerous television series, films and a theme park called Moomin World in Naantali, Finland. She met her life partner, Tuulikki Pietilä, while both were studying at the University of Arts, Crafts, and Design in Stockholm. The two women collaborated on many works and projects, including a model of the Moominhouse that is on exhibit at the Moomin Museum in Tampere, Finland.

08-09-1855 – 06-30-1906 Jean Lorrain – Born in Fécamp, France. He was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school. Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and openly gay. He contributed to the satirical weekly Le Courrier Francais. He wrote a number of collections of verse. Lorraine is also remembered for his Decadent novels and short stories that showed the seamy urban underworld of homosexuality, lesbianism, drug addiction, and crime. Sarah Bernhardt wrote to Lorrain, “inside the abominably depraved being that you are, there beats a heart of a great artist, a genuinely sensitive and tender heart.”

08-09-1941 – 08-13-1986 Way Bandy – Born in Birmingham, Alabama. He was an American make-up artist. During the 1970s, Bandy became one of the most well known and highest-paid make-up artists in the fashion industry. Photographer and frequent collaborator Francesco Scavullo called Bandy “one of the great makeup artists of our time.” Bandy did get married and in the summer of 1965, he and his wife visited New York City. Bandy later said, “The minute we arrived I knew I would never go back to my former life. This was a new beginning.” Bandy quit his teaching job and he and his wife separated. Over the course of his career, Bandy was hired by Cher, Catherine Deneuve, Farrah Fawcett, Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, and Gloria Vanderbilt. After separating from his wife in 1973, Bandy began a long term relationship with writer and antique dealer Michael Gardine. They remained together until Gardine’s death from AIDS in 1985. Bandy died of AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 45 on August 13, 1986.

08-09-1958 Amanda Bearse – Born in Winter Park, Florida. She is an American actress, director, and comedian best known for her role as neighbor Marcy Rhoades D’Arcy on Married…with Children that aired from 1987 to 1997, and for her performance in the 1985 hour film, Fright Night. She directed thirty-one episodes of Married…with Children and other television shows. Bearse has been publicly out as a lesbian since 1993 and has an adopted daughter.

08-09-1962 Donna M. Nesselbush – Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She is an American lawyer, judge, and politician. A Democrat, she serves in the Rhode Island Senate, representing the 15th district. A graduate of Brown University (class of 1984), Nesselbush worked as executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence from 1984 to 1991. She was appointed an associate municipal court judge in 2004 in Pawtucket and has severed since. Nesselbush is openly gay.

08-09-1974 Robert Traynham – Place of birth unknown. He is an out gay black American who worked for two election campaigns for Senator Rick Santorum. He is believed to be partnered with Brent Smith, a high ranking official at Citigroup.

08-09-1980 Charlie David – Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is a Canadian actor, writer, director an producer, best known for the male lead in the LGBT horror series Dante’s Cove. He has also worked as a TV host on a number of shows. David is openly gay. In 2012 and 2013, David produced two documentaries, I’m a Stripper, which he also wrote and directed and Positive Youth, about young people living with HIV. David currently lives in Montreal with his partner.

08-09-1990 Sarah McBride – Born in Wilmington, Delaware. She is an American LGBT rights activist and political figure. McBride made headlines when she came out as transgender to her college while serving as student body president at American University. She is credited with the passage of legislation in Delaware banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment, housing, insurance, and public accommodations. On July 28th, 2016, at the Democratic convention, she became the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in American history. In August 2014, McBride married her then-boyfriend Andrew Cray after he received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson presided at their ceremony. Four days after their wedding, Cray died from cancer. McBride is currently the National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign.