February 18th

02-18-1933 Yoko Ono – Born in Tokyo, Japan. She is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Ono is also known as the second wife and widow of John Lennon. She has long been a supporter of LGBT rights. In 2004, her song Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him, she changed to a gay-friendly version Every Man Has a Man Who Loves Him and Every Woman Has a Woman Who Loves Her. It became both a political statement, a tribute to the LGBT community, and became a hit at the dance clubs. In May 2009, she designed a T-shirt for the second year for Fashion Against AIDS campaign and collection of HIV/AIDS awareness, NGO Designers Against AIDS, and H&M, with the statement “Imagine Peace” depicted in 21 languages.

02-18-1844 – 03-17-1927 Victorine Meurent – Born in Paris, France. She was a French painter and a famous model for painters. She is best known as the favorite model of Édouard Manet. She’s the nude in Manet’s painting Luncheon on the Grass. She was also an artist in her own right who regularly exhibited at the prestigious Paris Salon. By 1879, when Meurent exhibited at the Salon for the second time, she had become estranged from Manet and his circle. She was no longer welcome because of certain love affairs that had caused her to become the subject of unpleasant gossip. She was known to be l’amie intime (close friend) of Marie Pellegrin, a lesbian and courteasan. The last two decades of her life, Meurent lived with Marie Dufour. Meurent is a good example on how women artists were frequently excluded from art history and instead listed as the subject or inspirer of the male artist.

02-18-1917 – 02-23-2009 Tuulikki Pietilä – Born in Seattle, Washington. She was a Finnish-American graphic artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland. During her studies at the Fernand Léger Art Academy in Paris (1949-1953), she met her life partner, artist, and writer, Tove Jansson (August 9, 1914). The two women collaborated on many projects, including the Moomin books and comic strip, that became a television series and a theme park called Moomin World in Naantali, Finland. Jansson’s and Pietilä’s travels were filmed by Pietilä and have been made into several documentaries, including Haru, yksinäinen saari (Haru, the lonely island) (1998) and Tove ja Tooti Euroopassa (Tove and Tooti in Europe) (2004).

02-18-1934 – 11-17-1992 Audre Lorde – Born in Harlem, New York City, New York. She was an Caribbean-American writer, poet, radical feminist, womanist, lesbian, and civil rights activist. Lorde served as an inspiration to women worldwide, one of her most notable efforts being her activist work with Afro-German women in the 1980s. In the film, Audre Lorde the Berlin Years, show what it was like for her in Berlin from 1984 to 1992. From 1991 until her death, she was the New York State Poet Laureate.

02-18-1952 Efva Attling – Born in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a Swedish jewellery designer. She worked as a professional model for twelve years. In the early 1980s she played in the band X Models and released the hit single Två av oss (Two of Us). Attling was also famous for being one of Sweden’s best professional disco dancers. She is one of five sisters. She was married to pop singer/writer Niklas Strömstedt and has two children. She entered a civil union with Swedish pop singer Eva Dahlgren in 1996. In 2009 they got married, after Sweden passed its gender neutral marriage law.

02-18-1969 Christopher Sieber – Born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Kevin Burke in Two of a Kind. Sieber appeared in Broadway musicals, including Into the Woods, Monty Python’s Spamalot, and Shrek The Musical. He is a two-time Tony Award nominee. He has starred in two television series: Two of a Kind with the Olsen twins and It’s All Relative. While It’s All Relative was being produced, Sieber came out as gay and said that he was, “happily partnered to actor and chef, Kevin Burrows.” They married on November 24, 2011 , in New York City. Sieber is involved with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and has appeared in several of its Broadway Cares revues, among other events the charity produces. He also teaches classes on drama and performance.

02-18-1974 Jillian Michaels – Born in Los Angeles, California. She is an American personal trainer, reality show personality, talk show host, and entrepreneur. She is best known for her appearance on NBC’s The Biggest Loser and Losing It with Jillian. She also appeared on the talk show The Doctors. Her partner is Heidi Rhoades. They have an adopted girl from Haiti and a son, born by her partner. Michaels proposed to her girlfriend on the season finale of her reality series Just Jillian on March 8, 2016.