February 3rd

02-03-1874 – 07-27-1946 Gertrude Stein – Born in West Allegheny (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania and raised in Oakland, California. She was an American writer of novels, poetry, and plays. Stein moved to Paris in 1903, making France her home for the remainder of her life. A literary innovator and pioneer of Modernist literature, Stein’s work broke with the narrative, linear, and temporal conventions of the 19th-century. She was also known as a collector of Modernist art. In 1933, Stein published a kind of memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Toklas, her life partner. The book became a literary bestseller and brought Stein into the light of mainstream attention. She met Alice B. Toklas on September 8, 1907, on Toklas’s first day in Paris, at Michael and Sarah Stein’s apartment. In the 1980’s, a cabinet in the Yale University Beinecke Library, which had been locked for an indeterminate number of years was opened and found to contain some 300 love letters written by Stein and Toklas. Stein is the author of one of the earliest coming out stories (published in 1950 as Things as They Are), written in 1903 and suppressed by the author. Her essay Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (written 1909-1911, published 1922) is one of the first homosexual revelation stories to be published. The work contains the word “gay” over one hundred times, perhaps the first published use of the word “gay” in reference to same-sex relationships, uniformed readers missed the homosexual content.

02-03-1953 – 11-02-2013   Betsy Smittle – Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she was the older half-sister of Garth Brooks. Smittle sang and played bass and toured with Brooks, as well as playing and singing backup on four of his albums. In a 1993 interview with Barbara Walters, Brooks accidentally outed Smittle as being a lesbian. In the interview, Brooks stated, “Where the gay issue has hit me the most is my sister. I’ve lived with that forever. And the thing is, the longer you live with it, the more you realize that it’s just another form of people loving one another.” In 2006, Smittle headlined Oklahoma City’s 19th annual Pride Parade and Festival, performing with he bank Betsy & the Edge. She died of cancer in 2013.

   

02-03-1927 Kenneth Anger – Born in Santa Monica, California. He was an American actor, filmmaker, and writer. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped together as The Magick Lantern Cycle, and form the basis of Anger’s reputation as one of the most influential independent filmmakers in cinema history. His films merge surrealism, homoeroticism, and the occult. He is one of America’s first openly gay filmmakers. He died at a care facility in Yucca Valley, California on May 11, 2023, at the age of 96.

 

02-03-1947 Dave Davies – Born in Fortis Green, London, England. He is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the lead guitarist and sometime lead singer for the English rock group The Kinks. In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Davies number 91 in the list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” In 1996, Davies published an autobiography, Kink, in which he talked about his brief period of bisexuality in the late 1960s. He had a short-lived relationship with Long John Baldry and music producer Michael Aldred.

02-03-1956 Nathan Lane – Born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is an American actor of stage and screen, and a writer. He is known for his roles as Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, and his recurring roles on Modern Family and The Good Wife. In 2006, Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. A reporter for Us Weekly once asked Lane if he was gay; he replied, “I’m 40, single, and work a lot in musical theater. You do the math.” When at age 21 he told his mother he was gay, she replied, “I would rather you were dead,” to which he replied, “I knew you’d understand.” Lane, who came out officially after the death of Matthew Shepard, has been a long-time board member of and fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS, and has been honored by the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and The Trevor Project. He resides in New York City with long-time partner Devlin Elliot.

02-03-1958 Lizzie Borden – (born Linda Borden) Born in Detroit, Michigan. She is an American filmmaker best known for the 1983 film Born in Flames. She decided to changed her name to Lizzie Borden after the accused 1890s Massachusetts double murderer Lizzie Borden at the age of eleven. Borden said, “At the time, my name was the best rebellion I could make.” Borden identifies as bisexual.

02-03-1959 Paul Babeu – Born in North Adams, Massachusetts. Elected sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona. On February 18, 2012, he came out as gay after allegations surfaced that he had threatened a Mexican ex-boyfriend with deportation to guarantee his silence. Babeu stepped down as co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in Arizona, but received continued support of U.S. Senator John McCain, who called Babeu his friend. On August 31, 2012, the Arizona Solicitor General exonerated Babeu after an investigation. In 2011, he was selected by the National Sheriff’s Association as “Sheriff of the Year.” He also served for over 20 years in the Army National Guard, entering as a Private and retiring as a Major.

02-03-1981 Jose Antonio Vargas – Born in Antipolo, Philippines. He is a Filipino journalist living and working in the United States and a Pulitzer Prize winner. At the age of 12, he found out he was an undocumented immigrant. Vargas is the founder of Define America, a nonprofit organization to open up dialogue about the criteria people use to determine who is an American. He said: “I am an American. I just don’t have the right papers.” Vargas came out as gay in high school in 1999, a decision he later described as “less daunting than coming out about my legal status.” He is an advocate for the DREAM Act. In July 2015, Vargas directed and starred in a documentary, White People, about the concept of white privilege. The film debuted on MTV.

02-03-1988 Lianne Sanderson – Born in Lewisham, England. She is an English professional soccer player who currently plays for the team Western New York Flash. Sanderson is openly gay. In 2014 she was engaged to then-teammate Joanna Lohman, but the couple later broke up. She is currently dating Sky Blue FC player Ashley Nick.

02-03-1996 Dutee Chand – Born in Gopalpur, Odisha, India, Chand is from a below poverty line weavers family She is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women’s 100 meters event. She is one of 49 out LGBT athletes participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.