January 12th

01-13-1949 Dr. Diane “Dee” Mosbacher – Born in Houston, Texas. She is an American filmmaker, lesbian feminist activist, and psychiatrist. In 1993, she founded WomanVision, a nonprofit organization to promote equal treatment of all people. Mosbacher has directed or produced nine documentary films, each having to do with LGBTQ or women’s rights issues. In 1994, she directed and produced Straight From the Heart, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Her films have received 46 awards world wide. In 2012, Woman Vision launched The Last Closet, a web-based campaign and video project to end homophobia in men’s professional sports. Mosbacher is married to Nanette Gartrell, MD, a researcher, psychiatrist, and author of the 2008 book My Answer is NO… If That’s Okay With You.

01-13-1885 – 12-04-1962 Anna Vock – Born in Anglican, Aargau, Switzerland. She was the leading activist of the LGBT movement in Switzerland during the 1930s. Homosexuality was illegal in Switzerland for men, but not for women, although it was not well regarded, which enabled Vock more leeway than men, despite being watched over by the police. In 1931, Anna Vock and Laura Thoma formed the group Amicitia (Friendship) with the aim of organizing lesbians and to get them out of being isolated. It was advertised discreetly as a “women’s club.” Because heterosexual women wanted to join, Vock and Thoma founded a new organization called Excentric making it a group only for lesbian. In 1933, after dissolving Excentric, Vock formed Freundschaftsverban Amicitia Schweitzer (Swiss Association of Friendship) that included both sexes. In 1942 the name was changed to Der Kreis (The Circle, 1942-1967). It was the main homosexual publication in Europe. All members used pseudonyms in the journal. Vock was Mammon (Mammy). Due to the personals section, Vock was charged with “tolerance” and sentenced by the courts. She was later acquitted on appeal. Through their campaigns, the sodomy laws were repealed in Switzerland, following a referendum, as part of an overall review of the penal code in 1942. She died in Zurich in December 1962. In the January 1963 issue of Der Kreis: “Farewell, Mammon. Your name will remain forever attached to our cause in Switzerland. You prepared the ground on which we must build. Hopefully we (will) succeed.”

01-13-1938 — 11-22-2013   Lee Glaze – Place of birth unknown, he grew up in Paramount, California, and was already out of the closet as a teenager. Glaze was the owner of the gay bar The Patch, and refused to comply with Los Angeles’ prejudiced law that outlawed same-sex couples from dancing in public. If Glaze spotted any undercover officers, he would yell, “God save the queen.” He was known as “The Blond Darling.” The Patch had a clientele of gay men and women that included many women from the local roller derby circuit. In August 1968, the bar was raided and several arbitrary arrests were made, including Tony Valdez, the boyfriend of Rev. Troy Perry. It was that incident that Rev. Perry realized that he should form “a church for all of us who are outcasts.” Bail was posted for all those arrested by The Patch. The Black Cat Tavern and The Patch played a pivotal role in the gay rights movement before Stonewall.

01-13-1832 – 07-18-1899 Horatio Alger, Jr. – Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He was an American author, best known for his many novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble beginnings to lives of middle class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the “rags-to-riches- narrative,” which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age. On December 8, 1864, Alger was installed as pastor with the First Unitarian Church and Society of Brewster, Massachusetts. Early in 1866, a church committee was formed to investigate sexual misconduct reports about Alger. He denied nothing, admitted he had be imprudent, considered his association with the church dissolved, and left town. Church officials reported to the hierarchy in Boston that Alger had been charged with “the crime of…unnatural familiarity with boys.” Alger sent a letter of remorse, and his father assured them his son would never seek another post in the church. Officials of the church took no further action.

01-13-1931 – 05-25-2007 Charles Nelson Reilly – Born in South Bronx, New York. He was an American actor, comedian, director, and game show panelist. His big break came in 1960 with the successful original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie. He had a small onstage part, and was the standby for Dick Van Dyke in the leading role of Albert Peterson. In 1961, Reilly was in the original cast of another Broadway hit, the Pulitzer prize-winning musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He was the winner of the 1962 Tony Award for featured actor in a musical. In 1964, he was featured in another Broadway success, Hello Dolly. He received a second nomination for a Tony Award. On TV he appeared on What’s My Line and probably is best known for his appearance on The Match Game. Reilly did not publicly affirm his homosexuality until his one-man show, Save It for the Stage. In a 2002 interview with Entertainment Tonight he felt no need to note this, and that he never purposely hid being gay from anyone. Patrick Hughes III, a set decorator and dresser, was Reilly’s domestic partner. He died of pneumonia at his home on May 25, 2007. That weekend the Game Show Network was dedicated to him, airing his funniest episodes of Match Game.

01-13-1931 – 10-06-2019   Rip Taylor (b. Charles Elmer “Rip” Taylor Jr.) – Born in Washington, D.C., he was an American actor and comedian. The Hollywood Reporter called him “a television and nightclub mainstay for more than six decades” who made thousand of nightclub and television appearances. He was known for exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild mustache, toupee, and his showering himself with confetti. In 2005, Taylor appeared as the grand marshal of the Washington, D.C., Capital Pride parade. Taylor was a close friend of Liberace and cut the ribbon at the Las Vegas estate auction of Liberace’s estate in 1988. At the time of Taylor’s death, he was in a long-term relationship with Robert Fortney.

01-13-1940 Edmund White (b. Edmund Valentine White III) – Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is an American novelist, memoirist, and essayist. The theme to much of his writing is of same-sex love. His books include The Joy of Gay Sex (1977) (written with American writer,  therapist, and activist, Charles Silverstein), and his trio of autobiographical novels, A Boy’s Own Story (1982), The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988), and The Farewell Symphony (1997). He also wrote a biography of Jean Genet. From 1980 to 1981, White was a member of the gay writers’ group, The Violet Quill. His autobiographic works are frank and unapologetic about his promiscuity and his HIV-positive status. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

01-13-1960 Matthew Bourne – Born in Walthamstow, London, England. He is an English choreographer. He has received multiple awards and award nominations, including the Laurence Olivier Award, Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award. Bourne was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to dance. He is best known for his adaptation of the ballet Swan Lake, with an all male cast. It was the longest running ballet in London’s West End and on Broadway. It has been performed in the UK, Los Angeles, Europe, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and Singapore. Bourne is openly gay and has lived with his lover, choreographer and dancer, Arthur Pita since 1995.

01-13-1963 Kevin McClatchy – Born in Sacramento, California. He is the former owner of the Pittsburg Pirates. He led a group of investors that purchased the team in 1996, and served as the team’s CEO and lead owner until 2007. On September 22, 2012, McClatchy came out as gay in an interview with Frank Bruni of The New York Times.

01-13-1978 Nathaniel Read “Nate” Silver – Born in East Lansing, Michigan. He is an American statistician, psephologist, and writer. In November 2008 his predictions for the presidential election won him further attention and commendation. He correctly predicted the winner of 49 of the 50 states. The only state he missed was Indiana, which went for Barack Obama by one percentage point. He correctly predicted the winner of all 35 U.S. Senate races that year. In the 2012 election he predicted the Presidential Election getting 50 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia. His prediction for the 2016 November election was totally wrong. Silver is openly gay. “I’ve always felt like something as an outsider. I’ve always had friends, but I’ve always come from an outside point of view.” When asked what made you feel more of a misfit, being gay or being a geek, he replied, “Probably the numbers stuff since I had that from when I was six.” Silver plays poker semi-professionally.