January 15th

01-16-1933 – 12-28-2004 Susan Sontag – Born in New York City, New York. She was an American writer, film maker, professor, literary icon, and political activist. She became a role-model for many feminists and aspiring female writers during the 1960s and 1970s. Sontag was lovers with María Irene Fornés and later with photographer, Annie Leibovitz. The New York Review of Books called her “one of the most influential critics of her generation.”

 

 

 

 

01-16-1942 – 01-03-2009 Carol Adair – Place of birth unknown. She was married to poet Kay Ryan. They were together for 30 years until her death in 2009. She taught English and humanities at Cogswell College in San Francisco. In 1985 she began teaching at the College of Marin, specializing in English as a Second Language and English Skills.

 

 

 

 

 

01-16-1946 – 09-21-2015 Honey Lee Cottrell – Born in Astoria, Oregon. She was a lesbian photographer and filmmaker. Cottrell lived most of her life in San Francisco. She funded her early artistic work by serving as a waiter on cruise ships, earning a certificate as a merchant seaman. In the mid-1970s in San Francisco, she became well known for her photography of women. Her work became influential in representations of lesbian sex and feminist lesbian portraiture. Cottrell was a co-founder of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project. She died of pancreatic cancer on September 21, 2015. Cottrell donated her archives to the Cornell University Library Human Sexuality Collection: “a gesture in keeping with her lifelong goal of empathetically reflecting and documenting the lives and sexualities of the lesbian and gay community, beginning in an era when they were expected to live on the margins and in the shadows.”

 

 

01-16-1967 Andrea James – Place of birth unknown. She grew up in Indiana. James is a transgender pioneer. She is an American writer, producer, and director, and trans woman who is an LGBT rights activist. In 2003, together with author and entertainer Calpernia Addams, she co-founded Deep Stealth Productions to create content by and for transgender people. She is the host of the instructional program, Finding Your Female Voice. She produced and performed in the first all-transgender cast of The Vagina Monologues in 2004. James was a script consultant for Transamerica, a 2005 film, helping actress Felicity Huffman prepare for her role as a transsexual woman.

 

 

 

01-16-1968 Anders Gåsland – Born in Norway, place unknown. He is a former Norwegian politician. Openly gay, he is considered an important promoter of gay rights in Norway. In 1992 he took over as chairman of the Youth of the Christian People’s Party, the youth wing of the Christian Democratic Party. In the autumn of 1992 he came forward as a homosexual, in the prime time news program Lørdagsrevyen. Shortly after, he was removed from the party ticket for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993. He was also pressured to resign as chairman of the Youth of the Christian People’s Party. In 1993 he published the autobiographical book Alitid freidig which details his experience as a gay person in the Christian Democratic Party. He now works as a psychiatrist.