January 24th

01-24-1905 — 04-11-1975   Dorothy Patten – Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was an American theatre producer and actress. Patten was born into a wealthy family and rejected the traditional role of a Southern socialite and set out for a life on stage. She left for New York City in 1927 after the death of her mother. Patten was linked romantically with actress Cheryl Crawford in the 1930s, who together with Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg formed The Group Theatre in 1931. After her father died, she donated their family home to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. After Patten broke up with Crawford in 1937, she became involved with Cecelia McMahon, who became her lifelong  companion until her death in 1975.  

01-24-1944 – 08-06-1983 Klaus Nomi (b. Klaus Sperbern) – Born in Immenstadt, Bavaria, Germany. He was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and flamboyant stage persona. His song choice was unusual also, ranging from classical opera to pop standards like Leslie Gore’s You Don’t Own Me, Chubby Checker’s The Twist, and Lou Christie’s Lightnin’ Strikes. In the 1960s, he sang opera arias at the Berlin gay discothèque Kleist Casino. In 1972 Nomi moved to New York City. In the United States he is best remembered as one of David Bowie’s backup singers for a 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live. He was known to be gay and died in 1983 at the age or 39 from complications from AIDS.

01-24-76 AD — 07-10-138 AD Hadrian – Born in Italica (Just north of the modern city, Santiponce, Spain) Roman emperor that is regarded as one of the Five Good Emperors. He rebuilt the Pantheon, and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. He is also known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. Hadrian had a relationship with a Bithynian Greek youth, Antinous. Although it was not uncommon for his predecessors to have taken gay lovers alongside a female spouse, Hadrian was unique in making his love “official” in a way no other emperor had before him. When Antinous drowned in mysterious circumstances, Hadrian was so distraught that he chose to commemorate the young Greek by naming the Egyptian city, Antinopolis, in his honor. He also had Antinous deified – an unprecedented honor for one not of the ruling family. The cult of Antinous became very popular in the Greek-speaking world.

01-24-1925 – 11-25-1970 Yukio Mishima – Born in Yotsuya, Toyko, Japan. He was a Japanese author, poet, and playwright. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mishima was also an actor, and had a staring role in Yasuzo Masumurad’s 1960 film, Afraid to Die. He married Yoko Sugiyama on June 11, 1958 and the couple had two children. While Mishima was working on the film Forbidden Colors, he visited gay bars in Japan. In 1998, the writer Jiro Fukushima published an account of his relationship with Mishima in 1951, including fifteen letters between himself and the famed novelist. On November 25, 1970 Mishima committed suicide. He was recognized as one of the most important post-war stylists of the Japanese language. Mishima wrote 34 novels, about 50 plays, around 25 books of short stories, and at least 35 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film.

01-24-1961 Matthew J. Titone – Born in Staten Island, New York City, New York. He is an American politician and lawyer from Staten Island, New York. A Democrat, he serves as a member of the New York State Assembly. After being admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1992, Titone worked pro bono for the Staten Island AIDS Task Force and Project Hospitality. He gathered national attention when he took on the New York State adoption industry representing a family who adopted a baby boy. The family was never informed by the adoption agency that the child was born with the AIDS virus and resulted in the child being untreated for the illness for eleven years after the adoption. Titone is openly gay and married his partner of 18 years, Giosue Pugliese, in a ceremony at Staten Island Borough Hall in September 2011, shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York State. He is one of six LGBT members of the New York Legislature.