June 27th

06-27-1996 Lauren Jauregui – Born in Miami, Florida. She is an American singer, better known as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony. Jauregui was specifically chosen by Halsey to sing her song Strangers. A Billboard writer noted it as “a long-overdue bisexual milestone in mainstream music.” Halsey said, ”I just love that Lauren [Jauregui] and I are just two women who have a mainstream pop presence doing a love song for the LGBTQ community.” Jauregui is outspoken and actively involved in protests condemning Donald Trump and his policies. On November 18, 2106, Billboard published an open letter by her to voters of Trump, stating she is bisexual and calling out Trump voters, “your actions have led to the single-handed destruction of all the progress we’ve made socially as a nation.” On June 9, 2017, the duet appeared live on the Today Show and sang Strangers.

06-27-1997 Shannon Purser – Born in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the Netflix drama series Stranger Things and portrays Ethel Muggs in the CW’s teen drama series Riverdale. In 2017, she made her film debut as June Acosta in the horror film Wish Upon. As of 2017, Purser is attending Kennesaw State University. On April 18, 2017, Purser came out as bisexual over Twitter.

06-27-1991   Rayvon Owen – Born in Richmond, Virginia. He is an American singer and was a finalist in season 14 of American Idol. On Valentine’s Day in 2016, Owen released his single, Can’t Fight It, at the end of the music video he kisses a man. On the same day, he was interviewed by Billboard and came out as gay. Owen said in the interview, “You’d be surprised at the amount of times I tried to pray the gay away from me or tried to tell God to take this away from me. No kid should have to do what I did and pray to not be who they are. That’s why I think it’s important even in 2016 to say this.” Shane Bitney Crone that plays the love interest in the video announced the next day that they were a couple. On March 3, 2018, they announced that they would be getting married.

06-27-1867 (Baptized) – date of death unknown Marcela Gracia Ibeas – Born in Burgos, Spain. While studying to be a teacher in the Normal School for Teacher Training in A Coruña, she met Elisa Sanchez Loriga. The two women fell in love and began to live together. On June 8, 1901, Elisa adopted a masculine identity (she took the name of Mario, the name of a cousin of hers that had died in a shipwreck) and they were married at the church in A Coruña. Soon it was discovered that they were both women and the couple made newspaper headlines. As a result, they lost their jobs, were excommunicated, and an arrest warrant was issued. They fled to Portugal and then to Argentina. Their marriage certificate was never annulled. From 1904 on, the trace of these determined women has been lost.

1892 – 06-27-1927 Sebastian Droste – Born in Hamburg, Germany. He was a poet, actor, and dancer. Droste was involved with the gay and underworld subcultures of Berlin in the 1920s. He married German expressionist exotic dancer and actress, Anita Berber, a lesbian. She and Droste performed fantasias including Suicide, Morphium, and Mad House. In the silent film Algol (1920), Droste appeared as a dancer. In 1923, Droste and Berber published a book of poetry, photographs, and drawings titled Die Tänze des Lasters, des Grauens und der Ekstase (Dance of Vice, Horror, and Ecstasy), based on their performance of the same name. Their marriage ended in 1923.

06-27-1926 – 07-25-1966 Frank O’Hara – Born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was an American writer, poet, and art critic. He was a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. O’Hara was a leading figure in the New York School — an informal group of artists, writers, and musicians. Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O’Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life. In 1951, he moved into an apartment in New York City with Joe LeSueur, who would be his roommate and sometime lover for the next 11 years. O’Hara was openly gay. On July 24, 1966, he was struck by a jeep on Fire Island beach. He died the next day of a ruptured liver. The painter Larry Rivers, a longtime friend and lover of O’Hara’s, delivered one of the eulogies, along with Bill Berkson, Edwin Denby, and Rene d’Harnoncourt. The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara (1971), published posthumously, shared the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry.

06-27-1963 David Drake (born: David Drakula) – Born in Edgewood, Maryland and raised in Baltimore. He is an American playwright, stage director, actor, and author. He is best known as the author and original performer of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, for which he received a Village Voice Obie Award and a 1994 Drama-Logue Award for “Outstanding Solo Performance.” Drake appeared in the film Philadelphia and has also appeared in many television series, including Producing Juliet, The Good Wife, and Law & Order. He is openly gay.

06-27-1968 Vern Yip – Born in Hong Kong. He is a Chinese-American interior designer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Yip hosted four seasons of HGTV’s show Deserving Design. He also hosted an HGTV special called Urban Oasis, in which he designed a Chicago loft in the Trump International Hotel. His partner is Craig Koch. They have two children born by surrogate.

06-27-1977 Cyril Wong – Born in Singapore of Chinese descent. He is the author of twelve volumes of poetry, a collection of short stories, and a novel. He is popularly known as the gay poet. Wong has won the Golden Point Award (Singapore, 2004), the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award (Singapore, 2005), and Singapore Literature Prize (2006).