March 28th

03-28-1986 Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) – Born in Manhattan, New York City, New York. She is an American singer and songwriter. Gaga rose to prominence with her debut album The Fame (2008), a critical and commercial success which produced global chart-topping singles such as Just Dance and Poker Face. Her second full-length album Born This Way (2011) topped the charts in more than 20 countries. With global album and single sales of 27 million and 125 million respectively, as of June 2014, she is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Gaga has won six Grammy Awards, 13 MTV Video Music Awards, and 13 Guinness World Records. She is an outspoken activist for LGBT rights worldwide. She attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered a gay icon. She called the October 11, 2008, National Equality March rally on the National Mall “the single most important event of her career.” Gaga attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four gay and lesbian former members of the United States Armed Forces who had been unable to serve openly in the U.S. military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy. She has been open for quite some time about her bisexuality, initially coming out in a 2010 interview with Barbara Walters. After The Fame was release, she revealed her song Poker Face is about her bisexuality. In 2018, Gaga starred in the remake of A Star Is Born. Her performance won her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her contribution to the film’s soundtrack, and for its lead single, Shallow, won her an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2019, she became the first person to win a Academy, a Grammy, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe Award in one year for her contribution to A Star Is Born soundtrack.

03-28-1921 – 05-08-1999   Sir Dirk Bogarde – Born in West Hampstead, London, England. He was an English actor and writer. His films include The Servant (1963), Darling (1965), The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971), The Night Porter (1974), and A Bridge Too Far (1977). His life partner was Anthony Forwood. Though they lived together, Bogarde always said that their relationship was platonic. Such denials were understandable at the time, mainly because male homosexual acts were criminal during most of his career, and could lead to prosecution and imprisonment. The actor John Fraser said, “ Dirk’s life with Forwood had been so respectable, their love for each other so profound and so enduring, it would have been a glorious day for  the pursuit of understanding and the promotion of tolerance if he had screwed up the courage…(and came out).” In 1992, Bogarde was knighted. Forwood died of liver cancer on May 18, 1988. Bogarde  died of a heart attack at the age of 78 on May 8, 1999. 

03-28-1931 – 11-27-2007   Jane Rule – Born in Plainfield, New Jersey. She was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. She taught at Concord Academy in Massachusetts where she met Helen Sonthoff and fell in love with her. Rule was married and moved with her husband to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1956. Sonthoff visited her there and they began to live together. Rule lived with Sonthoff until Sonthoff’s death in 2000. In 1964, Rule published Desert of the Heart, after 22 rejections from publishers. The novel caused her to be sought out by Canadian media, and Rule later wrote, “I became, for the media, the only lesbian in Canada. A role I gradually and very reluctantly accepted and used to educate people as I could.” Rule’s novel was made into a movie by Donna Ditch, released as Desert Hearts (1985), which quickly became a lesbian classic.

03-28-1955   Reba McEntire – Born in McAlester, Oklahoma. She is a supporter of LGBT rights. American country music singer, songwriter, and actress.  McEntire has released 26 studio albums, acquired 40 number one singles, 14 number one albums, and 28 albums have been certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America. She has sometimes been referred to as “The Queen of Country,” and she is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 85 million records worldwide. In the early 1990s, McEntire branched into film starting with 1990’s Tremors. She has since starred in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun and in her television sitcom Reba (2001-2007) for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy. In an interview to promote her new album,Love Somebody, McEntire spoke to PrideSource’s Chris Azzopardi. She has pledged full support for same-sex marriage, noting that LGBT rights “are very important” to her for many reasons. The singer recalled attending her first same-sex wedding early in the year (2015). The singers newlywed pals Michael and Steven had been together of 20 years before tying the knot, and she said, “I thought that it was not fair, and I didn’t understand why they couldn’t get married. It wasn’t because they just wanted to get married. If one of them had gotten injured and one to the hospital, the other one couldn’t make decisions for them. It’s very upsetting. It’s not only for convenience or for romantic reason – it’s for practicality.” She also said, “You gotta love people for who they are, accept them, and then go on with life.” McEntire, who has been embraced by gay country fans for some time, has previously spoken out in defense of LGBT rights.

03-28-1991   Mya Taylor – Born in Houston, Texas. She is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Alexandra in the 2015 film Tangerine. In January 2013, she came out as transgender. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Taylor was asked about what she hopes the audience members actually learn about sex work from the film. “ I hope that people see this is real. Trans people — not every trans person —— but trans people are doing sex work because they can’t get a job or anything,” she explained. She knows from experience. “I could not get a job because I am trans,” she said matter-of-factly. That’s the only reason she was forced into sex work. “I applied for everything from cleaning all the way to being a personal assistant. I did 26 interviews in one month and I know I was more than skilled in every job because a long time ago when I was a boy, I had those skills. It’s so different when you transition; nobody wants you around.” Taylor is the first openly transgender actor to win an Independent Spirit Award.