November 16th

11-16-1985   Sanna Marin – Born in Helsinki, Finland. She is a Finnish politician who has been Prime Minister of Finland since December 10, 2019. At 35, she is Finland’s youngest prime minister, and the world’s second-youngest state leader. Her parents split up when she was very young. After her biological parents separated, Marin was brought up by her mother and her mother’s female partner. Marin describes herself as coming from a “rainbow family,” as she was raised by same-sex parents. In 2018, she and her fiancé, Markus Räikkönen, had a daughter. In August of 2020, the couple married at the prime minister’s official residence. Marin is a vegetarian.

 

 

 

11-16-1952 – 05-30-1995 Glenn Burke – Born in Oakland, California. He was a Major League Baseball player. In 1977 he gave the first “high five” with Dusty Baker. He was the first and only Major League Baseball player known to have been out to his teammates and team owners during his professional career. Burke was also the first to come out publicly after he left the game. He played as an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s. Burke said, “They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it.” He died of AIDS-related causes in 1995.

11-16-1899 – 04-07-1976 Mary Margaret McBride – Born in Paris, Missouri. She was an American radio interview host and writer. Her popular radio show spanned more than forty years. Called the “First Lady of Radio,” her audience numbered from six to eight million listeners. Her interviews were of well-known people in the world of art and entertainment, as well as politics, including Eleanor Roosevelt. During WWII she began “breaking the color line” by having African American guests. She accepted advertising only for products she endorsed and turned down all tobacco and alcohol products. While in New York, McBride met Estelle H. “Stella” Karn who became her lifelong friend and business manager. According to a biography by Susan Ware, she acknowledges that the two women may have had a lesbian relationship. McBride stated that she gave up marriage for a career and made no secret of her closeness to Karn.

11-16-1964 Waheed Alli – Born in Croydon, United Kingdom. He is a multi-millionaire British TV producer, entrepreneur, and politician. He is a Labour life peer and is one of only a few openly gay Muslim politicians in the world. His work has been focused around gay rights, youth, and education. In 2008 he won a Stonewall Award as a politician. He was also a keynote speaker at the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights. Alli is a patron of Oxford Pride, the annual Pride event in Oxfordshire, and of Pride London. He is also a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. A portrait of Alli is in the National Portrait Gallery collection, which contains “portraits of the Nations’s great men and women.”

11-16-1951 Paula Vogel – Born in Washington, D.C. She is an American playwright and university professor. In 1998, she received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive. Vogel was Chair of the playwriting department at the Yale School of Drama. Her family, especially her other brother Carl, influenced her writing. Vogel stated, “In every play, there are a couple of places where I send a message to my late brother Carl. Just a little something in the atmosphere of every play to try and change the homophobia in our world.” Her brother Carl died of AIDS in 1988. Vogel married Brown University professor and author, Anne Fausto-Sterling in Massachusetts, on September 26, 2004. Vogel became the first female playwright included in the Yale Collection of American Literature.

11-16-1958 Anne Holt – Born in Larvik, Norway. She is a Norwegian author,  lawyer, and former Minister of Justice. She is one of the most successful crime novelists in Norway. In 1993 she made her debut as a novelist with the crime novel Blind Gudinne, featuring the lesbian police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen. She has been published in 25 countries. She lives in Oslo with her registered partner Anne Christine Kjær and their daughter Iohanne.

11-16-1970 Jamie Babbit – Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. She directed the films But I’m A Cheerleader, The Quiet, and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. She has also directed episodes of TV programs including Gilmore Girls, Malcolm In The Middle, and The L Word. She is involved with the film production company POWER UP, which promotes the visibility of lesbians in entertainment and the media. Babbit is openly lesbian. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Karey Dornetto. She has two children with her former partner, producer Andrea Sperling.