November 17th

11-18-1906 – 05-21-1949   Klaus Mann – Born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire. He was a German writer and dissident. He was the son of Thomas Mann and brother of Erika Mann, with whom he maintained a lifelong close relationship. Mann’s most famous novel, Mephisto, was written in 1936 and first published in Amsterdam. Mann and his sister were friends and traveled with Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a wealthy Swiss lesbian, writer, and photographer. Mann was openly gay. His novel Der Vulkan is one of the 20th century’s most famous novels about German exiles during World War II. He became a U.S. citizen in 1943 and served as a Staff Sergeant of the 5th U.S. Army in Italy. In the summer of 1945, he was sent by the Stars and Stripes to report from Postwar-Germany. Mann died in Cannes of an overdose of sleeping pills on May 21, 1949, after going through another drug treatment.

11-18-1939   Amanda Lear – Born in Saigon, French Indochina (present-day Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). She is a French singer, songwriter, painter, actress, and former model. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s. She met Spanish surrealist painted Salvador Dali, and remained his closest friend and muse for the next 15 years. In late 1978 Lear met French bisexual aristocrat Alain-Phillippe Malagnac d’Argens de Villèle (the former lover and adopted son of the gay novelist Roger Peyrefitte) in Paris at Le Palace, the French equivalent of Studio 54. The two married on March 13, 1979. The marriage lasted twenty-one years, until Malagnac’s death in December 2000. By the mid-1980s Lear became a media personality in Italy, where she hosted many popular TV shows. Allegations claiming that Lear was a drag queen or intersex were circulating from the beginning of her modeling and singing careers. Her alleged transgender background was commented by Salvador Dali himself. April Ashley, a transgender entertainer and model, claimed that in the 1950s and early 1960s, Lear, whose birth name she stated was “Alain Tap” and she were working together in the Parisian transvestite revues Madame Arthur and Le Carrousel. In 2016, an article in La Stampa included passport details and a reproduction of a copy of Lear’s birth certificate which states that she was born Alain Maurice Louis René Tap on June 18, 1939, and a picture of Lear before her supposed transition. In 2021, she confirmed she was born in Saigon. To this day, it is a matter of conjecture as to whether she was born a boy or a girl. Lear is widely recognized worldwide as a gay icon.

11-18-1944 Jackie Goldberg – Born in California, she is a graduate of Morningside High School in Inglewood, California. She went on to graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a major player in the Free Speech Movement. Goldberg is an American politician, teacher, and a member of the Democratic Party. She is a former member of the California State Assembly. As an open lesbian, she was a founding member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. She married longtime partner Sharon Stricker in 2008.

11-18-1989 Kenneth Faried – Born in Newark, New Jersey. He is a straight ally for the LGBT community. He is a professional NBA player for the Denver Nuggets. Faried has two moms and had come out for marriage equality. His mother, Waudda Faried married Carol Copeland, known as Sister Mansion, in 2007 when New Jersey allowed same-sex marriage. He is also the first NBA player to join an organization devoted to fighting homophobia in sports. He works closely with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. It should be noted that he is close to his father, Kenneth Faried, Sr., who moved to Colorado and encouraged his son to share their family story. His father and mother are still good friends.