November 24th

11-25-1975   Kristian Nairn – Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He’s a Northern Irish actor best known for his portrayal of Hodor in the HBO series Game of Thrones. In March of 2014, Nairn publicly came out as gay in an interview with a Game of Thrones fansite. He stated: ”When you talk about the gay community, you are talking about MY community.” He went on to say that his sexuality is a “very small part of who I am on the whole, but nonetheless, in this day and age, it’s important to stand up and be counted.” The media described his interview as his coming out, Nairn insisted he had “never been in.”

11-25-1837 – 11-25-1931 Elizabeth M. Cushier – One of eleven children, Cushier was born in New York City. She was a professor of medicine and one of New York’s most prominent obstetricians for 25 years. During WWI, Cushier worked in Belgium and France. From 1882, she lived with Dr. Emily Blackwell (b. Oct. 8, 1826), until Blackwell’s death in September 1910. Cushier said after Blackwell’s death that it made “an irreparable break in my life.” Cushier died in 1931. Her papers are archived among the Blackwell Family Papers at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study at Harvard University.

11-25-1896 – 09-30-1989 Virgil Thomson – Born in Kansas City. Missouri. He was an American composer and critic. Thomson was influential in the development of the “American Sound” in classical music. He lived in Paris from 1925 until 1940. In 1925, he met painter Maurice Grosser (October 23, 1903 – December 22, 1986), who became his life partner. The couple lived at the Hotel Chelsea, where they presided over a largely gay salon, that included Leonard Bernstein and Tennessee Williams. Gertrude Stein was an important friend that mentored him. With the publication of his book, The State of Music, he established himself in New York City as a peer to Aaron Copland. Thomson was also a music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune from 1940 to 1954.

11-25-1942 Rosa von Praunheim (born Holger Mischwitzky) – Born in Riga, Latvia Central Prison during the German occupation of Latvia in World War II. His mother died in 1946 and he was given up for adoption. In 2000, his adoptive mother told him about his biological mother.  He is a German film director, author, painter, and the most famous gay rights activist in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He took on the female name Rosa von Praunheim to remind people of the pink triangle that gays had to wear in Nazi concentration camps. He has made over seventy feature films. His films center on gay-related themes and strong female characters. Some of the people that have been featured in his films include Jayne County, Vaginal Davis, Divine, and Jeff Stryker. He was an early advocate of AIDS awareness and safe sex.

11-25-1953 Katherine Zappone – Born in Washington State, USA. She is an Irish activist and a feminist theologian. Her spouse is Ann Louise Gilligan. They married in Canada in 2003. She is the first openly lesbian member of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature) and the first member in a recognized same-sex relationship. Zappone is also a former CEO of the National Women’s Council of Ireland.

11-25-1980 Ng Yi-Sheng – Born in Singapore. He is a Singaporean gay writer. Ng has published a collection of his poems entitled Last Boy, and a documentary book on gay, lesbian, and bisexual Singaporeans called SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century in 2006. Ng also regards himself as a performance artist, as well as being a writer. He performed slam poetry pieces for ContraDiction, Singapore’s first gay poetry reading held in 2005, and was a co-organizer and performer in its sequel, ContraDiction 2, in 2006. Ng continues to perform his poetry at various events, including literary events and charity functions.

11-25-1907 – 04-12-1994   Pamela “Pam” Freeman-Mitford – Born in the United Kingdom, the second daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and Sydney Bowles. In 1936 she married bisexual millionaire physicist Derek Jackson. Mitford divorced Jackson in 1951 and spent the remainder of her life with Italian horsewoman Giuditta Tommasi. Her sister, Jessica, described her sister as “a-you-know-what-bian.”