November 26th

11-27-1974   Menaka Guruswamy – Born in India. She is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India. She is known for having played a significant role in many landmark cases before the Supreme Court, including challenging the constitutionality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (1860). The petition was the first time that LGBT Indians actually filed writ petitions alleging violation of their fundamental rights. On September 6, 2018, the Court ruled unanimously that Section 377 was unconstitutional “in so far as it criminalizes consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex.” The Court also called for equality and condemned discrimination, stating that the protection of sexual orientation lies at the core of the fundamental rights and that the rights of the LGBT population are real and founded on constitutional doctrine. In 2019, in an interview with CNN Fareed Zakaria, Guruswamy revealed that she was in a relationship with lawyer Arundhati Katju. She stated that the decriminalization of  Section 377 was not just a professional win but a personal win as well.

11-27-110 AD (died in October 130 AD) Antinous – Born in Claudiopolis (today known as Bolu, Turkey), in the Roman province of Bithynia. He was a Bithynian Greek youth and a lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Antinous died amid mysterious circumstances. It’s been suggested that he drown accidentally or that he was an intentional human sacrifice. After his death, he was deified and worshiped in the Greco-Roman world. Hadrian founded the city of Antinopolis close to where Antinous died and started games in commemoration of Antinous that took place both in Athens and Antinopolis. He became associated with homosexuality in Western culture, appearing in the work of Oscar Wilde and the Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa.

11-27-1877 – 11-20-1965 Katharine Anthony – Born in Roseville, Lagan County, Arkansas. She was an American biographer best know for The Lambs (1945), a controversial study of the British writers Charles and Mary Lamb. Anthony lived in Manhattan with her life partner, Elisabeth Inwin (1880-1942), the founder of the Little Red School House, with whom she raised several adopted children.

11-27-1922 – 08-23-2009 James Lord – Born in Englewood, New Jersey. He was an American writer and wrote critically acclaimed biographies of Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso. Lord appeared in the documentary films Malthus Through the Looking Glass (1996) and Picasso: Magic, Sex, Death (2001). He served in the United States Army during WWII, keeping his homosexuality hidden.

11-27-1942   Marilyn Hacker – Born in Bronx, New York, the only child of Jewish immigrant parents. She is an American poet, translator, and critic. Her books of poetry include Presentation Piece (1974), which won the National Book Award. While attending the Bronx High School of Science, she met science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany. They married in Detroit, Michigan because of age-of-consent laws and because he was African-American and she was Caucasian. At the time there were only two states where they could legally wed. In 1974, the couple had a daughter. Hacker and Delany did separate, divorced in 1980, but remained friends. Hacker identifies as lesbian, and Delany has identified as a gay man since adolescence. Hacker served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2008 to 2014. In a review of Hacker’s 2019 collection Blazons, A.M. Juster states that “there is no poet writing in English with a better claim for the Nobel Prize in Literature than Marilyn Hacker.” 

11-27-1943 Nicole Brossard – Born in Montreal, Canada. She is a leading French Canadian poet and novelist. Her writing shows her commitment to feminist consciousness, as well as lyrical descriptions of lesbian desire. She has published more than 30 books. Brossard founded a feminist newspaper and a publishing house. She also wrote a play, Le Nef Des Sorceress, first performed in 1976. She is an out lesbian.

11-27-1963 John Aravosis – Born in the United States, place unknown. He is a former American Democratic political consultant, writer, gay activist, and blogger. Aravosis is also a first-generation Greek-American and has written about the influence his Greek heritage has had on his political work. In 2011, Aravosis received a tip that British oil giant BP was posting falsified photos to its website during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He analyzed the photos, then published an article on AMERICAblog proving that the images were doctored electronically. The story received widespread coverage in the media. He is out gay.

11-27-1979 Blue Hamilton – Born in California, city unknown. He is an American former music publishing executive turned singer/songwriter. On January 6, 2013 it was announced that he is engaged to actor Matt Dallas. The couple married on July 5, 2015.