October 25th

10-25-1970 Chely Wright – Born in Kansas City, Missouri. She is an American country music artist and starting in 2010, a gay rights activist. She became one of the first major country music performers to come out as a lesbian. She cited among her reasons for publicizing her homosexuality was a concern with bullying and hate crimes towards gays, especially gay teenagers, and the damage to her life caused by “lying and hiding.” A documentary film Wish Me Away about her coming out was released in 2011. Her memoir Like Me tells of the toll that her secret life exacted on both her and her partner. On April 6, 2011, Wright announced her engagement to LGBT rights advocate Lauren Blitzer. The couple married on August 20, 2011, in a private ceremony in Connecticut officiated by both a rabbi and reverend.

10-25-1984 Katy Perry – Born in Santa Barbara, California. She is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 2008 with the release of the singles I Kissed a Girl (which was controversial because of its gay theme) and Hot n Cold. She married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010. On December 30, 2011, Brand announced that they were divorcing. After the marriage ended in 2012, Perry began dating John Mayer in August. Perry is an LGBT rights activist. She supported Stonewall during their “it gets better…today” campaign to prevent homophobic bullying and dedicated the music video of her song Firework to the It Gets Better Project. In December 2012, Perry was awarded the Trevor Hero Award by The Trevor Project for her work and activism on behalf of LGBT youth. Perry identifies as a feminist. In 2016, following the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Perry and almost 200 other artists and executives in the music industry signed an open letter organized by Billboard addressed to the US Congress demanding increased gun control.

10-25-1894 – 12-08-1954 Claude Cahun (born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob) – She was a French artist, photographer, and writer. Around 1919, she changed her name to Claude Cahun. During the 1920s, she lived in Paris with her lifelong lover and step-sibling Suzanne Malherbe (who adopted the name Marcel Moore). The couple collaborated on various written works, sculptures, photomontages, and collages. They also published articles and novels in various periodical, especially Mercure de France. In 1937 they settled on the island of Jersey. Following the fall of France and the German occupation of Jersey and the other Channel Islands, they became active as resistance workers and propagandists. In 1944 Cahun was arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out. However, she never recovered from her treatment in jail and died in 1954. She is buried in St. Brelade’s Church with her life partner Suzanne Malherbe.

10-25-1929 – 08-17-2018 David McReynolds – Born in Los Angeles, California. He was the first openly gay man to run for President of the United States. He was against the Vietnam War and a draft resister. On November 6, 1965, he was one of five men who publicly burned their draft cards at an anti-war demonstration. He was a graduate of UCLA with a degree in political science. McReynolds was openly gay and wrote his first article about living as a gay man in 1969. On August 17, 2018, McReynolds passed away following a fall he had at his home.

10-25-1962 Tim Brown – Born in Omaha, Nebraska, American politician. He is the first openly gay man to serve in the Ohio State legislature. Elected as a Republican, he represents the 3rd District.