October 28th

10-28-1842 — 10-22-1932 Anna Elizabeth Dickinson – Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Quakers and abolitionists John and Mary Edmondson Dickinson. The family home was a safe house for the Underground Railroad. Anna was an American orator, lecturer, an advocate for the abolition of slavery, and for women’s rights. She was the first woman to give a political address before the United States Congress. Mark Twain wrote on April 5, 1867: “Her vim, her energy, her determined look, her tremendous earnestness, would compel the respect and the attention of an audience, even if she spoke in Chinese—would convince a third of them, too, even though she used arguments that would not stand analysis.” Unpublished correspondence with a woman named Ida caused one late-20th century author to claim she was a lesbian. For over forty years, she lived in Goshen, New York with George and Sallie Ackerly. Dickinson and Sallie Ackerly were lovers, according to correspondence between Dickinson and Sallie Ackerly and interviews with George Ackerly and his sisters.

10-28-1856 – 02-09-1942 Anna Elizabeth Klumpke – Born in San Francisco, California. She was an American artist. She is best known for her portraits of Rosa Bonheur and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. While a student in Paris, she presented her first work to the Paris Salon in 1884 and won the grand prize for outstanding student of the year. From early childhood, Anna had been fascinated and inspired by the French animal painter, Rosa Bonheur. She met Bonheur on October 15, 1889, by pretending to be the interpreter for a horse dealer. The two women were soon living together at Bonheur’s estate and their relationship lasted until Bonheur’s death in 1899. Anna was named as the sole heir to Bonheur’s estate. She founded the Rosa Bonheur Prize at the Société des Artistes Français and organized the Rosa Bonheur museum. In 1908, she published a biography of Bonheur, Sa Vie Son Oeuvre, based on her own diary and Bonheur’s letters, sketches, and other writings. The book told the story of Bonheur’s life and how she had met Bonheur, how they had fallen in love, and how she became the artist’s official portraitist and companion. The book was published in English in 1998. In 1940, Anna published her own autobiography, Memoirs of an Artist. She died in 1942 at the age of 86 in San Francisco and is buried alongside Rosa Bonheur at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. (Painting is a portrait of Bonheur by Klumpke)

10-28-1908 – 08-1991 Catharina “Toto” Koopman – Born in Java, Indonesia, daughter of a Dutch cavalry officer and a Dutch-Indonesian mother. She was a model prior to WWII. Vogue Paris had her on the cover regularly. The designers she modeled for include Coco Chanel, Rochas, Mainbocher, and Madeleine Vionnet. During the war she served as a spy for the Italian Resistance, she was captured and sent to Ravensbrûck concentration camp. She survived and in 1945 while recovering in Ascona, Switzerland, she met art dealer Erica Brausen. The two became lovers and remained together until the death of Koopman in August 1991. The two women opened the Hanover Gallery in London. The gallery became one of the most influential galleries in Europe.

10-28-1909 – 04-28-1992 Francis Bacon – Born in Dublin, Ireland. He was an Irish-born British painter known for his bold, grotesque, emotionally charged, and raw imagery. His breakthrough came in 1944 with the triptych Three Studies at the Base of a Crucifixion, which sealed his reputation as a bleak chronicler of the human condition. Bacon was gay and had many relationships with men. A story came out in 1992 that his father had him horsewhipped by their groom because of his effeminate manner.

10-28-1916 – 08-10-2011 Rose Robertson – Read special edition under People. She founded Britain’s first helpline for parents and their gay children. Because of her, we have PFLAG and other groups that support the LGBT community.

10-28-1943   Fran Winant – Born in Brooklyn, New York. She is one of the founders of the Gay Liberation Front in 1969 after the Stonewall Riots. Through her poetry and artwork, she helped define the role of lesbians in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1970, she joined RadicalLesbians and helped organize the first all-women’s dances and poetry reading in New York. Winant and her then-partner Judy Grepperd founded Violet Press to publish Winant’s poetry. Winant began exhibiting her painting in 1974. Her artwork has appeared in groundbreaking exhibits, such as “A Lesbian Show” (1978); and “Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual Presences in Contemporary Art” (1982). Winant is also the author of two plays, both performed in New York in 1969. Her poetry has appeared in many anthologies.

10-28-1949 Caitlyn Jenner – Born in Mount Kisco, New York. She is an American former track and field athlete, and television personality. As Bruce Jenner, he won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal. Jenner has been married three times and has 6 children (3 boys and 3 girls) and 4 stepchildren (3 girls and 1 boy). Jenner was married for 24 years to Kris Jenner (formerly Kardashian); the couple and their children appeared beginning in 2007 on the television reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Following his divorce in 2015, Jenner came out in a television interview as a trans woman. Her name and gender change became official on September 25, 2015. Many news sources have described Jenner as the most famous openly transgender person in America.

10-28-1966 Matt Drudge – Born in Takoma Park, Maryland. He is an American political commentator and the creator of the Drudge Report, a politically conservative website. Drudge has written a book, hosted a radio show, and had a Fox television show. He had a long relationship with Washington D.C. landscaper, David Cohen. Cohen confirmed the relationship to the New York Daily News. For eleven years he lived with Juan Carlos Alvarado. In 2016, Drudge gave away half of his real estate holdings to Alvarado. A Florida real estate agent, Ben Moss, stated, “Ninety-nine percent of the time when someone uses a quitclaim instead of a regular warranty deed, it’s to settle a divorce.” Drudge still denies that he is gay despite the obvious.

10-28-1974 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg – Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, She is a retired elite road bicycle racer. She competed for Germany at the 2000 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She was one of 23 LGBT Olympians at the London Games. In August 2018, Trek Bicycle Corporation appointed Teutenberg head director of their new women’s team that will debut in 2019.

10-28-1980 Madison Hildebrand – Born in Mesa, Arizona. He is an American model and real estate agent specializing in the luxury real estate market located in Malibu, California. He formerly co-starred in the Bravo television series Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. Hildebrand came out in 2009. He was on Out’s 3rd Annual 100 Most Eligible Bachelors (2013).

10-28-1987 Frank Ocean – Born in Long Beach, California. He is an American singer, rapper and songwriter. Ocean has received international recognition with many award nominations and wins. As of February 2013, he won two Grammys, a Soul Train, and UK Music Award. He became one of the first major African-American music artists to say he had once fallen in love with someone of the same sex.