September 16th

09-16-1887 – 10-22-1979 Nadia Boulanger – Born in France, place unknown. She was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. She is known for having taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century: including Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, and Leonard Bernstein. She taught for seven decades until her death at the age of 92. Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and in Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic. She grew impatient with public amazement over what she had accomplished despite being a woman. She told one reporter, ”I’ve been a woman for over fifty years and have gotten over my initial astonishment.” According to glbtqarchive.com, it is not certain that Boulanger was a lesbian, but it is likely that she was. She was protective of her privacy and a practicing Catholic, so she may have had conflicting emotions regarding sexuality. Although she allegedly avoided Gertrude Stein’s salon because of its “flagrant homosexuality,” she did frequent the more discreet salon of Princess de Polignac (Winnaretta Singer), whose lesbianism was also well known. At the time of her death, her principal heirs were her former student Cécile Armagnac and her long-time personal assistant, Annette Dieudonné.

09-16-1978 Brian Sims – Born in Washington, D.C. He is an American lawyer, politician, and activist on LGBT rights. In 2012 he was elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 182nd district. Sims is the first openly gay elected state legislator in Pennsylvania history. The November 2016 election had Sims running unopposed for re-election. He is known to work in a bipartisan manner and to collaborate with both the Democratic and Republican parties.

09-16-1988   Teddy Geiger – Born in Rochester, New York. She is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Signed to Columbia Records as an artist, today she focuses on writing and production for other artists. Her compositions and productions have sold over 30 million worldwide. In 2017, her song and production of Stitches, won the BMI Song of the Year award. Geiger began transitioning around the beginning of October 2017 and announced it on Instagram on October 27, 2017.

09-16-1882 – 09-11-1935 Freda Du Faur – Born in Croydon, Sydney, Australia. She was an Australian mountaineer and the first woman to climb New Zealand’s tallest mountain, Mt. Cook. Because of her parent’s support and an inheritance from an aunt, Du Faur had an independent income that enabled her to travel and climb. On December 3, 1910, Du Faur, with Peter and Alec Graham, climbed Mt. Cook. She shared her tent with the guides, shocking society. After this expedition, she wrote: “I was the first unmarried woman to climb in New Zealand, and in consequence, I received all the hard knocks until one day when I awoke more or less famous in the mountaineering world, after which I could and did do exactly as seemed to me best.” Du Faur’s lover was Muriel Cadogan (b. 1885). The couple moved to England in 1913 with the plan of climbing the Alps. WWI prevented the climbing in Europe but gave them the chance to work in London, where her book, The Conquest of Mount Cook, was published in 1915. In 1929, Cadogan had a mental breakdown and was sent back to Australia by her family. She died in June 1929, on the voyage home. In 1935, Du Faur returned to Australia. Still suffering from the loss of Cadogan and her inability to find out why she died, Du Faur took her own life on September 11, 1935.

09-16-1888 – 07-24-1958 Mathilda (Til) Brugman – Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She was a Dutch author, poet, and linguist. From 1926 to 1936 she was lovers with German Dada artist Hannah Hock. The couple lived in The Hague and later in Berlin. In 1952 she received the Marianne Phillips Prize and the Novels Prize (Amsterdam) for her work.

09-16-1965 Karen Hultzer – Born in Cape Town, South Africa. She is a 2012 Olympic athlete competing in archery representing South Africa. During the event, she came out as a lesbian. She said “I am an archer, middle-aged, and a lesbian. I am also cranky before my first cup of coffee. None of these aspects define who I am, they are simply part of me.”