September 7th

09-07-1913 – 10-22-1997 Valerie Taylor – Born in Aurora, Illinois. She was an American author of lesbian pulp fiction, as well as poetry and novels after the “golden age” of lesbian pulp fiction. She stated why she wrote in that genre: “I began writing gay novels around 1957. There was suddenly a plethora of them on sale in drugstores and bookstores…many written by men who had never knowingly spoken to a lesbian. Wish fulfillment stuff, pure erotic daydreaming. I wanted to make some money, of course, but I also thought that we should have some stories about real people.” In 1965 she met Pearl Hart, along with Taylor, one of the founders of Mattachine Midwest (one of the earliest LGBT  rights organization). They were together until 1975 when Hart died. Not being an immediate family member, Taylor was not allowed to visit Hart in the hospital as she was dying and missed being able to tell her goodbye. Taylor was prominent in activist causes from the 1950s through the 1980s, including LGBT rights, feminism, and elder rights. In 1992, she was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

09-07-1885 – 09-28-1975 Olga Tsuberbiller – Born in Moscow, Russian Empire. She was a Russian mathematician. Her textbook, Problems and Exercises in Analytic Geometry, has been used as a standard text for Russian high schools since its publication in 1927. She had a relationship with Russian poet Sophia Parnok and took care of her during her final illness. Tsuberbiller later had a relationship with opera singer, Concordia Antarova. From 1936 until 1965, she was the head of Higher Mathematics at the Moscow University. In 1955, Tsuberbiller was named as an Honored Scientist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. She died in 1975 and is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery near Antarova.

09-07-1956   Michael Jay Feinstein – Born in Columbus, Ohio. He is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs. A five-time Grammy-nominated recording artist, he currently is Artistic Director for The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana. Feinstein is the founder of The Great American Songbook Foundation. In 2010, PBS aired Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, a three-part television documentary that depicts the history of the American popular song up to 1960. In October 2008, Feinstein married his longtime partner Terrence Flannery. The ceremony was performed by Judge Judith Sheindlin, better known as Judge Judy.

09-07-1926 – 06-06-2015 Ronnie Gilbert (b. Ruth Alice Gilbert) – Born in New York City, New York. She was an American folk singer, songwriter, actress, and political activist. Gilbert was one of the original members of the music quartet the Weavers, with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman. The Weavers were an influential folk-singing group that was blacklisted in the early 1950s because of the group’s left-wing sympathies. The Weavers broke up in 1953 due to the blacklist. In 1984, Gilbert joined Holly Near, Arlo Guthrie, and Pete Seeger for the album HARP. She also wrote and appeared in a one-woman show about Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. In 2006, the Weavers received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys. In 2004, Gilbert married her partner and manager of almost two decades, Donna Korones, when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom temporarily legalized gay marriage in San Francisco.

09-07-1980 Rikke Skov – Born in Viborg, Denmark. She is a Danish handball player and Olympic champion. She received a gold medal with the Danish national team at the 2004 Summer Olympic in Athens. In 2011 she was one of the five handlers and the only woman who received The EHF (European Handball Federation) Award. She joined Viborg HK (Viborg handball team) in 1994. It was while playing for the local team that she met fellow handball Lotte Kiærskou. Skov said, they “never had any thought to keep their relationship secret.” They were in a registered partnership as allowed by Danish law but split up in 2011. Kiærskou, now retired, gave birth to the couple’s two daughters. 

09-07-1987 Evan Rachel Wood – Born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is an American actress and singer. She has been acting since the age of three. Wood has had roles in both television and film. From 2009 to 2011 she played Queen Sophie-Anne on the television series True Blood. She also played Kate Winslet’s daughter in the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011) in which she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had been engaged to Marilyn Manson. In 2012, she married English actor, Jamie Bell, with whom they had a son. They separated in 2014. In August 2012, she identified herself as bisexual. Wood has a black belt in taekwondo, a Korean martial art. In 2012, she also stated. “I believe in God but I am not religious. I am spiritual. My definition of God isn’t in any religion. It’s very personal.”

09-07-1988 Paul Iacono – Born in Secaucus, New Jersey. He is an American actor best known for portraying RJ Bergen in the MTV scripted series The Hard Times of RJ Berger. At eight years old, Iacono was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He soon began receiving chemotherapy treatments and has been in remission since he was eleven years old. Iacono is openly gay and a major LGBTQ activist, having come out in Michael Musto’s Village Voice Column in April 2012. He was named one of OUT Magazine’s 100 most influential gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people for 2013.