August 23

1912 – (John) Keith Vaughan (d.1977) was an English painter. After attending Christ's Hospital school, he worked in an advertising agency until the war, when as a conscientious objector he joined the St John's Ambulance. In 1941 he was conscripted into the Pioneer Corps. Vaughan was self-taught as an artist. His first exhibitions took place during the war.

Also during the war Vaughan formed friendships with the painters Graham Sutherland and John Minton, with whom after demobilisation in 1946 he shared premises. Through these contacts he formed part of the Neo-Romantic circle of the immediate post-war period. However, Vaughan rapidly developed an idiosyncratic style which moved him away from the Neo-Romantics. Concentrating on studies of male figures, his works became increasingly more abstract with time.

Joseph and His Brethren

From 1946 to 1948 he taught at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. During this time a penniless painting student, Ramsey McClure, turned up at his doorstep, and they became partners and lived together for 30 years.

Keith Vaughan met many other gay figures from art and literature including Christopher Isherwood, (as noted in his diaries for 1947 and 1948), and E M Forster.

Keith Vaughan taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1948 to 1957. He painted the Theseus mural decoration in the Festival of Britain Dome of Discovery in 1951.

From 1954 he taught at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he taught David Hockney. He also travelled extensively and was visiting resident artist at Iowa State University during 1959. In 1962 a retrospective of his work was held at Whitechapel Art Gallery with an Arts Council tour. In 1964 he received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Art. In 1965 he was awarded the CBE.

Vaughan is also known for his journals, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989, after his death. He was a gay man troubled by his sexuality, and much of what is known about him is through those journals. In the journals, he decided to be truthful about his homosexuality. Following this line he wrote explicitly about his sexual practices with other men, masturbation, and experiments with sadomasochism. Vaughan's journals give insight into the relationships he had with other men, particularly with his working-class lovers, John McGuiness and Johnny Walsh, and his long-term companion and lover Ramsey McClure. Like many middle-class gay men of his generation, he was attracted to an ideal of working-class masculinity. Although Vaughan wrote freely about his sexuality in his journals (and in the erotic short stories he wrote for his own pleasure), he was a product of his age. He had grown up at a time when gay men were driven underground into their own subculture and made to feel guilty about their sexual preferences.

He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and committed suicide in 1977, recording his last moments in his diary as the drugs overdose took effect.

1933 – Peter Wyngarde (d.2018) was a British actor best known for playing the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two television series: Department S (1969–70) and Jason King (1971–72). His flamboyant dress sense and stylish performances led to popular success, and he was considered a style icon in Britain and elsewhere in the early 1970s; Mike Myers credited Wyngarde with inspiring the character Austin Powers.

He was born in Marseille, France, the son of an English father and a French mother. His father worked for the British Diplomatic Service, and as a result his childhood was spent in a number of different countries. In 1941, while his parents were away in India, he went to stay with a Swiss family in Shanghai. When the Imperial Japanese Army invaded the city, they were captured and placed in the Lung-hai concentration camp. Conditions in the camp were sometimes harsh. On one occasion Peter had both his feet broken and spent two weeks in solitary confinement after being caught taking messages between camp huts.

As a young man he went into acting and from the mid 1950s had various roles acting in feature films, television plays and television series guest appearances. In the late 1960s he was a regular guest star on many of the popular UK series of the day — many of which were espionage adventure series — including The Avengers, The Saint, The Baron, and The Champions. He also played the rotating guest-star role of the villainous Number Two in the episode 'Checkmate' of the cult series The Prisoner, which took place in a community of spies who had retired... or been retired.

Wyngarde became a British household name through his starring role in the espionage series Department S (1969). After that series ended, his character, the suave womaniser Jason King, was spun-off into a new action espionage series entitled Jason King (1971), which ran for one season (26 one-hour episodes).

From 1956, he had a no-so-secret, ten-year-long relationship with fellow actor Alan Bates. In the 1960s, he had shared a flat with Alan Bates; according to some sources this was a sexual relationship.

After losing his TV celebrity status, Wyngarde worked in Austria, acting and directing at the English Theatre in Vienna, and in South Africa and Germany. He also landed the role of General Klytus in the film version of Flash Gordon, although it is perhaps significant that the part required him to wear a metal mask throughout.

During the 1980s and 1990s he made a number of TV appearances, including the Doctor Who serial Planet of Fire (1984), Hammer House Of Horror & Suspense (1986), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994) and the film Tank Malling (1989).

In recent years he had been a regular, warmly welcomed guest at Memorabilia, a cult, science fiction and sporting memorabilia fayre at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, UK. In 2007, Wyngarde participated in recording featurettes for a reissue of The Prisoner on DVD, including a mock interview segment titled "The Pink Prisoner"; this material was released in The Prisoner DVD set issued in the UK in 2007 and in North America on both DVD and Blu-ray in October 2009.

His agent and manager reported that Wyngarde was admitted to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London in October 2017 with an unspecified illness. He died on 15 January 2018.[

1934 – Wayne R. Dynes (d.2021) was an American art historian, encyclopedist, bibliographer, and gay activist. He was Professor Emeritus in the Art Department at Hunter College, where he taught from 1972 to 2005.

W. R. Dynes spent his early years in southern California, where he attended UCLA (B.A., 1956). After extended sojourns in Italy and England, he settled permanently in Manhattan, New York City. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) of New York University in 1969. The subject of his art-history dissertation was an eleventh-century illuminated Bible from Belgium. His training as a medievalist provided the basic core of his college teaching.

In retirement, he was the author of the blog Dyneslines.

1940 – Heterosexual General (John J.) Jack Sheehan is a retired United States Marine Corps general. His final active duty commands, culminating 35 years of service in the Marine Corps, were as the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) for NATO and as Commander-in-Chief for the U.S. Atlantic Command (CINCUSACOM) (1994-1997).

In March 2010 he testified to the US Congress that during the Bosnian War, according to the chief of staff of the Dutch Army at the time of the incident, the fall of Srebrenica, protected by a 400 man contingent of Dutch soldiers, was caused by lack of readiness related to the Dutch being more concerned with internal 'socialisation' of the military than fighting capacity. Sheehan stated it was in part due to homosexual men serving in the military.

During the same testimony, Sheehan stated that gays weakened the army, while attraction between men and women in gender-integrated units would not. Speculation has it that Sheehan meant General Henk van den Breemen, Dutch chief of staff at the time of the Srebrenica genocide. General van den Breemen denied having said such a thing and called Sheehan's comments "total nonsense". Dutch Minister of Defense Eimert van Middelkoop stated that Sheehan's statement was "disgraceful," "unworthy of anyone in the military". Prime-Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands stated that Sheehan's words are "shameful", "outrageous", "beneath contempt" and "disrespectful towards all troops involved". Dutch advocates of gay rights, organized in the "Pink Army" (foundation) and the Stichting Homosexualiteit en Krijgsmacht ("Foundation Homosexuality and Armed Forces"), announced a libel lawsuit against Sheehan, demanding public apologies from Sheehan following sensitivity training. The majority of the Dutch parliament voiced their support for the class action.

On March 29, 2010, Dutch media reported that Sheehan had sent an e-mail to his Dutch colleague General Henk van den Breemen in which he apologized for his comments. He stated that his memory of the conversation was inaccurate.

1942 – News of a Gay sex scandal in Albergavenny, UK, breaks. Twenty-four men are eventually sent to prison for sodomy.

In 2000, Busch's work debuted on Broadway, when The Tales of the Allergist's Wife opened following an earlier run off-Broadway. The play, his first in which he did not star and the first created for a mainstream audience, was written as a vehicle for actress Linda Lavin, who played opposite Michele Lee and Tony Roberts. Allergist's Wife received a 2001 Tony Award nomination for Best Play and ran for 777 performances.

1948 – Emery Prickett (d.1985) was a Mormon advocate for Gay rights through the Affirmation organization.

Emery Lee Prickett was born in Torrance, Los Angeles County, California. Emery lived much of his life in the Los Angeles area. He was a convert to the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church at age 18. Emery was married in 1971 in the Los Angeles Temple and he and his wife had three children. Later he divorced. Some time after his divorce, Emery was given custody of his three children, whom he raised with his new partner Richard Talt.

Emery became involved in Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons in Los Angeles in its early years. He held a variety of positions including assistant Los Angeles chapter director. He served as general coordinator of Affirmation in 1983-1984.

Emery had first discovered Affirmation in 1979 and his life promptly changed. In that first year in Affirmation, he accomplished many firsts. His first big move was to march in the first gay pride parade and festival that any Affirmation chapter had ever been in. In July of 1979 he marched at the head of the Affirmation parade unit and also was responsible for putting a booth in the gay pride festival for the very first time.

He became acquainted with Leonard Matlovich at an outing the LA chapter had at the Russian River where Leonard was living. Emery got Matlovich to come and speak at LA Affirmation. It provided a wonderful showcase for Affirmation.

Emery was made assistant Chapter Director of Los Angeles and the first thing he did was go to Washington, D.C. to join the first March on Washington for gay rights. He marched with 14 other gay Mormons from around the country under the banner of "Gay Mormons United", which was what Affirmation was called at the time.

By 1983, he had divorced his wife, amicably, and he ran for National Director and won. Six months into his tenure as National Director he resigned. His personal business and finances were in a mess and he had to devote full time to them.

In January of 1985, Emery took his own life. He had fully come to terms with being a gay person in the Church. And he had fully come to terms with his God in that regard. But, unfortunately, Emery was overwhelmed by his business and financial problems and they took their toll.

1958 – Neil Bartlett, OBE, is a British director, performer, translator, and writer. He is one of the founding members of Gloria, a production company established in 1988 to produce his work along with that of Nicolas Bloomfield, Leah Hausman and Simon Mellor.

His work has garnered several awards, including the 1985 Perrier Award (for More Bigger Snacks Now), the Time Out Dance Umbrella Award (for A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep), a Writers Guild Award (for Sarrasine), a Time Out Theatre Award (for A Judgement in Stone), and the Special Jury Prize at the Cork Film Festival (for Now That It's Morning). His production of The Dispute won a Time Out Award for Best Production in the West End and the 1999 TMA Best Touring Production award. He was appointed an OBE in 2000 for his services to the arts.

He also served as artistic director at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith from 1994 until 2004. Many of his translations of classic plays have been performed throughout the world.

Who Was That Man showed how the gay history of London in the 1890s affected Bartlett's life as a gay man in London in the 1980s. His latest novel, The Disappearance Boy was published in London by Bloomsbury Circus publishing in January 2014.

1958 – James Van Praagh is a self-proclaimed medium who has written several books on spirituality and spirit communication.

Van Praagh built his early career performing private readings for clients by allegedly communicating with the spirits of their dearly departed, and quickly graduated to wider audiences through the sale and distribution of a series of audiotapes, books, and eventually the television appearances that gave him wide national exposure.

Skeptics point to several incidents in which Van Praagh's claims have been wrong, such as when he suggested to the parents of the abducted Shawn Hornbeck that the boy's body might be found in a railroad car. Hornbeck was found alive four years later, having been abducted but not killed, and the kidnapper was not a railroad plant worker as Van Praagh had suggested. Van Praagh has responded by asserting that his messages are often vague and hard to interpret and sometimes he mistakes their meaning.

Investigator Joe Nickell believes modern day self-proclaimed mediums like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Rosemary Altea and James Van Praagh are avoiding the Victorian tradition of dark rooms, spirit handwriting and flying tambourines as these methods risk exposure. They instead use 'mental mediumship' tactics like cold reading or gleaning information from sitters beforehand (hot reading). Group readings also improve hits by making general statements with conviction, which will fit at least one person in the audience. Shows are carefully edited before airing to show only what appears to be hits and removing anything that does not reflect well on the medium.

Barbara Walters publicly called out Van Praagh on The View for telling her that he saw she had elevated levels of white blood cells in her body. She went to her doctor and had tests run on her blood and discovered that she was perfectly normal.

On the Larry King Live episode on May 26, 2009, it was revealed that Van Praagh was in a same-sex marriage. He is openly gay and has been with his partner since 1995.

1967 – Anthony Kalloniatis, known professionally as Ant, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A native of Londonderry, New Hampshire, Ant performed at comedy clubs across the US. For four years starting in 1995, he was a semi regular cast member on the WB series Unhappily Ever After.

Having gained nationwide attention in 2004 as a contestant on the second season of Last Comic Standing, Ant is the only comedian to appear in three of that show's four seasons. The same year, he released a comedy album, Follow My Ass.

He is the host of VH1 reality series Celebrity Fit Club and a regular judge of talent on Steve Harvey's Big Time. His television series, U.S. of Ant, premiered on MTV Network's gay-targeted Logo cable channel in the summer of 2006. Ant also frequently appears as a commentator on such shows as VH1's Best Week Ever and CNBC's Dennis Miller, and is a regular guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Tyra Banks Show.

1972 – An article in Toronto gay publication The Body Politic titled "Of men and little boys" sparks a public outrage Criminal charges are threatened but not laid.

1978 – Gaydays, a popular gay festival, is held in Toronto at Queen's Park.

Rannells plays the recurring role of Elijah on the HBO television series Girls, as well as playing lead character Bryan Collins in Ryan Murphy's television series The New Normal, now cancelled.

Rannells is of Polish and Irish descent, and he is openly gay. He knew he was gay by high school. Rannells said he came out to his family when he was 18, but by then they had already figured it out. He also came out to his theater friends but not the people at his all-boys Catholic school.

Rannells currently lives in New York City after temporarily re-locating to Los Angeles to film The New Normal. He played Larry in the 2018 Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band. It was a limited run, in honor of the play's 50th anniversary. It won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. He revived his role (along with the rest of the revival cast) for the film adaptation for Netflix, which was released on September 30, 2020.

Since 2019, he has been in a relationship with actor Tuc Watkins. The two met the year before while playing a couple on the Broadway production of The Boys in the Band. They reprised their roles for Netflix's film version of the show and also worked together on Black Monday in 2020.

 Added 2023

1989 – Brian Michael Firkus , better known by the stage name Trixie Mattel, is an American drag queen, television personality, and singer-songwriter originally from Wausaukee, Wisconsin. He is known for his exaggerated, high-camp style and blend of comedy and acoustic pop. In 2015 he competed on the seventh season of the drag competition RuPaul's Drag Race, where she finished in 6th place. In 2018, she went on to win the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.

Brian Michael Firkus was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in Silver Cliff, Wisconsin. He is Ojibwe and comes from a Native American family in Crivitz, Wisconsin. He had an abusive stepfather who would call him a "Trixie" when he acted feminine, which later inspired his drag name. His last name was inspired by his affinity for the Barbie doll and toy company Mattel. Before deciding on "Trixie Mattel" as his drag name, he originally considered the name Cupcake. He moved in with his grandparents at age 15. His grandfather was a country musician who taught him how to play the guitar.

Firkus is proudly gay. Since 2016, he has been in a relationship with filmmaker David Silver, who also produced his documentary Moving Parts. He is a vegetarian, an atheist, and a collector of Barbie dolls.

1994 Australian federal government acts to overturn Tasmania's anti-sodomy law. Tasmania was the last Australian state to penalize same sex relations.