March

March 1

March 1 1880 - British author Lytton Strachey is born in London. Not only the author of "Eminent Victorians" the most popular book of its time, he was a lively wit. A conscientious objector during World War I he was asked what he would do if a Hun were to rape his sister. Strachey replied "I'd throw myself between them." His sister incidentally, was a lesbian.

 

March 1 1974 - GATE representatives meet with full Ontario Human Rights Commission in Toronto to discuss demands for equal rights for Ontario's gays and lesbians.

March 1, 1978 - The Toronto Lambda Business Council was incorporated. It was the first association of gay businesses in the country.

March 2

March 2 1905 - Marc Blitzstein is born in Philadelphia. He wrote the definitive Depression Era opera "The Cradle Will Rock" in 1936. Blitzstein is regarded as the closest thing America produced to the genius of Brecht or Weill. Not surprising then that his English version of "Three Penny Opera" ran for years on Broadway.

 

March 2, 1975 - In Toronto an Ontario Human Rights Code review committee was established to consider gay protections for gays and lesbians.

 

March 2, 1972 - In Saskatoon the Zodiac Friendship Society is registered as a non-profit organization, and becomes umbrella group for social and political activities in the city.

March 3

March 3, 1899 - Writer Beverley Nichols is born in London. Able to write a two-thousand word story on a two minute meeting he chronicled the 1920s.

March 4

March 4, 1893? - Writer Mercedes de Acosta is born in Paris. Her birth year is uncertain, but her affairs are not. Among her lovers was Alice B. Toklas. Her writings included "Here Lies the Heart" her autobiography. de Acosta was perhaps best known for her short hair slicked down with brilliantine.

 

March 4-20 1975 - Eighteen gay men, the owner and customers of an Ottawa model agency and dating service are arrested and charged with sexual offences in what became known as "Ottawa sex scandal." Names released by police and published by press day by day. Police allege "homosexual vice ring."

March 4 1981 - Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto hears The Body Politic's appeal of lower court order of a retrial obscenity charges. The same day The Body Politic attempts to cite Attorney General of Ontario and Toronto Sun for comments made in print a day before the appeal. Court of Appeal rejects attempt, orders TBP to pay costs.

 

March 5

March 5, 1922- Pier Paolo Pasolini is born in Bologna, Italy. The renowned poet, novelist, essayist, and filmmaker was open about everything in his life, including the fact he was gay. He was a champion of the poor, the delinquent and the young. His films included "Salo" (The 120 Days of Sodom). In a poem to the dying Pope Pius XII he wrote
"How much good you could have done!
And you
Didn't do it:
There was no greater sinner than you."

 

March 5, 1974 - In Milton, Ontario, fundamentalist minister Ken Campbell, outraged by Hamilton-McMaster Homophile Association members addressing his daughter's high school class forms Halton Renaissance Committee, forerunner of Renaissance Canada. Eventually it becomes one of strongest opponents of gay rights movement.

March 6

March 6, 1475 - Michelangelo Buonaroti was born in Caprese, Tuscany. The great painter had several lovers, but no so loved as TOMMASSO Cavalieri to whom he wrote exquisite love sonnets.

 

March 6, 1978 - Montreal Catholic School Commission reverses a January 25 decision to rent school space for an event sponsored by gay group ADGQ.

 

March 6, 1978 - Ontario Provincial Police officer Paul Head is arrested in Hamilton and charged with gross indecency and contributing to juvenile delinquency, for having sex with his under-age lover. He is forced to resign. The gross indecency charge was later dropped in exchange for a plea of guilty to contributing to juvenile delinquency, for which Head was given a suspended sentence.

March 6, 1979 - In Toronto, Ontario Attorney General Roy McMurtry appeals Pink Triangle Press acquittal.

March 6, 1981 - The founding meetings of Toronto Gay Community Council are held. It was the first city-wide coordinating organization of gay and lesbian groups in Canada. The council remained in operation until Sep 1984.

 

March 6, 1981 - A Gay Freedom Rally in Toronto hears speakers including novelist Margaret Atwood and NDP MP Svend Robinson denounce bath raids.

March 6, 1994 - Jonathan Schmitz and Scott Amedure tape a Jenny Jones show about secret crushes. Schmitz expected his admirer to be a woman, not his gay neighbor. When Schmitz found Amedure, a 32-year-old unemployed gay man, telling a television audience about a fantasy that involved Schmitz, some whipped cream, strawberries and champagne, he became embarrassed and, his lawyers said, enraged. Three days after the taping, on March 9, 1995, Schmitz received an anonymous, sexually suggestive note on his doorstep and assumed it came from Amedure. Schmitz purchased a 12-gauge shotgun, went to Amedure's mobile home and fired two shots at close range into Amedure's chest. A few minutes later, Schmitz dialled 911 from a pay phone at a gas station near his sister's house. He said, "I just walked in the room and killed him." Schmitz was later convicted of second-degree murder. Although the conviction was overturned, Schmitz was again found guilty in a second trial and sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. In a civil suit, a jury found the Jenny Jones show liable for the murder and awarded the Amedure family $25 million.

March 7

March 7, 1855 - The poison tongued, acid penned Robert Comte de Montesquiou-Fezensac was born in Paris. A dandy and an esthete he was to some degree the basis of Marcel Proust's Baron de Charles. Regarded as a vicious queen, no one in Paris would dare miss one of his parties out of fear of what he was say about them.

March 8

March 8, 205 AD - Heliogablus who became Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born in Syria. The boy Emperor of Rome loved his men, but forced to create an heir married. He was so impressed with the pomp and circumstance of the marriage ceremony he did it again twice in one night taking as his husband a young charioteer named Gorianus who was described by a contemporary as "hung like his horse" and as his wife, a boy named Hierocles. The wedding night with both was consummated before the wedding guests. Eventually Heliogablus was killed by his enemies with a sword up his ass. His body was dumped in a sewer. He was 17.

 

March 8, - In Milton, Ontario, fundamentalist minister Ken Campbell, outraged by Hamilton-McMaster Homophile Ass

 

 

March 8, 1978 - Lesbian Mothers Defence Fund is launched in Toronto by the group Wages Due Lesbians. It maintained women should be paid for rearing children pointing out that female parenting is a job that is 24/7.

 

March 9

March 9, 1892 - Vita Sackville-West is born in Knole, England. The lesbian writer married gay diplomat Harold Nicolson. The story of her passionate but disastrous affair with Violet Trefusis is beautifully told in "Portrait of a Marriage" by her son Nigel Nicolson.

March 10

March 10, 1934 - John Rechy is born in El Paso, Texas. His book "City of Night" written in 1963 was a breakthrough in describing the underside of gay life. An outspoken activist, former hustler, and bodybuilder, he said he was once told by a drag queen "Your muscles are as gay as my drag." He laughed and agreed.

 

March 10, 1979 - International Women's Day in Toronto includes a call for an end to harassment of lesbians as one of four demands. It is the first time lesbian rights becomes an upfront issue.

March 10, 1982 - GATE representatives meet with full Alberta Human Rights Commission in Edmonton to ask for the inclusion of sexual orientation in Alberta Human Rights Protection Act. The bill became Alberta's Individual Rights Protection Act.

March 11

March 11, 1778 - Lt. Gotthold Enslin is the first U.S. soldier to be dismissed for homosexuality.

 

March 11, 1975 - In Madison, Wisconsin the state legislature passes a bill granting civil rights protection to gays and lesbians.

March 12

March 12, 1890 - Ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky is born in Kiev. His love affair with choreographer Diaghilev, his marriage, his madness would have made a classic ballet.

 

March 12, 1981 - MCC pastor Brent Hawkes ends twenty-five day hunger fast when Toronto City Council decides to ask Daniel Hill to investigate police/gay relations. Hawkes began fast to create pressure for independent inquiry into the Toronto bath raids. But, Hill, the mayor's advisor on community and race relations, announced in mid-May that he would not take on the job.

March 13

March 13, 1979 - The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services refuses to grant license to Tri-Aid to run a group home for gays. The Tri-Aid Charitable Foundation was already running one group home and wanted a second exclusively for gays. The agency was run by gay social worker Doug Chin.

 

March 13 1980 - The Association of Gay Electors chooses George Hislop as candidate for the Ward 6 aldermanic race in downtown Toronto. The civic election would be held in November Hislop had been co-founder and long-time president of the Community Homophile Association of Toronto. A co-owner of the Club Baths of Toronto and The Barracks Bathhouse he had been charged as "keeper of a common bawdyhouse" following the notorious Bathhouse raids.

March 14

March 14, 1860 - Stanislaus Eric, Count Stenbock is born in Estonia in 1860. Virtually forgotten today he was the aesthete who could out-aesthete the great Oscar Wilde. A writer of opium induced poems, and stories he once hosted Wilde how dared light a cigarette in front of a bust of Shelly. The sacrilege was so horrible the count fainted.

 

March 14, 1977 - Windsor, Ontario becomes the third Canadian city council to pass resolution banning discrimination against gay and lesbian city employees.

March 15

March 15, 1867 - Lionel Johnson is born in Broadstairs, England. An influential literary critic in his time, he was also the victim of one of the oldest ironies in the history of love. He made the mistake of introducing his young lover to a friend, who uickly snatched him away. The young lover was Lord Alfred Douglas and the friend, Oscar Wilde.

March 16

March 16, 1885 - Novelist I. A. R. Wylie was born is born in Melbourne, Australia. In 1940 she published "My Life With George," at the time a groundbreaking work about her life with another woman. "George" was Dr. S Josephine Baker a pioneering public health specialist best known for capturing "Typhoid Mary."

March 17

March 17, 1938 - Rudolf Nureyev is born in Ulfa, East Siberia. Perhaps the greatest dancer who ever lived, Nureyev danced hard, partied hard, and spent long hours in gay bathhouses. He once said, "I'll die on exactly the day I want." He did. Nurevyev died January 6, 1993.

March 18

March 18, 1886 - Actor Edward Everett Horton is born in Brooklyn. It's impossible to think of the comedies of the '20s, '30s, or '40s without recollecting the lanky Nervous Nellie characters he portrayed. A whole new generation discovered him in the '70's and '80s as the voice in Fractured Fairy Tales on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show.

 

March 18, 1971 - Idaho decriminalizes "gay" sex acts between consenting adults. However, before the law can take effect, in response to pressure from conservative groups, Iowa reverses itself and keeps the felony statute on the books.

 

March 18 1975/ Ottawa

Warren Zufelt, one of eighteen men arrested in an Ottawa "sex scandal," commits suicide by jumping from his apartment building balcony after his name was published in local newspapers.

March 18 1990 - Gay publications OutWeek outs Malcolm Forbes.

 March 19

March 19 1872 - Sergei Diaghilev was born in  Novgorod, Russia.  It is impossible to underestimate the influence of his Ballets Russes on the development of  20th century art, yet the fact that he was gay is often overlooked.  Had he not been gay, had he not been attracted to the great artists of his day, the century might have taken a different turn. He made the great dancer Nijinski first his lover and then his choreographer. 

 

March 19 1981 - A Provincial election in Ontario sees the return of the Conservatives to power. The NDP suffers losses, attributed in some parts of province to backtracking on the gay issue. Conservative Susan Fish wins in Toronto riding of St George, defeating gay protest candidate George Hislop. Conservatives had been Ontario's governing party continuously since 1943.

March 20

March 20 1890 - Opera star Lauritz Melchior was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.   He was virtually a household name for his singing at New York's Met.  But, then he went to Hollywood and appeared in some of MGM's worst musicals.  Novelist Hugh Walpole had been his lover and patron.  But, all things come to an end, and Melchior traded him in for a sailor.

 

March 20 1975 - Gays of Ottawa (GO) picket police station and office of Ottawa Journal to protest arrests and homophobic media coverage of arrests in a so-called Sex Scandal.

March 21

March 21, 1901 - Gavin Arthur was born Chester  A.  Arthur II in Colorado.  The grandson of President Chester Arthur, he dropped his famous name and headed out on his own at an early age, working his way around the world in the merchant marine.  Along the way he discovered he was gay and became friends with many of the gay gurus of the period -- Edward Carpenter, Havelock Ellis, and Magnus Hirschfeld.     

 

March 21 1975 - Former jockey John Damien sues Ontario Racing Commission and individuals involved in his firing as a racing steward. Damien's suit filed in Ontario Supreme Court alleged he was fired because he was gay.

 

March 21 1980 - Three judges of Divisional Court order fired gay Ontario Provincial Police officer Paul Head reinstated as member in good standing of force. Head was fired with the force discovered he was gay. OPP appeal the decision.

March 22

March 22, 1822 - Rosa Bonheur was born in Bordeaux, France.  The renowned wildlife artist dressed as a man and was every bit her own man, so to speak.  She is reported to have told a male friend concerned about her traveling about in the male world, "In the way of males, I like only the bulls I paint. 

March 23

March 23, 1874 -  J. C. Leyendecker perhaps the most successful commercial artist of the 20th century was born in Montabour, Germany.  Best known as the creator of the Arrow Shirt Man, his work is still sexy.  When the ads first appeared in magazines carloads of letters from female fans would arrive daily.  But, the model was not available.  He was Leyendecker's lover Charles Beach. 

March 24

March 24, 1971 - A federal judge ignores the U.S. Immigration rules and grants citizenship to a gay man from Cuba.

 

March 24, 1986 - William Hurt wins the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as a homosexual window dresser in Kiss of the Spider Woman.

 

March 24, 1987 - ACT UP stages its first major demonstration. Seventeen protestors are arrested.

March 25

March 25, 1981 - The Ontario Court of Appeal rejects an appeal of The Body Politic to overturn a previous order for a retrial on obscenity charges. TBP won in lower court, but the crown had appealed. The gay paper decides to appeal to Supreme Court of Canada.

 

March 25, 1947  - Rocker Elton John was born in Pinner Middlesex, England.  Coming out in Rolling Stone Magazine at the height of his career took guts, but John never swayed from challenges.    

March 26

March 26, 1859 -  A. E. Houseman was born in Worcestershire, England.  A generation of young Englishmen read  his work "A Shropshire Lad" and wondered "Is he or isn't he?"  He was, spending his time with a string of Venetian gondoliers supplied by his friend Horatio Brown.  

 

March 26, 1911 - Columbus, Mississippi's favorite son Tennessee Williams was born.  He won the New York Drama Critics Award in 1945 for his first Broadway production, "The Glass Menagerie".  The rest is history.  But, life wasn't easy for Williams, America's first gay male celebrity.  Critics attacked his work claiming gay men can know nothing about heterosexual love or experiences.     

 

March 26, 1973 - Noel Cowards dies at age seventy-three.

 

March 26, 1975 - A county clerk in Boulder, Colorado issues a marriage license to two gay men shortly after the local district attorney's office ruled that there were no county laws preventing two people of the same sex from marrying.

 

March 26, 1985 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturns (via a tie vote) an Oklahoma law that would have banned homosexuals (or those who "promote the lifestyle") from teaching in the state's public schools.

 

March 26, 1990 - Common Threads, about the AIDS quilt, wins the Oscar for Best Documentary.

 

March 26, 1990 - Fashion designer Halston dies of AIDS at age fifty-seven.

March 27

March 27, 1952 - Actress Maria Schneider was born in Paris. The highlight of her career came playing opposite Marlon Brandon in "Last Tango in Paris". In 1975, for several days, she declared herself to be insane and checked herself into a Rome mental hospital.  It turned it she only wanted to be with partner, American heiress Patty Townsend.  When the truth leaked out she was a lesbian Hollywood dropped her like a hot potato.      

March 28

March 28, 1931 -  Writer Jane  rule is born in New Jersey.  In 1956 Rule moved to Canada  Her 1975 work "Lesbian Images" set down what it meant for her to be a lesbian and compared her experiences with other famous women.  It was hailed a a landmark and helped earn her an Order of British Columbia medal.    

 

March 28, 1979 - Toronto's police chief and the police association president which represents uniformed officers both issue statements of apology after anti-gay article "The homosexual fad" appears in police association newsletter.

March 29

March 30

March 30, 1981 - In Toronto the trial begins for the alleged keepers of Barracks steam bath begins. Includes gay activist George Hislop and four others. Charges arose from raid December 9, 1978.

March 31

March 31, 1980 - Ontario Provincial Police constable Paul Head is again suspended from duty even though a court ordered him reinstated. This time he is charged with discreditable conduct. Head was later charged (April 29) with indecent assault on a 24-year-old man who had not wanted to press charges. The police acted on their own.