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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 7

496 BC – Sophocles (d.406 BC) was one of three great Greek tragic poets. He came from wealth, and moved easily in society. Over his productive life of over sixty years he wrote over 123 plays, of which only seven remain.

The Theban plays consist of three plays: Oedipus the King (also called Oedipus Rex), Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. All three plays concern the fate of Thebes during and after the reign of King Oedipus. They have often been published under a single cover. Sophocles, however, wrote the three plays for separate festival competitions, many years apart. Not only are the Theban plays not a true trilogy (three plays presented as a continuous narrative) but they are not even an intentional series and contain some inconsistencies among them.

Several ancient writers have commented on Sophocles' love of youths. One tells us, "The young Sophocles was beautiful, and a man named Lampros had taught him dancing and music when he was a boy. After the Battle of Salamis [480 BC] Sophocles danced around the victory monument playing the lyre, nude and rubbed with olive oil - though according to others he was clad." Athenaeus alleged that in addition to seeking and keeping female courtesans, "Sophocles was fond of young lads, as Euripides was fond of women." He also tells a story of how Sophocles tricked a young serving boy into kissing him.

Sophocles's strategies did not always turn out to his advantage. He was reputed to have had amorous trysts with pretty boys all life long; Plato swore to it. His pederasty is similarly reported by Euripides, and by Athenaios. The latter, who liked gathering anecdotes about the lives of the great men of antiquity, relates one of Sophocles's misadventures:

"One day, Sophocles (who was around 65 years of age at the time) led beyond the walls of the city a beautiful youth in order to enjoy him. The lad spread his rough himation (a cheap coat) on the grass and the two covered themselves with the elegant chlanis [cloak] of the poet. When the thing was done, the boy snatched the chlanis, leaving the himation for Sophocles. Naturally word of this got around, and as soon as Euripides found out he made great fun of it."

1938 – John E. Fryer, M.D. (d.2003) was an American psychiatrist and gay rights activist best known for his anonymous speech at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association annual conference where he appeared in disguise and under the name Dr H. Anonymous. This event has been cited as a key factor in the decision to de-list homosexuality as a mental illness from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The American Psychiatric Association John E. Fryer, M.D., Award is named in his honor.

At a time when homosexuality was still listed as a mental illness, Fryer was the first gay American psychiatrist to speak publicly about his sexuality. A year earlier, at the 1971 convention in Washington, gay activist Franklin E. Kameny had seized the microphone at the conference as part of a long-standing protest about the diagnosis of homosexuality, initiating the first gay-rights protest at an American Psychiatric Association conference.

This protest led to a session at the 1972 conference on homosexuality and mental illness entitled 'Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to Homosexuals: A Dialogue' with Kameny and Barbara Gittings sitting on the panel. Listed only as Dr H. Anonymous, Fryer appeared on stage wearing a face mask, wig, tuxedo and spoke through a microphone which distorted his voice.

Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny, & John Fryer (in mask)

Dr Fryer's speech started with the words "I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist"��and continued to describe the lives of the many gay psychiatrists among the American Psychiatric Association who had to hide their sexuality from their colleagues for fear of discrimination, and from fellow homosexuals owing to the disdain in which the psychiatric profession was held among the gay community. Fryer's speech also suggested ways in which gay psychiatrists could subtly and 'creatively' challenge prejudice in their profession without disclosing their sexuality, and help gay patients adjust to a society that considered their sexual preferences a sign of psychopathology.

Homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders a year later, and Fryer's speech has been cited as a key factor in persuading the psychiatric community to reach this decision.

1943 – Krystian Lupa is a Polish theatre director, set designer, playwright, translator and pedagogue. He has been called "the greatest living European theatre director".

He studied physics at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, between 1963 and 1969 he studied graphics at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, also film directing at the National Higher School of Film in Łódź and finally, theatre directing at the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts. In Lodz he started to collaborate with Konrad Swinarski, and was influenced by the works of Tadeusz Kantor. In 1976, he made his debut as a director by staging Sławomir Mrożek's play The Slaughterhouse at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków where he worked for many years. He also worked at the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Theatre in Jelenia Góra. Lupa is renowned for his specific methods of working with the text and actors in very organic way also known as "laboratory rehearsals".

During his career he made a lot of notable productions based on texts of Robert Musil, Thomas Bernhard, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Rainer Maria Rilke, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz or Witold Gombrowicz.He was awarded with numerous prominent awards which include Witkacy Prize – Critics' Circle Award, Gold Gloria Artis Medal, Order of Polonia Restituta, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Europe Theatre Prize and Austrian Decoration for Science and Art. In 2014, he received the Nestroy Theatre Prize for the staging of Thomas Bernhard's 1986 novel Woodcutters. He also received two nominations to Poland's top literary prize, the Nike Award, in 2002 for Labirynt and in 2004 for Podglądania.

In 2016, he received the Golden Cross of the Stage Award in Lithuanina for staging Thomas Bernhard's play 'Heldenplatz' (Heroes' Square) in Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. In 2017, he became a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2008, he publicly came out as gay in an interview for Film magazine. His life partner is actor Piotr Skiba.

1962 – Dirk Shafer, born in Carbondale, Illinois, is an American model, actor, screenwriter and director. He is most noted in the modeling world for being Playgirl magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1992. He did Playgirl for "validation" as a model because he never believed himself to be attractive.

Shafer wrote, directed and starred in Man of the Year, a 1995 mockumentary about his time as a semi-closeted gay man in the role of a heterosexual sex symbol. Shafer's next directorial project was Circuit, a fictional look at the world of gay male circuit parties.

As of 2008 Shafer was working as a fitness trainer and certified Pilates instructor. In 2012, Shafer returned to the pages of Playgirl for a 20th anniversary photo spread in the August issue

1988 – Reid Ewing is an American actor known for his role as Dylan, Haley's boyfriend on the ABC comedy Modern Family.

Ewing appeared in theater productions in the South Florida area. He studied at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach and the School for Film and Television in New York before moving to Los Angeles. In April 2010, he was cast for the MTV film The Truth Below.

In addition to acting, Ewing plays the piano, guitar, and banjo. He wrote the song "In the Moonlight (Do Me)", which his character performed on Modern Family.

In 2011, he appeared in Wendy's "Where's the beef?" commercials.

In 2015, Ewing revealed that he has suffered from body dysmorphic disorder, which resulted in several cosmetic surgeries. He came out as gay on November 23, 2015, while again addressing his body dysmorphia.

1989 – ABC lost $1.5 million in pulled ads when the television show "thirtysomething" showed two men in bed together.

1993 – Ronen Rubinstein is an American actor, writer, director, environmentalist, and activist, best known for his roles as Nathan in the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black and as T.K. Strand in Fox series 9-1-1: Lone Star created by Ryan Murphy.

Ronen Rubinstein was born in Rehovot, Israel, the son of Russian-Jewish emigrants from the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. When he was five years old, he moved with his parents and older sister to the United States, where he grew up in the Staten Island borough of New York City. In an interview, Rubinstein said he felt like an outsider growing up as an immigrant, taking English as a third language classes and having difficulty adapting to the American culture.

He was introduced to acting in his sophomore year of high school when his guidance counselor suggested he try theater as a form of therapy and escape from the opioid epidemic in his neighborhood. He briefly worked as a dental assistant in his father's dental office, but chose not to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor. After attending New Dorp High School, he decided to pursue an acting career and graduated from the New York Film Academy.

In 2020, he starred as an openly gay firefighter and recovering opioid addict Tyler Kennedy "T.K." Strand in Ryan Murphy's Fox series 9-1-1: Lone Star, alongside Rob Lowe, who plays Captain Owen Strand, T.K.'s father. The series has become Fox's most watched new show of 2020 among 18-49 adults and has received acclaim for its interracial gay storyline and diverse characters, such as a hijab-wearing Muslim female firefighter and a black transgender male firefighter (portrayed by the transgender actor Brian Michael Smith).

His role of a gay firefighter inspired real life gay first responders to come out to him through social media. He has praised Ryan Murphy and the writers for normalizing a same-sex relationship on primetime television by not including a coming out story: "A lot of times you'd see a gay couple on television there's something really dramatic and usually sad involved with it. And this is just like, 'Yeah, this is just normal. This is just how it is'." The series has been renewed for a second season.

2003 – Openly gay Canadian songwriter, actor and singer James Collins (with Vancouver-based Dave Pickell) writes a hit with "The One," American Idol contestant, Vanessa Olivarez's, first single.

As a singer, James has had three Top 40 hits - "Do You Mind If We Talk About Bill", which peaked at number 31 on the Canadian national BDS Hot Adult Contemporary chart and "Missing You At Christmas (That's All)", peaking at number 17 on the Canadian national BDS AC chart. Two years earlier, the original version of "Missing You At Christmas (That's All)" peaked Top 30, nationally. James' vulnerable, heart felt ballad, "Good Enough (To Love)" also peaked at number two on Quebec's provincial A'disq Le Palmares Top 25 Pop Adult chart. "Good Enough (To Love)" sat at the number two position for four weeks, behind the hit "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.

As an actor, James can be seen playing principal roles in TV series, such as Falling Skies, Flashpoint, Rookie Blue, Doc, Queer as Folk and the hit Canadian TV series This Is Wonderland.

James can also be seen playing, Ralph, the town bully in the Canadian feature film Lakefront and soon, he appears in the supporting role of Gary, the hotel manager, in the upcoming zombie flick, Queen Of The Zombie Punks. James played the farmer father character in Nickelback's worldwide number one rock video Too Bad.

As a songwriter, James has co-written, with songwriter Dave Pickell over 20 Top 40 hits in Canada. In 2003, he and Pickell co-wrote American Idol contestant, Vanessa Olivarez's, first single "The One" which reached number ten on the Nielsen SoundScan Canadian Singles Sales chart. Soon after, James would have even more success with American Idol Season 3 Finalist, Jon Peter Lewis. Jon and James co-wrote a Canadian Christmas hit entitled "It's Christmas." The song peaked at # 13 on the national Pop Adult chart (BDS) and was featured on the Canadian gold selling "Now Christmas 2." "It's Christmas" was also recently featured on a Christmas compilation released in Germany.

In 2006, Sony-BMG picked up James' Christmas song, Missing You At Christmas (That's All) as well as the Christmas song he wrote with Melissa Manchester (sung by Melissa Manchester), My Christmas Song For You and placed both tracks on their Platinum Christmas 3 compilation (featuring: Carly Simon, Bruce Springstein, Harry Connick Jr., Tony Bennett, Cyndi Lauper...etc).

James scored a # 1 Socan award (with Dave Pickell) for their tongue-in-cheek true story song, "Cyndi Lauper Said No." The song reached # 1 on Quebec's Top 25 Pop/Rock chart for 5 weeks in 2009. It's the first time an indie reached #1 on this chart.

Today's Gay Wisdom: Dr. John E. Fryer

Dr. John Fryer, in disguise, spoke in May 1972 before the annual American Psychiatric Association’s conference held in Dallas. It was the first time a gay psychiatrist addressed the group, and was part of the gay-rights activism targeting the APA that led to the removal of homosexuality as a diagnosis in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This is the text of that speech:

"Thank you, Dr. Robinson. I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist. I, like most of you in this room, am a member of the APA and am proud to be a member. However, tonight I am, insofar as in it is possible, a ‘we.’ I attempt tonight to speak for many of my fellow gay members of the APA as well as for myself. When we gather at these conventions, we have a group, which we have glibly come to call the Gay-PA. And several of us feel that it is time that real flesh and blood stand up before you and ask to be listened to and understood insofar as that is possible. I am disguised tonight in order that I might speak freely without conjuring up too much regard on your part about the particular WHO I happen to be. I do that mostly for your protection. I can assure you that I could be any one of more than a hundred psychiatrists registered at this convention. And the curious among you should cease attempting to figure out who I am and listen to what I say.

"We homosexual psychiatrists must persistently deal with a variety of what we shall call ‘Nigger Syndromes.’ We shall describe some of them and how they make us feel.

"As psychiatrists who are homosexual, we must know our place and what we must do to be successful. If our goal is academic appointment, a level of earning capacity equal to our fellows, or admission to a psychoanalytic institute, we must make certain that no one in a position of power is aware of our sexual orientation or gender identity. Much like the black man with the light skin who chooses to live as a white man, we cannot be seen with our real friends - our real homosexual family - lest our secret be known and our dooms sealed. There are practicing psychoanalysts among us who have completed their training analysis without mentioning their homosexuality to their analysts. Those who are willing to speak up openly will do so only if they have nothing to lose, then they won’t be listened to.

"As psychiatrists who are homosexuals, we must look carefully at the power which lies in our hands to define the health of others around us. In particular, we should have clearly in our minds, our own particular understanding of what it is to be a healthy homosexual in a world, which sees that appellation as an impossible oxymoron. One cannot be healthy and be homosexual, they say. One result of being psychiatrists who are homosexual is that we are required to be more healthy than our heterosexual counterparts. We have to make some sort of attempt throughtherapy or analysis to work problems out. Many of us who make that effort are still left with a sense of failure and of persistence of "the problem." Just as the black man must be a super person, so must we, in order to face those among our colleagues who know we are gay. We could continue to cite examples of this sort of situation for the remainder of the night. It would be useful, however, if we could now look at the reverse.

"What is it like to be a homosexual who is also a psychiatrist? Most of us Gay-PA members do not wear our badges into the Bayou Landing [a gay bar in Dallas] or the local Canal Baths. If we did, we could risk the derision of all the non-psychiatrist homosexuals. There is much negative feeling in the homosexual community towards psychiatrists. And those of us who are visible are the easiest targets from which the angry can vent their wrath. Beyond that, in our own hometowns, the chances are that in any gathering of homosexuals, there is likely to be any number of patients or paraprofessional employees who might try to hurt us professionally in a larger community if those communities enable them to hurt us that way.

"Finally, as homosexual psychiatrists, we seem to present a unique ability to marry ourselves to institutions rather than wives or lovers. Many of us work 20 hours daily to protect institutions that would literally chew us up and spit us out if they knew the truth. These are our feelings, and like any set of feelings, they have value insofar as they move us toward concrete action.

"Here, I will speak primarily to the other members of the Gay-PA who are present, not in costume tonight. Perhaps you can help your fellow psychiatrist friends understand what I am saying. When you are with professionals, fellow professionals, fellow psychiatrists who are denigrating the "faggots" and the "queers," don’t just stand back, but don’t give up your careers, either. Show a little creative ingenuity; make sure you let your associates know that they have a few issues that they have to think through again. When fellow homosexuals come to you for treatment, don’t let your own problems get in your way, but develop creative ways to let the patient know that they’re all right. And teach them everything they need to know. Refer them to other sources of information with basic differences from your own so that the homosexual will be freely able to make his own choices.

"Finally, pull up your courage by your bootstraps, and discover ways in which you and homosexual psychiatrists can be closely involved in movements which attempt to change the attitudes of heterosexuals - and homosexuals - toward homosexuality. For all of us have something to lose. We may not be considered for that professorship. The analyst down the street may stop referring us his overflow. Our supervisor may ask us to take a leave of absence. We are taking an even bigger risk, however, not accepting fully our own humanity, with all of the lessons it has to teach all the other humans around us and ourselves. This is the greatest loss: our honest humanity. And that loss leads all those others around us to lose that little bit of their humanity as well. For, if they were truly comfortable with their own homosexuality, then they could be comfortable with ours. We must use our skills and wisdom to help them - and us - grow to be comfortable with that little piece of humanity called homosexuality."

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