Gene Malin

Gene Malin born 30 June 1908 (d. 1933)

Gene Malin was an American actor, emcee, and drag performer during the Jazz Age. He was arguably the first openly gay performer in Prohibition-era Speakeasy culture, and started the so-called Pansy Craze.

Gene Malin, also known by his stage name Jean Malin, was born Victor Eugene James Malin in Brooklyn to working class Polish/Lithuanian parents. He had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. One brother became a police officer, and the other worked for a sugar refinery, but Gene had other inclinations early on. As a teenager, Gene was already winning prizes for his costumes at the elaborate Manhattan Drag Balls of the 1920s. By his late teens, Malin had worked as a chorus boy in several Broadway shows but was considered too effeminate. Around the same period, Malin worked at several Greenwhich Village clubs as a drag performer, most notably the Rubaiyat.

Several columnists noted his talent and in 1930 (at age 22) Malin was booked at Louis Schwartzs' elegant Club Abbey at 46th and 8th Ave. It was at this point that Malins' career and fate took a most interesting turn. Although Malin was at times assisted by 'Helen Morgan Jr', a popular drag artist of the day, he did not appear in drag himself. The crux of his act was not to impersonate women, but to appear as an openly gay male. Here he moved on stage and amongst the audience members as a Tuxedo clad, elegant, witty, wisecracking Emcee (the Master of Ceremonies). He still often resorted to a broad exaggerated swishing image and the many other such 'Pansy acts' that followed often had a tone of a straight Vaudeville man doing an exaggerated impersonation of an effeminate 'Pansy'. Perhaps the joke had several levels - as the performer was often a gay man doing his impression of a straight man doing his impression of a gay man. In doing so, Malin and other such performers as Karl Norman and Ray Bourbon ignited a 'Pansy Craze' in New York’s speakeasies and later in other cities as well.

Malin became the top earner of Broadway for a time. After headlining numerous New York Clubs, he took his act to Boston and ultimately to the West Coast. While in Hollywood, he appeared in several films, usually as the stock character of a witty limp-wristed sales assistant.

In the early hours of August 10, 1933, Gene Malin was killed in a freak accident. He had just performed a 'farewell performance' at the Ship Cafe in Venice, California. He piled into his sedan car with roommate Jimmy Forlenza and comedic actress Patsy Kelly. It seems that Malin confused the gears and the car lurched in reverse and went off a pier into the water. Malin was instantly killed (pinned under the steering wheel) the other two were seriously hurt, but miraculously survived. Malin was only 24 years of age at the time of his death.

Although many in his audience probably saw him as one more oddity, in a short span of time Gene Malin had made history. Alas, little survives beyond a couple of recordings, and a very few film appearances and photos.

Malin left behind two recordings, released posthumously and pressed in a single royal blue shellac 78, That's What's the Matter With Me and I'd Rather Be Spanish Than Mannish; the latter can be heard here.

Strangely, he was married briefly; his wife was Lucille (or Fay) Helman who was later a notorious madam in Manhattan who was convicted in 1936 and 1942 of sending prostitutes across state lines.They married in Los Angeles in 1931 and applied for a Mexican divorce the year he was killed.

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Thomas Lovell Beddoes born 30 June 1803 (d. 1849)

Thomas Lovell Beddoes was an English poet and dramatist.

Born in Clifton, Somerset, England, he was the son of Dr Thomas Beddoes, a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Anna, sister of novelist Maria Edgeworth. He was educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Oxford. He published in 1821 The Improvisatore, which he afterwards endeavoured to suppress. His next venture was The Bride's Tragedy (1822), a blank verse drama that was published and well reviewed.

Beddoes' work shows a constant preoccupation with death. In 1824, he went to Göttingen to study medicine, motivated by his hope of discovering physical evidence of a human spirit which survives the death of the body. He was expelled, and then went to Würzburg to complete his training. At this period, he became involved with radical politics; this got him into trouble. He was deported from Bavaria in 1833, and had to leave Zürich, where he had settled, in 1840.

He continued to write, but published nothing.

He led an itinerant life after leaving Switzerland, returning to England only in 1846, before going back to Germany. He became increasingly disturbed, and committed suicide by poison at Basel, in 1849, at the age of 46. For some time before his death, he had been engaged on a drama, Death's Jest Book, which was published in 1850 with a memoir by his friend, T F Kelsall. His Collected Poems were published in 1851.

THE LIFE OF THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES (1803-1849)

Robert Rodi

Robert Rodi born 1956*

Robert Rodi is an American writer and author of satiric novels and comic books.

Robert Rodi was born 'in a cosy middle-class suburb of Chicago, right around the time cosy middle-class suburbs were feeling the firsts blasts of scorn from the burgeoning counterculture. Twenty-two years later, he earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy just as the curtain went up on the hyper-materialist Reagan era. Not long afterwards, he came out of the closet just as gay men were dealt the first crushing blow of the AIDS crisis ... It was thus perhaps inevitable he turned to writing comedy.'

His first novel, Fag Hag, was published in 1991 and was swiftly translated into Italian, French, German, and Japanese. It was followed in quick succession by Closet Case (1992), What They Did to Princess Paragon (1994), Drag Queen (1995), Kept Boy (1997) and Bitch Goddess (2002). His latest novel is When You Were Me (2007).

Robert Rodi @ amazon.co.uk

Rodi's shorter fiction can be found in a number of anthologies, including Men On Men 5, His, and Sandman: Book of Dreams. His novella Glad, Gladder, Gladys was serialised online at USAToday.com. His literary criticism has appeared in the pages of The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, NewCity, and The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review.

Rodi is the creator of several comic-book series, including 4 Horsemen, Codename: Knockout, and The Crossovers. He was a founding member of the Chicago-based gay performance art troupe, The Pansy Kings, who were active throughout the 1990s, and he wrote sketches for the Live Bait Theater's revues Junk Food and Dear Jackie: The Queen of Camelot Remembered.

Rodi still lives in Chicago, in a century-old Queen Anne house with his partner Jeffrey Smith and a constantly shifting number of dogs.

*actual birthday unknown

John Inman

John Inman born 28 June 1935 (d. 2007)

Frederick John Inman was an English actor who was best known for his role as Mr Humphries in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? in the 1970s and 1980s. Inman was also well known in the United Kingdom as a pantomime dame.

Inman was born in 1935 in Preston, Lancashire, and was a cousin of actress Josephine Tewson. At the age of 12, Inman moved with his parents to Blackpool where his mother ran a boarding house, while his father owned a hairdressing business. As a child, he enjoyed dressmaking. Inman always wanted to be an actor, and his parents paid for him to have elocution lessons at the local church hall. At the age of 13 he made his stage debut in the Pavilion on Blackpool's South Pier, in a melodrama entitled Freda. Aged 15, he took a job at the pier, making tea, clearing up, and playing parts in plays.

After leaving school, Inman worked for two years at Fox's, a gentlemen's outfitters in Blackpool, specialising in window dressing. Aged 17, he moved to London to join Austin Reed in Regent Street. Four years later, he left Austin Reed to become a scenic artist with Kenneth Kendall's touring company at a theatre in Crewe, so that he could earn his Equity Card. Inman made his West End debut in the 1960s when he appeared in Ann Veronica at the Cambridge Theatre. He also played in Salad Days at the Windmill Theatre in 1975, and as Lord Fancourt Babberley in Charley's Aunt at the Adelphi Theatre in 1979. He also played in many summer shows, and established himself as a dame in pantomime, appearing regularly as one of the two ugly sisters alongside comedian and former partner Barry Howard.

Inman made his television debut in the sitcom Two In Clover in 1970. In 1972, he was asked by David Croft to play a part in a Comedy Playhouse pilot called Are You Being Served?. This was a sitcom set in a department store, written by scriptwriters David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, and based on the latter's experiences working at Simpson's in Piccadilly Circus. Playing a minor role with only a few lines, he was soon asked to 'camp it up', despite initial reluctance from the BBC to include such a camp character. The pilot was broadcast in September 1972. The broadcast was followed by the five episodes of the first series in early 1973. The first series showing opposite Coronation Street on ITV attracted little attention, but repeats later that year were very successful.

Inman played the camp Mr Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries and his earlier career in the clothes retail business was good preparation for this role in a menswear department. Inman developed a characteristic limp-wristed mincing walk, and a high-pitched catch phrase, 'I'm free!', which soon entered popular culture. Although the catch phrase and the character were popular, Inman came under attack by some gay rights groups for what they perceived to be his stereotypical portrayal of a homosexual. However, both Inman and David Croft stated that the character was 'just a mother's boy' and his sexual orientation was never explicitly stated. Yeah, right.

Are You Being Served? ran for ten series until it finished in 1985. At its height, in the late 1970s, it regularly attracted British audiences of up to 20 million viewers. Inman's portrayal of Mr Humphries won him the BBC TV Personality of the Year in 1976 and he was voted the funniest man on television by TV Times readers. From 1980 to 1981, Inman also played Mr Humphries in the Australian version of Are You Being Served?, set in a store named Bone Brothers to avoid problems with a real business named Grace Brothers. The series also became popular in the United States, where Inman became a gay cultural icon.

During the 69-episode, 13-year run of Are You Being Served?, Inman also appeared in the 1977 film of the series, in which the characters visited the fictional Spanish holiday resort of 'Costa Plonka'; in Odd Man Out, his own sitcom in 1977, playing the owner of a fish-and-chip shop who inherits half of a rock factory; and Take a Letter, Mr Jones, a 1981 sitcom where Inman played a male secretary. Inman also toured with his own shows, and he released several records, including Are You Being Served, Sir?, which reached number 39 in the UK singles charts. This came from an LP of the same name, and was followed by two further albums: I'm Free in 1977 and With a Bit of Brass in 1978.

He made a cameo appearance in the film The Tall Guy in 1989, and was one of five of the Are You Being Served? cast to be reunited in character for the sitcom Grace & Favour, which ran for twelve episodes from 1992 and 1993. In 1999, he appeared in a French & Saunders Christmas special.

After the end of Are You Being Served?, Inman became one of the nation's best known pantomime dames and appeared in over 40 pantomime productions across the country. In 2004, Inman made additional television appearances in Doctors and Revolver.

He lived in a mews house in Little Venice for 30 years. On 23 December 2005, Inman entered in a civil partnership at Westminster Register Office with his partner of 35 years, Ron Lynch.

Inman suffered from poor health in his later years. He was hospitalised with bronchitis in 1993, and collapsed on the stage in 1995. He was admitted to Paddington's St Mary's Hospital in 2001 after suffering breathing difficulties and spent three days in intensive care.

In December 2004, Inman was forced to cancel an appearance in a pantomime as he was suffering from a hepatitis A infection, which he had contracted from contaminated food. Following this, he never worked again and he suffered complications from the infection for the rest of his life. Inman died early in the morning of 8 March 2007, aged 71, in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium after a funeral on the 23 March 2007.

Dave Kopay

Dave Kopay born 28 June 1942

Even in 2008, the world of professional sports - especially the major men's team sports - is one of the final closets. David Kopay has achieved fame as a gay icon despite the fact that American Football is a sport only seriously popular in North America.

Kopay was an overachieving player with five National Football League teams from 1964 to 1972. During this time he wrestled with his sexuality and eventually decided to be honest with himself and the public.

Kopay gave an interview in 1975 to the Washington Star in which he declared his homosexuality. He is believed to be the first professional athlete to have taken such a step. In 1977 he wrote his autobiography, The David Kopay Story: An Extraordinary Self-Revelation.

After he retired from the NFL, he was considered a top contender for coaching positions, but was snubbed by professional and college teams because of his sexual orientation. He eventually took over the family business selling and installing floor coverings in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. He is also a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

His biography, written with Perry Dean Young, offers insights into the sexual proclivities of heterosexual football players and their homophobia. In 1986, Kopay also revealed his brief affair with Jerry Smith (1943-1986), who played for the Washington Redskins from 1965-1977 and who died of AIDS without ever having publicly come out of the closet.

Since Kopay, only two additional former NFL Players have come out as gay, Roy Simmons in 1992, and Esera Tuaolo in 2002. Kopay has been credited with inspiring these athletes to be more open about their sexual orientation.

Kopay, who remains active as a speaker, is an important figure in that he exemplifies the fact that gay men can and do compete as athletes. He is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation. He has spoken of his frustration that there was no parade of others who followed his lead. And there never has been.

Jeremy Wolfenden

Jeremy Wolfenden born 26 June 1934 (d. 1965)

Jeremy Wolfenden was a foreign correspondent and British spy at the height of the Cold War.

He won a scholarship to Eton where he was known as 'cleverest boy in England', then to Magdalen College, Oxford where he obtained a first in PPE. He was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) before becoming the Daily Telegraph foreign correspondent in Moscow where he indulged in his twin passions for sex and alcohol and was eventually compromised by the KGB.

He struck up friendships with Guy Burgess the British defector, and Martina Browne, the nanny employed by Ruari and Janet Chisholm who were working for SIS and were instrumental in the defection of Oleg Penkovsky - a colonel in Soviet military intelligence - who was responsible for disabusing the Kennedy administration of the myth that the 'missile gap' was in the Soviet's favour.

Wolfenden subsequently came under pressure from both SIS and the KGB while in Moscow and swapped roles with the Telegraph's Washington correspondent, where he married Martina Browne. He died aged 31 in what appeared to be suspicious circumstances in Washington. It was claimed he had fainted in the bathroom, cracked his head against the washbasin and died of a cerebral haemorrhage. It is now thought likely that he died of liver failure brought on by his excessive drinking.

Interestingly, Jeremy Wolfenden was the son of John, later Lord Wolfenden, [pictured] who chaired the committee responsible for producing the Wolfenden Report in 1957 - which was instrumental in the eventual 'decriminalisation' of homosexuality in England and Wales in 1967.

Before winning his scholarship to Oxford, Jeremy had told his father he was gay. John Wolfenden was horrified, writing to suggest "we stay out of each other's way for the time being." Thinking homsexuality was 'an abomination', Wolfenden remained ashamed and fearful of his son's homosexuality becoming known even as he - probably unwittingly - made gay history.

A short biography of Wolfenden appears in the book The Fatal Englishman by Sebastian Faulks.

In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wolfenden Report - more significantly the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, BBC Drama commissioned Consenting Adults for BBC Four, a 75-minute special set against the deliberations of the Wolfenden Committee. The drama considers the conflict between Wolfenden, played by Charles Dance, and his son, Jeremy, played by Sean Biggerstaff.

Martin Smith

Martin Smith born 26 June 1957 (d. 1994)

Martin Smith was a Scottish actor and singer.

After various appearances on television and in the film Yanks (1979), Martin Smith is best known for his appearance as Micky Doyle in long-running TV soap Crossroads from 1985-86.

Martin Smith was also a fine singer and made appearances in the West End in musical theatre, including Che in Evita. He featured on a Cole Porter tribute album A Swell Party - A Celebration of Cole Porter (1992) singing Love For Sale as it was originally intended to be sung - by a man. He also appeared in a production of William Finn's March of the Falsettos at the Library Theatre in Manchester in 1987. He recorded several concerts with BBC Concert and Radio Orchestras and was a regular vocalist on the BBC Radio2 shows Songs From the Shows and Friday Night Is Music Night in the 1980s.

Martin Smith died from an AIDS-related illness in 1994

I was lucky enough to see Martin in March of the Falsettos but am unable to find out much about him. If you can add any information then please leave a message.

Stephen McCauley

Stephen McCauley born 26 June 1955

Stephen McCauley is an American author.

He has written five novels to date including most recently Alternatives To Sex. His most famous novel is The Object of My Affection, which was made into a movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Official website

Sean Hayes

Sean Hayes born 26 June 1970

Sean Patrick Hayes is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Jack McFarland in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, for which he won an Emmy Award, four SAG Awards, one American Comedy Award, and six Golden Globes nominations.

Hayes was born in Chicago, Illinois. He is of Irish descent and was raised as a Roman Catholic. After graduating from high school, Hayes attended Illinois State University. There he studied piano performance and conducting, with a special focus on the music of Mozart, but he left before graduating.

He worked as a classical pianist, and served as a music director at the Pheasant Run Theater in St Charles, Illinois. He also composed original music for a production of Antigone at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.

Hayes moved to Los Angeles in 1995, where he found work as a stand-up comedian, stage actor and as an actor in television commercials.

As a teenager, Hayes was an extra in Winona Ryder's first movie, Lucas (1986), which was filmed at his high school. He made his professional film debut in the independent film Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998), which brought him wide attention and caught the attention of executives who cast him in the NBC comedy television series Will & Grace, as Jack McFarland, a flamboyantly gay, frequently unemployed actor. The show became a long-running hit and Hayes’s performance as Jack earned him seven consecutive Emmy Award nominations (2000–06) as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He won the Emmy for his first nomination. He has been nominated for six Golden Globe Award for his performance.

Hayes’s success led to film appearances in Cats & Dogs (2001), as Jerry Lewis in the made-for-TV movie Martin and Lewis (2002), Pieces of April (2003), The Cat in the Hat (2003) and Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! (2004). He has also guest starred in several television programmes, including Scrubs and 30 Rock.

In 2007, Hayes was featured in a major role as Matthew, also called Thomas, in Rob Reiner's film The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. On July 5, 2008, Hayes made his New York stage debut as Mr Applegate/Devil in New York City Center's Encores! production of Damn Yankees opposite Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne Jackson.

In a 2008 New York Times interview, Hayes revealed that he is working on a television project called BiCoastal about 'a guy with a wife and kids in California and a boyfriend in New York'.

Hayes was cast and will make his Broadway debut alongside Kristin Chenoweth in a spring 2010 Broadway revival of the musical Promises, Promises.

Hayes has played gay and straight characters during his time as an actor, and will be playing a bisexual character in the upcoming BiCoastal, but he had long refused to discuss his sexual orientation in public until he finally revealed he was gay in an interview for The Advocate magazine in March 2010. Answering the charge he had skirted the issue of his sexuality for too long, Hayes was reported as saying, 'I feel like I’ve contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to it.'

Whilst no one thought that Sean Hayes wasn't gay, his refusal to discuss the issue whilst playing a mainstream TV role that to many seemed to perpetuate negative gay sterotypes as much as it brought gay characters into the mainstream was often seen as annoying and disappointing.

Al Parker

Al Parker born 25 June 1952 (d. 1992)

Al Parker (born Andrew Okun) was a gay American pornographic actor (porn star), producer, and director.

Raised in the Greater Boston area, at 5' 7" tall, Parker was best-known for being well-groomed and having the lean moustached physique popularised in San Francisco's Castro neighbourhood as the ideal Castro clone. He was also possessed of the other key requirement for a successful porn star.

After he moved to California in the mid-70s, Parker met handsome veteran Richard Cole, a man a dozen years his senior. Cole introduced Parker to the guiltless sexual hedonism of the age.

After arriving in California, Parker was employed by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion West as a butler. Parker's career in gay film started when he was 'discovered' by the legendary Rip Colt, founder of Colt Studios. It was Colt who gave him the name 'Al Parker'.

Parker began his film making career when he was signed by Brentwood Studios. He made 12-15 minute loop films shot on 8 mm film reels.

Later in life Parker and Cole put a bed in the back of their van to use for their sexual pickups during their cross-country trips. In 1980 the pair formed Surge Studio to produce Al Parker films and videos.

Parker was a producer, director and actor. Surge Studios started making larger budget 'theme' features and not just the 'film loops'. Many of the films were shot out of Parker's home in Hermosa Beach, California. Surge Studios was one of the first studios to mandate safe sex practices when AIDS appeared.

Parker's partner, Cole, died of AIDS in 1986. Following Cole's death Parker continued in the adult film business and began a relationship with Canadian porn star Justin Cade.

Al Parker died from complications of AIDS in 1992. He was just 40 years old.

Parker is the subject of Roger Edmonson's biography Clone: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker Gay Superstar. Parker's remains were cremated and a memorial service was held at his private residence.

Performers in gay pornography hold a relatively esteemed position in gay culture, in contrast to their heterosexual counterparts. This is largely due to the fact that hard core pornography itself is such an integral and accepted part of gay male life, especially in comparison to the marginalized position straight pornography holds for its audiences.

Joe A Thomas - glbtq encyclopedia

In the 70s especially, the porn star was a potent symbol of gay sexuality and gay liberation. Al Parker was one its brightest stars.

Labi Siffre

Labi Siffre born 25 June 1945

Singer, songwriter, playwright and poet Labi Siffre was born to a Barbadian/Belgian mother and Nigerian father in London.

He is probably best known for his two biggest hit songs It Must Be Love (1971) later covered by Madness, and the Ivor Novello award-winning anti-Apartheid song (Something Inside) So Strong (1987).

In recent years he has concentrated on expressing himself through theatre and poetry, although he released an album of new material in 2006.

He met his partner, Peter Lloyd, in 1964 and in December 2005, after more than 40 years together they became civil partners.

Official site

Forrest Reid

Forrest Reid born 25 June 1876 (d. 1948)

Forrest Reid was a novelist, literary critic and translator. He was, along with Hugh Walpole and J M Barrie, a leading pre-war British novelist of boyhood. He is still acclaimed as the greatest of Ulster novelists.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Reid entered Christ's College Cambridge in 1905, and was influenced there by the novelist E M Forster. After graduation Forster continued to visit Reid, who was then settled back in Belfast, and the remained lifelong friends. In 1952 Forster travelled to Belfast to unveil a plaque commemorating Forrest Reid's life (at 13 Ormiston Crescent).

As well as his fiction, Reid also translated poems from the Greek Anthology (Greek Authors (Faber, 1943)). His study of the work of W B Yeats (W B Yeats: A Critical Study (1915)) has been acclaimed as one of the best critical studies of that poet. He also wrote the definitive work on the English woodcut artists of the 1860s; his collection of original illustrations from that time are housed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

He was a close friend of Walter de la Mare, whom he first met in 1913, and about whose fiction he published a perceptive book in 1929. Reid was also an influence on novelist Stephen Gilbert, and had good connections to the Bloomsbury Group of writers. Reid was a founding member of the Imperial Art League (later the Artists' League of Great Britain).

A 'Forrest Reid Collection' is held at the University of Exeter, England; consisting of first editions of all his works and books about Reid. Many of his original manuscripts are in the archives of the Belfast Central Library.

Rictor Norton

Rictor Norton born 25 June 1945

Rictor Norton, PhD, is an American-born author, social and literary historian and writer, specialising in gay history.

Rictor Norton was born in New York. He gained a BA from Florida Southern College in 1967, and a PhD from Florida State University in 1972. His doctoral dissertation was on homosexual themes in English Renaissance literature. He worked as an lecturer at Florida State University from 1970-72, where he taught a course on gay and lesbian literature in 1971, one of the earliest gay courses in the United States. He was an active member of the Gay Liberation Front from 1971-72, and was involved in campaigning for the repeal of Florida's sodomy statute.

In 1973, he moved to London, UK, where he has lived since, working as a journalist, publisher, researcher and freelance scholar. He worked as a research editor for the fortnightly London newspaper Gay News from 1974 to 1978. He wrote articles on gay history and literature for publications such as Gay Sunshine and The Advocate throughout the 1970s, and for Gay Times later.

Norton's first book grew out of his PhD thesis on homosexuality in English Renaissance Literature. It was published as The Homosexual Literary Tradition (1972).

Norton has published many academic articles in literary journals in the US and UK. He has also contributed to Sex Doctors and Sex Crimes, a contributor of entries to Who's Who in Gay & Lesbian History (Routledge, 2001) and a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

His recent work includes Mother Clap's Molly House (1992; 2nd edition 2006), a history of the Molly House in England, and The Myth of the Modern Homosexual, a critique of social constructionism and the Foucauldian model of sexuality. His work My Dear Boy (1998) edits sixty sets of love letters from men to other men throughout history, from Ancient Rome to Twentieth-century America.

He maintains an extensive website on Gay History and Literature, with large subsections on Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook and on the 'father of gay history' John Addington Symonds, as well as a non-gay site on Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports: A Sourcebook.

In December 2005 he formed a civil partnership with his partner of thirty years.

George Michael

George Michael born 25 June 1963

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, London, George Michael first found fame with his school friend Andrew Ridgely in the hugely successful 80s pop duo Wham! But George was always really a solo artist with a best mate along for the ride and he released two successful solo singles - both now classics - Careless Whisper (1984) and A Different Corner (1986). In '86, the inevitable happened and Wham! split.

George Michael has released relatively few solo albums in the ensuing 20+ years but has achieved global record sales of 80 million, mostly in the early years when he was truly a global superstar.

Faith (1987), which spawned 4 US number 1 singles, Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 (1990), Older (1986), Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1998), a poorly received album of covers Songs From the Last Century (1999) and Patience (2004). Another greatest hits album Twenty Five was released in 2006 to coincide with his first tour for 15 years.

George's solo career has been beset by a number of personal problems which have combined to dwindle his output and ultimately his success, although some beautiful music has come as a result: a 1993 court case with his record label; a reluctance to appear in videos; a refusal to tour for over 15 years; the death of his lover from an AIDS-related illness - George was still officially in the closet at this point; the death of his mother from cancer; and his arrest in 1998 for 'engaging in a lewd act' with an undercover police officer in a public restroom in a Beverley Hills park.

Ironically, this forced coming out boosted his popularity in the UK, gave him a huge hit with Outside and tied in with his Ladies & Gentlemen best of album. Less ironically, the scandal destroyed his career and credibility in a less-forgiving US, and he is no longer really a global superstar, although his 2006-8 live appearances demonstrated his resilience as a star and the strength of his (surprisingly brief) catalogue.

George Michael remains a great and enduring songwriter, a powerful and emotional singer, a charismatic performer and a celebrity we can't get enough of - even if he does take himself too seriously, is always having public spats with Elton John and mishaps in his several cars - allegedly due to his deep love of the demon weed. Michael claims to use cannabis as an aid to creativity and to fight off depression.

In 2006 George Michael undertook a successful arena tour of Europe and the UK - his first live tour for 15 years. Following this success, Michael undertook a major stadium tour in 2007 and in 2008 finally returned to North America to tour, also appearing on the American Idol 2008 finale.

In 2008 he announced two final shows for London's Earl Court and that he would once again retire from the live stage. In 2009 he duetted on Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me with eventual winner Joe McElderry on The X-Factor finale. He undertook a short tour of Australia in 2010 and appeared at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras after party.

In early-2008 he signed a major deal with Harper Collins to write a 'no-holds barred' autobiography.

Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer born 25 June 1935

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Larry Kramer is a dramatist, author and gay rights activist of huge importance - a voice often out of the mainstream, even in a movement which is out of the mainstream itself.

Educated at Yale, graduating in 1957, he spent most of the 1960s living in London and working in the film industry. He wrote the screenplay for Ken Russell's landmark film adaptation of D H Lawrence's Women In Love.

After returning to the US, Kramer became increasingly involved in gay activism in the '70s. In 1978 he produced the seminal Faggots, which was a hugely successful gay-themed novel, but drew the ire of many gay activists as it was as much a criticism of the hedonistic gay lifestyle as a celebration. With the benefit of hindsight, the book was a warning flag of what was to come.

Larry Kramer was living in New York when the AIDS epidemic began in 1981. He responded by writing articles urging action in response to the rapid and alarming new crisis in the New York Native. He was one of the founders of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) organisation, the first major AIDS advocacy group, which survives to this day. Increasingly disillusioned with the response to the AIDS crisis by the US government and the gay community, he was one of the founders of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP), a much more radical and militant advocacy group, which again continues today.

His 1985 play The Normal Heart, about the early years of AIDS, is one the most important cultural responses to the crisis. He has continued to produce plays, political writings and essays critical of the US government and the hedonistic refusal of the gay community to take the battle for gay rights much further than its early achievements, or to maintain the pressure to adequately battle the on-going spread of AIDS. Kramer looks for more than the right to disco.

Diagnosed with HIV himself in the 1990s, Kramer has become more involved in treatment issues, focusing on making treatment more readily available to people with HIV/AIDS.

In 2001, Yale finally accepted a donation of Kramer's literary and political papers and an endowment of $1m to create a gay and lesbian studies course - '... to teach gay history, unencumbered with the prissy incomprehensible gobbledygook of gender studies and queer theory'.

After the November 2004 Presidential elections, Kramer gave a widely covered speech declaring that gay rights were 'officially dead' in America, that most homosexuals were too busy with drugs or sex to care about their future, and that AIDS was exploited as part of a long-range plan by the government to exterminate homosexuals. He also blasted the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and other gay organisations for what he saw as timidity and selfishness.

This speech is one of the most terrifying things I have ever read as a gay man and I urge you to read it here. Even if you don't agree, Larry Kramer is, as much as ever, a man with something important to say and a powerful means of saying it.

In March 2007 Larry Kramer spoke at a celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of ACT-UP and subsequently wrote an open letter to the American people published in the Los Angeles Times asking why straight people "hate gay people so much".

Kramer lives in New York and Connecticut with his partner, architect David Webster.

Kristian Digby

Kristian Digby born 24 June 1977 (d. 2010)

Kristian Digby was an English television presenter and director who was best known for presenting To Buy or Not to Buy on BBC One.

Kristian Digby was born in Torquay, Devon to a family of property developers. In 1997, Digby's film Words of Deception won him a Junior BAFTA. The following year, his film Last Train to Demise which featured actress and model Lucy Perkins, won the Melbourne Film Festival Award for Best Student Film.

Kristian Digby started his television presenting career for ITV presenting Nightlife. At around the same time, he directed television programmes Homefront, Fantasy Rooms, She’s Gotta Have It which also featured actress and model Lucy Perkins, Girls On Top and The O-Zone. In 2001, Digby presented That Gay Show on BBC Choice (now BBC Three).

Since 2003, Digby presented for the BBC, most notably To Buy or Not to Buy. In addition, he presented Uncharted Territory, Holiday, Trading Up, Living in the Sun and Open House. He also occasionally appeared on the BBC News Channel as a 'property expert'.

In 2006 he appeared in Simon Fanshawe's The Trouble with Gay Men and bemoaned the lack of gay role models and how he refused to camp it up on TV - although his presenting was often characterised by a playful campiness. In the September 2006 edition of AXM he appeared nude for charity.

In 2008 Digby decided to build his own house, designed by Neu Architects. The BBC decided to follow this and also draw in other people who have done something similar with Digby interviewing them. The premise was similar to Channel 4's Grand Designs, but on a smaller scale.

Kristian Digby was patron of gay youth homeless charity the Albert Kennedy Trust. He was also open about his struggles with dyslexia, which created problems for him at school and in the early days of his television career, so severe were his difficulties with reading and writing.

Kristian Digby was discovered dead in his London flat early on 1 March 2010. Police have initially described the circumstances surrounding his death as 'unexplained'. He was just 32.

His body was found by a neighbour when a friend became concerned that he could not contact him. Police sources said that they believe he died in a solo sex game which went tragically wrong. A belt and a bag were taken away for examination by officers, they told the Daily Mail. There are no suggestions his death was suicide. A first post-mortem on his body was 'inconclusive' according to a Metropolitan Police spokesman, and further tests were awaited. His inquest opened on 4 March 2010 at Walthamstow Coroner's Court; both his parents attended. The inquest was adjourned later the same day.

Rex Whistler

Rex Whistler born 24 June 1905 (d. 1944)

Rex Whistler, Reginald John 'Rex' Whistler. English Artist, designer and illustrator.

Rex Whistler was the son of Henry and Helen Frances Mary Whistler. He was sent to board at Haileybury in May 1919 where he began to show a precocious talent for art, providing set designs for play productions and giving away sketches to prefects in lieu of 'dates' (a punishment unique to Haileybury, similar to 'lines' but whereby offenders are required to write out long, set lists of historical dates).

After Haileybury the young Whistler was accepted at the Royal Academy but disliked the regime there and was 'sacked for incompetence'. He then proceeded to study at the Slade School of Art where he met The Honourable Stephen Tennant, soon to become one of his best friends and a model for some of the figures in his works. Through Tennant, he later met the poet Siegfried Sassoon and his wife Hester, to both of whom Whistler became very close.

Upon leaving the Slade he burst into a dazzling career as a professional artist. His work encompassed all areas of art and design. From West End theatre to book illustration (including works by Evelyn Waugh and Walter de la Mare, and perhaps most notably, for Gulliver's Travels) and mural and trompe l'oeil painting. Paintings at Port Lympne, Plas Newydd [detail below] and Dorneywood amongst others, show his outstanding talent in this genre.

During his time at Plas Newydd he may well have become the lover of the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Anglesey, the owner of the house who had commissioned him to undertake the decorative scheme. Whistler and Lady Caroline Paget are known to have become very close friends and he painted numerous portraits of her, including a startling nude. Whether this painting was actually posed for or whether it was how Rex imagined her naked is a matter of debate.



His most noted work during the early part of his career was for the Cafe at the Tate Gallery completed in 1927 when he was only 22. He was commissioned to produced posters and illustrations for Shell Petroleum and the Radio Times. He also made designs for Wedgwood china based on drawings he made of the Devon village of Clovelly. Whistler's elegance and wit ensured his success as a portrait artist among the fashionable and he painted many members of London society, including Edith Sitwell, Cecil Beaton and the other members of the set which he belonged to and which became known as the 'Bright Young Things'.

When war broke out, though he was 35, he was eager to join the army. He was commissioned into the Welsh Guards as Lieutenant 131651. His artistic talent, far from being a stumbling block to his military career, was greatly appreciated and he was able to find time to continue some of his work, including a notable self portrait in uniform now in the National Army Museum [pictured left]. In 1944 he was sent to France following the D-Day Landings.

In July he was with the 2nd (Armoured) Battalion in Normandy as the invasion force was poised to break out of the salient east of Caen. On a hot and stuffy 18 July his tank, after crossing a railway line, drove over some felled telegraph wires beside the railway, which became entangled in its tracks. He and the crew got out to free the tank from the wire when a German machine gunner opened fire on them, preventing them from getting back into their tank. Whistler dashed across an open space of 60 yards to instruct its commander to return the fire. As he climbed down from the tank a mortar bomb exploded beside him and killed him instantly, throwing him into the air. He was the first fatality suffered by the Battalion in the Normandy Campaign. The two free tanks of his troop carried out their dead commander's orders before returning to lay out his corpse beside a nearby hedge, after first having removed his personal belongings. Whistler's neck had been broken, but there was not a mark on his body. The troop was then immediately called away to act as infantry support. When that evening permission was obtained to locate and bury Rex Whistler, they found that this had already been done by an officer of the Green Jackets, a regiment in which Whistler's younger brother, Laurence (an acclaimed glass engraver and poet) was serving.

Later the body of Rex Whistler was moved to a grave in the Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery in Calvados, about two miles from the place where he was killed on his first day in action. His grave can still be found there today in the immaculately kept Military Cemetery.

Because he died relatively young and his art was more decorative than 'serious' and is far from fashionable now, there is little evidence either way on Rex Whistler's sexuality. However, he moved in very 'artistic' circles, never married and many of his closest friends certainly were gay - and most of his work is decidedly camp, draw your own conclusions.

Photograph of Rex Whistler by Cecil Beaton

Horatio Herbert (Lord) Kitchener

Horatio Herbert (Lord) Kitchener born 24 June 1850 (d. 1916)

He never married and appreciated porcelain, fine fabrics and interior decor, but it is disputed whether Horatio Kitchener was gay or was just more interested in empire than the opposite sex.

The hero of Sudan and the Boer war, whose portrait encouraged millions to enlist for the first world war, has been declared gay by several historians. Little was known about his sexual preferences, although a contemporary journalist remarked that Kitchener 'has the failing acquired by most of the Egyptian officers, a taste for buggery'. Source: The Guardian

Great moustache, great poster. His death in 1916 - the ship he was travelling on HMS Hampshire struck a mine near Scapa Flow on a diplomatic mission to Russia - was a momentous event to World War I Britain.

Naturally, conspiracy theories abound. His body was never recovered.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing born 23 June 1912 (d. 1954)

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance to the modern world of the mathematical, philosophical, and cryptographic work of Alan Mathison Turing. A gifted mathematician, Turing is remembered today as one of the founders of computer science.

The gay community remembers Turing not only for his work on computers and the cracking of the Enigma machine code during World War II, but also because of his needless, horrific death. He committed suicide at the age of 41, two years after his arrest, conviction, and forced chemical castration for his homosexuality.

After pioneering work in computer and software design and in artificial intelligence, and after being honoured for his war work with an OBE in 1946 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1951 at an unusually young age, in 1952 Turing's life took an abrupt turn for the worse.

In 1948, Turing had moved to Manchester after accepting a position as Deputy Director of the Royal Society Computing Laboratory at the University of Manchester, where he soon became involved with a young working class man, Murray Arnold, who would later break into his home.

After reporting the burglary, Turing was arrested and prosecuted for what was then known under British law as Gross Indecency, a section of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, under which Oscar Wilde had also been charged in 1895. Even through this ordeal, he remained open and unapologetic about his sexuality. Turing was offered a stark choice: go to prison or submit to the administration of the hormone oestrogen. Intended to suppress his libido, it was a type of chemical castration.

This treatment left Turing impotent. He also developed breasts. He found his security clearances revoked and he was unable to continue his pioneering work. Two years after his arrest, and one year after this coerced and barbaric 'therapy', Alan Turing killed himself.

He left no note, and the circumstances of his death were inadequately investigated and perhaps left deliberately murky to spare his mother anguish. She believed his death to be accidental. Most commentators believe, however, that he committed suicide by eating an apple smeared with cyanide-laced jam.

Despite the fact that he may have been the most brilliant scientist of his generation, someone whose work in deciphering the German codes during World War II played a major role in achieving Allied victory, Turing was discarded and deemed a security risk because of his homosexuality.

The city of Manchester has done something to celebrate Turing's life and achievements and make amends for the cruel treatment he received - there is now a major road called Alan Turing Way, and a statue of Turing [right] in Sackville Park, near to Manchester's Gay Village.

There is also a statue [above] at the University of Surrey, close to Turing's childhood home in Guildford. In June 2007 a new statue of Turing was unveiled at Bletchley Park, where he carried out his wartime work.

Read more about the life of this incredible man.

The play and film Breaking The Code are about the life and work of Alan Turing.

On 10 September 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Turing was treated after the war.

Dennis Price

Dennis Price born 23 June 1915 (d. 1973)

Dennis Price was an English actor.

He was born Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose-Price in Ruscombe in Berkshire and was partly educated at Copthorne Prep School. His first starring role was in A Canterbury Tale in 1944, and he went on to enjoy a long and successful film career, the high point of which was his performance as the suave murderer in the British comedy classic, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

Though he was gay, he was married to the actress Joan Schofield from 1939 to 1950. They had two children.

Price struggled to lead a conventional life during a period in British history when homosexuality was still a criminal offence. On April 19, 1954, Price tried to commit suicide by attempting to gas himself in his London home. Public sympathy led to a resurgence in his popularity and the offer of film roles. However, his private life, which included heavy gambling and an increasing reliance upon alcohol, began to affect his health, looks and career.

His private struggles may has inspired him to appear as a closeted gay man in the ground-breaking British film Victim (1961). His final appearance was in the marvellous Vincent Price film Theatre of Blood (1973).

In 1959, he was the original "No.1" in charge of the crew of HMS Troutbridge in the first series of the long-running radio comedy The Navy Lark but, unable to continue the role in the second series owing to other work commitments.

In 1965, he became popular with television audiences for his performance as Jeeves opposite Ian Carmichael as Bertie Wooster in The World of Wooster.

Price died of heart failure resulting from a hip fracture in Guernsey at age 58 on October 6, 1973. He is buried on the nearby island of Sark.

David Leavitt

David Leavitt born 23 June 1961

David Leavitt is an American novelist and author.

He is the author of Family Dancing, Equal Affections, The Page Turner, Martin Bauman, or A Sure Thing, The Lost Language of Cranes, While England Sleeps (for the publication of which he was sued by Stephen Spender), The Body of Jonah Boyd, and numerous short stories. His most recent novel is The Indian Clerk.

Leavitt, who is openly gay, has frequently explored gay issues in his work.

At the University of Florida he is a member of the Creative Writing faculty and is also the editor of Subtropics magazine, The University of Florida's literary review. He divides his time between Florida and Tuscany (Italy), where he had many of his books translated.

In 1994–5, Leavitt was sued by the poet Stephen Spender, who claimed Leavitt had plagiarised his memoir in While England Sleeps. Subsequently, Viking Press, Leavitt's publishers, agreed to delete a passage that closely paralleled Spender's. The publishers also agreed never to publish the manuscript that had become the subject of the charge of plagiarism. In addition, Spender claimed that not only had Leavitt plagiarised his writing, but that he had fictionalised his life. The novel was subsquently republished, much revised.

Kenneth Halliwell

Kenneth Halliwell born 23 June 1926 (d. 9 August 1967)

Kenneth Halliwell was a British actor and writer. He was the mentor, partner, and the eventual murderer of playwright Joe Orton.

Halliwell was raised in a somewhat split household. In general, he was ignored by his father and mollycoddled by his mother. His mother's death, which occurred when he was a young boy, was a great negative turning point in his life. Seemingly alone (as the relationship with his father was poor), his life was uneventful until, at the age of 23, he found his father dead, having committed suicide by putting his head in a gas oven. He reportedly determined his father was dead, performed a few household chores, then called for an ambulance.

It was at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1951 that he met Orton, the man who was to make Halliwell's name almost as recognisable as his own. Both men were struggling actors without great talent who became struggling writers. However, their common interests led to the beginning of their relationship. Halliwell, in the early years, seems to have been something of a tutor to Orton, who had had a rather cursory education, and seriously helped to mold the writing style that would later be called "Ortonesque". The two men collaborated on several novels, including The Boy Hairdresser, which were not published until after their deaths. In 1962, along with Orton, he was imprisoned for six months for the theft and defacement of books in Islington Library.

Orton's emerging success as a writer, following their release from prison, put a distance between the two men which Halliwell found difficult to handle. His jealousy was fuelled by his own feelings of inadequacy and lack of attractiveness - he wore a toupee to conceal his baldness - compared to the confident, sexually-promiscuous Orton. Towards the end of his life, Halliwell was on regular courses of anti-depressants.

On August 9, 1967, Halliwell killed Orton by nine blows to his head with a hammer, and then overdosed on Nembutal sleeping pills shortly afterwards. Despite the violence of the murder, it was Halliwell who actually died first. The bodies of the two men were discovered late the following morning when a chauffeur came to the door of their Noel Road flat in Islington to collect Orton for a discussion with The Beatles over a screenplay he had written for them.

Halliwell's suicide note referred to the contents of Orton's diary as an explanation for his actions: "If you read his diary, all will be explained. KH PS: Especially the latter part." This is presumed to be a reference to Orton's description of his promiscuity; his diary contains numerous incidents of cottaging in public lavatories and other sexual relationships.

In Prick Up Your Ears, the 1987 film based on Orton's life, Halliwell was portrayed by Alfred Molina. A 2009 stage version of the story starred comedian Matt Lucas as Halliwell.

Peter Pears

Sir Peter Pears born 22 June 1910 (d. 1986)

Peter Neville Luard Pears, born in Surrey, was an English tenor and the life-long partner of composer Benjamin Britten.

Pears studied music at Hertford College, Oxford but never completed his degree. He spent two years studying voice at the Royal College of Music and joined the BBC Singers. There, in 1936, he met Benjamin Britten and they worked together for most of the rest of their lives together, initially giving recitals together, but eventually, Britten was to write tenor parts in many of his major works with Pears specifically in mind - Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Owen Wingrave, The Turn of the Screw, Death In Venice, Albert Herring - all featured Pears in the title or other leading role. Pears was also a noted interpreter of Schubert lieder.

Opinions about the quality of his voice vary, but his good articulation and vocal agility - not to mention that his husband was writing specifically for him - mark him out as one of the great English singers of the 20th century, as well as half of one of the greatest gay creative partnerships of the age.

Knighted in 1978, two years after Britten's death, Peter Pears died from a heart attack at their home in Aldeburgh. They are buried next to one another in the churchyard of Saint Peter and Saint Paul's Church in Aldeburgh.

Ian Levine

Ian Levine born 22 June 1953

Ian Levine is an English songwriter, producer, and DJ. He's also a well-known (and sometimes controversial) fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who. He was born in Blackpool, England.

Levine is most noted for his work in the music genres of pop, soul, disco, and Hi-NRG. He and songwriting partner Fiachra Trench were among the main figures in the development of the Hi-NRG style, writing and producing So Many Men So Little Time by Miquel Brown, and High Energy by Evelyn Thomas. During the 1980s and 1990s he mixed a huge amount of dance-pop hits including the Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Kim Wilde, Bronski Beat, Bananarama, Tiffany, Dollar, Hazell Dean and founded his own groups: Seventh Avenue and Bad Boys Inc. He also wrote and produced for the highly successful UK boy band Take That and The Pasadenas. He has written and produced many TV themes.

Earlier in his career he was an influential disc jockey at the Blackpool Mecca, and became an avid collector of soul, R&B, and Northern Soul records. In the mid-1970s he also embraced disco, and would ultimately be influential as a producer in the genre's evolution into Hi-NRG.

Levine was also a resident DJ at the legendary London gay disco Heaven.

He is also a serious comic book collector and a committed Doctor Who obssessive. Sad.

Bill Blass

Bill Blass born 22 June 1922 (d. 2002)

William Ralph 'Bill' Blass was an American fashion designer, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is known for his tailoring and his innovative combinations of textures and patterns. He is the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999).

Bill Blass was the son of a dressmaker and a travelling hardware salesman. His father committed suicide when Bill was five, and afterwards Bill found refuge in the arts.

In his autobiography Blass wrote that the margins in his school books were filled with sketches of Hollywood-inspired fashions instead of notes. At fifteen, he began sewing, selling evening gowns for $25 each to a New York manufacturer. At 17 he had saved up enough money to move to Manhattan and study fashion. He excelled in his fashion studies immediately and at 18 was the first male to win Mademoiselle’s Design for Living award. He spent his salary of $30 a week on clothing, shoes, and elegant meals.

In 1942 Blass enlisted in the army. He was assigned to the 603rd Camouflage Battalion with a group of writers, artists, sound engineers, theatre technicians, and other creative professionals. Their mission was to fool the German Army into believing the Allies were positioned in fake locations. They did this by using recordings, dummy tanks, and other false materials.

Blass began his New York fashion career in 1946. He was a protégé of Baron de Gunzburg - an influential fashion editor at Vogue and Harper's. In 1970, after two decades of success in menswear and womenswear, he bought Maurice Rentner Ltd., which he had joined in 1959, and renamed it Bill Blass Limited. Over the next 30 years he expanded his line to include swimwear, furs, luggage, perfume, and chocolate. By 1998, his company had grown to a $700-million-a-year business.

Blass’s designs are best known for being wearable. In a time when other designers were designing clothes which were known more for being a work of art, Blass was designing clothing which even everyday women could wear day or night.

In New York, Blass is also remembered as a generous and influential supporter of AIDS treatment services since the late 1980s and was a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when prominent people were silent about AIDS.

In 1999 Blass sold Bill Blass Limited for $50 million and retired to his home in New Preston, Connecticut. Blass was diagnosed with oral/tongue cancer in 2000, not long after he began writing his memoirs. His cancer later became throat cancer and caused Blass's death in 2002. He died six days after completing his memoir, Bare Blass.

Blass was a connoisseur of antiquities, and his will bequeathed half his $52 million estate, as well as several important ancient sculptures, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.