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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 …

Collected by Ted

June 22

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431 – Paulinus of Nola also known as Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus died on this date. He was a Roman Senator who converted to a severe monasticism in 394. Paulinus was from a notable senatorial family with possessions in Aquitaine, northern Spain, and southern Italy. He was educated in Bordeaux, where his teacher, the poet Ausonius, also became his very special friend. Letters from Paulinus to Ausonius have led to speculation that they had a homosexual relationship. He was a patron of the arts and eventually became Bishop of Nola. He helped to resolve the disputed election of Pope Boniface I, and was canonized as a saint.

Peter Pears (R) with Benjamin Britten

1910 – Peter Pears, the great English Tenor and muse for (and partner of) Benjamin Britten, was born on this date (d.1986). It used to be said, politely of course, that the English tenor was the companion of Benjamin Britten. Since 'companion' seems to conjure up an image of two old ladies in shawls, let's say, no less politely, but more vigorously, that the tenor and the composer were for many years devoted lovers.

For forty years Pears was the life partner of Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas and a number of song cycles with Pears as their intended interpreter. Their partnership is noteworthy not only for the vast body of music and recordings it produced, but also for the extent to which homosexual subjects figured in their work. As Poulenc did for Bernac, Britten wrote some of his most wonderful music for Pears, and Pears introduced Britten's songs and operas throughout the world. Together they worked indefatigably toward the creation of the Aldeburgh Festival, their musical child.

It has been said that Pears' voice is a 'quite unremarkable voice.' His voice was controversial, the vocal quality being unusual, described as 'dry' and 'white'. It was said, cruelly, that he had one good note, E-natural a third above middle C, which is why the crucial aria of Peter Grimes, 'Now the Great Bear and Pleiades', is mainly written on that note. His voice quality did not record well, but there is no doubt that he had unusually good articulation and vocal agility, of which Britten also took advantage. His place in the annals of music history will rest primarily on his association with Britten.

Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, and died in Aldeburgh on April 3, 1986. He is buried there, next to Britten.

1922 – (William Ralph) Bill Blass (d.2002) 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.

1930 – Paul Jacobs (d.1983) was an American pianist. He was best known for his performances of twentieth-century music but also gained wide recognition for his work with early keyboards, performing frequently with Baroque ensembles.

Paul Jacobs was born in New York City and attended school in the Bronx and studied at the Juilliard School, where his teacher was Ernest Hutcheson. He became a soloist with Robert Craft's Chamber Arts Society and played with the Composer's Forum. He made his official New York debut in 1951. Reviewing that concert, Ross Parmenter described him in The New York Times as 'a young man of individual tastes with an experimental approach to the keyboard that he already has mastered.'

He moved to France after his graduation in 1951. There he began his long association with Pierre Boulez, playing frequently in his Domaine musical concerts, which introduced many of the key works of the early twentieth-century to post-war Paris. At a single concert in 1954, which must have lasted close to five hours and also included works by Stravinsky, Debussy and Varèse, Jacobs contributed chamber music by Berg, Webern and Bartók and gave the première of a new work by Michel Philippot.

Tired of trying to live on $500 a year, he returned to New York in 1960 with the assistance of Aaron Copland who arranged for some teaching work. In November and December 1961 he gave a pair of Town Hall recitals, mixing Boulez and Copland, Stockhausen and Debussy. The New York Times described them as 'just about overwhelming ... make no mistake, Mr Jacobs is a virtuoso even in the traditional sense'.

During the 1960s and 1970s he continued to give solo recitals and played frequently for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He had a long collaboration with the American composer Elliott Carter, recording most of Carter's solo piano music and ensemble works with keyboard.

Sometime before April 1982, he began suffering from exhaustion and other symptoms of what was called the 'mystery disease' that appeared to afflict the homosexual male community. Shortly before his death in 1983, the disease was named AIDS, and Jacobs was one of its first prominent artist victims. At his funeral on September 27, 1983, Elliott Carter delivered a eulogy, recalling his friendship and collaboration with Jacobs dating back to the mid-1950s. A memorial concert held at New York's Symphony Space on February 2

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