Iolanthe Woulff (born March 6)

Iolanthe "Lannie" Woulff came into the world as a male during the fifth year of the Truman presidency, which means that she is rapidly acquiring the status of an antique. In 1958 her family moved from Manhattan to the island of St. Thomas, which in those days was a sparsely-populated tropical dot in the Caribbean. There "Nate", as Lannie was known in those days, spent several idyllic years gleefully swinging from jungle vines and swimming on the world's most beautiful unspoiled beaches. She treasures many poignant memories of that lost paradise, which, alas, is no longer.

Moving back to the mainland in 1964, Lannie attended The Maret School in Washington, D.C. As the Vietnam War raged and protest movements convulsed the nation, she gained admission to Princeton, and after escaping the inaugural Selective Service lottery by a scant fourteen points, graduated in 1973 with a degree in English. For several ensuing years she lived in New York City and worked for her uncle, who was then developing an early prototype hybrid vehicle. That was during the Studio 54 era, the so-called "Me Decade", which Lannie experienced at full throttle while writing a coming-of-age novel which fortunately remained unpublished.

In 1980, at the urging of her younger brother, she moved to Israel, where together they opened a diving business on the Red Sea. When the Lebanon War wiped out the tourist trade and with it their business, she returned stateside to raise pedigreed Black Angus cows on a family farm in northern Virginia's famous Hunt Country. The rolling hills and pastoral beauty of that area provide the setting for SHE'S MY DAD.

Succumbing to the lure of the West in 1987, she finally settled for good in the California resort town of Palm Springs. Ten years later, fulfilling a lifelong imperative, Lannie commenced the complex and emotionally turbulent process of gender transition. During the process she authored a column called "The T Dance" in one of the local LGBT magazines, before turning her attention full-time to fiction writing.

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Further Readings:

She's My Dad by Iolanthe Woulff
Paperback: 469 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press; First Edition edition (November 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1432743775
ISBN-13: 978-1432743772
Amazon: She's My Dad
Amazon Kindle: She's My Dad

"Don't hate, Nicholas. Hate destroys everything. Don't let it destroy you..."

For decades, ultra-liberal Windfield College has been a thorn in the side of Northern Virginia's hidebound elite. When a teaching position unexpectedly becomes available, the school hires a former male graduate - now a transsexual woman named Nickie Farrell - as an assistant professor of English. Hoping to find peace, Nickie keeps her secret under wraps until ambitious lesbian student reporter Cinda Vanderhart outs her. And Cinda has noticed something else: both Nickie and a young townie waiter named Collie Skinner have a genetic quirk which causes their eyes to be different colors. Convinced that the similarity is no coincidence, Cinda begins an investigation to discover the connection between them.

Meanwhile, in a death-bed confession as she succumbs to years of brutality at the hands of her disgraced cop husband, Collie's mother Luanne reveals that his birth resulted from an illicit affair she had with a long-vanished Windfield college senior named Nick Farrington. Shattered by his mother's death, Collie turns for comfort to Robin Thompson, a gentle-hearted Christian co-worker at the upper-crust Foxton Arms restaurant. As Nickie is stalked by a pair of homicidal sociopaths, Robin finds herself entangled not only in Cinda's investigative machinations but also a murderous plot by former U.S Ambassador and tycoon Eamon Douglass to eradicate the hated college with a suicide detonation of a Cesium 137 dirty bomb. Lives and secrets hang in the balance until everything comes to a head on the morning of Windfield's annual spring picnic: April Fools Day.

Filled with richly-drawn characters and building to a stunning climax, SHE'S MY DAD is a story about the destructiveness of hate, the power of love, and the redemptive triumph of good over evil.

Like her title character Nickie Farrell, Iolanthe Woulff is a transsexual woman. A sixty-year-old Princeton-educated English major, she lives in Palm Springs, CA, where for several years she wrote a column in a local magazine about the challenges of gender transition. As the eldest child of author Herman Wouk, storytelling has always been dear to Ms. Woulff's heart. Her hope is that besides providing a suspenseful read, SHE'S MY DAD will help to dispel some of the widespread misconceptions about transsexual people.

More Rainbow Awards at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2010

Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 & Sharon Needles

Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 (born March 6, 1985), known mononymously as Alaska on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, is an American drag performer and recording artist.

Justin Andrew Honard was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Fort LeBoeuf High School in 2003. He studied theater at the University of Pittsburgh.

Honard originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Dissatisfied with the auditioning process, he turned to drag and got a job at the West Hollywood club Fubar. He frequently performed in the Trannyshack shows in Los Angeles. In 2009, he performed in Palm Springs Gay Pride with Tammie Brown and Jer Ber Jones.

Honard met future boyfriend Sharon Needles through Myspace in December 2009 and eventually moved back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to live with him in 2010. Along with Sharon Needles and Cherri Baum, he formed the band the Haus of Haunt, which later evolved into a drag troupe based out of the bar the Blue Moon. As part of the Haus of Haunt, he helped present the Pittsburgh debut of fellow drag queen and recording artist Christeene Vale in 2013. Alaska later impersonated Christeene for the music video "RuPaulogize" by Willam Belli and Sharon Needles.

In November 2012, Logo announced that Alaska Thunderfuck was among 14 drag queens who would be competing on the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, but would be known by the mononym Alaska. He had previously auditioned every season for the show. Alaska won the fragrance commercial-themed main challenge in the episode "Scent of a Drag Queen" and the main challenge for "Sugar Ball." As part of the show, Alaska sang on the "We Are the World"-inspired song "Can I Get an Amen?". The song's proceeds helped benefit the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. In May 2013, Alaska, along with fellow competitor Roxxxy Andrews, was declared the Runner-Up of the season.


Aaron Coady, known by his stage name Sharon Needles, is an American drag performer and recording artist. Needles rose to prominence on the 4th season of the Logo reality competition RuPaul's Drag Race, where he was crowned "America's Next Drag Superstar" in April 2012. His boyfriend and fellow drag performer was Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 (born Justin Andrew Honard). Honard met Needles online in 2009 and eventually moved back to Pittsburgh to live with him in 2011. In November 2013 it was announced that Honard and his boyfriend Sharon Needles had split up after a 4-year relationship.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Thunderfuck_5000

Aaron Coady (born November 28, 1981), better known by his stage name Sharon Needles, is an American drag performer and recording artist. A self-described "stupid genius, reviled sweetheart, and PBR princess," Needles rose to prominence on the fourth season of the Logo reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race, where he quickly became a fan favorite and was subsequently crowned "America's Next Drag Superstar" in April 2012. As of April 2012, Needles lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his boyfriend and fellow drag performer, Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 (born Justin Andrew Honard). In an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, it was revealed that Alaska had auditioned for all four seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race but had not been selected (Thunderfuck would later go on to become a contestant, and runner up, on Season 5). Given Alaska's numerous attempts, Needles has expressed guilt that he was invited to compete after his first audition for the show. Honard met future boyfriend Sharon Needles through Myspace in December 2009 and eventually moved back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to live with him in 2011. Currently Honard lives in Los Angeles. In November 2013 it was announced that Honard and his boyfriend Sharon Needles had split up after a 4-year relationship.

Needles was born Aaron Coady on November 28, 1981 in Newton, Iowa. He has been candid in discussing his childhood years growing up in Iowa as a difficult time when he faced anti-gay and anti-"outsider" harassment, which prompted him to drop out of school before he could complete his high school education. In 2004, Needles moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he began working as a professional drag performer in nightclubs and various other venues with the drag troupe "the Haus of Haunt", which Needles describes as "one punk rock, messy mash up of very talented, fucked up weirdos."



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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Needles

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Charles Boultenhouse & Parker Tyler

Harrison Parker Tyler, better known as Parker Tyler (6 March 1904, New Orleans - June 1974, New York City) was an American author, poet, and film critic. Tyler had a relationship with underground filmmaker Charles Boultenhouse (1926-1994) from 1945 until his death. Their papers are held by the New York Public Library.

Charles Boultenhouse met Parker Tyler in 1945 when Boultenhouse moved to New York in order to attend Columbia University. Boultenhouse had, only a year earlier, read Tyler’s The Hollywood Hallucination and had been deeply impressed by Tyler’s creative and intelligent analysis of commercial film. Soon after their meeting the two men became lovers; they lived together for almost thirty years, until Tyler’s death in 1974.

Before the 1940s Tyler had been best known as a poet and co-author, with Charles Henri Ford, of The Young and The Evil. Beginning with The Hollywood Hallucination, published in 1944, he came to be regarded as a pioneer in the new field of film criticism.

Besides writing on commercial film, Tyler wrote several articles and books on the underground cinema emerging in the United States during the 1940s and ‘50s.

Under the influence of Tyler and the experimental filmmakers with whom the couple were friends, Boultenhouse, who was an aspiring poet, began making films. His explorations in a genre he called “poetic cinema” enjoyed some success and critical acclaim within the small but lively world of experimental film in New York. In the 1950s and 1960s the couple thrived: Tyler was an esteemed cultural critic and champion of the avant garde, and Boultenhouse a promising filmmaker. Their apartment on Charles Street regularly bustled with social and artistic activity.


Parker Tyler with Andy Warhol
Harrison Parker Tyler, better known as Parker Tyler, was an American author, poet, and film critic. Charles Boultenhouse met Parker Tyler in 1945 when Boultenhouse moved to New York in order to attend Columbia University. Boultenhouse had read Tyler’s The Hollywood Hallucination and had been deeply impressed by Tyler’s creative and intelligent analysis of commercial film. Soon after their meeting the two men became lovers; they lived together for almost thirty years, until Tyler’s death in 1974.

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Source: http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/boultenh.pdf

A 1929 account by the young writer Parker Tyler in a letter to a gay friend of his encounter with several men one evening in the Village suggests both the extraordinary effectiveness of these conventions in structuring such interactions and gay men’s ability to play with them: [A friend] and I were in a speakeasy and four young [men] (I think they were newsreel cameramen) tried to make me, asking to be taken to my apartment. But they were frightfully vulgar; they called me Grace or something, until I insisted on Miss Tyler. It was really amusing, for one made a date with me quite anxiously and quite seriously, just as though I were a girl. You know the type he is: W - o - l - f. But I stood him up, of course—the little prick! The young men’s interaction with one of Tyler’s friends indicates the degree to which the fairy’s reconstruction of his gender through his gay cultural style outweighed the physical evidence of his body in determining the men’s response to him. “Jules, being drunk, camped with them too, and they tried to date him—even after feeling his muscle: he could have laid them all low: really it’s as wide as this paper.”
[...]
Many gay men also had jobs in the city’s restaurants, u and some tested the limits of managerial tolerance in the boldness with which they welcomed gay customers. Parker Tyler described the scene in the fall of 1929 when he visited a Childs in Brooklyn with several friends: “Well my dear considering that I was in a huge fur coat of Clairmont’s [one of his women companions] and must have looked very gorgeous, it isn’t a surprise but that waiter started right in camping just as though there were no law!! And everybody in our party started camping after the waiter asked me: ‘What will you have, gorgeous?’, and I replied bitterly: ‘Nothing you’ve got, dearie,’ which really did upset everyone. And you can imagine how things went from bad to worse. So I concluded Brooklyn is wide open and N.Y. should be notified of its existence.”
[...]
Many gay men and lesbians, in fact, especially younger people who felt they had less social position to lose, regularly tested the limits on their openness at restaurants, speakeasies, and other establishments, by dancing together, speaking loudly about their affairs, and camping for others. While at the Round Table in Greenwich Village one night in 1929, Parker Tyler was invited to join a group of lesbians and gay men who were clearly unwilling to brook any restrictions on their evening’s fun: “Someone—Lesbian—rushed up and asked me to join their drinking party,” Tyler wrote a gay friend, “and I did and someone who said he had just been brought out began making drunken love to me but he wasn’t much and then someone—officially male—asked me to dance.” The management had tolerated the gay flirtation at Tyler’s table, but drew the line at same-sex dancing and promptly “ordered [them] off the floor.” The woman who had invited him to join them dismissed the management’s action by commenting curtly that “THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR TYPE,” as Tyler recalled in full capitals. Although Tyler sometimes declined invitations to dance for fear of such reprimands, he often tested the limits in precisely this way—and was almost as often told to stop dancing with men.54 Even Tyler, hardly reticent, was occasionally taken aback by how relentlessly some of his friends challenged hetero-normativity in their Village haunts—and by how insistently they demanded that he not present himself as anything other than gay. At a neighborhood speakeasy one night he found himself, somewhat to his surprise, beginning to neck with a woman he had just met. After a brief flirtation and “some drinks,” he reported to a gay friend (in a reversal of the usual attempt to blame homosexual escapades on drink), “I found myself . . . kissing her madly.” The fact that he was “kissing her madly” suggests the casual atmosphere of the place, though casual heterosexual interactions were usually treated more casually than homosexual. But his friends would have nothing of it, and turned his brief heterosexual flirtation into an occasion for asserting a gay presence in the speakeasy. “Who should come in about then,” Tyler continued, “but Paula who exclaimed, ‘What! Parker kissing a female!’” Tyler quieted his friend, but when he returned to the first woman and “started to kiss her again,” a second friend, a gay man, “exclaimed in a booming voice: ‘Parker! Why don’t you tell this girl you’re homosexual?’” Before Tyler could recover from his embarrassment, “who should positively BLOW in at that moment but a bitch named—(artist) who shouted at the top of his voice 0 HELLO MISS TYLER!” “And this was in a speakeasy,” Tyler added immediately, as if even he found it astonishing that someone should be so overtly—and loudly—gay in such a space. He had a similar reaction to the waiter at the Brooklyn Childs who “started right in camping just as though there were no law!!” For all his boldness, Tyler never forgot there was a law—informal as well as formal—against public expressions of gay culture, and it is doubtful that any other gay man did either. Nonetheless, many of them regularly tested the boundaries that law established. --Chauncey, George (1995-05-18). Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. BASIC. Kindle Edition.

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Mary Vincent Hammon & Sarah White Norman

Trial documents naming these women are the only known record of sexual relations between 17th century female English colonists in North America.

Sarah White, of whom little is known, married Hugh Norman in 1639.

Born in 1642, their daughter Elizabeth drowned in a well in 1648.

That year, Mary Vincent, then about 15, married Benjamin Hammon, who had arrived from London in 1634.

Also on March 6, 1648, Mary and Sarah (presumably about a decade older than Mary due to Sarah’s much earlier marriage) were prosecuted at Plymouth for “lewd behavior each with other upon a bed.” Laws against perceived sexual immorality were much more comprehensive in the Puritan colonies than in England, which had long lacked any standard secular means of prosecuting fornication or “pollutions,” as opposed to anally penetrative sodomy between males, and bestiality.

Whereas Mary was only admonished, perhaps because she was younger than 16, the local age of discretion, Sarah stood trial.

During the time of Sarah’s prosecution (1648-1650), her husband deserted his wife and children and returned to England, where he reportedly wasted an inheritance, then lived in debauched poverty.

Mary and her husband later had a number of children and she was widowed in 1703.

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher

Francis Beaumont (1584 – 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher (1579–1625). According to a mid-century anecdote related by John Aubrey, they lived in the same house on the Bankside in Southwark, "sharing everything in the closest intimacy." About 1613 Beaumont married Ursula Isley, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Isley of Sundridge in Kent, by whom he had two daughters, one posthumous. He had a stroke between February and October 1613, after which he wrote no more plays, but was able to write an elegy for Lady Penelope Clifton, who died 26 October 1613. Beaumont died in 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the tomb of Dryden. Although today Beaumont is remembered as a dramatist, during his lifetime he was also celebrated as a poet.

Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thringstone in Leicestershire, a justice of the common pleas. He was born at the family seat and was educated at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) at age thirteen. Following the death of his father in 1598, he left university without a degree and followed in his father's footsteps by entering the Inner Temple in London in 1600.

Accounts suggest that Beaumont did not work long as a lawyer. He became a student of poet and playwright Ben Jonson; he was also acquainted with Michael Drayton and other poets and dramatists, and decided that was where his passion lay. His first work, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, appeared in 1602. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica describes the work as "not on the whole discreditable to a lad of eighteen, fresh from the popular love-poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare, which it naturally exceeds in long-winded and fantastic diffusion of episodes and conceits." In 1605, Beaumont wrote commendatory verses to Jonson's Volpone.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Beaumont

John Fletcher (1579–1625) was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivaled Shakespeare's. Though his reputation has been far eclipsed since, Fletcher remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration. (P: Portrait of John Fletcher, circa 1620)

Fletcher was born in December 1579 (baptised 20 December) in Rye, Sussex, and died of the plague in August 1625 (buried 29 August in St. Saviour's, Southwark). His father Richard Fletcher was an ambitious and successful cleric who was in turn Dean of Peterborough, Bishop of Bristol, Bishop of Worcester, and Bishop of London (shortly before his death) as well as chaplain to Queen Elizabeth. As dean of Peterborough, Richard Fletcher, at the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay "knelt down on the scaffold steps and started to pray out loud and at length, in a prolonged and rhetorical style as though determined to force his way into the pages of history". He cried out at her death, "So perish all the Queen's enemies!"

Richard Fletcher died shortly after falling out of favour with the queen, over a marriage the queen had advised against. He appears to have been partly rehabilitated before his death in 1596; however, he died substantially in debt. The upbringing of John Fletcher and his seven siblings was entrusted to his paternal uncle Giles Fletcher, a poet and minor official. His uncle's connections ceased to be a benefit, and may even have become a liability, after the rebellion of the Earl of Essex, who had been his patron.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fletcher_(playwright)

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Georg Petersen & Nils Johan Ringdal

Nils Johan Ringdal (6 March 1952 – 11 September 2008) was a Norwegian author and historian, known mostly for his works on Norwegian occupation history and Norwegian cultural history, and for his controversial book "Nationaltheaterets Historie 1899-1999" (The History of the National Theater 1899-1999). Ringdal had been living in various countries in Southeast Asia since 1988, along with his domestic partner Georg Petersen. Ringdal was found dead on 11 September 2008 in Denpasar, Indonesia.

The Norwegian historian Nils Johan Ringdal was born in Oslo in 1952. He graduated from Oslo Cathedral School with a Latin-Greek curriculum in 1970 and later studied at the University in Tübingen and The University of Oslo where he majored in history in 1979. He was visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York in 1981-1982 before he began his career as professional writer of history books in Norway.

Ringdal has lectured at the University of Oslo and was chairman of the Historians’ organization, HIFO 1985-1987 and has been a translator, reviewed books for Norwegian newspapers and had his own column in Norwegian gay magazines. He has also been an active athlete and competed in major judo and bodybuilding championships.

Ringdal started his career as a historical writer with smaller books on Norwegian and international contemporary historiography but later proceeded into more wide-ranging fields such as the history of knowledge and urban history and the history of World War II. Norwegian historian Nils Johan Ringdal’s books and articles about such subjects as justice and law enforcement, literary and cultural history, and the German occupation during World War II, reliably arouse debate in his native Norway. His gay autobiographical essays in ”Lystens død?” caused tremendous attention in Norwegian media. His history of the National Theatre caused criticism when published, but has gained authority since. His World history of prostitution is translated to English, German, Danish, Polish and Czech.


Nils Johan Ringdal (6 March 1952 - 11 September 2008) was a Norwegian author and historian. His gay autobiographical essays in ”Lystens død?” caused tremendous attention in Norwegian media. His partner for 30 years, Georg Petersen, a physician, worked for the World Health Organization 1988-2007. Ringdal has lived in Germany, USA, Norway, Switzerland, The Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia. He died on 11 September 2008 in Bali, Indonesia after a long struggle with depression.

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Source: http://www.nilsjohanringdal.com/biography.html

( Further Readings )

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Michael Cart (born March 6)

Past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, Michael Cart is a columnist and reviewer for Booklist magazine. He is also the author or editor of nineteen books, including the gay coming-of-age novel My Father's Scar and—with Christine Jenkins—The Heart Has Its Reasons, a critical history of young adult literature with gay/lesbian/queer content. His anthologies include Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth and Necessary Noise: Stories about Our Families as They Really Are.

In 2008 he was the first recipient of the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award, and in 2000 he received the Grolier Foundation Award for his contribution to the stimulation and guidance of reading by young people. Mr. Cart lives in Columbus, Indiana.

Further Readings:

How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity by Michael Cart
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen (October 6, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061154989
ISBN-13: 978-0061154980
Amazon: How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity
Amazon Kindle: How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity

A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years.

Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others—and themselves—in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels

Patricia Rodríguez & Vanesa Cortes

Patricia Yurena Rodríguez Alonso (born March 6, 1990 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife) is a Spanish beauty queen and actress who captured the crown of Miss Spain 2013 and was a top 15 semifinalist in Miss World 2008. In 2013 she won the title Miss Spain 2013 and represented Spain at Miss Universe 2013 in Moscow, Russia. Miss Spain Patricia Yurena came out of the closet via an intimate photo of her and her girlfriend Vanesa Cortes which she posted to Instagram. Said Yurena in a follow-up message: "I published the picture completely spontaneously and in an impulsive manner. Thank you for all your support." Yurena is the first openly gay national pageant queen.

At 17, Rodríguez was selected Miss Spain 2008, the official representative to Miss Universe, in Oropesa del Mar, Castellón.

Due to Miss Universe eligibility regulations that state every contestant must be 18 before February 1, Rodríguez was ineligible to attend Miss Universe 2008 in Nha Trang, Vietnam and first runner-up Claudia Moro of Madrid went instead.

Rodríguez was sent to compete in Miss World 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she placed as one of the Top 15 semifinalists.

Rodríguez won the title of Miss Spain 2013, gaining the right to represent Spain at Miss Universe 2013 in Moscow, Russia.

Rodríguez represented Spain at Miss Universe 2013 on November 9, 2013 where she competed to succeed Miss Universe 2012, Olivia Culpo of the U.S., eventually finishing as 1st Runner-Up to María Gabriela Isler of Venezuela (her roommate). She is only the second Spanish woman to place 1st Runner-Up (the first one was Teresa Sánchez López in 1985). She is also only one of three former Miss World semifinalists to place in the Miss Universe semifinals, the others being Ada de la Cruz of the Dominican Republic in 2009 and Yendi Phillips of Jamaica in 2010 (coincidentally all three ladies finished as 1st Runner-Up).


Patricia Rodríguez is a Spanish beauty queen and actress. In 2013 she won the title Miss Spain 2013 and represented Spain at Miss Universe 2013 in Moscow, Russia. She came out of the closet via an intimate photo of her and her girlfriend Vanesa Cortes which she posted to Instagram. Said Yurena in a follow-up message: "I published the picture completely spontaneously and in an impulsive manner. Thank you for all your support." Yurena is the first openly gay national pageant queen.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Rodr%C3%ADguez

Russell Kemp & Tom Wahlen

On March 6, 2012, comedienne-actress Fran Drescher officiated the wedding of Tom Wahlen and Russell Kemp at XL Nightclub in New York City. The couple, who have been together since 1992, were the winners of the “‘Love is Love’ Gay Marriage Contest,” in which couples submitted their personal love stories to TV Land (the home of Happily Divorced) in the hopes of catching Drescher’s eye and winning a dream wedding.

“I think they are an exemplary couple,” Drescher told Out. “They seem to be wonderful parents, and their children seem very happy. I think the world needs to see more people like them.”

During the lovely ceremony, the couple’s two small children—daughter Madison and son Mason—played the roles of flower girl and ring-bearer and prepared love poems for their parents. Later, Drescher married Tom and Russell under a chuppah, in accordance with Jewish tradition, and presided over the breaking of the glass and the Hora.

Michael Fruman, a representative for Tom Ford who helped dress the grooms, had many kind words for the happy couple. “They’re great guys,” Fruman said. “They can be completely outrageous sometimes, but they also know how to be classy when the time is right. And in the end, Tom is very much the groom and Russell is very much the bride.”


On March 6, 2012, Fran Drescher officiated the wedding of Tom Wahlen and Russell Kemp. The couple, who have been together since 1992, were the winners of the “‘Love is Love’ Gay Marriage Contest,” in which couples submitted their personal love stories to TV Land in the hopes of winning a dream wedding. “I think they are an exemplary couple,” Drescher told Out. “They seem to be wonderful parents, and their children seem very happy. I think the world needs to see more people like them.”

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Source: www.out.com/entertainment/popnography/2012/03/07/fran-drescher-officiates-wedding-two-men-new-york-city

More Real Life Romances at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

New Release: Paper Doll (Jana Lane Mystery Book 1) by Joe Cosentino

Welcome to my blog, Joe Cosentino. You are both an actor and author. How do the two sides merge in your writing?

Thank you, Elisa. It’s my pleasure to be on your blog today.
As a kid I played make believe constantly. “Let’s put on a show!” was my motto. Thankfully my parents and teachers indulged me (rather than committed me-hah). Eventually I became an actor in film, television, and theatre, working opposite stars like Bruce Willis, Nathan Lane, Rosie O’Donnell, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. It occurred to me that acting is storytelling in the same way that writing is storytelling, so I decided to give writing a try. I knew my first novel would be a show business story, since show business has always been such a huge part of my life. As an avid mystery reader, it was clear to me that my novel would be a page-turning murder mystery with clever plot twists, engaging characters, romance, humor, and lots of clues leading to a surprising conclusion.
When writing or acting, I ask myself the same questions about my characters. What are their histories, motivations, actions, objectives, emotions, tactics? What do they want and why? How do they go about getting what they want? What are their secrets? Who do they love or hate? What makes them happy or fearful? I also try to find their passions and methods of self-expression. Finally, I search for their humor, since in every situation, no matter how upsetting or harrowing, there is always humor.

You are a college professor. How does that influence your acting and writing careers?

The old adage that you learn by teaching others is so true. Every time I give a lecture, engage in a class discussion, speak to a student one-on-one, and/or critique my students’ work in class, I learn something. I like playing and writing engaging characters who I want to spend time with. If acting or directing, I do improvisations with other actors to flesh out the backgrounds or back-stories of the characters. When writing I let my characters talk to one another and see what happens! I’ve learned an outline is simply an outline, and not to be afraid to deviate from it.
Also, by having read hundreds of them, I’ve learned a great deal about mystery writing. I write mystery novels that drop lots of clues leading to the murderer. I also incorporate many other characters with secrets into the story. I create an entire world of suspense above and beyond “who done it.” When a reader finishes my books, he/she should be satisfied that the various parts equaled the whole, rather than the author pulling an ending out of the hat. When I read a great novel, I feel as if I am the leading character, going through the story and experiencing all of the emotions right along with him/her. A terrific mystery lays out all the clues and culminates with only one possible ending, unveiling various secrets along the way. I don’t appreciate mystery novels, where authors lay out clues then arbitrarily pick a murderer. All of those things have influenced my writing.
In PAPER DOLL I share my love of movies and moviemakers with my readers. I have always been fascinated with ex-child stars like Hayley Mills, Shirley Temple, Patty Duke, and Brooke Shields. My heroine, Jana Lane, is an ex-child star who has lost her self esteem as an adult. Through the course of the book, Jana not only solves the mystery of her past, but also reclaims the courage and fortitude she had as a child. This is an important message for all of us.
I am currently writing a comedy mystery series set in the world of academia. Since I am a college professor, I know that world quite well. I have completed the first two novels, DRAMA QUEEN and DRAMA MUSCLE. I am currently writing the third, DRAMA CRUISE. The first novel will be published by Lethe Press this summer.

Thank you, Elisa, for hosting me today. I love to hear from readers. After they have read PAPER DOLL, I hope they will contact me with their reactions via my web site at http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com. Happy reading!

Paper Doll (Jana Lane Mystery Book 1) by Joe Cosentino
Publisher: Whiskey Creek Press LLC (March 5, 2015)
Amazon Kindle: Paper Doll (Jana Lane Mystery Book 1)

Jana Lane was America’s most famous child star until she was attacked on the studio lot at eighteen years old. Now she’s a thirty-eight-year-old beauty and mother of two living in a mansion in picturesque Hudson Valley, New York. Jana’s flashbacks from her past turn into murder attempts in her present. Forced to summon up the lost courage she had as a child, Jana visits the California movie studio she once called home. This sends her on a whirlwind of visits with former and current movie studio personnel. It also leads to a romance with the son of her old producer – Rocco Cavoto – the devilishly handsome filmmaker who is planning Jana’s comeback both professionally and personally. Can Jana uncover a web of secrets about everyone she loves, including the person who destroyed her past and threatens to snuff out her future?

( Excerpt )

About the author: Joe Cosentino is the author of An Infatuation (Dreamspinner Press). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. His one-act plays, Infatuation and Neighbor, were performed in New York City. He wrote a musical theatre adaptation of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Eldridge Plays and Musicals), and The Perils of Pauline educational film (Prentice Hall Publishers). Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. His upcoming novels are Porcelain Doll (the second Jana Lane mystery) and Drama Queen (Lethe Press). http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com. 

Dirk Shafer (November 7, 1962 - March 6, 2015)

Dirk Alan Shafer (November 7, 1962 - March 6, 2015) was 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.


1992-2012
Dirk Shafer was an American model, actor, screenwriter and director. He is most noted for being Playgirl magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1992. He did it for "validation" as a model because he never believed himself to be attractive. In 2012, Shafer returned to the pages of Playgirl for a 20th anniversary photo spread in the August issue. 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.



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Shafer