Claudia Müller & Maren Kroymann

Maren Kroymann (born July 19, 1949 in Walsrode) is a German actress and singer. According to her website she lives with Claudia Müller, together with whom she gave an interview which appeared in the November 2008 of the German goumet magazine “Der Feinschmecker”.

Kroymann studied English, Romance studies, and American studies at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. After spending time in Paris and the United States, Kroymann moved to Berlin, where she sang in the Hanns-Eisler Choir. In recent years, Kroymann has appeared in a number of German films.

In an interview with the German Taz, Kroymann has said that she always wanted people to know that she’s a lesbian, but also that she can still play any role that she would be able to play if people didn’t know that she was gay, and that it took some time before producers finally accepted the fact that an out lesbian can play straight characters.

Punish Me, Winner of the Golden Leopard prize at the 2006 Locarno Film Festival, features engaging performances from Kostja Ullmann, one of the standout, lead actors in the theatrical release SUMMER STORM and from Maren Kroymann.


Maren Kroymann is a German actress and singer. She lives with Claudia Müller, together with whom she gave an interview in November 2008 for the German magazine “Der Feinschmecker”. Kroymann has said that she always wanted people to know that she’s a lesbian, but also that she can still play any role that she would be able to play if people didn’t know that she was gay, and that it took some time before producers finally accepted the fact that an out lesbian can play straight characters.

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

( Further Readings )

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

Danny Roberts & Wes

Danny Roberts (born July 19, 1977; Rockmart, Georgia) is best known for appearing on The Real World: New Orleans in 2000 and has currently a role in "DTLA" (with Darryl Stephens). Roberts first met his partner Wes in college at the University of Georgia. They were both closeted, so their brief affair was hush-hush. “Fast forward 10 years and I’m living in New York City and out with friends for my birthday,” Danny tells AfterElton.com. “Guess who approaches me and asks if I remember him? Yep, there’s Wes. My reply was, ‘Of course, you’re the sexy Puerto Rican from college!’ So we started dating casually, but eventually I had to move to Atlanta for a job. The decision was made for Wes to join me so we’ve been living together since. I guess you can call it all fate!” The couple has been together – “in some fashion on another,” Danny says – since 2007.

“We’re both getting used to living in the South,” Danny says. “It’s a real first for Wes and practically new for me after being away for ten years. It’s culture shock at its best! We both have a similar temperament and world-view so it’s a good match. I would say our number one love that we both enjoy more than anything is travel. We soon leave for Central America to see the Mayan ruins, which is a life-long dream of mine.”


Danny Roberts is best known for appearing on The Real World: New Orleans in 2000 and has currently a role in "DTLA". Roberts first met his partner Wes in college at the University of Georgia. They were both closeted, so their brief affair was hush-hush. "Fast forward 10 years and I’m living in New York City and out with friends for my birthday. Guess who approaches me and asks if I remember him? Yep, there’s Wes. My reply was, ‘Of course, you’re the sexy Puerto Rican from college!’"

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Roberts_(The_Real_World)

( Further Readings )

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

David Gerstner & Michelangelo Signorile

Michelangelo Signorile (born December 19, 1960) is a gay American writer, a national talk radio host whose program is aired each weekday across the United States and Canada. He is a political liberal, and covers a wide variety of political and cultural issues. On November 22, 2011 Signorile was named Editor-at-Large for the Gay Voices vertical of The Huffington Post. On July 19, 2013 he married film historian David Gerstner in New York City: “Blown away by all the best wishes here to David and me on our wedding. Thanks to all, far and wide, for making the day even more special.” He announced it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSignorile/status/358248778706350080/photo/1

Signorile is noted for his various books and articles on gay and lesbian politics, and is an outspoken supporter of gay rights. Signorile's seminal 1993 book Queer in America explored the negative effects of the LGBT closet, and provided one of the first intellectual justifications for the practice of outing public officials, influencing the debate and treatment of the issue among journalists from that point on. Signorile has argued in favor of outing from a journalistic perspective, calling for the "equalization" of reporting on homosexual public figures and heterosexual public figures. He has argued that the homosexuality of public figures—and only public figures—should be reported on when relevant, and only when relevant. In 1992 Newsweek listed him as one of America's "100 Cultural Elite," and he is included in the 2002 book, The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present, which begins with Socrates at number 1 and ends with Signorile at number 100.


Michelangelo Signorile (born December 19, 1960) is a gay American writer, a national talk radio host whose program is aired each weekday across the United States and Canada. He is a political liberal, and covers a wide variety of political and cultural issues. On November 22, 2011 Signorile was named Editor-at-Large for the Gay Voices vertical of The Huffington Post. On July 19, 2013 he married film historian David Gerstner in New York City. He announced it on Twitter the same day.

( Read more... )

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

Michelangelo Signorile was typical of the young people who were drawn to activism for the first time by the new organization, ACT UP; before he attended his first ACT UP meeting, the former theatrical press agent turned freelance writer had never entered the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in Greenwich Village. Signorile was mesmerized by the Monday-night scene inside the former New York City public school on 13th Street, where the weekly meeting of 450 was facilitated by "the extremely handsome" David Robinson, who wore a dress; and Maria Maggenti, a "beautiful lesbian with long blond hair". Signorile reported, "Crying and yelling were almost rituals, and he was "exhilarated".
It was also a great place to pick up a date.
Signorile joined the media committee, which was meeting in Vito Russo's apartment, and started reading books by Larry Kramer, Martin Duberman, and other gay writers. "It was time to wake everyone else up too", he decided. The sidewalks of Manhattan were quickly covered with the organization's stenciled slogan, "Silence = Death". --The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America by Charles Kaiser

( Further Readings )

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

Alice Dunbar Nelson & Robert J. Nelson

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 - September 18, 1935) was an American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar; she then married physician Henry A. Callis; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist.

Alice Ruth Moore was born in New Orleans to middle-class parents Patricia Wright, a seamstress and former slave, and Joseph Moore, a merchant marine, who were people of color and part of the traditional multiracial Creole community of the city. At a time when fewer than 99% of any people went to college, Moore graduated from Straight University (now Dillard University) in 1892 and started work as a teacher in the public school system of New Orleans.

In 1895 her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review. About that time, Moore moved to New York. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and publisher Paul Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898.

She and Paul Dunbar separated in 1902 but were never divorced. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. Paul Dunbar died in 1906.


Alice Dunbar Nelson was an American poet, journalist and political activist. In 1898 she married poet and journalist Paul Laurence Dunbar and ended up moving to Washington, DC, to join him. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. In 1902, after he beat her nearly to death, she left him, and moved to Delaware. In 1910, she married Henry A. Callis, a prominent physician and professor at Howard University, but this marriage ended in divorce. In 1916, she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. They stayed together for the rest of their lives.

( Read more... )

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

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

Claude Cahun & Suzanne Malherbe

Suzanne Malherbe (19 July 1892 - 19 February 1972), also known by the alias Marcel Moore, was a French illustrator and designer. She was the partner of Claude Cahun, surrealist writer and photographer.

She collaborated with the poet Marc-Adolphe Guégan, producing illustrations for two of his books.

She was born in Nantes and died in Jersey in 1972. She was buried with her partner Claude Cahun in St Brelade's Church.

Claude Cahun (25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French artist, photographer and writer. Her work was both political and personal, and often undermined traditional concepts of gender roles. Though Cahun's writings suggested she identified as agender, most academic writings use feminine pronouns when discussing her and her work, as there is little documentation that gender neutral pronouns were used or preferred by the artist.

Born in Nantes as Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, Claude was the niece of an avant-garde writer Marcel Schwob and the great-niece of Orientalist David Léon Cahun. She was brought up by her grandmother, Mathilde Cahun.

She began making photographic self-portraits as early as 1912, when she was 18 years old, and she continued taking images of herself through the 1930s.


Claude Cahun was a French artist, photographer and writer. During the early 20s, they settled in Paris with their lifelong partner and stepsibling Suzanne Malherbe, whom they met at the lycée. For the rest of their lives together, Cahun and Malherbe collaborated on various written works, sculptures, photomontages and collages. Around 1922 Claude and Malherbe began holding artists' salons at their home. Claude and Suzanne are buried together at St Brelade's Church in the island of Jersey.


Claude Cahun & Suzanne Malherbe are buried together at St Brelade's Church in the island of Jersey.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Cahun

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

Jane Bancroft & Joseph Hansen

Joseph Hansen (July 19, 1923 - November 24, 2004) was an American crime writer and poet, best known for a series of novels starring his most iconic creation, private eye Dave Brandstetter.

Hansen was born in 1923 in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Altadena, California.

Although he published almost forty books in a wide variety of genres, Hansen is best remembered for his ground breaking series of crime novels starring his most iconic creation, Dave Brandstetter, an openly homosexual private eye who still embodied the tough, no-nonsense personality of the classic hardboiled protagonist. His first adventure, Fadeout, was published in 1970, and over the next twenty-one years eleven more entries in the series were written: Death Claims (1973), Troublemaker (1975), The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of (1978), Skinflick (1979), Gravedigger (1982), Nightwork (1984), The Little Dog Laughed (1986), Early Graves (1987), Obedience (1988), The Boy Who Was Buried This Morning (1990), and A Country of Old Men (1991). No Exit Books, a British publisher, issued an omnibus volume, The Complete Brandstetter, in 2007.

Hansen published his first work, a poem, in The New Yorker, in 1952. He also published poetry in other magazines, briefly sang with a folk-music-group on a California radio-station, and had several part-time jobs in bookstores and magazines.

At the beginning of his career as a novelist, Hansen wrote under the pseudonym James Colton or James Coulton, producing novels such as Strange Marriage and Known Homosexual. He also wrote two gothic novels under the pseudonym Rose Brock (Longleaf and Tarn House).


Joseph Hansen, 1994, by Robert Giard
Joseph Hansen was an American crime writer and poet, best known for a series of novels featuring private eye Dave Brandstetter. At the beginning of his career as a novelist, Hansen wrote under the pseudonym James Colton or James Coulton, producing novels such as Strange Marriage and Known Homosexual. Hansen was married to artist Jane Bancroft, a lesbian, from 1943 to her death in 1994. He said their relationship was that of "a gay man and a woman who happened to love each other." The couple had one daughter, who later had a sex-change operation. 

American photographer Robert Giard is renowned for his portraits of American poets and writers; his particular focus was on gay and lesbian writers. Some of his photographs of the American gay and lesbian literary community appear in his groundbreaking book Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, published by MIT Press in 1997. Giard’s stated mission was to define the literary history and cultural identity of gays and lesbians for the mainstream of American society, which perceived them as disparate, marginal individuals possessing neither. In all, he photographed more than 600 writers. (http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/giard.html)

( read more )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hansen_(writer)

I also love the David Brandsetter series by Joseph Hansen. This series feels to me as if someone took my name and number, asked me what I like to read in a book, went home, and wrote it just for me. I can’t describe it any better. Hansen’s “flavor” is very similar to one of my all-time favorite writers, Joan Didion. Something about the way they perceive things, I think, the types of observations that they make speak to me. I read a lot of Didion’s essays and in one that I think of often she describes the feeling of shock that permeated Los Angeles around the time of the Manson Family murders. There are a lot of things about living in Los Angeles in the sixities and seventies that color your perceptions and I think it’s a zeitgeist or something with writers like Isherwood, Didion and Hansen. The first in the Brandsetter series was “Fadeout”. --Z.A. Maxfield

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

UK Meet: Allan Jay

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the UK Meet in Bristol, September 11-13, 2015, today author is Allan Jay: "I write about men falling in love. The romance, the sex, the scary emotions and the occasional silly moments that go with it."

Further Readings:

Trick Tease Treat: A Fisher City Story by Allan Jay
Kindle Edition, 21 pages
Published October 26th 2014 by Cool Beans Publishing & Editing
ASIN B00OXW6GRC
edition language English

Drew, newly single and unsure of what to do, has friends who are looking out for him. When they take him to a Halloween party to cheer him up and get him 'out there' he's reluctant at first - who's hiding in amongst the costumed revelers? The ex he doesn't want to bump into again, or someone more charming.
When a hot ghost starts flirting, Drew doesn't know whether to ignore the ghost or flirt back. Can he even remember how to flirt?
And his friends being more kooky than spooky, aren’t helping.

GRL: Hank Edwards

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015, today author is Hank Edwards: Hank Edwards’ humorous erotic novel, Fluffers, Inc., which introduced his Fluffers, Inc. characters, is available from Lethe Press in both print and e-book format, along with the sequels A Carnal Cruise and Vancouver Nights. His Up to Trouble series of suspense novels include Holed Up, Shacked Up, and Roughed Up. He has also published the gay marriage romantic comedy Plus Ones, all available from Loose Id in e-book format. His noir gay romance novella Hired Muscle is available from Silver Publishing.

All three books of his paranormal Venom Valley Series are now available from Wilde City Press: Cowboys & Vampires: Venom Valley Book One, Stakes & Spurs: Venom Valley Book Two, and Blood & Stone: Venom Valley Book Three. The series follows Josh and Dex who battle vampires and zombies in the American Old West as they realize just how deep their feelings for each other reach.

He also has self-published two short story collections, A Very Dirty Dozen and Another Very Dirty Dozen, each of which contains 12 sizzling short stories, along with a number of "Salacious Singles," erotic short stories, and his medieval time travel romance Destiny's Bastard.

Hank is a member of the Story Orgy writing group, and has published several short stories written based on prompts: With This Ring, Mistletoe at Midnight, Cross Country Foreplay, A Gift for Greg, and Bad Boyfriends: The Cheapskate. Find his blog at www.hankedwardsbooks.com/hankerings.

More than three dozen of his short stories have appeared in various gay erotic magazines and anthologies, find the complete list on his website. He lives in a suburb of Detroit with his very patient partner of many years and their two cats who distract and inspire him on a daily basis.

Further Readings:

Wetlands (Salacious Singles) by Hank Edwards
Publisher: Hank Edwards Books (December 27, 2014)
Amazon Kindle: Wetlands (Salacious Singles)

When Gordon Westbrick learns the park he jogs through is being considered for the site of a new shopping mall, he joins a group intent on putting a stop to it. He volunteers to spend a night in the park to insure the corporation does not conduct any unseemly acts, and is assigned to partner up with Ivan, one of the conservation group founders. Gordon expects Ivan to be much older, he is a group founder after all, but when he arrives at the park on his assigned night, Gordon is pleasantly surprised to find that Ivan is a hot stud his own age, who not only enjoys nature, but doing what comes naturally when out in the wilds.

2015 Rainbow Awards Submission: A Question of Counsel by Archer Kay Leah

A Question of Counsel (The Republic 1) by Archer Kay Leah
Lesbian Fantasy Romance
Series: The Republic
Paperback: 184 pages
Publisher: Less Than Three Press (May 27, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1620045451
ISBN-13: 978-1620045459
Amazon: A Question of Counsel (The Republic 1)
Amazon Kindle: A Question of Counsel (The Republic 1)

Life hasn't been easy for Aeley since she arrested her brother, and her role as a political leader leaves her feeling isolated and lonely. Days before her brother's trial, she meets Lira, a quiet and modest scribe who makes Aeley want more than just a professional relationship. When she attends the trial and leaves with a marriage contract, Aeley doesn't know what to do. She must choose one of two brothers, marrying into a family she doesn't know. Then she discovers that Lira is part of the same family—a sister to Aeley's suitors and the family's disgrace. And not at all opposed to an intimate relationship. Except random acts of violence against her people test Aeley's ability as a leader, and a web of lies and deceit threaten not only her chance at happiness, but her life...

2015 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2015.html