11-01-1960 Timothy “Tim” D. Cook – Born in Mobile, Alabama. He is the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Named CEO after Steve Jobs announced his resignation on Aug. 24, 2011. In 2009, Cook offered a portion of his liver to Jobs since they both share a rare blood type. Jobs responded by yelling, “I’ll never let you do the. I’ll never do that.” While it had been reported in early 2011 that Cook was gay, Cook chose to keep his personal life private. He did publicly support LGBT rights. On October 30th, 2014 Tim Cook stated publicly about his sexuality in an editorial for Bloomberg Business: “So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.” Cook also explained that he has been open about his sexuality “for years” and while many people at Apple were aware of his sexual orientation, he sought to focus on Apple’s products and customers rather than his personal life. He ended the article by saying, “We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.” Cook became the first openly gay CEO on the Fortune 500 list.
11-01-1889 – 05-31-1978 Hannah Höch – Born in Gotha, Germany. She was a German Dada artist and was one of the originators of photomontage. Höch had a seven-year relationship with Dada artist Raoul Hausmann that ended in 1922. In 1926, she began a relationship with the Dutch writer and linguist Mathilda (Til) Brugman. They defined their affair as a private love relationship. The relationship lasted nine years, ending in 1935. Höch would later say that her time with Brugman was one of the happiest times of her life. From 1938 to 1944 she was married to Kurt Matthies. For the remainder of her life, she remained single. Höch considered herself part of the women’s movement for equality in the 1920s. The Painter, published in 1920, is about an artist who is thrown into an intense spiritual crisis when his wife asks him to do the dishes. She was very critical of the hypocrisy of men. Her art pieces commonly combine male and female traits into one unified being. She managed to survive living in Nazi Germany without being persecuted. Between 1963 and 1973, she returned to images of women as her central theme. She died in Berlin at the age of eighty-eight.
11-01-1913 – 03-31-2006 Charlotte Elisabeth “Lilly” Wust – Born in Berlin, Germany. She was a German housewife of a German banking accountant and soldier during WWII. She is known for her tragic lesbian love affair involving Felice Schragenheim. Their story is told in the 1999 film Aimée & Jaguar, and in a book of the same name by Erica Fischer, published in 1995. Wust stated in January 2001, that Felice Schragenheim “was the greatest love of my life.” Regarding the book and film, she stated, “I do this all for Felice. Everything I can do to bring her back to life.” Their story came to public attention in 1981 when Wust was awarded the Federal Service Cross, one of Germany’s highest civilian honors, for having harbored four Jews (one was Schragenheim) in her house from 1942-1945. German journalist Erica Fischer thought it would make a great book, but it took almost 13 years before it was published. Initially, Wust was reluctant to tell Fischer the details of her involvement with Schragenheim, until one of her sons said, “Mother, if you’re going to tell the story, then tell the whole story.” Aimée and Jaguar were their nicknames for each other. It should be noted that the film portrayed Wust’s husband as brutal and that he beat Aimée for consorting with “the enemy.” Wust claims the scene was pure fiction and that her husband was “a gentle, quiet man” and “never knew that Schragenheim was Jewish or lesbian.” Her husband died fighting on the Russian Front. Schragenheim died in 1945, just weeks before the war’s end, on a death march from the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.
11-01-1896 – 09-17-1940 Captain Napier George Henry Sturt, 3rd Baron Alington – Born in St. Marylebone district of London, United Kingdom. Upon the death of his father, he became the 3rd Baron of Arlington. He owned the Crichel House estate in Dorset. Arlington was described as a “well-cultivated bisexual, with sensuous lips, a distant, antic charm, a history of mysterious disappearance, and a streak of cruelty.” His bisexuality was well known. He may be most notable for having dated Tallulah Bankhead in the 1920s. He was a friend of Karol Maciej Szymanowski, the openly gay Polish composer and pianist.
11-01-1937 – 07-11-1987 Dr. Tom Waddell – Born in Paterson, New Jersey. He was a gay American athlete and competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics. Waddell attended medical school and became a doctor. After being discharged from the army, he moved to San Francisco. Waddell, along with Rikki Streicher and others, founded the Gay Games that began in the early 1980s and have been going ever since. (The games in 2018 will be held in Paris, France.) In 1975, Waddell became lovers with Charles Deaton. An October 11, 1976 issue of People magazine featured the couple in a cover article. They were the first gay couple to appear on the cover of a major, national magazine. In 1981, he began a relationship with John Artman, a public relations man and fundraiser. He also met lesbian athlete Sara Lewinstein. Both Waddell and Lewinstein wanted to have a child and decided to have one together. Their daughter, Jessica, was born in 1983. To protect Jessica’s and her mother’s legal rights, Waddell married Lewinstein. In 1985, Waddell was diagnosed with AIDS. He died in 1987 at the age of 49. His last words were, “Well, this should be interesting.”
11-??-1966 Todd M. Hughes – Born in Delaware, Ohio. He was nominated by President Obama on February 7, 2013, to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Confirmed by the Senate on July 18, 2013. He received his commission on September 24, 2013. He is the first out gay Federal Appeals Court Judge.