Okay guys, so after some more demand for this, I've decided to include Wednesday's and Thursday's honorees in one post. Enjoy! October 2nd - Edward Albee - Gay - United States - Playwright Edward Franklin Albee was born in Virginia, and adopted two weeks later, and grew up in New York. Edward's adoptive dad was very involved in the Vaudville entertainment industry, and his adoptive mother raised him to fit into their social circles. Albee was expelled from school numerous times, and left home in his early teens, stating " "I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn't know how to be a son, either." Albee moved to Greenwich, New York, where he worked odd jobs while writing his most successful plays, including The Zoo Story, The Sandbox, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe. He began to dedicate his life to the promotion of American Theatre. Albee knew he was gay since he was 12 years old, although he does not want to be solely known for it. He is quoted at accepting an award at the 2011 Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement: "A writer who happens to be gay or lesbian must be able to transcend self. I am not a gay writer. I am a writer who happens to be gay." Albee's longtime partner, Jonathan Thomas, a sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, from bladder cancer. October 3rd - Gwen Araujo - Transwoman - United States - Transgender Icon Gwen Araujo (Born Edward Araujo Jr.) was born in 1985, and was murdered in 2002 by a group of four men. These men beat her and strangled her, when learning that she was a pre-operative transwoman. Araujo, who was undergoing hormone therapy and going by the name of Gwen Araujo at the time, met Michael Magidson, Jose Merél, Jaron Nabors, and Jason Cazares in the summer of 2002. She was reported to have engaged in oral sex with Magidson and anal sex with Merél. She allegedly claimed to be menstruating and during sex would push her partners' hands away from her private area to prevent them from discovering that she had male sex organs. On October 3, 2002, she attended a party at a house rented by Merél and his brother, Paul, where she was forcibly made to admit that she had male sex organs. The men then beat, strangled, and dropped her in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range four hours away. At first, it seemed like the defendants would possibly get away with the murder, after two of them entered a plea of not guilty under the Trans-Panic Defense (continuation of the gay-panic defense). The first trial resulted in a mistrial, but the second trial ended with all four men being charged guilty with charges varying from manslaughter to 2nd degree murder, and got sentences varying from 6 years to life in prison. After her death, Araujo had her name posthumously changed to Gwen in 2004, upon her mother's request, and was the inspiration for the movie-documentary A Girl Like Me. The Gwen Araujo Memorial Fund for Transgender Education supports school-based programs in the nine-county Bay Area that promote understanding of transgender people and issues through annual grants. Through this fund, Araujo's mother and family speak in middle and high schools about transgender awareness and understanding. Okay, those are the two individuals who have been recognized for the 2nd and 3rd. Future People to be Recognized: 4th - Reinaldo Arenas 5th - Axel Axgil 6th - Djuna Barnes 7th - Joseph Beam 8th - Joan Biren Hope you enjoyed, and come back for more LGBT History Month!
