Unbeknownst to most people, the state of California was named after Calafia, a fictional Black queen who ruled over a mythic all-female perhaps lesbian island of Black women just off the coast of Asia. She used an army of flying griffins to fight Christians at Constantinople and has become an interesting yet little known literary figure ever since.
Little is known about her life; her tumultuous career and flamboyant lifestyle were the subject of gossip, rumor, and colorful stories in her own time, and inspired numerous fictional and semi-fictional portrayals afterwards.
Gautier loosely based the title character, Madeleine de Maupin, of his novel Mademoiselle de Maupin on her. The celebration of sensual love, regardless of gender, was radical, and the book was banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and authorities elsewhere.
Mademoiselle Maupin retired from the opera in and took refuge in a convent, probably in Provence, where she is believed to have died on July 1, , at the age of Farley Granger July 1, — March 27, is born. He was an American actor, best known for his two collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock. The lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness by the British author Radclyffe Hall August 12, — October 7, was published on this date in the United States and sold an initial 20, copies.
Hollywood makes adherence to the Hays Code mandatory. It was named after for Will H. The Production Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. Hays, who was Postmaster General under Warren G. Willem Arondeus August 22, — July 1, dies.
