While most people probably think my work is dedicated to making montages and writing blog posts, I also like to think of myself as an amateur historian. The kind who falls down rabbit holes and emerges hours later with new-to-me LGBTQ historical figures, artists and singer-songwriters I’ve never heard of, a little-known historical event, or some other piece of queer history worth celebrating.
With the researching power, if not always the accuracy, of ChatGPT at my disposal, the BORN THIS WAY + ON THIS DAY section has become one of my favorite parts of writing the daily newsletter again. It gives me an opportunity to start my day doing something I genuinely enjoy: researching, remembering, and celebrating some of our LGBTQ icons, pioneers, and trailblazers, along with plenty of unsung heroes who deserve to be remembered, too.
One of the things I’ve discovered through all this daily digging is just how scattered queer history can be. To my knowledge, there isn’t one singular, comprehensive resource containing all of the notable LGBTQ people, milestones, achievements, protests, publications, performances, firsts, and little moments that have helped shape our history.
So, a couple of years ago, I started making my own lists of LGBTQ people whose birthdays I wanted to celebrate and remember.
My lists are far from definitive, and I’m not sure a truly definitive list could ever exist. Queer history is too messy, too incomplete, and too constantly being rediscovered. Too many of our stories have been overlooked, erased, or simply never recorded because the people documenting history didn’t consider LGBTQ lives important enough to preserve.
Fortunately, using ChatGPT as an AI research assistant, I can cast a much wider net than I could on my own. I can start with a date, a name, an event, or even a vague little historical breadcrumb and ask myself, “What else happened around here? Who else should I know about?”
It has become a useful tool for uncovering people and stories I might never have thought to search for on my own.
But let me be clear: I fact-check the hell out of anything I post.
ChatGPT is incredibly useful, but it is also a chatbot, and chatbots have a tendency to confidently make shit up. People who never existed. Events that never happened. Dates that are wrong. Quotes that sound perfectly plausible but were never uttered by anyone, ever.
So I don’t simply take whatever ChatGPT tells me and slap it onto my website.
I use AI to help me find more rabbit holes. Then I go down them myself, looking for reliable sources, comparing dates and biographies, checking original documentation whenever I can, and doing my best to make sure the people and events I’m sharing actually existed and actually happened.
I’m not trying to pass a history exam. I’m just trying to keep some of these stories from disappearing. Because remembering is its own kind of celebration.
Every BORN THIS WAY gives me another excuse to say, “Hey, this person existed. They mattered. They contributed something. Let’s remember them!”
Every ON THIS DAY gives me another opportunity to look back and say, “This happened. It changed history. Let’s remember it!”
These are reminders that LGBTQ people have always been here. We have always been making art, making music, making trouble, making history, falling in love, challenging conventions, building communities, fighting back, and usually being both fabulous and fierce while doing all of it.
There is still so much queer history to uncover.
So I’m going to keep falling down the rabbit holes, following the breadcrumbs, digging through archives, chasing obscure references, using whatever research tools are available to me, and collecting the stories I find along the way.
Because there is always more to discover.
And there is always more to celebrate.
Keep calm and party on, y’all!
Clint 🌈✌️
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FROM THE ARCHIVES
NSFW MONTAGES = On Substack
SFW MONTAGES = On YouTube
BORN THIS WAY + ON THIS DAY
08-18 = Anna Akana (1989- ) = American YouTuber, actress, and creator 🌈
08-18 = Bob Harper (1965- ) = American personal trainer and tv personality 🌈
08-18 = Clairo (1998- ) = American singer-songwriter 🌈
08-18 = Dallas Denny (1949- ) — American writer, educator, and activist 🌈
08-18 = Fran Frisch (1948–2021) — American gay cartoonist and artist 🌈
08-18 = Harold Jackman (1901-1961) = British-American teacher and model 🌈
08-18 = Marcel Carné (1906-1996) = French director and screenwriter 🌈
08-18 = Mika (1983- ) = Lebanese-born English singer-songwriter 🌈
08-18 = Stephen Lenton (1941-2001) = American activist and therapist 🌈
1903 = German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.
1920 = The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
1982 = U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer ruled that Texas's law criminalizing consensual homosexual sex is unconstitutional.
1990 = The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act is signed into law.
1999 = Hackers re-routed Fred Phelps’ anti-gay website, godhatesfags.com to godlovesfags.com.
MAN CRUSH OF THE DAY
“I think there are a lot of pictures to make. I sometimes question whether I'm even an artist or just a painter. To me, the making of the pictures is the most important thing.”
Martin Mull
Clint, Excellent use of Chatbot. I love it and fear it. But I will understand it. Thanks for your continued forays down rabbit holes! Fondly, Michael