Mexican-American writer John Rechy was BOTD in 1934. Born in El Paso, Texas to a Mexican immigrant family, he studied at the University of Texas before enlisting in the Army. Following his release, he moved to New York, where he studied creative writing at the New School for Social Research, supporting himself via sex work. In 1959, he was involved in the Cooper Donuts Riots, in which a group of queer and transgender people fought back at police harassment, resulting in his and other arrests, predating the Stonewall Riots by nearly a decade. He began publishing short stories, mostly based on his life working as a hustler. He is best known for his 1963 debut novel City of Night, which shocked pre-Stonewall America with its frank description of gay sex and New York’s underground queer culture. Though frequently banned, it became an international bestseller, ushering in a new openness in American gay fiction, drawing comparisons with the work of Jean Genet. Later works include the non-fiction novel The Sexual Outlaw and The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez, drawing on his Mexican heritage; After the Blue Hour, which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction; and a memoir About My Life and the Kept Woman. Rechy taught creative writing for many years at the University of Southern California, with star pupils including Michael Cunningham and Kate Braverman, supplementing his income with occasional sex work. He currently lives in Los Angeles.