American activist and writer Dale Jennings was BOTD in 1917. Born in Amarillo, Texas, in was raised in Colorado, and joined a travelling dance troupe as a teenager. After studying drama, he moved to Los Angeles and worked in community theatre and marrying a fellow actress. He joined the US Army during World War Two, fighting in the Battle of Guadalcanal. After his honourable discharge in 1946, he divorced his wife and returned to California to study cinema. In 1950, he and his boyfriend Bob Hull met with Harry Hay and Chuck Rowland to the Mattachine Society, thought to be the first gay rights organisation in the United States. In 1952, he was arrested for allegedly propositioning a police officer in a public toilet. He pled not guilty, admitting in evidence that he was gay but denying any wrongdoing. The trial and Jennings’ subsequent acquittal drew national publicity, boosting the ranks of the Mattachine Society and increasing awareness of the burgeoning gay rights movement. Jennings and Hay disagreed about how to advocate for equal rights. Whereas Hay saw homosexuality as a distinct identity and advocated for public visibility for gay culture, Jennings took a more conservative approach, arguing primarily for gay men’s right to be left alone. In 1953, Jennings left the Society and formed a splinter group, ONE Inc, writing about police harassment of gay men. He left the organisation in 1955 and became a novelist. His novel The Cowboys drew controversy for its homoerotic subtext, but somehow was made into a film starring John Wayne. In 1965, he co-founded the Homosexual Information Centre in 1965, remaining involved in the organisation until 1997. He died in 2000, aged 82.