American inventor and activist John Burnside was BOTD in 1916. Born in Seattle, Washington, he was raised by his mother after his father abandoned the family, spending much of his childhood in orphanages. He served briefly in the US Navy during World War Two, settling in Los Angeles after the war, where he studied physics and mathematics at the University of California Los Angeles. After graduating, he began his career in the aircraft industry, and married Edith Sinclair. His interest in optical engineering led him to invent the teleidoscope, an optically correct version of the kaleidoscope that earned him generous royalties. In 1963, he met activist and Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay, eventually divorcing Sinclair and living together for the next 60 years. Together, they became involved in gay rights protests in Los Angeles, helping organise pride marches, protests about the exclusion of gays from the military, and appeared together as a couple on TV talk show The Joe Pyne Show. In 1970, they moved to New Mexico, continuing their gay rights advocacy and working with Native American communities. They appeared prominently in Peter Adair‘s ground-breaking 1977 documentary Word is Out, speaking about their experiences as gay men and their advocacy work. Returning to Los Angeles in 1979, they settled in San Francisco, co-founding the neo-paganist queer movement the Radical Faeries. Hay and Burnside lived together until Hay’s death in 2002. He died of cancer in 2008, aged 91.