American writer, historian and activist Allan Bérubé was BOTD in 1946. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was raised in New Jersey, and studied at the University of Chicago, before dropping out to campaign against the Vietnam War. He came out as gay in 1969 and settled in San Francisco, helping co-found the Lesbian and Gay History Project. He is best known for his 1990 book Coming Out Under Fire, lifting the lid on the treatment of LGBT soldiers in the United States military. The book became a lightning rod for national debates about President Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy (which allowed gays to serve in the military if they kept their sexual orientation secret) and won the Lambda Literary Award for non-fiction. A documentary of the same name followed in 1994, with a screenplay co-written by Bérubé. He also worked on Jeffrey Epstein‘s 1984 Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk and appeared in the queer-themed documentaries Over Our Dead Bodies, The Question of Equality and Out At Work. Bérubé and his partner John Nelson settled in upstate New York where he managed a theatre and restored historic buildings. He died in 2007, aged 61.