Dee Palmer attended the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, an Oscar-nominated composer. She began her career as a freelance arranger, working with various producers at various studios. In 1968, she was referred to Terry Ellis, then manager of up-and-coming rock band Jethro Tull, as an arranger and orchestrator. Jethro Tull was about to record their debut album and Dee was there to offer her musical touch for the horns and strings. The band loved her work and she was signed on for arrangements for Stand Up, their second album.

Dee worked with Jethro Tull for years, providing innovative and intricate arrangements for thirteen albums spanning two decades. In 1976, Dee was officially welcomed as a full-time member of the band, playing keyboards and other electronic instruments on Tull’s foray into folk-rock Songs from the Wood.

In 1980, the driving force behind Jethro Tull, founder, flutist and lead vocalist Ian Anderson was preparing to record his first solo album. The record label persuaded Anderson to issue it as a Jethro Tull album. He agreed, and promptly fired every member of the band, save for long-time guitarist Martin Barre. Dee and pianist John Evan went on to form the unsuccessful band Tallis. Afterwards, Dee returned to scoring films and session work.

In 1998, Dee came out as transgender and underwent several surgeries. She explained that she had struggled with gender dysphoria her entire life, but that it had intensified after the 1995 death of her wife Maggie.

Dee’s death in early June 2026 was announced by Ian Anderson on the official Jethro Tull website. Over the years, Anderson has revealed himself to be a crotchety, self-centered, mean-spirited, typical old British narrow-minded White guy. His attempted eulogy of his long-time collaborator, bandmate and friend was fraught with disrespectful language and arrogant, self-important sentiment.  It was an inappropriate and sad send-off for someone whose invaluable musical contributions deserved better. Ian Anderson should be ashamed.

Dee Palmer was 88 years old.

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June is Pride Month.

Billy Preston was an in-demand session musician. He contributed to songs by Ray Charles, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, the Rolling Stones and, famously, the Beatles. Billy was often referred to as “the Fifth Beatle” and was the only musician ever credited on a Beatles recording.

In the 70s, Billy enjoyed a successful solo career with several Top Ten hits and two Number Ones.

In the early 1970s, Billy struck a friendship, both personal and collaborative, with legendary singer-songwriter Sly Stone. At the time, Billy was was engaged to actress and model Kathy Silva. One afternoon, Billy came home to find Sly in bed with Kathy. According to Billy’s friend and manager Joyce Moore, this affected Billy deeply. It triggered long-suppressed homosexual feelings and Billy never had a relationship with a woman again. Brought up in a very conservative Christian home, Billy fought his homosexuality nearly his entire life. At this time, he also sank deep into drug culture, specifically cocaine. He was arrested on several occasions for drug possession, as well as charges of child molestation and exhibiting pornographic material to a minor. He was sentenced to house arrest and ordered to enter a drug rehabilitation program.

Billy’s troubles continued with more arrests, jail time and and indictment for insurance fraud. Eventually, Billy turned himself around and was drug-free. Sadly, Billy dealt with kidney disease. Despite receiving a kidney transplant in 2002, his health deteriorated. In 2005, Billy suffered respiratory failure and slipped into a coma. He never regained consciousness and died in June 2006. He was 59 years old.

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June is Pride Month.

Hannah Noke’s early life is sketchy. She was born before the Commonwealth of Virginia began issuing official birth certificates. She used her mother’s name — Johnson — as a child, but registered for the draft under her birth name. It is unlikely that she saw any military service.

Hannah was employed as a domestic worker for white families, although she owned a rooming where she rented rooms house for travelers. In 1932, a man named George Crawford spent the night at Hannah’s house. Crawford was accused of murder and Hannah, along with several other of Crawford’s acquaintances, were called as witnesses at his trial. Area newspapers of the time called attention to Hannah being transgender. Twice during the trial, the defense attorney asked Hannah’s nephew if she was his uncle or his aunt. Court reporter notes refer to Hannah as the “red-wigged boy-girl”, “mysterious witness”, “queer witness”, and “negro man who wears women’s clothing”.  Transgender identity in public situations was foreign at the time. However, some media outlets were surprisingly more accepting, happily using “Hannah” in printed stories as opposed to those that stubbornly opted to print her birth name.

Hannah died from a heart attack at a Fairfax Virginia hospital at the approximate age of 74. Hannah was mentioned in the Historic Landmark Nomination of the Loudoun County Courthouse in 2024, noting that she was “one of the earliest known instances of an openly transgender person testifying in Virginia court.”

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June is Pride Month.

With a medical degree, an internship and a psychiatric residency, John E. Fryer was well equipped to face the obstacle the future held.

He was critical of the Menninger Foundation, the entity at which he completed his psychiatric residency. He was very vocal regarding its homophobic policies. He faced the same discrimination in his pursuit of a residency at the University of Pennsylvania. He was eventually welcomed at the Norristown State Hospital.

John joined the faculty of Temple University where he taught psychiatry. Under a $5000 grant, he focused on professional responses to death and dying.

In 1972, John spoke at the annual American Psychiatric Association conference. He addressed his collogues as the first gay psychiatrist to speak publicly about his sexuality at a time when homosexuality was still listed as a mental illness, a sociopathic personality disturbance. However, due to the time and the overarching attitude, John was forced to appear under the pseudonym “Dr. Henry Anonymous,” wore a rubber Halloween mask and spoke through a microphone that altered his voice. (In 2002, Dr. Jack Drescher, then the head of the APA Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Issues pointed out “the irony… that an openly homosexual psychiatrist had to wear a mask to protect his career. So the fact that someone would get up on stage, even in disguise, at the risk of professional denunciation or loss of job, it was not a small thing. Even in disguise, it was a very, very brave thing to do.”)

In 2000, John retired from Temple University. He accepted a position at a hospital; in Australia, but he never actually took the job. He was an avid musician, playing the organ at his church as well as at Temple graduation ceremonies.

John experienced health issues later in life, dealing with diabetes and pulmonary sarcoidosis. He passed away in 2003 from pneumonia at the age of 65.

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June is Pride Month.

Lee Brewster was born in a log cabin in southwestern Virginia. He worked as a file clerk for the FBI until he was fired for being a homosexual.

Unfettered, he took his meager savings and headed for Manhattan, where he joined the Mattachine Society, a fledgling gay rights organization. Lee organized drag balls and fundraisers for the organization. However, a faction of the gay community frowned on cross-dressing, so Lee  put on his own events outside of the society. At one of his balls — held on Halloween 1969 — Lee announced that he would be opening a business to cater to cross-dressers.

At first, he sold exclusively by mail order, but folks regularly stopped by his Hell’s Kitchen apartment for personal service. Lee opened a shop nearby his residence. He moved his boutique several times, but each location never had a ground floor entrance. He said he want people to find him. It was also an effort to protect his customer base.

Over the years, Mr. Lee (as he preferred to be addressed) catered to costumer designers for such films as Tootsie and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar, as well a conservative-looking businessmen and other non-descript clientele. His customers boasted: “Lee’s will turn you into the girl you’ve always wanted to be.”

Lee founded Queens Liberation Army, a civil right organization that helped persuade the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs to delete homosexuals from a list of people who could be removed from any public place. He also published Drag Magazine in the 1970s and 80s.

In 2000, Lee succumbed to cancer. He was 57.

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