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Jacksonville, Florida­ How will you celebrate May 26th? If the date doesn't bask in the recognition enjoyed by July 4th, Cinco de Mayo, or September 11th, it's because you're not up to snuff on your homosexual history. May 26th, 1864, is the gay movement's birthday. Or at least homosexual pioneer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs reckoned it so. That was the day a Saxony court lifted a ban on his writings that had been imposed by police six days before. Karl Urlichs, of course, was a German lawyer of modest means who campaigned­ almost before anyone else did­ for the basic humanity and rights of gays and lesbians­ "Uranians," as he called us. For working pretty much de novo, Ulrichs's work feels remarkably au courant. Ulrichs is deemed the first to publicly come-out to his family (they had cows) and in 1867 subdued what he said were the butterflies in his stomach to mount a podium and defend gay rights before a convocation of German lawyers­ a dour lot back in the 19th century. For his efforts over the decades, Ulrichs was hounded from place to place, and sometimes imprisoned. And despite the May 26th reprieve, his works were afterwards banned all over Germany. But Ulrichs made his mark, and other gay pioneers­ such as John Adyington Symonds­ beat down paths to his door. Two Floridians P.J. Nash and Michael Lombardi-Nash have made it their lives' quixotic task to insure that the good works Ulrichs, who died a pauper in 1895, are not forgotten. For a list of things to do to honor the birthday of the gay movement and the man who helped make it happen (item number 34: "Hold hands. Ulrichs believed touch was paramount to 'same-sex' feelings") browse to www.angelfire.com/fl3/celebration2000/#sub1.