Gay Icons

[jeanlouis]

Jeff Stryker is the first porn actor I saw in gay porn and we never forget the first time. Of course today these movies are barely un-watchable.
Jeff Stryker was also an actor in all public movies and he had the physical and the qualities of a good actor.

 

[W!nston]

Elizabeth Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. As one of the world's most famous film stars, Taylor was recognized for her acting ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty, and distinctive dark blue eyes, often described as violet.

National Velvet (1944) was Taylor's first success, and she starred in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and married her costar Richard Burton. They appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won a second Academy Award. From the mid-1970s, she appeared less frequently in film, and made occasional appearances in television and theatre.

Her much-publicized personal life included eight marriages and several life-threatening illnesses. From the mid-1980s, Taylor championed HIV and AIDS programs; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1993. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Legion of Honour, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, who named her seventh on their list of the "Greatest American Screen Legends". Taylor died of congestive heart failure in March 2011 at the age of 79, having suffered many years of ill health.

 

[W!nston]

Judy Garland

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian. Described by Fred Astaire as "the greatest entertainer who ever lived" and renowned for her unique vocals she attained international stardom throughout a career which spanned more than 40 years, as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award.

She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star Is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. She remains the youngest recipient (at 39 years of age) of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

After appearing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There, she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney, and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting, beginning with critically acclaimed performances.

Despite her professional triumphs, Garland struggled immensely in her personal life, starting when she was a child. Her self-image was strongly influenced by film executives, who said she was unattractive and constantly manipulated her onscreen physical appearance. She was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. She also had a long battle with drugs and alcohol, which ultimately led to her death at the age of 47.

In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema.

Gay icon

Garland always had a large base of fans in the gay community and has become a gay icon. Reasons often given for her standing, especially among gay men, are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in America during the height of her fame and her value as a camp figure. When asked in the 1960s by a reporter about how she felt about having a large gay following, she famously said, "I couldn't care less. I sing to people."

Some have also suggested a connection between the date of Garland's death and funeral on June 27, 1969 and the Stonewall riots, the flashpoint of the modern Gay Liberation movement, which started in the early hours of June 28. In a 2009 interview gay historian David Carter stated that this connection is untrue, and based on a mocking reference to the riot by an anti-gay writer in the Village Voice the next day. However the same historical doentary states that there were several patrons at the Stonewall bar that night, Garland fans who, according to bar patron Sylvia Rivera had come from the Garland funeral earlier in the day to drink and mourn. Rivera said that indeed there was a feeling in the air that something would happen that night: "I guess Judy Garland’s death just really helped us really hit the fan.

 

[gorgik9]

Very, very, very few movies has aged so graciously as The Wizard of Oz. 1939!!!

 

[gorgik9]

Scott O'Hara (1961-1998)

Since it seems that my destiny in this thread is to handle the poetry-section, why not make an "impossible" mixture of porn and poetry with the help of the very multifaceted person Scott O'Hara.

O'Hara appeared in 26 porn films between 1983 and 1992, wrote and published several books and was the editor and publisher of the sex journal STEAM 1993-1996. Maybe Scott O'Hara isn't an icon - but damn, he surely deserves to be! His voice was the voice of the very intelligent sex radical, a voice that got totally excluded when the gay neo-cons took it all over in the 1990s (all the Andrew Sullivans, the Michelangelo Signoriles, the Gabriel Rotellos and whatnot...).

First of all a few pics!



And then some poetry!

Do be fruitful, won't you dear?

The appellations we've acquired never cease
to make me giggle at the miscommunication.
The ones who hurl these epithets, like spears,
clearly think of them as insults: "Fairies! Queers!"
For most of history, the fairy - in whatever guise -
was neither feared nor taunted, but respected;
and Queer's a term that certainly applies -
I wouldn't want to play a "normal" role.
But Fruit's the word that really gets me rolling.
I take it with a certain sense of irony
that many of my favourite things should be
drippy, firm and fleshy, sweet and juicy,
a solace to this sometimes-troubled soul of mine:
whether meaning pears or men, a Fruit's divine.



And here's a link to the american artist/photographer David Lebe's homepage with some of the most beautiful pics of Scott O'Hara :

Anon URL

 

[W!nston]

Scott O'Hara is one of my all time favorites Adult Entertainment stars. I never knew he had a talent for poetry as well. Thanks for turning me on to this facet of his work.

Sniffit

 

[Shelter]

Sniffit and Gorgik9 - when I read the posts in this thread I really feel so teensy-weensy. So many things I've not known and you have given me the possibility to learn more through your knowledge. This here is the most interesting thread of GH for me. Please continues and share your knowledge with us (but most of all ... with me -) I'm hungry to absorb your knowledge. When I first started to visit Gayheaven I couldn't imagine that this would be too so instructive. I couln't imagine that so many guys from all over the world are discussing problems of our world - in this or in that way. My first idea was to see here some horny pics or porns. But in the meantime I've learned that here are so many guys with good ideas and opinions. Thank you that I can be here and that I have met all of you.

 

[W!nston]

You too add a special quality with all of your posts, Shelter. I enjoy reading them. Your sense of wonder at learning new things and reading the opinions of others is refreshing.

Sniffit

 

[dargelos]

Thinking of how Scott died so unfairly young, that bastard virus has robbed us of so many beautiful men. The terrible waste, life seems cruel and sad this late at night.

 

[trencherman]

Mary Renault, Here’s her profile I entirely lifted from Goodreads. Born in London, England, The United Kingdom, September 04, 1905, died in Cape Town, December 13, 1983


Mary Renault was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. In addition to vivid fictional portrayals of Theseus, Socrates, Plato and Alexander the Great, she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander.

Her historical novels are all set in ancient Greece. They include a pair of novels about the mythological hero Theseus and a trilogy about the career of Alexander the Great. In a sense, The Charioteer (1953), the story of two young gay servicemen in the 1940s who try to model their relationship on the ideals expressed in Plato's Phaedrus and Symposium, is a warm-up for Renault's historical novels. By turning away from the 20th century and focusing on stories about male lovers in the warrior societies of ancient Greece, Renault no longer had to deal with homosexuality and anti-gay prejudice as social "problems". Instead she was free to focus on larger ethical and philosophical concerns, while examining the nature of love and leadership. The Charioteer could not be published in the U.S. until 1959, after the success of The Last of the Wine proved that American readers and critics would accept a serious gay love story.

 

[trencherman]

Marguerite Yourcenar Born in Brussels, Belgium 8 June 1903, died Mount Dessert Island, Maine,17 December 1987. Novelist and essayist. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie française, in 1980, and the seventeenth person to occupy Seat 3.

Here is a short bio I lifted wholly from Wiki:

Marguerite Yourcenar was born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour in Brussels, Belgium, to Michel Cleenewerck de Crayencour, of French bourgeois descent, and a Belgian mother, Fernande de Cartier de Marchienne, of Belgian nobility, who died ten days after her birth. She grew up in the home of her paternal grandmother.

Yourcenar's first novel, Alexis, was published in 1929. She translated Virginia Woolf's The Waves over a 10-month period in 1937.

In 1939 Yourcenar's intimate companion at the time, the literary scholar and Kansas City native Grace Frick, invited the writer to the United States to escape the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Yourcenar lectured in comparative literature in New York City and Sarah Lawrence College. Yourcenar was bisexual; she and Frick became lovers in 1937 and remained together until Frick's death in 1979. After ten years spent in Hartford, Connecticut, they bought a house in Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, where they lived for decades.

In 1951, she published, in France, the novel Mémoires d'Hadrien, which she had been writing with pauses for a decade. The novel was an immediate success and met with great critical acclaim. In this novel, Yourcenar recreated the life and death of one of the great rulers of the ancient world, the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who writes a long letter to Marcus Aurelius, the son and heir of Antoninus Pius, his successor and adoptive son. The Emperor meditates on his past, describing both his triumphs and his failures, his love for Antinous, and his philosophy. The novel has become a modern classic.

In 1980, Yourcenar was the first female member elected to the Académie française. An anecdote tells of how the bathroom labels were then changed in this male-dominated institution: "Messieurs | Marguerite Yourcenar" (Gents / Marguerite Yourcenar). One of the most respected writers in the French language, she published many novels, essays, and poems, as well as three volumes of memoirs.

Yourcenar's house on Mount Desert Island, Petite Plaisance, is now a museum dedicated to her memory. She is buried across the sound in Somesville, Maine.

 

[gorgik9]

Some more Scott O'Hara.

I'm truly glad that I've found a few fellow fans of Scott O'Hara.

He is dearly missed in a way that - in my opinion - Jeff Stryker will never ever be...


Spunk-boy

Spunk is what they call me
when they want me with a mohawk
when they want me on stage
playing with The Criminal Classes
... and they do, some of them
grovelling in the gutter, fawning on my feet
I can give them what they want -
they want a big dick & a foul mouth
a boot on the chest and one on the crotch
they want an old newspaper clipping,
not an 8x10 glossy
and I can dish it out in spades
I can be your Spunk, pig-boy
show you how I play my trade
just don't take me home at night
'cause then I might forget
instead of kicking you out of bed
making you sleep on the floor
might cuddle up against you
fall asleep and - accidental like -
kiss you on the eyes
When the eyes are closed, the camera stop
the mirror fades, the lights are cut
even the director goes to sleep
and something changes
Sure I'll be your spunk-boy, mister -
whaddya wanna play?
Ruffle up my mohawk and I'll curl
like a cat across your chest
You want me for your Spunk-boy?

 

[W!nston]

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand (born Barbara Joan Streisand April 24, 1942) is an American singer and songwriter, author, actress, film producer, and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Kennedy Center Honors award, a Peabody Award,[4] four Golden Globes, and is amongst fifteen entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

She is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with more than 71.5 million albums in the United States and 245 million records sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Album Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre.

After beginning a successful recording career in the 1960's, by the end of the decade, Streisand ventured into film; starring in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl, for which she won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Other notable films include The Owl and the Pussycat, The Way We Were, and A Star Is Born, for which she received her second Academy Award for composing the music to the picture’s main song, "Evergreen". By the 1980's, Streisand established herself as one of the film industry’s most notable figures by becoming the first woman to direct, produce, script and star in her own picture.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number one albums in five consecutive decades. According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States

Politics

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of its causes.

In 1971, Streisand was one of the celebrities listed on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List.

Streisand is a supporter of gay rights, and in 2007 helped raise funds in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Proposition 8 in California.

 

[W!nston]

Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone (born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Madonna is known for reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry. Music critics have acclaimed her musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy. Often referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she is cited as an influence among other artists around the world.

Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records (an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records) in 1982 and released her self-titled debut album the following year. She followed it with a series of commercially successful albums, including the Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, she has written and produced most of her songs, with many of them reaching number one on the record charts, including "Like a Virgin", "Into the Groove", "Papa Don't Preach", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".

Madonna's popularity was further enhanced by her film roles; she garnered a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Evita (1996) while most of her other films have received harsh feedback. Her other ventures include fashion design, writing children's books, and filmmaking. She has been acclaimed as a businesswoman, most notably after she founded entertainment company Maverick (including the label Maverick Records) in 1992 as a joint venture with Time Warner. In 2007, she signed an unprecedented US $120 million 360 deal with Live Nation.

Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the best-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and the second best-selling female artist in the United States, with 64.5 million certified albums. Billboard ranked her at number two, behind only The Beatles, on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making her the most successful solo artist in the history of American singles chart. The magazine also declared her as the top-touring female artist of all time. She became one of the five founding members of the UK Music Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility.

Madonna as a gay icon

Madonna is considered a gay icon, and the gay community has embraced her as a pop culture icon. According to the LGBT magazine, The Advocate, Madonna is the greatest gay icon.

Life as an LGBT icon

Madonna was introduced to the gay community while still a teenager. It was her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, a gay man, who first told Madonna that she was beautiful and that she had something to offer the world. He also introduced her to the local gay community of Detroit, Michigan, often taking her to local gay bars and discotheques. Flynn also encouraged Madonna to walk away from her full scholarship to the University of Michigan and move to Manhattan to pursue a career as a professional dancer.

In August 2009, during a show in Romania (Sticky and Sweet Tour), Madonna criticized discrimination against the Roma, also speaking against the discrimination of gays. In his 2008 autobiography Hit Man, record producer David Foster relates a meeting with Madonna where he expresses distaste at the sight of two men kissing; Madonna scowled and responded "Two men kissing should be looked at as normal! You represent everything I'm trying to change."

File: Madonna speaks out in Russia about anti-gay law.

Madonna speaking against the "homosexual propaganda" laws during concert in Russia.
In June 2010, Madonna released a statement criticizing the decision to jail two men in Malawi because they celebrated their union with a ceremony. Madonna's statement included the following excerpt: "As a matter of principle, I believe in equal rights for all people, no matter what their gender, race, color, religion, or sexual orientation. This week, Malawi took a giant step backward. The world is filled with pain and suffering; therefore, we must support our basic human right to love and be loved. I call upon the progressive men and women of Malawi—and around the world—to challenge this decision in the name of human dignity and equal rights for all."

In November 2010, Madonna made a special appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to speak against the bullying of children and teenagers in general, including the bullying of gay teens and related recent suicides. In her conversation with Ellen, Madonna reiterated how she became close to the gay community when she was a teenager, stating that she felt different in high school and found acceptance and sympathy among gay friends, particularly her dance instructor. She also said "In fact, I wouldn't have a career if it weren't for the gay community."

In June 2011, Madonna urged her fans to support same-sex marriage in New York, posting the following message on her website: "New Yorkers your voices must be heard. Tell your state Congressmen to support same sex marriage bill. All you need is love." The Marriage Equality Act passed one week later, legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.

In March 2013, Madonna presented the Vito Russo Award to openly gay journalist Anderson Cooper at the 24th GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. Dressed as a Boy Scout, in protest of the Boy Scouts of America's ban on homosexual Scouts and Scout leaders, she gave a speech in which she stated that "things like bigotry, homophobia, hate crimes, bullying and any form of discrimation always seem to be a manifestation of fear of the unknown." and wagered that "if we just took the time to get to know one another, did our own investigation, looked beneath the surface of things, that we would find that we are not so different after all." She also said "you cannot use the name of God or religion to justify acts of violence to hurt, to hate, to discriminate." and called to start a revolution, asking the crowd "Are you with me? It's 2013, people. We live in America — land of the free and home of the brave? That's a question, not a statement."

 

[W!nston]

Lady GaGa

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒɜrməˈnɒtə/ ste-fə-nee jur-mə-not-ə; born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Manhattan, Gaga initially performed in theater, appearing in high school plays and studied at CAP21 through New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before dropping out to pursue a musical career. After leaving a rock band, participating in the Lower East Side's avant garde performance art circuit, and being dropped from a contract with Def Jam Recordings, she worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing. There, Akon noticed her vocal abilities and helped her sign a joint deal with Interscope Records and his own KonLive Distribution.

Gaga rose to prominence with her debut album The Fame (2008), a critical and commercial success which produced global chart-topping singles such as "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". A follow-up EP, The Fame Monster (2009), was met with similar reception and released the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro". Her second full-length album Born This Way was released in 2011, topping the charts in more than 20 countries, including the United States, where it sold over one million copies in its first week. The album produced number one single "Born This Way". Her third album Artpop, released in 2013, topped the U.S. charts and included the successful singles "Applause" and "Do What U Want". In September 2014, Gaga will release a collaborative jazz album with Tony Bennett titled Cheek to Cheek.

Gaga is noted for her flamboyant and diverse contributions to the music industry via her fashion, live performances, and music videos. With global album and single sales of 27 million and 125 million, respectively, as of June 2014, she is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Her achievements include five Grammy Awards and 13 MTV Video Music Awards. She regularly appears on Billboard's Artists of the Year lists and Forbes' power and earnings rankings, and was named one of the world's most influential people by Time in 2010. Outside of her music, she is noted for her philanthropic endeavors and activism for LGBT rights.

LGBT Advocacy

Gaga is an outspoken activist for LGBT rights worldwide. She attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered a gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of The Fame. One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo. In June of the same year, she performed at the San Francisco Pride event. After The Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'." When she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community".

She called the October 11, 2009, National Equality March rally on the National Mall "the single most important event of her career." Gaga attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four gay and lesbian former members of the United States Armed Forces who had been unable to serve openly under the U.S. military's "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy. Gaga released three videos on YouTube urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to overturn DADT. In September 2010 she spoke at a Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's rally in Portland, Maine. Following this event, editors of The Advocate commented that she had become a "fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians. Gaga appeared at Europride, a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, held in Rome in June 2011. She criticized the intolerant state of gay rights in many European countries and described homosexuals as "revolutionaries of love".

 

[dargelos]

Don't worry , Madonna fans, I am not questioning the star's pop status. But the article above is somewhat gushing isnt it. How difficult is it for a rich celeb to get her press office to release gay friendly media statements for her? When gay men are a large part of your record buying income base is it much of a sacrifice to say a few words on their/our behalf? Sure, she did the right things but only the right things that were very easy for her to do.

 

[W!nston]

Sometimes we, the Gay community, bestow the title of Gay Icon upon celebrities who fit the category only marginally. Madonna's music drove the dance floor at Gay bars from her beginning. I recall the first time I heard "Burning Up" on the dance floor at Trax. I loved Madonna from that moment forward. 30+ years later it is still a Gay anthem, for me at least.

 

[dargelos]

Peter Tatchell

Peter has been a political campaigner all his adult life. He left his homeland Australia, to avoid army service, and came to London in 1971 where he was soon a high profile gay rights activist.
When he stood as a Labour party candidate in 1983 the shit really hit the fan. He was "the gayest man in Britain" in the cheap newspapers, there was a storm of lies and threats, he was beaten up, the first of many beatings. It was an orgy of homophobia. No suprise he didnt win, that didnt dampen his enthusiasm.
HIV/AIDS, section 28, age of consent, there was a lot of work to do and do it he did, all day, every day.

By 2000 he moved from Labour to the Green party as his campaigns had widened to include human rights issues around the world. 2001 was the year he was badly beaten in a stunt against Robert Mugabe. That would stop most people but not Peter.
After more than 40 years at this game he is needing to slow down a little but only the grim reaper is ever going to make him stop.
You make a lot of enemies as a full on gay rights spokesman, read this typicaly charming response on the bnp site (british fascists)

IchDien2 • 7 months ago
"It's very wrong that a person like Tatchell is allowed freedom of speech. He has campaigned for the evils of mankind ever since his distorted mind came to Britain. Bermondsy must favour immorality if Tatchell the homopaedo was followed by Simon Hughes the queen of the Muslims. However, for these subhumans to flourish it needs a permissive government Any government that either condones or promotes child sex or allows anyone to discuss the subject openly in public and in the media is a government against the will of decency and morality. Tatchell and his maladjusted like should be termed clinically insane and a danger to children and the public."

If fascists hate you thats a good sign you must be doing something right.



My country has made great progress on equality over Peter's career. How much of that is down to him is an impossible question.
I am saddened by the number of gay men to fail to give him respect for the sacrifices he has made in our name. But do feel free to answer if you take another view.

 

[W!nston]

You'll get no protest from me, dargelos.

'In your face' activism is what has gotten the Gay Equality movement to a point where the number of states with pro-Gay equality measures is snowballing here in the U.S. Those 'Out' and civic activists who make a spectacle or give protest to the status quo or worse opponents of Gay rights deserve the credit for our successes. Duly elected politicians cannot take credit for the achievements. It is and has been to foot soldiers like Peter Tatchell who have pushed the 'Blue Meanies' back to the point they are on their heels teetering and about to crash and burn in their own hatred.

As an American I was ignorant of this man's 40+ year campaign to improve our lives. Thank you for adding Peter Tatchell's name to our list of Gay Icons.

I know there are other non-American Gay Icons all over Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia , Northa and South America and probably Antarctica, lol.

I hope other member's will help tell their stories. Don't leave it up to just a handful of us...

Sniffit

 

[W!nston]

Barney Frank

Barnett "Barney" Frank (born March 31, 1940) is an American politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007–2011) and was a leading co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd–Frank Act, a sweeping reform of the U.S. financial industry. Frank, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.

Born and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He worked as a political aide before winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote. He was re-elected every term thereafter by wide margins. In 1987, he came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. From 2003 until his retirement, Frank was the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and he served as committee chairman when his party held a House majority from 2007 to 2011. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office. Frank did not seek re-election in 2012, and retired from Congress at the end of his term in January 2013. However, Frank had expressed interest in serving temporarily in the United States Senate after John Kerry had been confirmed as Secretary of State but was ultimately passed over for Mo Cowan.

Personal life

Frank resides in a studio apartment complex in Newton, Massachusetts. His husband, Jim Ready, is a surfing enthusiast whom Frank met during a gay political fundraiser in Maine, where Ready still lives. On July 7, 2012, Frank married Ready, his longtime partner, at Boston Marriott Newton in suburban Boston.

As of 2010, Frank's net worth is estimated by the Center for Responsive Politics to be between $619,024 and $1,510,000. His sister, Ann Lewis, served as a senior adviser in Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

On August 3, 2013, Frank came out as an atheist on the television program Real Time with Bill Maher. Frank made his decision to come out when he realized he would rather have been sworn in as a Senator (if he had been appointed) on the United States Constitution, rather than the Bible. For most of his life and entire Congressional career, Frank was known as a Jew.

Sexuality

According to Stuart Weisberg's 2009 biography Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman, Frank dated women in an effort to deny his homosexuality. His last romance with a woman was a nearly two-year-long affair with Irish-American Catholic Kathleen Sullivan, a Boston School Committee member and the daughter of New England Patriots owner Billy Sullivan, that began in 1974. When the two split up, at Frank's instigation, he admitted to her that he was gay. He was still closeted publicly. According to Frank, he "realized it was crazy" to try to have a romance with someone he cared for but was not compatible with due to his homosexuality. "That was the last effort to avoid being gay," Weisberg quotes Frank as saying. Frank never again dated a woman.

Frank started coming out as gay to friends before he ran for Congress and came out publicly on May 30, 1987, "prompted in part by increased media interest in his private life" and the death of Stewart McKinney, "a closeted bisexual Republican representative from Connecticut". Frank told The Washington Post after McKinney's death that there was "An unfortunate debate about 'Was he or wasn't he? Didn't he or did he?' I said to myself, I don't want that to happen to me." Frank's announcement had little impact on his electoral prospects. Shortly after coming out, Frank met and began dating Herb Moses, an economist and LGBT activist; their relationship lasted for eleven years until an amicable break-up in July 1998. Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, was the first partner of an openly gay member of Congress to receive spousal benefits and the two were considered "Washington's most powerful and influential gay couple".