What living gay person do you most admire

The one you point to and say, "Represent, girlfriend!".

• Dana Owens, most call her Latifah, but I think she has accomplished to much in world that is anti wimmen and continues to discriminate by skin color. She's not perfect, but considering the hurdles, she's my most admired.

• Lesbians? None. Gays? Way too many to mention.

• Lee Pace

• Anderson Cooper

• Gay is a myth. There is no such thing.

  Tammy C

• Got two actually Luke Macfarlane and Jim Parsons.

• Miss Mike Tyson.

• Ellen

• r2- LOL Yeah because so many girly gay men are such an example!!

• Matt Bomer

• George Takei

  Billy Shatner

• Rachel Maddow.

• Bomer and Maddow.

• It figures all of you would choose actors rather than politicians, writers, or social reform workers.

• Don't be an asshole, R14. Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow are journalists and Mike Tyson is an athlete, so not "all" of us chose actors.

• I love that r15 really thinks Mike Tyson was a sincere nomination.

• Ian McKellen

• Todd Haynes for his talent.

• Nicki Minaj

• Rachel Maddow above and beyond.

• Well, R16, neither was Anderson Cooper but it still disproves R14's point.

• George Clooney

  Mark%20Wahlberg

• R3 Lee Pace is not out. He doesn't count.

• Peter and Harry Brant

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• Zachary Quinto

• Neil Patrick Harris

• Richard Simmons. Seriously.

• Barron, the topic of thread is "gay people you admire," not boys you want to fuck.

• Barney Frank, Anderson Cooper, Nate Silver, Rachel Maddow, Tammy Duckworth, Keith Boykin, Jonathan Capehart.

• Well it has to be Brent Corrigan.

• Colton Cumbie.

• I do not understand the difference, r28. I also most admire Ricky Martin (with the stipulation that he must be a confirmed top).

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• Nate Silver, John Waters, Rachel Maddow, David Sedaris

• Hillary Clinton

• Maddow.

• Fuck off R2.

• Ellen and my therapist.

• RuPaul

• R29, I think you mean Tammy Baldwin, who is a lesbian, and not Tammy Duckworth, an entirely admirable war hero and congressional representative who is heterosexual. I completely agree with the admiration for Frank, Maddow and Silver.

• Rachel Maddow for being so smart and making the world a little smarter Alan Cumming for his talent, humor, giggle and the fact that he named his cologne cumming Ian McKellen because he keeps getting better with age John Waters because he represented for the freaks before it was fashionable Adam Lambert for his vocal and showmanship talent and for being a proud and nice freak

• David Geffen

• OP, I like my gay men to be men.

• Another vote for RuPaul.

• I'm going to go with Ellen, she has a big audience and is ultra likable, so she's certainly doing a good job of representing. Her show, in its tone, is all about celebrating life and maintaining a positive attitude.

• In so many ways, I feel like Ellen is a phony. There is something about Ellen I have never taken to. Comedians are a master of hiding behind the facade of humor. That's how I feel about Ellen. There's something not genuine about her. I don't think she's anything like Rosie, but something tells me that Ellen in her private life is very different from the one we see.

• Gus Van Sant - big time hero. Bruce LaBruce - radical hero. Morrissey - old school hero. Tab Hunter - gay but not fucked up role model. and he did it in much tougher times. Larry Kramer and all the Stonewall gang -- thanks for making life easier for the generations that followed. Jury's still out on James Franco but I adore him anyway.

• I agree about Ellen being banal and sycophantic. I don't admire her 'positivity' because I think a lot of the time it's used as a tool to force people to like her. I don't like mean cynical types either, I just think Ellen lays it on too thick and the merry personality with the lilting voice and doe eyed blinking is overbearing and sinister. I think Ellen must hit on the same appeal that Doris Day did. There is no room to breathe with all that clean cut social lubrication. The vacuous audience who will validate her every word. Her safe and easy personality. Everything having to be clearly defined. It's all very puke inducing.

• Ellen's okay, met her long ago and thought she wasn't so much morose as she was suffering from Stand-Up Comic disease. Where they are "on" all the time and then turn it way "off" when the cameras aren't around. And I met her in professional situation too, not on streets. Not mean and definitely not rude trash like Roseanne, just.. "off". (Little to do with lesbianism, perhaps. See Bette Midler for same).

• Morrissey (just admit it, Steven!). But all the gay heroes are dead.

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• Adam Lambert: nice, smart, funny, wildly talented and unapologetically out and proud.

• Dennis Peron, the activist who wrote California's prop. 215, legalizing medical marijuanna. It's because of him that pot clubs were set up all over the state.

• Just Rachel Maddow. The others mentioned are either whores or asses.

• Chris Meloni. Beautiful big ass with hair in the hole.

• Meloni isn't gay.

• WNYC had 99,378 paying members in 2006, up from 78,866 in 2001. With more than one million unique listeners each week, WNYC has the largest audience of any public radio station in the United States.

• NPH

• politics: Tammy Baldwin media: Rachel Maddow arts: Pedro Almodovar

• RuPaul Larry Kramer

• Neil Patrick Harris, Bob Paris, Rachel Maddow, Berlin Mayor Kurt Wowereit, DC City Councilman Jim Graham, Marc Shaiman, Thomas Roberts

• Anderson Cooper. He's lost both of his shoes, came out of the closest and he's still "fierce."

• He's lost both of his shows. Though he sometimes looks like he's lost both of his shoes!

• Charlie Condou and Mark Gatiss.

• Ted Nugent

  Gene Simmons

• Colm Toibin

• Elton. I know many won't forgive him for playing at Rush Limbaugh's wedding (a private event). I do. Michael Stipe. Martina. Billy Jean. Barney. Andrew Sullivan. I don't always agree with him, but I admire his passion and his intelligence and his integrity.

• well I don't admire any gay responsible for wrecking a Jason Stratham movie by sticking a J-Lo in it

• Ahh, Almodovar and Stipe are both great ones. Want to add them to my list. :) Both huge players in my youth. The Pet Shop Boys provided the soundtrack so they make the hero list too.

• Where's my mind, I almost completely forgot to mention Clive Barker! His Hellraiser series (& Pinhead monster) is a such a fierce, well-known horror icon. Barker certainly left a permanent mark in the horror genre with that.

• Jody Foster. She has managed to keep it together, have her life private and raise children. She seems like a great person.

• I've posted mine many times. None of you have ever heard of him, and I'm getting tired of trying to educate you.

• Male: Andrew Sullivan Female: Suze Orman

• R65 must have smoked crack. What is there to admire Elton for? Singing while wearing sparkly glasses? And Andrew Sullivan definitely does not have integrity.

• Adam Lambert.

• Author, theologian and former Jesuit priest John J, McNeill for his work on behalf of gay and lesbian Catholics

• Rachel Maddow.

• Bishop Gene Robinson