Who’s your favourite gay icon?

Freddie

Learn to read, R1! You cretinous bellcheese. x

Joe

Roddy McDowall

Leo

Miss Jelena Karleuša. I've been idolizing this crazy whore ever since she kissed me on the cheek at one of her concerts years ago. For some reason feeling those collagenous lips on my face was a real life-changing experience.

Freddie

R6, if you’re being serious then I’m afraid we’re going to have to revoke your Gay Card. x

Why, Miss Joan Crawford of course.

John Waters

The One. The Only.

JUDY.

I know gay icons aren't necessarily gay, but Da Vinci secretly married a woman in his later years. Was he gay or bi?

Michaelangelo, who painted hot naked men all over the ceiling of the Pope's private chapel.

Guess we’ll have to share... Freddie!

I chose Freddie too. I can't understand who chose straight women as gay icons

Neither do I, R15. The unapologetically "in your face" flamboyance still makes me smile. He did it in his very own way. Somehow, he could get away with the craziest of costumes. The man had charisma.

I was only 4 when Freddie died, but I remember watching the videoclip for his Barcelona duet with Montserrat Caballé just a few months later, and I was mesmerised.

Gay man here but my top gay icon was and always will be Martina Navratilova. I love her in spite of her craziness and her emotional neediness.

BETTE DAVIS

Cher (non-gay)

Harvey Fierstein (gay)

Ludwig II of Bavaria. Bitch INVENTED fabulous.

George Michael in his prime.

You can’t have Freddie, bitches, he’s mine! Them’s the rules. No sharing! x

Frederick the Great for his love of the sublime in music, writing, architecture...Sans Souci is a masterpiece of understatement.

Edmund White for awakening my love of Paris.

Michelangelo for awakening my love of the male body.

Judy Garland for everything

Elizabeth Taylor for her absolute dedication to fighting Aids.

Elton John for his music

Jake Shears for his camp music and his divine butt

The Divine Miss M for her talent

Mayor Pete because he proves that gay men are just as deeply patriotic as straight men

Barney Frank for his political career

Gus Kenworthy for being a world class athlete and for his divine butt

Oscar Wilde for his talent...I wonder if he had a divine butt?

R12

Damn! I'm late to the party. All my favorites are taken. I'll just have to reiterate the awesomeness of Freddie and Oscar Wilde. (Freddie was a cat man, as well, so that makes him even more special.)

R25 Fab Miss Lucy, you would probably appreciate this book, Freddie is one of those profiled.

Thanks, R26 -- that sounds like a great book! My library doesn't have it, but I've ordered it through their Link Plus service from another library.

Thank you, R26! I'm definitely getting that book to further fuel my book addiction.

Stephen Sondheim

Truman Capote. It used to be Morrissey but now I hate his motherfucking guts.

Edward Carpenter. What a man. What a life.

Jimmy Somerville

Showed me and plenty of other gay teens that we weren't alone.

Muriel

This man intrigues me, r31. Is there a biography out there that you could recommend?

Babs

Mayor Pete.

Neely O;Hara

Of course, the late, great Patty Duke

Really hard to make that final choice, but it's deffo between Noel Coward and Jesus. Although some would say Noel certainly could *behave* like he was a god damn saviour of every vital and wonderful. Such a pity he sabotaged his own career through hubris and lust. Actually, a little of both is what I fancy at the moment. But enough about me already.

The gay icons who are gay make a more interesting discussion. The Judy Barbra Joan insert is unavoidable I suppose with our eldergays on here.

Try getting a subscription to TCM, R40. You might learn something.

Freddie didn't live his public life as a gay man. He's not a gay icon for me. Oscar Wilde is.

Andy Warhol

Jesus

Montgomery Clft

Liza wit an eShhh of course as far as gay Icon goes. But my favorite gay hero is Leonardo Da Vinci - genius, but hardly a gay Icon.

^^^ with and heroe you stupid auto correct!

When it comes to a gay one, my favorite would be an icon of St. Sebastian.

R48 That’s not an icon, they tend to have gold leaf backgrounds. Here is a contemporary St. Sebastian icon.

[quote]Is there a biography out there that you could recommend?

Yes, this one. It's superb.

Bob Mackie

Tennessee Williams, he was open about his homosexuality and didn't care who knew it and at a time when it could have gotten him killed or imprisoned.