Stephen Sondheim
Larry Kramer
Tim Cook
Pete
Gore Vidal
Who else? No trivial pop celebrities please
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Stephen Sondheim
Larry Kramer
Tim Cook
Pete
Gore Vidal
Who else? No trivial pop celebrities please
by Anonymous | reply 50 | April 10, 2021 9:38 PM |
Where's Vivian Vance?
by Anonymous | reply 1 | April 8, 2021 6:41 AM |
OP, your list sucks. All the cliches, not those who really made a difference. Except perhaps Kramer.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | April 8, 2021 6:42 AM |
What the fuck? No Andy Warhol? Andy was the most influential artist of the second half of the 20th century and is foundational to most art produced today. Nobody has been more influential than him, down to our whole culture of everyone being famous for 15 minutes.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | April 8, 2021 6:49 AM |
Agreed R3.
And flame away, but what about the producers of Will & Grace, or the actors and writers for that matter? They helped make gays acceptable -- and LIKEABLE -- to millions and millions of Americans, while Sondheim is known for a few songs by a much smaller percentage of the population. Gore Vidal is almost completely forgotten.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | April 8, 2021 6:58 AM |
Tim Apple, hands down, he’s a yuuuuuge mo.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | April 8, 2021 6:58 AM |
Ellen DeGeneres
by Anonymous | reply 6 | April 8, 2021 7:01 AM |
Totally forgot about Ellen. She HAS been influential, even if she's not the greatest behind the scenes.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | April 8, 2021 7:07 AM |
Yes. I agree Andy Warhol could be on the list. Ellen, no. Just no. Ryan Murphy of course. My omission.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | April 8, 2021 7:23 AM |
Gore Vidal didn't believe in being 'gay'. Merely in gay acts so I would hardly look up to him in that regard. He seemed to have an almost bitterness at the fact he was a fag; like it was an affliction that without it he would have been the President.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | April 8, 2021 7:25 AM |
Date I say Andy?
by Anonymous | reply 10 | April 10, 2021 1:23 PM |
Matthew Shepard
by Anonymous | reply 11 | April 10, 2021 1:26 PM |
R11 That hurts me still. But I see your point.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | April 10, 2021 1:28 PM |
Billy Gene King
by Anonymous | reply 13 | April 10, 2021 1:28 PM |
Barry Diller and Calvin Klein belong on the list. Halston and Tennessee Williams also belong on there.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | April 10, 2021 1:52 PM |
I would agree if Tennessee Williams would of had a good second act ( or maybe it would have been third act?), but the alcoholism and the bad behavior really did him in creatively those last decades.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | April 10, 2021 2:27 PM |
Paul Allen; Ernest Hemingway; Calvin Klein; Chief Justice John Roberts; Mitch McConnell; Tom Cruise...
by Anonymous | reply 16 | April 10, 2021 2:47 PM |
R16 Hemingway? I guess I haven’t gotten to that part in the PBS series.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | April 10, 2021 3:01 PM |
Larry Kramer was Fierce - a real flame thrower in his day. He needed to be and really got his point across and did so much for the Gay Community, especially during the AIDS crisis.
Now Pete Buttigieg is the new hero, a Prince Charming for the Gay Community, and a real man to watch - he's going places!
by Anonymous | reply 18 | April 10, 2021 3:19 PM |
[quote]Billy Gene King
Oh, DEAR!
[unless this is a DL joke I'm not familiar with.]
by Anonymous | reply 19 | April 10, 2021 3:22 PM |
Was Kramer known at all outside the gay community, I don’t get the sense he was and had little impact to the world beyond. Influential to gays and gay politics, little or no influence in the larger world.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | April 10, 2021 3:24 PM |
R20 Larry Kramer was very well known. Just a few years ago his play The Normal Heart was finally made into a TV mini series. He got everyone's attention and was a force to be reckoned with!
by Anonymous | reply 21 | April 10, 2021 3:27 PM |
[quote]I would agree if Tennessee Williams would of had a good second act
Oh, dear.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | April 10, 2021 3:42 PM |
Maybe not as famous, with influence that is still to be reckoned, a personal hero of mine is Boyd McDonald.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | April 10, 2021 3:48 PM |
James Baldwin
by Anonymous | reply 24 | April 10, 2021 3:48 PM |
Thank you r24. Another one I missed. Bayard Rustin too.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | April 10, 2021 3:51 PM |
Do you mean generally influential, OP, or influential in terms of being publicly gay?
by Anonymous | reply 26 | April 10, 2021 3:55 PM |
Generally, but starting out gay or from gay issues.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | April 10, 2021 4:38 PM |
Roxanne Gay deserves a mention
by Anonymous | reply 28 | April 10, 2021 4:58 PM |
Frank Kameny
Harvey Milk
by Anonymous | reply 29 | April 10, 2021 5:01 PM |
Jared Polis - first out governor
by Anonymous | reply 30 | April 10, 2021 5:02 PM |
Ok I think we're now scraping the bottom of the barrel. We've used up the real names. Thread closed. Over and out.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | April 10, 2021 5:03 PM |
So, who won OP?
by Anonymous | reply 32 | April 10, 2021 5:06 PM |
What a little control freak the OP is.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | April 10, 2021 5:06 PM |
No doubt a bossy bottom r33
by Anonymous | reply 34 | April 10, 2021 5:08 PM |
Jasper Johns
Cy Twombly
Robert Rauschenberg
by Anonymous | reply 35 | April 10, 2021 5:09 PM |
Jasper Johns and Susan Sontag fucked for awhile.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | April 10, 2021 5:10 PM |
I don't understand the criteria that would put Larry Kramer (who is rightfully there for giving gay men a political voice when we were being destroyed by AIDS, apathy, and ignorance) and Gore Vidal in the same category.
Vidal was an intelligent provocateur (particularly on politics and capitalism), but his fiction sucks, a lot of his non-fiction is tiresome, and he didn't define himself as a gay man in any "modern" sense. So, no.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | April 10, 2021 5:12 PM |
Armistead Maupin
Barney Frank
Greg Louganis
by Anonymous | reply 38 | April 10, 2021 5:16 PM |
Tony Kushner. Won the Pulitzer, Tony and Drama Desk awards for Angels in America. The play really defined the politics of AIDS and gayness in the early 90s, and was a theatrical tour de force in every way. Of course, Kushner's influential for more than Angels, but the impact of that play cannot be overstated.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | April 10, 2021 5:23 PM |
Barry and Big MIke
by Anonymous | reply 40 | April 10, 2021 5:23 PM |
By contrast with Gore Vidal, his contemporary and rival Truman Capote was another loud, smart, opinionated bitch, but most of his writing is terrific and has held up over time. Of course, Capote was a mess and didn't really have a political bone in his body, so I wouldn't put him in my personal pantheon.
I think Vidal gets undeserved acclaim here just because he seems like someone who would have been a DLer in his lifetime, frankly.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | April 10, 2021 5:26 PM |
Don Lemon
by Anonymous | reply 42 | April 10, 2021 5:27 PM |
I think ANGELS IN AMERICA is a remarkable play, but in what other way is Tony Kushner influential? Nothing else he's written has even close to that impact.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | April 10, 2021 5:27 PM |
the old queens who chose Pete are just laughably delusional.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 10, 2021 5:30 PM |
No one said they have to be gold star gays.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | April 10, 2021 5:45 PM |
Anderson Cooper is the most recognized news anchor alive right now.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | April 10, 2021 5:46 PM |
r45 Maybe not. But surely we can have SOMETHING that is just about gay men, and not bisexuals. We dont need the likes of Gore Vidal, Jasper Johns, Robert maplethorp, who all slept with women well into their adult years (30+). And we def dont need to celebrate Mr Diane Von Furstenberg - Barry Diller.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | April 10, 2021 9:16 PM |
Harvey Milk is The Man! Did so much for the Gay Community and was so visible. Assassinated for his gay liberation causes. A Saint in his own way.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | April 10, 2021 9:28 PM |
[quote] No doubt a bossy bottom [R33]
Bossy?! How dare of you.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | April 10, 2021 9:38 PM |
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