Famous/Highly Visible Queers
 

I am working on a historical referencing project and wanted to ask you all for help...and besides, this will be fun :)

I would love to compile a biggo thread full of info about Queers who are famous/highly visible. Our heroes, actresses, singers, artists, etc.

Beyond that, we can discuss how the visibility and fame of these Queers has impacted the world around us. Did they invent something awesome? Did their song make it to #1? Were they controversial? How have they shaped the media experience? How have they been shaped by the media?

Let's talk!

Please include a link to a pic!

Me'Shell NdegeOcello
 

Me'Shell NdegeOcello (born August 29, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and multi-instrumentalist. Her music incorporates funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career,[1][2] and has had ten career Grammy Award nominations.[3] She is often credited for having "sparked the neo-soul movement."[4]
(from wikipedia)

http://www.drumsonly.ch/stars/meshell_1.jpg



The first time I ever saw her was in a video for "Wild Night" with John Cougar Melencamp. I hadnt even heard the song until I saw that video and fell in love with her energy. She is an AMAZING musician (and fine as hell).

Toshi Reagon:

born in Atlanta in 1964) is an American folk/blues musician. She is the daughter of Sweet Honey in the Rock co-founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, with whom she has sometimes collaborated on musical projects and of Cordell Hull Reagon, a leader of the civil rights movement in Albany, member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and co-founder of The Freedom Singers. She is also the goddaughter of folk singer, Pete Seeger and named after his wife, Toshi Seeger.
Reagon began performing when she dropped out of college; soon afterward, Lenny Kravitz invited her to open for him on his first world tour. She has since shared the stage with performers ranging from Ani Difranco to Elvis Costello.
Her band, BIGLovely, has been performing together since September 1996. The name allegedly comes from a love-letter she received from her girlfriend, which was addressed "To My BIGLovely." The band includes Judith Casselberry on acoustic guitar and vocals, Robert "Chicken" Burke on drums, Fred Cass, Jr. on bass, Adam Widoff on electric guitar, and Catherine Russell on mandolin and vocals. The line-up also includes Jen Leigh, Ann Klein, Debbie Robinson, Alison Miller, Kismet Lyles and Stephanie McKay as replacements.
Reagon lives in Brooklyn, New York with her partner and her daughter.[1]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...i_laughing.jpg


(from Wiki)

I am a huge blues fan and she is one of my favs.

AWESOME! Can you believe I had NO idea she was Queer?!!!!!!!

Pretty interesting compilation from wiki :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...xual_people:_A



Great thread idea!... Then we have those famous folks we all know are LGBT but still haven't come out yet... ( that's a fairly long list too! )

Anyone care to reminisce on this? I remember the first time I saw it - it was like: :drool:


http://www.unc.edu/~luvvy/kdc.jpg

And Jenny Shimizu!

http://www.topnews.in/files/images/JennyShimizu.jpg

Pussy Manifesto!
 

Who didn't love them some B & A


Bitch and Animal, a duo consisting of musicians Bitch and Animal Prufrock, were a queercore band that performed from 1995 to 2004. Bitch and Animal have kept their birth names out of publication for both political and artistic reasons. They became established while touring as an opening act for Ani DiFranco, and later launched their own highly successful tours.

Their first album, What's That Smell, was self-produced and featured some of their best-known songs, such as Drag King Bar and (on a hidden track) Pussy Manifesto. Their next two albums were released on Righteous Babe. Eternally Hard, released in 2001, was co-produced by Ani DiFranco and Wayne Schrengohst. Their last album, Sour Juice and Rhyme was produced in collaboration with June Millington of the groundbreaking 1970s all-women band Fanny.


and of course


Rachel Maddow

Rachel Anne Maddow (pronounced /ˈmædoʊ/; born April 1, 1973) is an American radio personality, television host, and political commentator.[1][2] Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC.[3] She was also a guest host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Race for the White House. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to be hired to host a prime-time news program in the United States.[4][5][6][7]

http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/.a/6...12708833-250wi


**Information from Wikipedia**

And Sandra Valls from Latin Divas of Comedy!!!!


http://discoversweet.com/wp-content/...-vall-blog.jpg

YESSSSS!!!

Now isnt "Bitch" dating Daniella Sea from the "L" word???? I seem to remember someone talking about that...

Oh yes....

http://z.about.com/d/lesbianlife/1/0...tchDaniela.jpg

http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/ocio/o.../17/267fla.jpg

I am not the obsessed kind of admirer of people... So I dunno? Maybe someone else can help ya on that?

Wait there was the Pinnochio incident once at Disney...........:| I may have been a lil stalkerish but dunno if you can count Pinnochio as a real live type of thing..:|

http://www.lifeology.net/wp-content/...INOCCHIO-I.jpg

It was prob the nose that gotcha, lol.

I'm not the 'obsessive' type either...but there's just something about Mayte that makes me tingle all over...thanks for posting her pic. Got her on my desktop now - 1st thing I see when I turn on the 'puter, and when I turn it off...is it too much? :thinking:

http://greatcheapcomedy.com/comics3/...rnhard%202.jpg

If it wasn't for apretty I'd probably be desperately seeking Sandra and be one of those weird stalker groupies. I've seen her in concert about five times. The last time was in San Francisco. We were practically ten feet from her!
She's political, fierce, daring, intelligent, oozes sexual energy and I find her so sexy. Sandra Bernhard is just like the gal I love and live with!

Cynthia Nixon.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633223/

'My' Mayte...in all her glory *sigh*.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULCGn85HdCQ&feature=related"]YouTube- MAYTE MART�N - Ten cuidao![/nomedia]

I know there are more, but I mainly based this on musicians/authors/philosophers/politician etc. that I really like or I feel have done something really important.

Rob Halford
As a diehard metalhead, I figured I’d start with this one. For those who don’t know, Rob Halford is the singer of Judas Priest with one of the most widely hailed voices in metal. Besides being the frontman of one of the world’s most well-known heavy metal bands (not to mention one of metal’s founding bands along with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden), he was also largely responsible for bringing the leather culture into heavy metal (straight from the gay scene, though he didn’t come out as gay to his fans until 1998).

Clive Barker
Is a well-known English author. For those of you familiar with the horror film Hellraiser, it is based on his novella, Hellbound Heart. His books often feature homosexual/queer characters, which has done nothing to diminish his popularity among horror fans worldwide, that's for sure. His books have been translated into a number of different languages.

Timothy Findley
A famous Canadian author. His most well-known work is called The Wars (Governor General’s Award in 1977, the year of its publication), which is widely considered to be a Canadian classic.

Roland Barthes
An extremely influential 20th century French philosopher/critical theorist primarily concerned with structuralism and semiotics. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever take a 20th century critical theory or philosophy course that doesn’t mention him.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Aka Peter Tchaikovsky, aka Tchaikovsky;) Think Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
French lawyer who wrote the Napoleonic Code upon which French law is founded.

Jóhanna Sigurðadóttir
First female Icelandic Prime Minister and first openly homosexual prime minister/president/head of government in the world.

Marcel Proust
Probably don’t need to say anything about this one either. Famous French author, most known for À la recherche du temps perdu (aka In Search of Lost Time).

Leonardo DaVinci
Do I need to say anything at all:p

Ralph Waldo Emerson
A famous American transcendentalist and one of my favourite philosophers. He was bisexual, but I assume that counts.

Except for Emerson, all the other individuals I mentioned above were/are either gay or lesbian. Some other famous bisexuals who people don’t often recognise as such: Hans Christian Anderson and Michel Foucault (actually, if you look at many 20th century critical theorists, you’ll find many gay/lesbian and bisexual individuals like Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir and the aforementioned Roland Barthes).