Famous Gays & Lesbians...

Just for fun, I searched the web for famous gays and I found out how little I actually knew regarding this topic; there are thousands! (Of course, those thousands include lesbians and bisexuals from all over the world.)

The site with the most complete list was, surprisingly, Wikipedia. People bag on Wikipedia all the time because it's "not reliable," but it has routinely been reliable for me in the past. Heck, fairly soon after the (latest) Chris Buttars "brouhaha" a few months ago Wikipedia had already added the information to his page and cited it to KTVX-4 (ABC 4, which broke the story). Hence, I say that Wikipedia is reliable, and this is my blog, so that's how it goes.

I have gone through Wikipedia's lists and consolidated the celebrities that I know. If you know of any that I have missed or any that may simply not be a celebrity to me (and hence I don't recognize and list them), please let me know and I'll add them. Let's have fun with this!

P.S. I am a cinephile (AKA "movie buff"). You may not know everyone on my lists - this is why I have provided links (and why this post took so long to write)!

Film Directors:

Pedro Almodovar (OSCAR; "Volver" & "All About My Mother")
Alejandro Amenabar ("The Others" & "The Sea Inside")
Clive Barker ("Hellraiser" series)
George Cukor (OSCAR; "My Fair Lady" & "The Philadelphia Story")
Stephen Daldry
Roland Emmerich
James Ivory ("The Remains of the Day" & "Howard's End"; Merchant-Ivory films)
Rob Marshall
John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig & the Angry Inch")
Victor Salva ("Jeepers Creepers")
John Schlesinger (OSCAR; "Midnight Cowboy")
Adam Shankman ("Hairspray" & "A Walk to Remember")
Bryan Singer
Gus Van Sant

Film Actors & Actresses:

Drew Barrymore
Marlon Brando (2 OSCARS)
Richard Chamberlain ("The Towering Inferno")
Montgomery Clift ("From Here to Eternity")
Alan Cumming
James Dean
Marlene Dietrich ("Morocco")
Divine ("Hairspray")
Rupert Everett
Harvey Fierstein ("Independence Day", "Mrs. Doubtfire")
Jodie Foster (2 OSCARS)
Stephen Fry ("Gosford Park")
Greta Garbo ("Grand Hotel")
John Gielgud (OSCAR; "Elizabeth", "Arthur")
Alec Guinness (OSCAR)
Nigel Hawthorne ("Amistad")
Anne Heche
Rock Hudson ("Giant")
Tab Hunter ("Damn Yankees")
Derek Jacobi ("Gladiator")
Michael Jeter ("Jurassic Park III")
Angelina Jolie (OSCAR)
Cherry Jones ("Signs"; originated the Sister Aloysius role in "Doubt" on stage)
Nathan Lane
Bai Ling ("Anna and the King")
Lindsay Lohan
Kristanna Loken ("Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines")
Jane Lynch
Miriam Margolyes ("Harry Potter" films)
Heather Matarazzo ("Saved!", "The Princess Diaries")
Kelly McGillis
Ian McKellen
Sal Mineo ("Rebel Without a Cause")
Kathy Najimy
Laurence Olivier
Anthony Perkins
Tony Richardson (2 OSCARS; father to Natasha & Joely Richardson)
Scott Rudin (OSCAR; producer: "Doubt", "There Will Be Blood")
Glenn Shadix ("Beetlejuice")
Fiona Shaw ("Harry Potter" films)
Lily Tomlin
Clifton Webb ("Titanic (1953)")
Paul Winfield ("Sounder")

TV Actors & Actresses:

Jillian Barberie (host of "EX-treme Dating")
Saffron Burrows ("Boston Legal")
Portia de Rossi
Andy Dick
Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne")
Tim Gunn
Neil Patrick Harris
Richard Hatch
Edward Hibbert ("Frasier")
Leslie Jordan ("Will & Grace")
T.R. Knight
Reichen Lehmkuhl (winner of "The Amazing Race" & Lance Bass' ex-boyfriend)
Harvey Levin (host of "TMZ")
Rachel Maddow
Megan Mullally
Max Mutchnick (producer of "Will & Grace")
Cynthia Nixon
Graham Norton (host of "The Graham Norton Show")
Rosie O'Donnell
Suze Orman
Sarah Paulson ("Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip")
David Hyde Pierce ("Frasier")
Robert Reed ("The Brady Bunch")
Charles Nelson Reilly (panelist on "Match Game")
Cesar Romero (Joker on TV's "Batman")
Adamo Ruggiero ("Degrassi")
Dick Sargent ("Bewitched")
Darren Star (creator of "Sex and the City")
George Takei ("Star Trek")
Jackie Warner ("Work Out")
B.D. Wong ("Law and Order: SVU")

Music:

Clay Aiken
Billy Joe Armstrong (of "Green Day")
Lance Bass
Melissa Etheridge
Boy George
Elton John
Janis Joplin
Liberace
Johnny Mathis
George Michael
Sinead O'Connor
Tegan & Sara
Carly Simon
Rufus Wainwright
Pete Wentz (of "Fall Out Boy")

Comedians:

Ant
Mario Cantone
Margaret Cho
Ellen DeGeneres
Wanda Sykes
Bruce Vilanch

Historical Figures:

Alexander the Great (profiled in the film "Alexander")
Cyrano de Bergerac (profiled in several works)
Caligula (Roman Emperor)
Edward II (King of England)
Hadrian (Roman Emperor)
Leonardo da Vinci (profiled in several works)
Michelangelo (profiled in the film "The Agony and the Ecstasy")
Marquis de Sade (profiled in the film "Quills")
Sappho (Greek poet in the B.C. era)

Authors:

Horatio Alger, Jr.
Michael Ausiello (columnist for "Entertainment Weekly")
James Baldwin
William S. Burroughs (profiled in the film "Running With Scissors", which he wrote)
Lord Byron
Truman Capote (profiled in the film "Capote")
John Cheever
Patricia Cornwell
Michael Cunningham
Ralph Waldo Emerson
E.M. Forster
Allen Ginsberg
Dorien Grey (a pseudonym for Roger Margason)
James Howe ("Bunnicula" series)
Langston Hughes
Chuck Palahniuk ("Fight Club")
David Sedaris ("Me Talk Pretty One Day")
Gertrude Stein
T.H. White ("The Once and Future King" - OMGosh, my favorite book!)
Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde (profiled in several works)
Virginia Woolf (profiled in the film "The Hours")

Politicians:

Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts)
Harvey Milk (profiled in the movie "Milk")
Gore Vidal

Composers:

Peter Allen ("Arthur's Theme"; divorced from Liza Minnelli)
Howard Ashman ("Aladdin", "The Little Mermaid")
Cole Porter (profiled in the film "De-Lovely")
Marc Shaiman ("Prop 8 - The Musical", "Hairspray (2007)")
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Infamous:

Michael Alig (NYC club promoter & convicted murderer; profiled in the film "Party Monster")
Peter Bacanovic (Martha Stewart's stockbroker)
Joan Crawford (OSCAR; film actress)
Jeffrey Dahmer (serial killer)
Mark Foley (former R-Florida)
Annie Leibovitz (famous controversial photographer; took Miley Cyrus' virtue away)
James "Jim" McGreevey (former Governor of New Jersey; appeared on Oprah after gay affair)
Joel Schumacher (director; "Batman & Robin")
Matthew Shepard (murder victim; profiled in the mini-series "The Matthew Shepard Story")
Aileen Wuornos (serial killer; profiled in the film "Monster")

Fashion Designers:
Christian Dior
Marc Jacobs
Michael Kors
Isaac Mizrahi
Yves Saint-Laurent
Christian Siriano (winner of "Project Runway")
Gianni Versace

...and every other male fashion designer out there! JK JK

Screenwriters (Film & Television):

Alan Ball (OSCAR; "American Beauty", "Six Feet Under")
Greg Berlanti ("Brothers & Sisters")
Dustin Lance Black (OSCAR; "Milk", "Big Love")
Marc Cherry ("Desperate Housewives")
Bill Condon (OSCAR; "Dreamgirls", "Chicago")
Michael Patrick King ("Sex and the City")
Tony Kushner ("Munich", "Angels in America")
Don Mancini ("Child's Play"/"Chucky" movies)
Ryan Murphy ("Nip/Tuck")
John Waters ("Hairspray")
Kevin Williamson ("Scream")

Athletes (wait - there are gay athletes?!):

John Amaechi (former Utah Jazz player)
Rudy Galindo (championship figure skater)
Orlando Jordan (WWE wrestler)
Billie Jean King (tennis player; faced Bobby Riggs in the famous Battle of the Sexes match)
Greg Louganis (diver and Olympic-winner)
Martina Navratilova (tennis player)
Sheryl Swoopes (WNBA star)

Others:

Josephine Baker
Bruce Bastian
Nate Berkus (Oprah's go-to interior designer)
Chastity Bono (Cher's daughter)
Mary Cheney
Janice Dickinson (former model)
David Geffen (recording executive)
Sam Garrison (one of Nixon's many lawyers for his impeachment trial)
Kitty Genovese (crime victim; a crime studied by social psychologists, by the way...)
Steve Hildebrand (Obama's Deputy National Campaign Director)
Perez Hilton
James St. James (NYC "Club Kid")
Frida Kahlo (artist; profiled in the film "Frida")
Alfred Kinsey (biologist and sexuality researcher; profiled in the film "Kinsey")
David LaChapelle (media director; see his U.K. "Lost" commercial)
Bishop Gene Robinson (first openly-gay Episcopalian Bishop)
Samantha Ronson (Lindsay Lohan's ex-girlfriend)
Anna-Nicole Smith (model)
Andy Warhol (artist)

So... basically, without all these people, the entertainment industry wouldn't exist. Wel, it would exist but it would suck really, really badly!