Who are your personal gay and/or lesbian hero(s)?

[kweerwolf]

I was having a discussion the other day with a much younger activist about who in GLBT history or activism we most admired. I was struck by the fact that the roughly two decades age difference meant we had very different views of who our "heroes" were. I'm curious if my perceptions about age differences and the people we admire hold true ... so if anyone is interested, please post the GLBT folk you most admire and your age (or approximation).

I'm 48 and my heroes are:

1. Harry Hay - founder of the Mattachine Society (and later the Radical Faerie movement)
2. Christopher Isherwood - author
3. Will Roscoe - author of books on Native American spirituality, gender and gay "archetypes"
4. Janis Ian - folksinger
5. Melissa Ethridge - rock singer/musician
6. Harvey Fierstein - playwright/actor
7. Craig Rodwell - Stonewall Riot participant and founder of Lambda Rising Bookstore in New York

[99Pancakes]

1. SpongeBob

[DURHAM D]

2. Jean O'Leary. eom

[dicknbush]

3. My Uncle in New York...

He is 85 years old had a lover for over 40 years. His lover died a few years ago and he is till living the life he loves in New York!

[GodlessBiker]

23. Wow. Congrats to their relationship.

Was you Uncle's lover in his 80s, too?

[teenagebambam]

4. My 7th-Grade Math teacher

Mr. Marriott. Expected us to use our minds, all the time.

Must have known I was a "sensitive" lad...I was not a particularly gifted math student, but he cornered me one day in order to give me tickets for my mother and I to attend the symphony!

Years later, my little sister was in his class, and she and a friend were passing a note that said "Mr. Marriott is a peg-leg fag". He snatched up the note, read it aloud, turned to the girls and said "Oh, is he? Well, thank you for the artwork, girls!" and posted it on the bulletin board for the rest of the year.

Sadly, he was killed in a car accident with his dog shortly after that. The school built a lovely memorial garden for him.

[Warpy]

5. Harvey Fierstein and Craig Russell are at the top of the performer

list for the courageous and wonderful films they made.

However, my real heroine is L__, who came out to me when I was 14. I am straight and she was incredibly brave to come out so young, in the south, and in an incredibly hostile pre Stonewall world.
My hero is T__, who was completely OUT six years before Stonewall.
Another great hero is P__, who showed me incredible grace and courage as he died of AIDS, proud to the end of getting clean and sober before he died.
And there were others whose names I can't recall, two who showed me the incredible devotion of a committed gay couple when one got cancer and the other quit his job and moved a cot into his partner's hospital room and assumed all his care except the administration of medications; men who put their lives on the line testing new AIDs treatments that were so rushed they were just as likely to die from the treatment; and one in particular who apologized to all of us for the way AIDS made him look, that nobody should ever have to take care of someone so grotesque.

My heroes and heroines are many and most will never be known except to a very small circle of friends and a few health care professionals.

[DBoon]

6. Alan Turing

nt

[Q3JR4]

7. Harvey Milk.

For his courage and conviction in his run for elected office in San Francisco and his insistence in holding that position, after he was elected, even if someone targeted him for it.

[Technowitch]

8. Collectively, the gays & lesbians of Stonewall

I can't pick any single person, because it was those people, in their numbers, who said "ENOUGH!"

We owe a great deal to those brave folks.

[Imagine My Surprise]

9. In all humility, it would have to be...ahem...me.

In the early 90's, I was the only openly gay comedian in Los Angeles working in the mainstream. I was asked (by club owner/Pauly Shore's mother) to found the gay the lesbian comedy show at the Comedy Store in 1993, and I was a gay character on Grace Under Fire long before the other "Grace" came into vogue. Humility prevents me from continuing. :)

[Duncan Grant]

10. Audre Lorde still inspires me.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lorde/lorde.htm

"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid".

"The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives."

"I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."

There are others, too. :hi:

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

11. do they have to be gay to be my hero?

cuz I love Cher and Eartha Kitt and Princess Di. But for gay individuals:

1. Divine
2. Billie Jean King
3. Greg Louganis
4. Elton John
5. Oscar Wilde
6. Quentin Crisp

[dsc]

12. My uncle

who was born in 1934 and openly gay in high school, in a PA milltown.

I also think that the Stonewall rebellion participants deserve that accolade. As does the man who solved the enigma machine. Harvey Milk deserves it. Sgt Perry Walkins deserves it. There are many others including those listed by others in this thread.

[TaleWgnDg]

13. 2-time winner of the Massachusetts Lawyer of the Year Award . . .

.
2-time winner of the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Lawyer of the Year Award . . . Mary L. Bonauto, Attorney-at-Law, of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (G.L.A.D.), Boston, Massachusetts, who successfully represented plaintiffs in both Vermont's civil union lawsuit and in Massachusetts' same-sex marriage lawsuit and who has legally represented (and continues to legally represent) and assist GLBT couples and individuals all across New England and beyond in lawsuits and in legal resources.

" 'She's right up there among (civil rights leaders),' exclaims Gary D. Buseck, the executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). 'Not just in New England, but in the entire country she's been a force in the movement for civil rights for (lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual people).' " http://www.glad.org/marriage/Mass_Lawyers_Weekly_12-29-03.htm

Hats off to Mary!!

See also:

(1.) http://www.boston.com/news/necn/Shows/gml/ (scroll down to "Bonauto: Bay State a 'Beacon of Fairness', (5/17/05 9:04 a.m.) Mary Bonauto is the civil rights project director for the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) of Massachusetts. She says it's important for the Bay State to keep the "beacon of fairness shining" through the continued legalization of same-sex marriage.") Boston Globe/New England Cable News (NECN) video (Bonauto interview is preceded by a short Crest toothpaste video ad)

(2.) reprint of a Boston Sunday Globe Magazine article entitled, "Bostonians of the Year: The Crusader" (.pdf format, Adobe Reader is required) http://www.glad.org/News_Room/bgm_mb_122604.pdf


.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Good question

Harry Hay
The originators of the Daughters of Blitis
Ellen DeGeneres
Melissa Etheridge
The 'rioters' at the Stonewall
Harvey Milk
and just about any person who has the courage to come out and say, "I AM GAY/LESBIAN/BISEXUAL/TRANSGENDERED!"

[MinneapolisMatt]

15. Martina Navratilova.

She's still kicking ass and not apologizing.

-Matt :)

[terrya]

16. Franklin Kameny....Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon...Barbara Gittings....

among other great gay men and lesbians who paved the way for the modern gay rights movement. We can thank...but not enough...these wonderful people for the rights we enjoy today.

[FuzzyDicePHL]

19. Yes! And don't forget

Lilli Vincenz and Jack Nichols...

If you haven't seen "Gay Pioneers" (www.gaypioneers.com) then you really should try and find it. It aired on WHYY (local Phila. PBS) recently and blew me away. I wept with gratitude at what these brave folks did 40yrs ago.

[thrift_store_angel]

17. I am sure I am leaving someone out but....

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
Martina Navratilova
Harvey Milk
Amy Ray
Emily Saliers
Stonewall Riot participants
and Barney Frank

and I have to give a nod to a non-gay voice in the gay rights movement, Judy Shepard

[soleft]

18. Hmmmm.........I wonder........going to have to think hard on this

And how will I ever express it.

[GodlessBiker]

20. Quentin Crisp. A pioneer. We all owe people like him.

[Terran]

21. Harvey Milk, Quentin Crisp, Gertude Stein

Pioneers all.

[Stepup2]

22. Many of mine are mentioned

1. Billy Jean King
2. Audre Lorde
3. All the bar owners in the early years in this country who would stand guard in parking lots to be certain patrons got out safely, would shrug off hate mail, and who would rebuild after buildings were torched.