Photo by Ludovic Bertron. Wikimedia Commons.

30 Famous Gay People Who Changed the World


 

In the 1960s, gay became the word utilized by homosexual men to describe their sexual orientation. By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBT groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex, although it is more commonly used to refer specifically to men.

However, gay people continue to face a lot of challenges. A study from the Center for American Progress found that ‘many LGBTQ people continue to face discrimination in their personal lives, in the workplace and the public sphere, and in their access to critical health care.’ 

Nevertheless gay people continue to leave an impact by doing great things in the community. They have gone a long way to make their rights known and heard. Let’s look at the 30 Famous People who Changed the World.

1. Alan Turing

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Turing was a mathematician who cracked the Enigma code which was used by the German military to send encrypted messages. This shortened the war by several years. He was also a victim of mid-20th Century attitudes to homosexuality and in 1952 he was arrested because being homosexual was illegal in Britain at this time.

In 2013 he was pardoned for this ‘crime’, and in 2017 the government agreed to officially pardon men accused of ‘crimes’ like this, meaning they will no longer have a criminal record. This pardoning has come to be known as the Alan Turing law. In 2019 Turing was named the most “iconic” figure of the 20th Century and his face now appears on the £50 note.

2. Anderson Cooper

Photo by Gage Skidmore. Wikimedia Commons.

Anderson Cooper started as a correspondent for ABC News, but in 2003 he got his show on CNN, “Anderson Cooper 360.” In 2012, he became the news story when he came out as gay. “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” he said at the time.

Since then, Cooper has become somewhat of a gay icon, appearing on TV and out in public with his close friend, Andy Cohen. In 2020, he revealed he had a son via surrogate and that he would be raising him with his ex-partner.

3. Allan Horsfall

Allan Horsfall is often referred to as the grandfather of the gay rights movement. This is because he openly campaigned as a gay man when homosexuality was still illegal. In 1964 Allan Horsfall and a group of friends set up the North West Homosexual Law Reform Committee, even giving out his home address as the base for the organization.

To be so open at that time was very brave. It became the first campaigning organization outside of London set up and run by gay men, and its work directly led to homosexuality no longer being illegal. Later the North West Committee was transformed into the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), which was the largest LGBT organization there has ever been in the UK, with more than 5,000 members and 120 local groups all over the country when it was at its biggest.

4. Goronwy Rees

Goronwy Rees began his career as a journalist before working for MI6 and becoming the principal of Aberystwyth University. He was asked to join the government’s committee looking into homosexual offences which led to the Wolfenden.

The report recommended that having a homosexual relationship should no longer be a criminal offence. This laid the foundations for a later law which partially decriminalised male homosexuality for the first time in England and Wales. Goronwy was described as the “most perceptive member of the committee”, and the one who successfully argued that the committee should take evidence directly from homosexual men.

5. Mark Ashton

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Mark Ashton was an Irish gay rights activist who co-founded the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners Movement with close friend Mike Jackson.  The support group collected donations at the 1984 Lesbian and Gay Pride march in London for the miners on strike.

The story was later immortalized in the 2014 film Pride, which saw Ashton played by actor Ben Schnetzer. Ashton also served as General Secretary of the Young Communist League. In 1987 he was admitted to Guy’s Hospital after being diagnosed with HIV/Aids. He died at 26 because of AIDS.

6. Evan Wolfson

Wolfson is an attorney based in New York who worked with Lambda Legal until 2001 when he left to launch the Freedom to Marry organization. He wrote a book on the topic called Why Marriage Matters and was listed as one of Time’s most influential people in the world in 2004.

7. Gilbert Baker

Photo by TypeWithPride. Wikimedia Commons.

The iconic rainbow flag that represents the LGBTQ movement was invented by Gilbert Baker! He was an American artist, and gay rights activist who designed the flag to have eight stripes instead of the six normally seen now.

It first made an appearance back in 1978 and has become associated with LGBT rights all over the world. Although it would have made him a lot of money, Gilbert refused to trademark it, saying it was a symbol for everyone. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Baker created the world’s largest flag, at the time.

8. Chris Smith

In 1984 Chris Smith became the UK’s first openly gay MP and later, the first gay cabinet minister. After announcing that he was gay, he received a five-minute standing ovation.

His actions and the positive reaction he received have undoubtedly helped pave the way for many other MPs to be open about their sexuality as well. There have since been lots of other gay cabinet members. There are currently 54 LGBT MPs in the House of Commons, and in 2015 it was declared the gayest parliament in the world due to its proportion of LGBT members.

9. Elton John

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The singer and pianist has sold over 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In 2019 he received France’s highest civilian award, the Legion d’honneur, by President Emmanuel Macron, who called him one of the first gay artists to give a voice to the LGBT community.

Elton came out as bisexual in a 1976 interview with music magazine Rolling Stone, and in 1992 said he was gay. He and his partner David Furnish were among the first couples in the UK to get a civil partnership in 2005, when the law was changed to allow gay relationships to be legally recognized. In 2014, after gay marriage became legal in the UK the pair got married and have two sons born via surrogacy.

10. Harvey Milk

Activist and legend Harvey Milk was not the first LGBTQ+ person to hold public office, but he was immensely influential in shaping the spirit of queer resistance. This began even before his historic term on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors as California’s first out-gay politician.

Milk is now known widely for many acts of early queer activism and legislative progress. In 1978, he helped introduce the city’s first LGBTQ+ rights ordinance, which Milk called “the most stringent gay rights law in the country,” according to The Times. The ordinance banned discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on “sexual preference.”

11. Justin Fashanu

Justin Fashanu was Britain’s first openly gay footballer, and although 30 years have passed he remains the only male footballer to reveal his sexuality while playing professionally in the top tiers. His career was going well, having risen through Norwich City’s youth ranks and in 1981 he became the country’s most expensive black player with his £1m move to Nottingham Forest.

He stunned the football world in 1990 when he told a newspaper he was gay. But after this, he didn’t receive much support and suffered homophobic bullying, as well as harassment from the tabloid newspapers. He died in 1998 and was inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame in Feb 2020.

12. Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde is one of the most famous playwrights of all time. He was married to a woman and had two sons, but was later accused of being homosexual. After details of his private life were revealed during a court case, he was arrested and tried for gross indecency.

He was sentenced to two years of hard labour, and his wife took their children to Switzerland. His time in prison severely affected his health and once he was released he spent the rest of his life in Europe.

13. Bayard Rustin

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Bayard Rustin was a close friend and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. However, because he was an openly gay man, he did not receive wide recognition for his integral role in the civil rights movement.

Rustin’s sexuality was used against him and Dr. King by opposing parties, who threatened to spread lies about their relationship. This forced Rustin to work in the shadows to prevent bringing further controversy to both Dr. King and the March on Washington. Despite this, Rustin remained a political and gay activist, working to bring the AIDS crisis to the NAACP’s attention.

14. Bill Thom

Thom used his law background to launch Lambda Legal in 1973, along with Michael Lavery and Cary Boggan. The organization has been providing legal assistance to the LGBTQ community since it was founded and has been involved in major court cases in the fight for equal rights.

Lambda is an American civil rights organization that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities as well as people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) through impact litigation, societal education, and public policy work.

15. Dan Savage

Dan Savage is a writer and media pundit who has always been outspoken about LGBTQ issues. He made his mark by launching the It Gets Better Project in 2010 with his husband. The group works to prevent suicide among young LGBTQ people. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column.

16. James Baldwin

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James Baldwin was one of the most influential writers in history. He was writing gay and bisexual characters years before the LGBTQ movement fully took form and up until he died in 1987.

When asked about his sexuality, he was a firm believer in fluidity over rigid categorization. He was also active in the Civil Rights Movement. He published his first book, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” in 1953. The following year, he published his groundbreaking novel “Giovanni’s Room.” The book’s main character is a gay man.

17. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs

Some regard Ulrichs as the pioneer of the modern gay movement and the first person to publicly “come out.” Ulrichs was a judge in Germany but was forced to resign in 1854 after a colleague discovered he was gay. After he resigned, he became an activist for gay rights.

He wrote pamphlets about being gay in Germany and, on August 29, 1867, Ulrichs spoke in Munich at the Congress of Jurists to demand legal equal rights for all sexualities. Volkmar Sigusch, a leading German scholar in sexual science, described him as “the most decisive and influential pioneer of homosexual emancipation … in world history.”

18. Larry Kramer

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Kramer rose to literary fame in the 1970s focusing his work on the gay experience. He turned to activism during the AIDS epidemic in the early ’80s and helped launch the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1982.

His unfiltered and aggressive approach forced him to part ways with the group and set his sights higher on the people and organizations that were not paying attention to the problem. He continued his AIDS activism with the formation of ACT UP in 1987 and dramatized his experience in the play ‘The Normal Heart’.

19. Leornard Matlovich

Matlovich stood up to the military’s ban on gay service members by coming out in a letter to his commanding officer in 1975. He was given a general discharge from the Air Force, which he unsuccessfully challenged.

A judge finally ruled in his favour in 1980 (even offering five years back pay) and the two sides later came to a settlement. Matlovich’s case became relevant once again during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era and even more recently with the attempted ban on transgender service members.

20. Magnus Hirschfeld

Hirschfeld was a German doctor who began studying sexuality while living in Berlin in 1896. He particularly focused his study on homosexuality.

He felt strongly that taking a scientific approach to the understanding of sexual minorities would lead to tolerance and acceptance. He co-founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, which was the world’s first gay rights organization.

21. Peter Tatchell

Photo by Peter Tatchell. Wikimedia Commons.

Tatchell has been on the front line of the movement since the late 1960s and remains a major player in the fight for human rights all over the world. He helped organize the first Pride March in Britain in 1972.

His commitment to the cause is stronger than ever as evidenced by his recent arrest in Moscow during the 2018 World Cup over Russia’s treatment of LGBTQ people.

22. Steve Endean

Steve Endean founded the Human Rights Campaign Fund in 1980, which was one of the first LGBTQ PACs (political action committees) in existence. The group sought to provide support for candidates who backed legislation that pushed the movement forward. With over three million members, the HRC has become the largest organization advocating for LGBTQ civil rights.

23. Wilfred Owen

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Wilfred Owen was one of the leading poets of the First World War. Close friends said Owen was homosexual. Homoeroticism is a central element in much of Owen’s poetry.

Through fellow soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon, Owen was introduced to a sophisticated homosexual literary circle which broadened his outlook and increased his confidence in incorporating homoerotic elements into his work.

24. Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. He lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement. Throughout his career, Warhol produced erotic photography and drawings of male nudes.

Many of his most famous works draw from gay underground culture or openly explore the complexity of sexuality and desire. The first works that Warhol submitted to a fine art gallery, homoerotic drawings of male nudes, were rejected for being too openly gay.

25. Derek Jarman

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Derek Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener, and author. He was a hugely influential, high-profile figure at a time when there were very few famous gay men.

He founded the organization at the London Lesbian and Gay Centre at Cowcross Street, attending meetings and making contributions. Jarman participated in some of the most best-known protests including the march on Parliament in 1992. In 1986, he was diagnosed as HIV-positive and discussed his condition in public. In 1994, he died of an AIDS-related illness in London, aged 52.

26. Freddie Mercury

Photo by Carl Lender. Wikimedia Commons.

Freddie Mercury is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music. In the early 1970s, Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin, whom he lived with for several years.

By the mid-1970s, he had begun an affair with a male American record executive at Elektra Records. In 1976, Mercury told Austin of his sexuality which ended their relationship. While some claimed he hid his sexual orientation from the public, others claimed he was ‘openly gay’. Some have said he identified as bisexual.

27. Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. His work often addressed political and societal themes, especially homosexuality and Aids, through his iconography.

Haring was openly gay and was a strong advocate of safe sex, however, in 1988, he was diagnosed with Aids. He used his imagery during the last years of his life to speak about his illness and to generate activism and awareness about Aids.

28. Simon Nkoli

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Simon Nkoli is seen by many as the central hero of the gay and lesbian struggle in South Africa. He was an anti-apartheid, gay rights, and HIV/AIDS activist who founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW).

In 1990, Nkoli and GLOW organized the first Pride March in Johannesburg. They also played an integral role in convincing the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling political party, to formally recognize gay and lesbian rights in the country. Five years later, Nkoli declared his HIV-positive status and began working to destigmatize HIV/AIDS.

29. Ifti Nasim

Ifti Nasim was a gay Pakistani poet who moved to the United States to avoid persecution for his sexuality. His collection of poems, Narman, is thought to be the first gay-themed book of poetry written and published in Urdu.

He also founded SANGAT/Chicago, an organization which supported the South Asian LGBTQ community. Nasim was honoured in 1996 by being inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

30. Peter Thiel

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Co-founder of Confinity in 1998, which started PayPal in 1999, Thiel is often referred to as the “Don of the PayPal mafia”, a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and developed additional technology companies such as Tesla Motors, LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer.

Thiel himself was also the first outside investor in Facebook and provided millions of dollars into forward-looking research technologies through the Thiel Foundation and Thiel fellowship. While now openly gay and married to his long-time partner, Thiel was furious at being outed in a 2007 article by Gawker Media. This resulted in him bankrolling a lawsuit involving Hulk Hogan.

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