User:Collier09/sandbox

List of Notable American Gay Men


 * Clay Aiken, Broadway actor, singer, activist, politician. Known for his participation in the second season of American Idol in 2003, and as candidate for U.S. House from North Carolina. Came out publicly in 2008 after the birth of his son, Parker.
 * Edward Albee, playwright, thrice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Among his plays, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, Three Tall Women, etc. Openly gay, Albee refused to be called a gay writer. "I am not a gay writer. I am a writer who happens to be gay."
 * John Ashbery, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
 * Jon Robin Baitz, playwright, screenwriter, television producer. Twice finalist for Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
 * James Baldwin, African American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.[citation needed]
 * Charles M. Blow, journalist, New York Times
 * Matt Bomer, an American film, stage and television actor, best known from his role on White Collar, which premiered in 2009. He first publicly acknowledged that he was gay in 2012 saying, "I never hid the fact that I'm gay". He thanked his partner Simon Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award.[272]
 * Keith Boykin, author, commentator[273]
 * Ben Brantley, chief theater critic, The New York Times[274]
 * Thom Browne, fashion designer; founder and head of design for Thom Browne, a New York City-based menswear and womenswear brand.[275]
 * Frank Bruni, journalist and op-ed columnist for The New York Times.[276]
 * Augusten Burroughs, author[277]
 * Wolfgang Busch, documentary filmmaker (How Do I Look, exploring Ball Culture).
 * J.P. Calderon, an American professional volleyball player, model and reality television participant. He began his professional volleyball career in 2004 and became a nationally ranked Association of Volleyball Professionals player.[278]
 * RuPaul Charles, an American drag queen.
 * Andy Cohen, radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer.[279]
 * Jason Collins, NBA player. First active athlete to come out as gay in any of the major American sports.
 * Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc., and the first Chief Executive of a Fortune 500 company to publicly identify as gay. Cook also serves on the boards of directors of Nike, Inc. and the National Football Foundation.
 * Anderson Cooper, an American journalist, author and television personality. He is the primary news anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. Cooper is openly gay; according to The New York Times, he is "the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television".[280] For years, Cooper avoided discussing his private life in interviews.
 * Bill Condon, screenwriter and director[281]
 * Michael Cunningham, author[282]
 * Matt Dallas, an American actor, best known for playing the title character on Kyle XY.[citation needed]
 * Lee Daniels, film director, best known for his film Precious.[citation needed]
 * Mark Doty, poet and memoirist[283]
 * Martin Duberman, historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activist.
 * Tom Ford, fashion designer, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He gained fame as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. In 2006, Ford launched his own "Tom Ford" label. Ford directed the films A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016), which were Oscar-nominated.[citation needed]
 * Barney Frank, former U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district from 1981 until 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he is also the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007–2011) and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States. In 1987 he was the first member of the U.S. Congress to come out as gay of his own volition. On July 7, 2012, Frank married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of the U.S. Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office.[284]
 * Darrin P. Gayles, U.S. District Judge-Designate of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He is the first openly gay African-American man to be confirmed as a U.S. federal judge.[285]
 * David Geffen, an American business magnate, producer, film studio executive, and philanthropist, who created or co-created Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 1994. His donations to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and other educational and research donations have widened his fame beyond the entertainment industry.[citation needed]
 * Allen Ginsberg, an American poet, and one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the counterculture that soon would follow.[citation needed]
 * LZ Granderson, journalist
 * Richard Greenberg, playwright and TV writer
 * Jonathan Groff, Broadway and television actor
 * Neil Patrick Harris, an American actor, comedian and singer. He is best known for the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D. and as the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother. He also had roles on Broadway. Harris was named as one of |Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010,[286] and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 2011.[287]
 * Essex Hemphill, poet and social activist. In June 2019, Hemphill was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.[288][289]
 * Rock Hudson was an American actor widely known as a leading man in the 1950s and 1960s, often starring in romantic comedies opposite Doris Day. Hudson was voted Star of the Year, Favorite Leading Man, and similar titles by numerous film magazines. The 6 ft 5in (1.95) tall actor was one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of his time. Hudson died in 1985, becoming the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness.[290]
 * Marc Jacobs, fashion designer and businessman.[citation needed]
 * Cheyenne Jackson, actor and singer[291]
 * Langston Hughes, an American poet, novelist and playwright, best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s in New York City.[citation needed]
 * Michael Kors, fashion designer[292]
 * Larry Kramer, playwright, author, LGBT rights activist. Co-founded Gay Men's Health Crisis
 * Tony Kushner. playwright and screenwriter. Pulitzer Prize for Angels In America
 * Adam Lambert is an American singer-songwriter and stage actor, and the first openly gay mainstream pop artist to launch a career on a major label in the U.S.[293]
 * Nathan Lane, actor and comedian[294]
 * Don Lemon, news anchor.[citation needed]
 * Liberace, an American pianist, singer, and actor.[citation needed]
 * Sean Maher, an American actor, best known for his role as Simon Tam in the science fiction television series Firefly and follow-up movie Serenity.[295]
 * Barry Manilow, best-selling singer-songwriter, arranger, musician, and producer.[citation needed]
 * Joe Mantello, director and actor[296]
 * Rob Marshall, director, choreographer and producer[297]
 * Johnny Mathis, singer of popular music and jazz, selling over 100 million records worldwide.[citation needed]
 * Tarell Alvin McCraney, playwright and screenwriter. Co-wrote the screenplay for Moonlight, which won the 2016 Academy Award for best picture.
 * Isaac Mizrahi – fashion designer[298]
 * Darnell L. Moore, author[299]
 * Adam Moss, editor-in-chief of New York (magazine). Formerly editor of The New York Times magazine.[300]
 * Bob Mould, musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.[citation needed]
 * John Mulholland, film historian and documentary filmmaker Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen, Liza Minnelli: Private Reflections, etc.[301] Mulholland has cited Marlon Riggs as his filmmaker ideal: "That I am gay has no bearing on my admiration for the man. Marlon Riggs had such invigorating passion, such unbridled intellectual and emotional ferocity, such wit, such rage, such compassion, as he savaged the minefield that is race, racism, gayness, homophobia, masculinity, black history, black self-hate, black pride, black masculinity, black gay manhood, gay self-hate, gay pride; what a gift that he gave us such a rich and lasting body of work in his oh-too short life. We are all in Marlon’s debt and in his shadow.”[302]
 * Michael Musto – journalist[303]
 * Tyler Oakley, youtuber and activist known his YouTube videos and work with the trevor project[citation needed]
 * Frank Ocean, an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and photographer.[citation needed]
 * Jim Parsons, an American television and film actor. He has won, among other awards, two consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series[304] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy.
 * Jared Polis, an entrepreneur, philanthropist, former U.S. Representative for Colorado's 2nd congressional district, and Governor of Colorado, serving since 2019. He was the first male U.S. congressperson and Governor to be openly gay when first elected to office.[citation needed]
 * Cole Porter, composer and songwriter of musicals.[citation needed]
 * Billy Porter, actor and singer[305]
 * Zachary Quinto, an American actor and producer. He grew up in Pennsylvania and was active in high school musical theater. He is mostly known for his roles as Spock in the 2009 reboot Star Trek, and its 2013 sequel Star Trek into Darkness.[306][307] Quinto publicly came out as gay in October 2011.[308]
 * Andrew Rannells, actor and singer. Grammy Winner for Best Musical Theater Album.[309] Rannells is openly gay.[310]
 * Marlon Riggs, filmmaker, educator (professor), poet, and gay rights activist. Produced, wrote, and directed: Ethnic Notions, Tongues Untied, Color Adjustment, and Black is... Black Ain't. His provocative films examined race and sexuality in America. Many documentarians cite Riggs as their most admired filmmaker (i.e., see filmmaker John Mulholland, quote noted above}.
 * Thomas Roberts, journalist[311]
 * Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist, organizer of the very first Freedom Rides, and the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.[citation needed]
 * Nate Silver – writer, statistician, and founder/editor of FiveThirtyEight[312]
 * Shepard Smith – journalist and television anchor[313]
 * Michael Stipe, lead singer and main lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.[citation needed]
 * George Takei, actor, director and activist, particularly known for his role as Sulu in the TV series Star Trek.[citation needed]
 * André Leon Talley, fashion designer
 * Peter Thiel, influential entrepreneur and co-founder of PayPal, worth 2.2 billion in 2016.[citation needed]
 * Colm Toibin, author, poet, playwright, critic[314]
 * Alexander Wang, fashion designer[315]
 * Andy Warhol, artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art, and best known for works including the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).[citation needed]
 * Jann Wenner, co-founder and publisher, Rolling Stone[316]
 * Edmund White, author, critic and memoirist[317]
 * Walt Whitman, a 19th-century poet, essayist, and journalist, and among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.[citation needed]
 * Tennessee Williams, an American playwright, author of A Streetcar Named Desire, considered among the three foremost playwrights in 20th-century American drama.[citation needed]
 * Jason Wu, fashion designer