GLBT History Month: 31 icons to be celebrated...but why CARY GRANT?

Why NOT Cary Grant?

But there are any number of importnat names missing. Where's Frank O'Hara? Andy Warhol? John LaTouche? Joe Brainard? Allen Ginsberg?
Jane Bowles? Patricia Highsmith? (Just off the top of my head.)

I couldn't agree with you more, Greg. I think Equality Forum make themselves look ridiculous, and diminish the whole list, by including Cary Grant. Who knows, he may have been gay or bisexual, but that is speculation, not established fact, and to include him makes the list seem trashy and tabloidy. I think one can argue over what level of evidence is needed to confidently name a star gay or bisexual, but to me, in Grant's case, the evidence just seems insufficient. As far as the pictures of him with Randolph Scott are concerned, remember that they were not private, candid pictures - they were posed portraits that were endorsed by the film studios. So they have limited value in terms of giving us an insight into the 'real' Cary Grant.

If Equality Forum wanted to name a famous film star in order to gain publicity for the list (as it seems likely they did), then what's wrong with Rock Hudson or Montgomery Clift? Equality Forum evidently doesn't mind about the person having been closeted during their lifetime, so why not use people who are actually established as gay?

Some of the chosen GLBT Leaders are *exactly* the kind of people one wishes to see highlighted, brought to people's attention as role models or recognized for achievements in their fields. But some are simply Famous People who had some public achievements, who were or may have been homosexual or bisexual, but who denied it, hid it, or litigated over it, even into the decades after Stonewall. Folks who might just as easily be known for wanting NOT to be associated with the GLBT community or GLBT civil rights. In a couple cases, the selected GLBT Leaders are better described as Anti-Role Models, or just famous and disagreeable people who happened to be homosexual.

It's important to emphasize, there are many outstanding GLBT "role models" on this list of Icons. But not every famous or accomplished GLBT person warrants recognition as a GLBT Leader or Icon or Role Model. This list of Icons includes a bit more of Musty Old Closets, Bloody Conquerors, and Confused Orientations than one might wish to see in a celebration of GLBT History Month. And one reluctant fellow who, in life never wanted to be anyone's Gay Hero; cast here in death as... Our Gay Hero.

GLBT History Month 2007 Icons:

Leonard Bernstein, Composer. And a man with a wife and an ambiguous sexuality, though he may have been as collaborator Arthur Laurents described him, simply "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." Bernstein enjoyed a very active New York City gay life and became well known for his outspoken views on controversies such as the Vietnam War, civil rights, and his support for the Black Panthers and other unpopular political causes - Bernstein was the inspiration for Tom Wolfe's cynical phrase, "radical chic." Yet Bernstein never identified with or participated in the struggle for gay civil rights. Not in the 1950s or 1960s prior to the Stonewall Riots, nor in the 1970s, or 1980s. Not during that first decade of the HIV/AIDS crisis that took such a toll on Bernstein's music, theater, and arts communities. Leonard Bernstein, a GLBT Leader & Icon.

Annie Leibovitz, Photographer. And long-time undisclosed lover of Susan Sontag (see below) who declined to acknowledge their relationship or sexuality until 2006, after Sontag's death. A GLBT Leader & Icon..

Angela Davis, Civil Rights Activist. And more than simply that. She is not the Demon Grande Dame of the Left as she is often caricatured; nor is all criticism of her as baseless as Professor Davis caricatures it. She chose to NOT repudiate civil violence and Americans killing Americans in order to achieve political objectives, and instead offered rationalizations of "liberation" and "revolution" and "emancipation." She protested the violation of civil and human rights in the US, and simultaneously supported and defended oppressive Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Cuba. She sought to tie herself to revolutionary movements throughout the world, while remaining unaware or unconcerned that those movements were typically as brutal and authoritarian as the regimes they sought to overthrow through violence - and equally contemptuous of civil and human rights. When Czech dissidents petitioned for her to intervene on behalf of those persecuted by the communist regime, her response was "They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison." Both the Soviet Union and Cuba defined homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder and a crime, and during the time they were Professor Davis's Fan Favorites, both regimes notoriously imprisoned queers for being queer. Davis is currently an outspoken advocate of abolishing the US prison system. Angela Davis, GLBT Leader & Icon.

Alexander the Great, Military Commander. And megalo-maniacal warrior and mass murderer who sought to rule the world. Voted "Least Favorite GLBT Leader" by the peoples of Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria, Cappadocia, Armenia, Media, all of Mesopotamia, Persia, Bactria... Basically everywhere between the Mediterranean and the Indus River. Upon all of which he unleashed untold human suffering. Famous for the mass slaughter of the entire populations of places such as Massaga, Oro, Aornos, as examples to other cities that might resist his conquest. His conquests set the stage for the rise of Hellenic culture throughout the region, which also meant the destruction of native cultures and civilizations who no longer have anyone to speak for them. But he had a "long time companion" named Hephaestion, so that vaults Alexander into the status of GLBT Leader & Icon.

Susan Sontag, Author/Commentator. And long-time advocate and practitioner of the "Open Secret" secret who declined to self-identify as a lesbian or bisexual, or identify with or lend support to the lesbian community. Noted for telling an editor, "Maybe I could have given comfort to some people if I had dealt with the subject of my private sexuality more, but it's never been my prime mission to give comfort, unless somebody's in drastic need." Hence Sontag's inclusion as a GLBT Leader & Icon.

Frederick II, Monarch. Also known as Frederick the Great. Undeniably great, viewed through the eyes of a Prussian. He substantially expanded its borders by launching brutal wars and conquering his neighbors. Less great if one views Frederick through the eyes of Slavs. Such as those living in Silesia, which he seized. Or the eyes of the Poles. Whose lands he also seized. And who he then displaced from their lands so he could move Germans in and tidy up and "Prussianize" the place. But he was a successful conqueror and is credited with launching the rise of Prussian and German militarism. His true sexuality is a historical puzzle and a mystery cloaked in secrecy, but whatever it was, it qualifies as NOT-heterosexual. Frederick II, a GLBT Leader & Icon.

Cary Grant, Actor. And still only rumored to have been a lifelong bisexual or homosexual inhabitant of the closet. The rumors are substantial and have continued for decades, but so too were Cary Grant's denials; he spent decades denying that he was either bisexual or homosexual. Filed a lawsuit against Chevy Chase for slander, after Chase referred to Cary Grant in a 1980 interview as "Oh, what a gal!" Elevating him to a GLBT Leader & Icon.

Florence Nightingale, Health Care Advocate. And possibly a lifelong celibate who probably never consummated any "romantic friendships" with individuals of any gender. Her most passionate friendships were with other women, but that may have simply reflected an even greater distaste for men. She may have simply found sexuality repulsive, it's unclear. Florence Nightingale, GLBT Leader & Icon.

Oliver "Billy" Sipple, Hero. It was Sipple who in 1975 spotted Sara Jane Moore at the St. Francis Hotel taking aim at President Gerald Ford with an automatic pistol, who lunged into her and caused her bullet to miss Ford. After only two days, activists in the San Francisco gay community noted that the White House hadn't yet expressed gratitude to Sipple for saving the President, and told the news media this was because the White House learned Sipple was gay. He was then outed against his wishes by gay politician Harvey Milk, who called Sipple a "gay hero" and said his heroism "will help break the stereotype of homosexuals." The San Francisco Chronicle and other newspapers reported on this and disclosed his sexuality. Sipple's family back home in Detroit learned he was gay and that shattered his relationships with his family, particularly with his parents. Sipple began to drink heavily and became an alcoholic. He filed a $15 million invasion of privacy lawsuit against the newspapers that outed him, but the suit was dismissed. He is described as having become solitary, paranoid, and suicidal at the end of his life, and lay dead and alone for two weeks before police investigated the smell from his apartment. The outing of Sipple and the tragic aftermath continue to raise questions about journalistic ethics and about the conduct of gay community leaders who may have outed a private individual against his wishes in order to create a national "gay hero" for the media. Sipple himself said, "My sexual orientation has nothing at all to do with saving the President's life, just as the color of my eyes or my race has nothing to do with what happened in front of the St. Francis Hotel." Oliver "Billy" Sipple, deceased, Gay Hero, GLBT Leader & Icon.