Videos:
West Side Story. Wonderful Town. On the Town. Broadway brilliance aside, Bernstein was the first American-born composer to gain international renown. Bravo!
Annie Leibovitz basically defined how we celebrate the stars and icons in contemporary America. Can you imagine pop culture without her photography?
How much courage do you think it takes to be a Black Panther, a Communist, and an African-American lesbian human rights activist for the last five decades? Go ask Angela.
Alexander was known for his many conquests in life, including romantic ones! In death, his legacy heralded the Hellenistic period of culture in art.
The reigning champ from the famous Battle of the Sexes tennis tournament against Bobby Riggs, King became the first athlete to come out publicly. And she pioneered all strides made by women at work and play today. All hail the King!
Which Spanish directing legend has interwoven glamour, tragedy, comedy and plenty of high heels, bondage and drag queens into his films for decades? You get one guess.
The "Queen of the Blues" was the soulful voice of Harlem's Renaissance, who inspired everyone from Billie to Latifah. And she wasn't afraid to love women. Nor sing about it.
Since 2001, Klaus Wowereit has been Berlin Germany's first openly gay mayor. "I'm gay and that's okay," he told his constituents. In fact, it's downright wunderbar!
Susan Sontag was a prolific and famous essayist, novelist, filmmaker and activist, who penned seminal texts on AIDS and camp culture--and she even collaborated with Fischerspooner!
Outspoken superstar novelist, essayist and pundit Gore Vidal has written everything from seminal biographies of Abraham Lincoln to the screenplays for Ben Hur and a novel about a transgendered woman, Myra Breckenridge.
One of America's best-loved comedians and actresses, Lily Tomlin's introduction to the comedy world came in 1969 when she joined the cast of Laugh-In.
Preacher, theologian, author and activist, Peter Gomes is a professor at Harvard Divnity School and for years was a Republican and confidante of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He's since registered as a Democrat.
One of America's first female surgeons, Walker was also a feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, soldier and Civil War spy! She was the only woman to have ever received a Medal of Honor, to boot!
This King of Prussia built the glorious palace of Sans Souci, and was a close friend of Voltaire. He also advocated religious tolerance and patronized the arts. Gay, much?
High-school teacher and counselor, Uribe was the founder of Project 10, which became on of the country's first gay teen/student organizations back in 1984. Thanks, Teach!
A founder of one of America's oldest GLBT rights organizations, the Mattachine Society, Kameny first picketed the White House in 1965.! Respect!
Director of the MAC Cosmetics AIDS Fund, Mahon has worked raise millions to fight AIDS globally, most recently in Caribbean countries. Viva glam!
Artist David Hockney's work helped solidify the British-led pop art movement of the 1960s, and embodies a golden view of California, Hollywood and contemporary life.
A poet, writer and lesbian activist, Audre Lorde co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color.
One of Hollywood's most legendary and debonair movie stars, Cary Grant pioneered screwball comedy, witty romance and the thinking man's thriller. And many accounts claim he was bisexual, too.
Tennis champ (and physician) Renee Richards helped bring the issue of transgender identity to the world following her sexual reassignment surgery in 1975. Banned from women's tennis, she took her case to the Supreme Court and won!
Harris became the nation's first openly lesbian African-American city council member when she won her seat on the Seattle City Council way back in 1991.
A one-time paramour of Bloomsbury artists Duncan Grant and Lytton Strachey, Keynes was a British economist who helped shape modern governmental fiscal policy.
Writer and legendary friend of Picasso (and partner to Alice B. Toklas), Stein was a catalyst for some of the 20th-century's greatest works of art and literature. Ooh la la!
One of China's first openly gay rights activists, Dan has pioneered AIDS activism and human rights law in his homeland.
A 2007 GLBT Scientist of the Year, openly gay Bertozzi is a chemistry professor at UC-Berkeley working to apply chemistry to the biological fight against disease.
You'll get a kick out of this legendary songwriter, who practically invented the witty, sophisticated standard, with tunes like "Night and Day" and "Miss Otis Regrets." Cheers!
A Jesuit priest, McNeill is a therapist, theologian and author. Heard of "Queer Theology"? He invented it.
The founder of modern nursing, Nightingale was also a world-famous writer, statistician and a pre-cursor to contemporary feminism.
San Franciscan Billy Sipple was a Marine and Vietnam vet when he saved President Ford's life during an assassination attempt in 1975. He was then outed as "a gay hero," and things really got interesting.
"The Last Supper." "Mona Lisa." And then there's that famous "Code"... Props to Leonardo for basically kick-starting the Renaissance and changing art, science, architecture and Western culture forever!
