Hard to play favourites xD Maybe I should make another list?
Welp, here's one, listed in roughly chronological order:
1. Sappho (I read Anne Carson's translation of all but one of her poems/fragments, *If Not, Winter*, every so often)
2. St. Marina/Marinus the Monk (A woman who dressed up as a monk and until she slept in the Lord lived a holy life in the monastery, I really appreciate her story!)
3. William Shakespeare (While I think his plays are where it's at, his *Sonnets*, many of which are explicitly gay, are the first collection of poetry I read in full!)
4. Walt Whitman (And this guy's collection of poetry, *Leaves of Grass*, really shaped my poetic voice, as well as that of most modern English poetry!)
5. Andy Warhol (I love his art, his democratic sensibilities, and his strange --but not estranged! -- relationship with his church, the Ruthenian Catholics)
6. Candy Darling (One of Warhol's superstars, I find her really, really beautiful -- and so do the likes of Anohni or St. Vincent, too, that they should make so much music about her!)
7. Marsha P. Johnson (One of the major figures of the Stonewall riots!)
8. Dorian Corey (A major figure in the film *Paris Is Burning*, which is one of those movies that y'all just have to see, not only does she provide the film with some of its juiciest quotes -- it's from her mouth we get the phrase "Shade comes from reading" -- but her whole life's story is really worth reading about!)
9. Sophie (I think she's considered one of the pioneers of Hyperpop, and while I count her album *Oil of Every Pearl's Un-insides* as one of my absolute favourites, I also remember how much of a shock it was to me to hear of her sudden death. Memory eternal!)
10. N. D. Stevenson (The creator of one of my favourite shows, and possibly one of the best pieces of queer media this century!)
Tbh, it really is hard to play favourites, cuz aside from there being so many "obviously queer" icons to choose from, there's also a lot of icons that you won't realize is queer until you actually look into their stories, Shakespeare ofc being one of my favourite examples. I hope at least that this list teaches some of y'all something about queer history, which is really just a certain way of looking at history at large, as opposed to a history all of its own.
I admired him for being as strong as he was even though the world mistreated him for being gay. Also, something about hearing his voice just...comforted me. He was Batman. He was *THE* Batman of Batmans to me. I dunno, something about the way all that comes together just...did it for me. Made me appreciate him so much.
BUT ever since reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde it opened up a world of "...THIS AUTHOR WAS GAY AS FUCK", and realizing gay icons have been around a long time, history is just trying to erase the gay parts like they never happened. O:
