The Year Zero

This blog is not nor ever will be a ’single issue’ blog. Certainly not a ‘gay’ blog as being gay is – to me – like saying I was born in the UK, am 6ft tall and have short brown hair. It’s part of who I am and is unchangeable. Anyway, I thought I’d put this page together party to tackle homophobia and partly to put the limelight on the great and the good who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT). There are very many role models out there and they are often overlooked. Cliché and pigeon-holing are not uncommon.

Authors

• Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City)
• Stephen Fry (Hippopotamus; Moab is my Washpot)
• Virginia Woolf (Who’s Afraid)
• Emily Dickinson
• Gertrude Stein
• Vita Sackville-West
• EM Forster (Maurice)
• DH Laurence
• Lord Byron
• Hans Christian Andersen
• Walt Whitman (Song of Myself)
• Alan Ginsberg
• Oscar Wilde
• Marcel Proust
• WH Auden
• Tennessee Williams (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
• Tove Jansson (Moomins)
• Rita Mae Brown

Stars of the screen

• Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs)
• Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding)
• Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral)
• Sir Noël Coward
• Sir Ian McKellen

Stars of TV

• John Barrowman (Doctor Who)
• Kenneth Williams (Carry on Movies)
• Derek Jacobi
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Rosie O’Donnell
• Evan Davis (BBC economic correspondent)

Musicians

• Sir Elton John
• George Michael
• Tchaikovsky

Scientists

• Alan Turing (father of the modern computer)

Sportsmen and women

• Martina Naviraitlova (tennis)
• Billie Jean King (tennis)
• Amelie Mauresmo (tennis)
• Ryan Allen Carrillo (skater)
• Justin Fashanu (football)
• Greg Louganis (diving, Olympic Gold medallist)
• Bob Paris (weight lifter)
• Ian Roberts (rugby, most high profile gay Australian sports star)
• Muffin Spencer-Devlin (golf)

From Antiquity

• Michelangelo
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Alexander the Great
• Socrates
• Aristotle
• Plato
• Sophocles

Royalty

• King Edward II
• King James I
• Richard the Lionhearted
• King Gustav III of Sweden
• King Richard II

Business

• Lord Browne (ex-global CEO of BP)
• Sir Michael Bishop CBE (Chief Executive of airline British Midland)

Politics

• Michael Brown (MP)
• Alun Duncan (MP)
• Nick Brown (MP)
• Peter Mandelson (EU Commissioner)
• Angela Eagle (MP)
• Ben Bradshaw (MP)
• Nick Herbert (MP)
• Michael Cashman (MEP)
• Stephen Williams (MP)
• Matthew Parris (Political journalist)
• Gregory Barker (MP)
• Howell James CBE (Permanent Secretary, Government Communications)
• Adam Price (MP)
• Simon Hughes (MP)
• Baron Waheed Alli (Peer, Labour)
• Julian Glover (lead political columnist, Guardian)
• Brian Paddick (highest ranking gay police officer in UK)
• Chris Bryant (MP)
• Ray Collins (assistant general secretary, Unite, trade union)
• Michael Portillo (MP, these days straight, but had an 8 year affair with a man)
• Chris Smith (Peer, Labour)
• Iain Smith (MP)
• Margaret Smith (MSP)
• David Borrow (MP)
• Clive Betts (MP, outed by The Sun in 2003)
• Steve Reed (Labour Leader of Lambeth Council)
• Sir Simon Milton (Conservative leader of Westminster City Council)
• Jenny Bailey (Liberal Democrat mayor of Cambridge)

Fashion

• Tom Ford
• Alexander McQueen
• Yves Saint Laurent
• Karl Lagerfeld

Arts, other

• Annie Leibovitz (Photographer)
• Andrew Pierce (Assistant Editor, Telegraph)

Resources

• Pink List (50 most high profile gay men and women in UK politics)
• Out.com’s Power50, the 50 most high profile gay men and women in America
• Observer article on gay men and women in sport
• Gay for Today (blog profiling gay men and women around the world)

This list is a work in progress. Feel free to comment and suggest other noteworthy people.