The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present

From Socrates and Sappho to Madonna and activist/journalist Michelangelo Signorile, this listing profiles those who have profoundly shaped gay and lesbian culture-and culture in general: the Amazons, 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz, Proust, Michel Foucault, professional provocateur Quentin Crisp and so on. Aside from an equivocal portrait of Rock Hudson, Russell (The Salt Point) omits figures whose undeniable influence was less benign, a strategy that misfires. Sigmund Freud, who wrote extensively about sexuality, is out, but Magnus Hirschfeld and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, two obscure homophilic contemporaries of his, are in. Yet quibbling with the choices here-why Holly Near but not k.d. lang, the Patrons of Stonewall but not the Daughters of Bilitis?-is as pleasurable as reading Rusell's incisive essays. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)