Why Just Ask the Donkey? (Hafiz)

• 

  
  

  Why Just Ask the Donkey?
  
  Why
  Just ask the donkey in me
  To speak to the donkey in you.
  
  When I have so many other beautiful animals
  And brilliant colored birds inside
  That are all longing to say something wonderful
  And exciting to your heart?
  
  Let's open all the locked doors upon our eyes
  That keep us from knowing the Intelligence
  That begets love
  And a more lively and satisfying conversation
  With the Friend.
  
  Let's turn loose our golden falcons
  So that they can meet in the sky
  Where our spirits belong -
  Necking like two
  Hot kids.
  
  Let's hold hands and get drunk near the sun
  And sing sweet songs to the Goddess
  Until She joins us with a few notes
  From Her own sublime lute and drum
  
  If you have a better idea
  Of how to pass a lonely night
  After your glands may have performed
  All their little magic
  Then speak up sweethearts, speak up,
  For Hafiz and all the world will listen.
  
  Why just bring your donkey to me
  Asking for stale hay
  And a boring conference with the idiot
  In regards to this precious matter -
  Such a precious matter as love,
  
  When I have so many other divine animals
  And brilliant colored birds inside
  That are all longing
  To so sweetly
  Greet
  You

Still Spinning

i am overjoyed that the world seems like 

it will continue spinning...

another day to get closer to love

another day to stumble closer to God

Hallelujah!   

Jason Mraz

One of my favorite artists. Listen to the entire album "Love Is A Four Letter Word"

A Sober Heart

Ajahn Chah recorded the following talk at the request of one of his students, whose mother was on her deathbed. The student had expected no more than a few words for his mother, but instead Ajahn Chah offered an extended message of consolation, encouragement, and meditation instruction for the mother and the whole family.

Now, Grandma, set your heart on listening respectfully to the dhamma, which is the teaching of the Buddha. While I’m teaching you the dhamma, be as attentive as if the Buddha himself were sitting right in front of you. Close your eyes and set your heart on making your mind one. Bring the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha into your heart as a way of showing the Buddha respect.

Today I haven’t brought you a gift of any substance, aside from the dhamma of the Buddha. This is my last gift to you, so please accept it.

You should understand that even the Buddha—with all his virtues and perfections—couldn’t avoid the weakening that comes with aging. When he reached the age you are, he let go. He let go of the fabrications of life.

“Letting go” means that he put these things down. Don’t carry them around. Don’t weigh yourself down. Accept the truth about the fabrications of the body, whatever they may be: You’ve relied on them since you were born, but now it’s enough. Now that they’re old, they’re like the utensils in your home—the cups, the saucers, and the plates—that you’ve held onto all these years. When you first got them they were bright and clean, but now they’re wearing out. Some of them are broken, some of them are lost, while the ones remaining have all changed. They haven’t stayed the same. That’s just the way things are.

The same holds true with the parts of your body. From the time of birth and on through your childhood and youth, they kept changing. Now they’re called “old.” So accept the fact. The Buddha taught that fabrications aren’t us, they aren’t ours, whether they’re inside the body or out. They keep changing in this way. Contemplate this until it’s clear.

You’ve been alive for a long time now, haven’t you? Your eyes have had the chance to see all kinds of shapes, colors, and lights. The same with your other senses. Your ears have heard lots of sounds, all kinds of sounds—but they were no big deal. You’ve tasted really delicious foods—but they were no big deal. The beautiful things you’ve seen: they were no big deal. The ugly things you’ve seen: they were no big deal. The alluring things you’ve heard were no big deal. The ugly and offensive things you’ve heard were no big deal.

The Buddha thus taught that whether you’re rich or poor, a child or an adult—even if you’re an animal or anyone born in this world—there’s nothing in this world that’s lasting. Everything has to change in line with its condition. The truth of these conditions—if you try to fix them in a way that’s not right— won’t respond at all. But there is a way to fix things. The Buddha taught us to contemplate this body and mind to see that they aren’t us, they aren’t ours, they’re just suppositions.

For example, this house of yours: It’s only a supposition that it’s yours. You can’t take it with you. All the belongings that you suppose to be yours are just an affair of supposition. They stay right where they are. You can’t take them with you. The children and grandchildren that you suppose to be yours are just an affair of supposition. They stay right where they are.

And this isn’t just true for you. This is the way things are all over the world. Even the Buddha was this way. Even his enlightened disciples were this way. But they differed from us. In what way did they differ? They accepted this. They accepted the fact that the fabrications of the body are this way by their very nature. They can’t be any other way.

This is why the Buddha taught us to contemplate this body from the soles of the feet on up to the top of the head, and from the top of the head on down to the soles of the feet. These are the parts of your body. So look to see what all is there. Is there anything clean? Anything of any substance? These things keep wearing down with time. The Buddha taught us to see that these fabrications aren’t us. They aren’t ours. They’re just the way they are. What other way would you have them be? If you’re suffering from this, then your thinking is wrong. When things are right but you see them wrong, it throws an obstacle across your heart.

The Buddha looked at things in line with their conditions, that they simply have to be that way. So we let them go, we leave them be. Take your awareness as your refuge. Meditate on the word buddho, buddho [the Pali term for “awake”]. Even though you’re really tired, put your mind with the breath. Take a good long out-breath. Take a good long in-breath. Take another good long out-breath. Focus your mind again if you wander off. Focus on the breath:buddho, buddho.

The more tired you feel, the more refined your focus on the breath must be every time. Why? So that you can contend with pain. When you feel tired, stop all your thoughts. Don’t think of anything at all. Focus the mind in at the mind, and then keep the mind with the breath:buddho, buddho. Let go of everything outside. Don’t get fastened on your children. Don’t get fastened on your grandchildren. Don’t get fastened on anything at all. Let go. Let the mind be one. Just be aware at the breath. You don’t have to be aware of anything else. Keep making your awareness more and more refined until it feels very small but extremely awake. 

The pains that have arisen will gradually grow calm. Ultimately, we watch the breath in the same way that, when relatives have come to visit us, we see them off at the boat dock or the bus station. Once the motor starts, the boat goes whizzing right off. We watch them until they’re gone, and then we return to our home.

We watch the breath in the same way. We get acquainted with coarse breathing. We get acquainted with refined breathing. As the breathing gets more and more refined, we see it off. It gets smaller and smaller, but we make our mind more and more awake. We keep watching the breath get more and more refined until there’s no more breath. There’s just awareness, wide awake.

Let go of everything, leaving just this singular awareness. But don’t get deluded, okay? Don’t lose track. If a vision or a voice arises in the mind, let it go. Leave it be. You don’t need to take hold of anything at all. Just take hold of the awareness. Don’t worry about the future; don’t worry about the past. Stay right here. Ultimately you get so that you can’t say that you’re going forward, you can’t say that you’re going back, you can’t say that you’re staying in place. There’s nothing to be attached to. Why? Because there’s no self there, no you, no yours. It’s all gone.

This is your duty right now, yours alone. Try to enter into the dhamma in this way. This is the path for gaining release from the round of wandering-on. Try to let go, to understand, to set your heart on investigating this.

Don’t be worried about this person or that. Your children, your grandchildren, your relatives, everybody: Don’t be worried about them. Right now they’re fine. In the future they’ll be just like this, like you are right now. Nobody stays on in this world. That’s the way it has to be. This is a condition, a truth, that the Buddha taught.

If any preoccupation comes in to bother the mind, just say in your heart, “Leave me alone. Don’t bother me. You’re no affair of mine.” If any critical thoughts come up—fear for your life, fear that you’ll die, thinking of this person, thinking of that person—just say in your heart, “Don’t bother me. You’re no affair of mine.”

What’s the world? The world is any preoccupation that gets you stirred up, that disturbs you right now. “How is that person going to be? How is this person going to be? When I die, will anyone look after them?” All of this is the world. Whatever we think up—fear of death, fear of aging, fear of illness, whatever the fear—it’s all world. Drop the world—it’s just world. That’s the way the world is. If it arises in the mind, make yourself understand: The world is nothing but a preoccupation. Preoccupations obscure the mind so that it can’t see itself.

If you think that you’d like to keep on living a long time, it makes you suffer. If you think that you’d like to die right now and get it all over with, that’s not the right way either, you know. It makes you suffer, too, because fabrications aren’t yours. You can fix them up a little bit, as when you fix up the body to make it look pretty or clean. That’s the way it is with fabrications. The only thing you can fix is your heart and mind.

This house you’re living in: You and your husband built it. Other people can build houses, too, making them large and lovely. Those are outer homes, which anyone can build. The Buddha called them outer homes, not your real home. They’re homes only in name.

Homes in the world have to fall in line with the way of the world. Some of us forget. We get a big home and enjoy living in it, but we forget our real home. Where is our real home? It’s in the sense of peace. Our real home is peace.

This home you live in here—and this applies to every home—is lovely, but it’s not very peaceful. First this, then that; you’re worried about this, you’re worried about that. This isn’t your real home. It’s not your inner home. It’s an outer home. Someday soon you’ll have to leave it. You won’t be able to live here anymore. It’s a worldly home, not yours.

So you have to understand that everybody, all the way down to ants and termites and all the other little animals, is trying to run away. There’s no one who can stay here. Living things stay for a while and then they all go: rich people, poor people, children, old people, even animals. They all keep changing.

When you sense that the world is like this, you see that it’s disenchanting. There’s nothing that’s really you or yours. You’re disenchanted—nibbida. Disenchantment isn’t disgust, you know. It’s just the heart sobering up. The heart has seen the truth of the way things are: There’s no way you can fix them. They’re just the way they are. You let them go. You let go without gladness. You let go without sadness. You just let things go as fabrications, seeing with your own discernment that that’s the way fabrications are.

The important point is that the Buddha has us build a home for ourselves, to build a home in the way I’ve described to you. Build a home so you can let go, so that you can leave things be. Let the mind reach peace. Peace is something that doesn’t move forward, doesn’t move back, doesn’t stay in place. It’s peace in that it’s free from going forward, free from moving back, free from staying in place.

Pleasure isn’t a place for you to stay. Pain isn’t a place for you to stay. Pain wears away. Pleasure wears away. Our foremost Teacher said that all fabrications are inconstant. So when we reach this last stage in life, he tells us to let go and leave things be. We can’t take them with us. We’ll have to let them go anyhow, so wouldn’t it be better to let them go beforehand? If we carry them around, they weigh us down. When we sense that they weigh us down, we won’t carry them around. Let your children and grandchildren look after you, while you can rest at your ease.

Today I’ve brought you some dhamma as a gift in your time of illness. I don’t have any other gift to give. There’s no need to bring you any material gift, for you have plenty of material things in your house, and over time they just cause you difficulties. So I’ve brought you some dhamma, something of substance that will never run out. Now that you’ve heard this dhamma, you can pass it on to any number of other people, and it’ll never run out. It’ll never stop. It’s the truth of the dhamma, a truth that always stays as it is.

Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo (1918–1992), a teacher in the Thai forest tradition, founded several monasteries, including Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand and Cittaviveka in England. This talk is reprinted with permission of the Sangha at Wat Pah Nanachat, Ubon Rajathani, Thailand and Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, Redwood Valley, California. Translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. This is an abridged version; to read the talk in its entirety, visit accesstoinsight.org.

Image: Faro-8, Algarve, Portugal, 2010. From the series Still Life: Between the Living and the Dead by Robert Richfield/ Alan Klotz gallery NYC.

France Comes Together For Marriage Equality

The French know how to make their opinion heard and they are not timid when it comes to turning out on the street in numbers. Their lawmakers are currently debating the marriage equality issue.

(My mom wants to adopt me. What bothers you about that?)

more photos here

Falling Heavenward

Falling Heavenward

All around signs of expectation

Sound deep within...

A lone string grown slack

On a forgotten instrument

Vibrates with renewed hope.

A veil lifts from the eye

And falls in a soft breeze...

And through a chink Light enters

Ancient obscuring wound

Transformed with healing truth.
Deep up-welling tenderness

Overtakes the shadows

We, newly adorned and released

Are falling heavenward. 

WPS

Asheville

12/13/12

Everyone as Dear

Jeffrey Hopkins explains the Buddhist logic of embracing our enemies as our friends.

Jeffrey Hopkins

So how should we view sentient beings? If they have all been in every possible relationship with us from time without beginning (and time has no beginning in Buddhism), should we consider them to be enemies? Everyone has indeed been the enemy—the person who wants me to trip, fall down the stairs, break a leg. My first teacher, Geshe Wangyal, said that one problem with this outlook would be that you’d have to go out and kill everybody.

Difficult to do. Everyone has also been neutral, like the many people we pass on the streets; we may even know some faces, but we don’t have any open relationship with them. They are just people working here or there; we may see them often, but there is neither desire nor hatred. Should we consider them to be neutral? Or should we consider these people to be friends?

The answer given by popular early twentieth-century Tibetan lama Pabongka is provocative. It is not an abstract principle, but refers to common experience. To render it in my own words: If your close friend became crazed and attacked you with a knife, you would attempt to relieve him of the knife and get his mind back in its natural state; you would use the appropriate means to take the knife, but you wouldn’t then kick him in the head.

Pabongka himself uses the example of one’s own mother: If your mother became crazed and attacked you with a knife, you would relieve her of the knife. You would not then proceed to beat her up. That’s his appeal: Once there’s a profoundly close relationship, the close relationship predominates. Why is a friend acting so terribly? Why is she turning against you and attacking you? It’s due to a counterproductive attitude—a distortion—in the person’s mind.

Indeed, if your own best friend went mad and came at you with a knife to kill you, what would you do? You would seek to disarm your friend, but then you would not proceed to beat the person, would you? You would disarm the attacker in whatever way you could—you might even have to hit the person in order to disarm him, but once you had managed to disarm him, you would not go on to hurt him. Why? Because he is close to you. If you felt that everyone in the whole universe was in the same relationship to you as your very best friend, and if you saw anyone who attacked you as your best friend gone mad, you would not respond with hatred. You would respond with behavior that was appropriate, but you would not be seeking to retaliate and harm the person out of hatred.

He would be too dear to you.

Therefore, in teaching compassion, Buddhists do not choose a neutral person as the example of all sentient beings; they choose the strongest of all examples, their best friend. Your feeling for that person is the feeling you should ideally have for every sentient being. You cannot go up to the police officer on the corner and hug her. But you can, inwardly, value her, as well as all sentient beings, as your best friend.

So if everyone in the past has been close, then there is good reason that closeness should predominate. And this becomes a reason—in addition to the similarity between oneself and others—for meditatively cultivating love and compassion, rather than hatred and distance, with respect to everyone. It is not sufficient merely to see that sentient beings are suffering. You must also develop a sense of closeness with them, a sense that they are dear. With that combination—seeing that people suffer and thinking of them as dear—you can develop compassion. So, after meditatively transforming your attitude toward friends, enemies, and neutral persons such that you have gained progress in becoming even-minded toward all of them, the next step is to meditate on everyone as friends, to feel that they have been profoundly close.

In meditation, take individual persons to mind, starting with your friends. Reflect on how close your best friend is—recognize your attitude, for example, when your friend needs your concern, like when she’s ill. This is an appeal to common experience—to how we already naturally react to close friends. Then, in meditation, extend this feeling to more beings.

First you need to recognize people as having been friend, enemy, and neutral person countless times over countless lifetimes— or at least you can’t say that there isn’t anyone who hasn’t been a friend, or you can’t say there isn’t anyone who hasn’t been an enemy, or you can’t say with surety that there’s anyone who hasn’t been neutral. Once you recognize this, it’s possible to begin to recognize everyone as friends.

To consider ourselves dear we usually do not have to enter into meditation. We cherish ourselves greatly. When we see ourselves suffering, we have no problem in wishing to escape that suffering. The problem lies in not cherishing others. The ability to cherish others has to be cultivated. In meditation:

1. Visualize someone you like very much and then superimpose the image of someone toward whom you are neutral. Alternate between the two images until you value the person toward whom you are neutral as much as the friend.

2. Then superimpose, in succession, the images of a number of people toward whom you are neutral, until you value each of them as much as the greatest of friends.

3. When you have developed facility with those two steps, it is possible to extend the meditation to enemies.

For me, it’s much more disruptive to think about my friends as having been enemies than it is to think about my enemies as having been friends. No matter how difficult it is to think of a hated enemy as having been a close friend in a recent lifetime, it’s more disruptive to think of my close friend as having been an enemy. With regard to neutral people, it’s shocking, a whole new perspective, to think, “Just two lifetimes ago, we were very close friends, and now by the force of our own actions we don’t even know each other, don’t even care about each other, we neglect each other, we’re indifferent.”

Is it convincing to base subsequent practices on this notion of cross-positioning over the course of lives? I think it is, but success in changing attitudes certainly isn’t easy to achieve, since it depends on either a belief in rebirth or a willingness to play out the rebirth perspective. Nevertheless, both of these provide a strong foundation, whereas if the appeal were to an abstract principle or because Buddha said so, it would be all right for a day or two but would not be profoundly moving.

The other approach—that doesn’t rely on rebirth—is merely that we’re all equal in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering. And if it’s worthwhile for me to gain happiness, then it’s worthwhile for everyone else to gain happiness. Noticing this similarity makes us close. The late-fourteenth-century yogi-scholar Tsongkhapa says that in order to generate compassion, it is necessary to understand how beings suffer and to have a sense of closeness to them. He says that otherwise, when you understand how they suffer, you’ll take delight in it. For example, so-and-so enemy just got liver disease, and you think, “Good riddance. She’s getting what she deserves.”

Thus, in order to care for other beings, it’s not sufficient merely to know that they suffer, because knowledge that a person is suffering this way might make you happy, especially if that person is an enemy. “May this person be run over.” We all have such thoughts due to a lack of intimacy. Not only must we know the depths of their suffering, but they must be dear to us.

In short, for compassion to develop toward a wide range of persons, mere knowledge of how beings suffer is not sufficient; there has to be a sense of closeness with regard to every being. That intimacy is established either through merely reflecting that everyone equally wants happiness and doesn’t want suffering, or through reflecting on the implications of rebirth, or both, with the one reinforcing the other. Both techniques rely on noticing our own common experience and extending its implications to others. ▼

Jeffrey Hopkins served for a decade as the interpreter to the Dalai Lama. He is Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia. From Cultivating Compassion, © 2001 by Jeffrey Hopkins. Reprinted with permission of Broadway Books.

What Makes Gay Soldiers Different?

Sonnet 29 (William Shakesphere)

Uploaded on Jul 1, 2008

Rufus singing "Sonnet 29":

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

--William Shakespeare

Senator Sanders Speaks The Truth About "The Fiscal Cliff"

I have arrived at the point where I hardly ever believe what I hear politicians say about the state of affairs, which of course is exactly what some of them would like. If people tune out because of information (or misinformation) overload, then they get clobbered! We, the middle class, are getting clobbered! Senator Sanders explains in 14 minutes the reality of how we arrived where we are. Worth listening to if you want to wake up from a drug induced coma (brought on compliments of network television).

Healing Ecology

This article from the Tricycle Wisdom series by David R. Loy addresses the collective dukka (suffering) that comes from separating our own well-being from the well-being of the whole of creation, in other words, from our dualistic perspective. In an attempt to reinforce our individual sense of self through the use of increasingly sophisticated technology, we unwittingly reinforce our own anxiety because such attempts are ultimately futile since we are not separate. Dr. Loy argues that embracing our collective natures and seeing ourselves as a part of the entire natural system is the only way to heal both ourselves and the earth.

As a complex religious tradition, or group of traditions, Buddhism has a lot to say about the natural world. Passages in many Buddhist texts reveal sensitivity to the beauties of nature and respect for its various beings. A good example is the Jataka tales (“birth stories”) that describe the previous lives of the Buddha before he became the Buddha. In many of them he is born as an animal, and in some of the best-known tales the Buddha sacrifices himself for “lower animals,” such as offering his rabbit body to a weak tigress so that she can feed her starving cubs. Such fables challenge the duality usually assumed between humans and “nature”— as if we were not part of nature! They suggest that the welfare of every living being, no matter how insignificant it may seem to us, is spiritually important and deserving of our concern. All beings in the Jatakas are able to feel compassion for others and act selflessly to help ease their suffering. In contrast to a Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” which is often used to justify our abuse of other species, its stories offer a vision of life in which we are all interconnected, parts of the same web of life, and therefore also inter-responsible, responsible for each other.

This compassion is not limited to the animal realm. If we can believe the traditional biographies, the Buddha was born under trees, meditated under trees, experienced his great awakening under trees, often taught under trees, and passed away under trees. Unsurprisingly, he often expressed his gratitude to trees and other plants. Some later Buddhist texts explicitly deny that plants have sentience, but the Pali Canon is more ambiguous. In one sutra, a tree spirit appears to the Buddha in a dream, complaining that its tree had been chopped down by a monk. The next morning the Buddha prohibited sangha members from cutting down trees. Monks and nuns are still forbidden to cut off tree limbs, pick flowers, even pluck green leaves off plants.

Yet great sensitivity to nature is hardly unique to Buddhism. So what special perspective, if any, does Buddhism offer to our understanding of the biosphere, and our relationship to it, at this critical time in history when we are doing our utmost to destroy it?

To answer that question, we have to go back to a more basic question: what is really distinctive about Buddhism? The four noble (or “ennobling”) truths are all about dukkha, and the Buddha emphasized that his only concern was ending dukkha. To end our dukkha, however, we need to understand and experience anatta, our lack of self, which seen from the other side is also our interdependence with all other things.

There are different ways to explain anatta, yet fundamentally it denies our separation from other people and from the rest of the natural world. The psychosocial construction of a separate self in here is at the same time the construction of an “other” out there, that which is different from me. What is special about the Buddhist perspective is its emphasis on the dukkha built into this situation. Basically, the self is dukkha.

One way to express the problem is that the sense of self, being a construct, is always insecure, because inherently ungrounded. It can never secure itself, because there is no-thing that could be secured. The self is more like a process, or a function. The problem with processes, however, is that they are always temporal, necessarily impermanent—but we don’t want to be impermanent, something that is changing all the time. We want to be real! So we keep trying to ground ourselves, often in ways that just make our situation worse. For Buddhism the only true solution lies in realizing our nonduality with “others” and understanding that our own well-being cannot be distinguished from their well-being.

Does this basic insight about the intimate connection between sense of self and dukkha also apply to the sense of separation between ourselves and others? The issue here is whether “separate self = dukkha” also holds true for our biggest collective sense of self: the duality between us as a species, Homo sapiens, and the rest of the biosphere.

If this particular parallel between individual and collective selves holds, there are two important implications. First, our collective sense of separation from the natural world must also be a constant source of collective frustration for us. Secondly, our responses to that alienation, by trying to make our collective species-self more real—in this case, by attempting to secure or “self-ground” ourselves technologically and economically—are actually making things worse.

Western civilization developed out of the interaction between Judeo-Christianity and the culture of classical Greece. Greek culture emphasized our uniqueness by distinguishing the conventions of human society (culture, technology, and so on) from the rhythms of the natural world. What is important about this distinction is the realization that whatever is social convention can be changed: we can reconstruct our own societies and attempt to determine our own collective destiny.

Today we take that insight for granted, yet it’s not something that most premodern, traditionally conservative societies would have understood. Without our sense of historical development, they have usually accepted their own social conventions as inevitable because also natural. This often served to justify social arrangements that we now view as unjust, but there is nevertheless a psychological benefit in thinking that way: such societies shared a collective sense of meaning that we have lost today. For them, the meaning of their lives was built into the cosmos and revealed by their religion, which they took for granted. For us, in contrast, the meaning of our lives and our societies has become something that we have to determine for ourselves in a universe whose meaningfulness (if any) is no longer obvious. Even if we choose to be religious, we today must decide between various religious possibilities, which diminishes the spiritual security that religions have traditionally provided. While we have a freedom that premodern societies did not have, we lack their kind of “social security,” which is the basic psychological comfort that comes from knowing one’s place and role in the world.

In other words, part of the rich cultural legacy that the Greeks bequeathed the West—for better and worse—is an increasing anxiety about who we are and what it means to be human. There is a basic tension between such freedom (we decide what to value and what to do) and security (being grounded in something greater, which is taking care of us), and we want both. As soon as one of them is emphasized, we want more of the other. In general, however, the modern history of the West is a story of increasing freedom at the cost of decreasing security, in the sense that loss of faith in God has left us rudderless. Thanks to ever more powerful technologies, it seems like we can accomplish almost anything we want to do—yet we don’t know what our role is. That continues to be a source of great anxiety, not only for us individually but collectively. What sort of world do we want to live in? What kind of society should we have? If we can’t depend on God to tell us, we are thrown back upon ourselves, and our lack of any grounding greater than ourselves is a profound source of suffering. This helps us to understand why our collective sense of separation from the natural world is a continual source of frustration. The stronger our alienation from nature, the greater our anxiety.

This brings us to the second implication mentioned earlier: our collective response to this collective dukkha is just making things worse. First, let’s remember how things go wrong individually. We usually respond to the delusion of a separate self by trying to make that sense of self more real—which doesn’t work and can’t work, since there is no such self that can be isolated from its relationships with others. Since we don’t realize this, we tend to get caught up in vicious circles. I never have enough money or power; I’m never famous enough, attractive enough.

When we think about our collective response from this perspective, I think the motivation becomes clear. Lacking the security that comes from knowing one’s place and role in the cosmos, we have been trying to create our own security. Technology, in particular, is our collective attempt to control the conditions of our existence on this earth. We have been trying to remold the earth so that it is completely adapted to serve our purposes, until everything becomes subject to our will, a “resource” that we can use. Ironically, though, this hasn’t been providing the sense of security and meaning that we seek. We have become more anxious, not less. That’s because technology can be a great means, but in itself it’s a poor goal.

Sooner or later, one way or another, we will bump up against the limits of this compulsive but doomed project of endless growth. Since our increasing reliance on technology as the solution to life’s problems is itself a large part of the problem, the ecological crisis does not call for a primarily technological response. Dependence on sophisticated, ever more powerful technologies tends to aggravate our sense of separation from the natural world, whereas any successful solution must involve accepting that we are part of the natural world. That, of course, also means embracing our responsibility for the well-being of the biosphere, because its well-being ultimately cannot be distinguished from our own well-being.

The solution does not lie in “returning to nature.” We cannot return to nature, because we have never left it. That way of describing the natural world is dualistic; it dichotomizes between us and where we are located. The environment is not merely the place where we live and act, for the biosphere is the ground from which and within which we arise. The earth is not only our home, it is our mother. In fact, our relationship is even more intimate, because we can never cut the umbilical cord. The air in my lungs, like the water and food that pass through my mouth, is part of a great system that does not stop with me but continually circulates through me. My life is a dissipative process that depends upon and contributes to that never-ending circulation. Eventually I too will be food for worms.

Any genuine solution to the ecological crisis must involve something more than technological improvements. If the root of the problem is spiritual, the solution must also have a spiritual dimension. And again, this does not mean a return to premodern religious conviction, which is impossible for us today. Buddhism shows another way, which de-emphasizes the role of dogma and ritual. The Buddhist approach is quite pragmatic. The goal of the Buddhist path is wisdom in service of personal and social transformation. When we meditate, for example, we are not transforming ourselves. We are being transformed. Quiet, focused concentration enables something else to work in us and through us, something other than one’s usual ego-self. This opens us up and liberates a deeper grounding within ourselves. Our lack of self is what enables this process; it frees us from the compulsion to secure ourselves within the world. We do not need to become more real by becoming wealthy, or famous, or powerful, or beautiful. We are able to realize our nonduality with the world because we are freed from such fixations.

Although living beings are numberless, the bodhisattva vows to save them all. He or she assumes the grandest possible role, on a path that can never come to an end. Although such a commitment is not compulsory, it follows naturally from realizing that none of those beings is separate from oneself. We discover the meaning we seek in the ongoing, long-term task of repairing the rupture between us and Mother Earth, our natural ground. That healing will transform us as much as the biosphere.

David R. Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. His books include A Great Awakening: Buddhist Social Theory andThe World is Made of Stories. This article was adapted from Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution by David R. Loy © 2008. Reprinted with permission of Wisdom Publications, wisdompubs.org.

Image: The Starving Tigress, Buryatia, 1800-1899. Buddhist lineage, ground mineral pigment on cotton. Collection of Buryat Historical Museum.

Understanding how stereotypes hurt people.

Here is a short film that illustrates how corporate media manipulates social thinking. It also shows how difficult it is to buck the trend and break the pattern. Though it is true that because of the brave and honorable work of many who have resisted being rubbed out from view, it is still difficult in the US to find depictions of gay people as being essentially "normal" (though I am non too fond of that word in the same way that the word "christian" has taken on some sort of dark angry implication that I have no interest in embracing). These clips will make you think. Take control of your own thinking. Turn your t.v. off! Unless you wish to have your brain sucked out of your head to be replaced with some sort of corporate goop designed to turn you into a consuming neanderthal (no offence all you neanderthals out there...really!)

It Gets Better

Chase Whiteside speaks wisely about the issue of bullying and the effects of anti-gay marriage initiatives and how they are really a form of bullying.

End Marriage Discrimination

GetUp! ad from Australia. Why do we not have more ads in the US about this issue on national television. Could it be that we are not as "advanced" as other western nations on social issues? No...how could that be???????? Wake up America. So many look to us a s a beacon of hope and progress. Don't embarrass yourself by enshrining DISCRIMINATION into state constitutions. Ste up America! Be that great beacon of hope for your people.

Marriage for all Families: Stories from Minnesota

The following states now allow marriage for all families.

• Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Maryland, Iowas and Washington state.

Unfortunately, these two loving mothers from Minnesota still do not have equal protection under the law as a married couple, which means that their children do not enjoy the same benefits as other children of straight married couples.

It is interesting that when I read the comments section there is so much hate and stupidity coming from people who oppose marriage equality. I can understand the opposition I suppose taking into consideration how the church has brainwashed people into believing that only certain kinds of love are acceptable to God (Go figure!). But the hate is so unnecessary and so revealing.

Stories from Maine

Marriage for all families spotlights 2 couples from Maine and their quest for marriage equality. These stories sharply focus the argument for marriage equality as only real life situations can. It is so clear that this is a social justice issue. My hope is that as more people come to see how LGBT people are fundamentally the same as straight folks, denying them of legal rights and protections will come to be seen as a really primitive social stance.

Sir Ian McKellen as Gandolf

Stephen Colbert interviews the great Gandolf.

The Colbert Report
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Bishop Gene Robinson's Sermon on Gay Pride Day

Diversity is not an easy pill for some to swallow. Our cookie cutter culture would rather everyone fit into a neat little box. Indeed our culture makes it so hard to exist outside the box, that many must suffer lifetimes of internal and external oppression. And often that oppression is sanctioned in various subtle and not so subtle ways by society. The boy scouts come to mind and their stand not to allow gay scouts become Eagle Scouts. That is an oppressive message and it reinforces in the minds of some the idea that being gay is in some way less honorable. Or take the passage of the constitutional amendment in North Carolina defining marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman. This is state sanctioned oppression. Don't ask, don't tell was another form of oppression. But these oppressive behaviors are doomed to fall because they are not in the divine plan. God (or whatever term you use ) wants a fully diverse universe. Listen to Gene Robinson's sermon in which he invites all to participate in the great liberating act of offering water to the oppressed and in so doing quenching your own spiritual thirst for justice.

Brook and Sparrow

Brook And Sparrow

I come to work the earth, my heart
To shape this precious stillness
And exchange my sad stories
For the fragrant humus, my soul's healing
I come to bear witness to time's
Slow downward pull
It slips by, scudding like a low cloud
Across the mountain's spine
I come to hear the ancestor's buried song
To tune the heart's ear
To music of brook and sparrow
And sap's slow descent beneath the bark

I come as well to see...
Not with human eyes
But eyes that pierce this veil 
To see the shimmering thread
Connecting me to cloud and brook and sparrow
Until the "me" becomes luminous space
Where once I was
Then, stretching invisible body
Along warm curving sunlight, and
Aching like a lover...
Yield to Your awakening touch.

WPS
Hawkscry
12/3/12

Hallelujah

A beautiful rendition of the Leonard Cohen song. Even though the song is about negotiating the minefield of interpersonal relationships and the pain that comes from acting unskillfully in those relationships, every time he sings the word "Hallelujah" it is like breathing in some relief that comes from abandoning ourselves to the healing grace that is always available but often seemingly remote because we grasp so tenaciously to our conditioned self.

Letting Go, Letting Love

After the Ecstasy

An excerpt from Jack Kornfield's forthcoming book

Ajahn Buddhadasa, whose monastery spread across a great forest of the Malay Peninsula, invited his students to sit with him in the coolness of the trees. Then he made a point of directing his students to look for Nirvana in the simplest ways, in everyday moments. “Nirvana,” he would say, “is the coolness of letting go, the inherent delight of experience when there is no grasping or resistance to life.”

Anyone can see that if grasping and aversion were with us all day and night without ceasing, who could ever stand them? Under that condition, living things would either die or become insane. Instead, we survive because there are natural periods of coolness, of wholeness, and ease. In fact, they last longer than the fires of our grasping and fear. It is this that sustains us. We have periods of rest making us refreshed, alive, well. Why don't we feel thankful for this everyday Nirvana?

We already know how to let go—we do it every night when we go to sleep, and that letting go, like a good night's sleep, is delicious. Opening in this way, we can live in the reality of our wholeness. A little letting go brings us a little peace, a greater letting go brings us a greater peace. Entering the gateless gate, we begin to treasure the moments of wholeness. We begin to trust the natural rhythm of the world, just as we trust our own sleep and how our own breath breathes itself.

On a retreat, a healer and psychologist who had devoted fifteen years to spiritual practice was struggling yet again with the question of relationships. Feelings of longing and craving and blame kept coming up again and again. We talked and I suggested he spend some days directing a lovingkindness meditation toward himself. At first he resisted; like so many of us, he felt uncomfortable focusing on himself. It was awkward to offer the intention of love and kindness to himself over and over for days. But as the retreat went on, his heart softened. Forgiveness for himself and others arose. The world began to look more beautiful. And then came a realization:

It is I who must love myself. No one else can make me feel whole. Only I can provide that love. Now I know that wholeness is always accessible to me and all beings everywhere. This knowing allows me to live with a new peacefulness and kindness to myself and others. In the simplest way, it has changed my whole life.

Again, the lesson of spiritual practice is not about gaining knowledge, but about how we love. Are we able to love what is given to us, to love in the midst of all things, to love ourselves and others? Are we able to see the illumination offered by the sun every morning? If we cannot, what must we do in the body, heart, and mind to allow us to open ourselves, to let go, to rest in our natural perfection? The gate is open, what we seek is just in front of us. It is so today and every day.

Meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg went to practice with Zen Master Seung Sahn in Korea. During the journey he undertook a pilgrimage to other masters and temples, and while traveling on a remote road he came across a particularly elegant Buddhist shrine, or stupa, at the base of a mountain. Next to it was a sign, “Way to the Most Beautiful Buddha in All of Korea,” and an arrow pointing to the thousand-step path up the mountain. Larry decided to climb, hiking up the steps until he reached the top. The view was breathtaking in every direction. The simple Zen stone pagoda matched the elegance of the one below. But in place of the Buddha on the altar there was nothing, only empty space and the gorgeous green-hilled vista below. When he went closer, at the empty altar was a plaque that read, “If you can't see the Buddha here, you had better go down and practice some more.”

From After the Ecstasy, The Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path by Jack Kornfield Copyright (c) Jack Kornfield. To be published in June 2000 by Bantam Books, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

Our True Nature

Whatever our lives are like, our buddha nature is always there. And it is always perfect. We say that not even the buddhas can improve it in their infinite wisdom, nor can sentient beings spoil it in their seemingly infinite confusion.

Our true nature could be compared to the sky, and the confusion of the ordinary mind to clouds. Some days the sky is completely obscured by clouds. When we are down on the ground, looking up, it is very difficult to believe that there is anything else there but clouds. Yet we have only to fly in a plane to discover above the clouds a limitless expanse of clear blue sky. From up there, the clouds we assumed were everything seem so small and so far away down below.

We should always try to remember: The clouds are not the sky and do not “belong” to it. They only hang there and pass by in their slightly ridiculous and nondependent fashion. And they can never stain or mark the sky in any way.

(From the blog The Masculine Heart.)

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Historical Gay Figures

I found this little list of historical figures whose history needs to be updated in the school books. This list provided by a member of Yahoo Answers. And even Abe couldn't get on this list! Let the healing begin!! Gay people are everywhere and they make real and positive contributions to the advancement of society.

Abd Al-Rahman [m] (r: 1880-1901) Afghani king (NF)
Abu Nuwas [m] (AD 756?-810) Arabian poet (AA)
Achilles [m] Greek mythological hero (GGG May 91)
Achtenberg, Roberta [f] San Francisco city supervisor (MH)
"Adult Children of Heterosexuals" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Agathon [m] (450?-400? BC) Athenian dramatist (AA)
Ai [m] (r: 6 BC-AD 1) Chinese emperor (NF)
Akhenaten [m] (1364-1334 BC) Egyptian pharoah (OOAT, AA, GGG Jun 90)
Albee, Edward [m] (1928- ) U.S. playwright "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (AA, GGG Jan 92, TM, MH)
Alcibiades [m] (450-404 BC) Athenian general-statesman (GGG Jun 91, AA, OOAT)
Alexander I [m] (1777-1825) Russian czar (AA)
Alexander the Great [m] (356-323 BC) Macedonian king (AA, OOAT, BOL, NF, TM)
Alexander VI [m] (1431-1503) Pope (GGG Aug 92)
Alger, Horatio [m] (1832-1899) U.S. author (BOL, AA, GGG Jan 90, TM)
Al-Hakem II [m] (r: AD 961-976) Cordoban ruler (NF)
"Alive!" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Allen, Peter [m] (1944-1992) Australian entertainer (TM)
Almodovar, Pedro [m] (____- ) Spanish film-maker "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down" (TM, MH)
Almond, Mark [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Al-Mutamid [m] (r: 1069-1090) Ruler of Seville (Spain) (NF)
Ammiano, Tom [m] schoolteacher, comedian, San Francisco School Board member (and first-place vote-getter) (MH)
Amos, Tori [ ] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Amunullah Kahn [m] (r: 1919-1929) Afghani king (NF)
Anacreon [m] (572?-488? BC) Greek poet (AA)
Andersen, Hans Christian [m] (1805-1875) Danish author (BOL, AA, GGG Jul 92, TM)
Anderson, Emily [f] photographer (MH)
Anderson, Laurie [f] performance artist (MH-not)
Anne [f] (1665-1714) British queen (OOAT, AA, NF)
Anne Ioannovna [f] (r: 1730-1740) Russian empress (NF)
Anthony, Susan B. [f] (1820-1906) U.S. activist (OOAT, AA, TM)
Antigonus II Gonatas [m] (r: 276-239 BC) Greek king (NF)
Antiochus I [m] (r: 280-261 BC) Greek king (NF)
Antoinette, Marie [f] (1755-1793) French queen (OOAT)
Apuzzo, Virginia [f] adviser to Governor Mario Cuomo; former head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (MH)
Araki, Greg [m] filmmaker "The Living End" (MH)
Aristotle [m] (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher (BOL, TM)
Armatrading, Joan [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
"Army of Lovers" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Ash, Daniel [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Ash, John [m] poet and literary critic (MH)
Ashbery, John [m] Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (MH)
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu [m] (r: 1368-1394) Japanese shogun (NF)
Ashman, Howard [m] (1951-1991) U.S. playwright-lyricist (GGG Sep 91)
Auden, W.H. [m] (1907-1973) British poet (AA, GGG Dec 89, BOL, TM)
Augustine, Saint [m] (AD 354-430) Roman theologian (AA)
Augustus [m] (r: 31 BC-AD 14) Roman emperor (NF)
Azaa, Manuel [m] (r: 1931-1933, 1936-1939) Spanish president (NF)
Aznavour, Charles [m] (1924- ) French, more singer than actor (TM)
"B-52's" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Bachardy, Don [m] artist; life partner of the late novelist Christopher Isherwood (MH)
Bachmann, Guido [m] writer (MH)
Bacon, Sir Francis [m] (1561-1626) Br philosopher-statesman (BOL, GGG Jul 90, AA, GBOL-bro, TM)
Baez, Joan [f] (1941- ) U.S. folk singer-political activist (GBOL-once, MH "onetime")
Bagoas [m] (345?-after 323 BC) Persian slave (to Alex. Great) (GGG Oct 92)
"Bahaus" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Bakker, James [m] (1940- ) U.S. evangelist (AA)
Baldwin, James [m] (1924-1987) U.S. writer (AA, GGG Aug 88)
Bancroft, Ann [f] explorer and teacher (*not* the actress Anne) (MH)
Bankhead, Tallulah [f] (1903-1968) U.S. actress (GBOL-once)
Barber, Samuel [m] (1910-1981) U.S. composer (AA, GBOL-forces, LS)
Barnes, Djuna [f] (1892-1982) U.S. novelist (AA)
Barney, Natalie [f] (1876-1972) Parisian writer & salon hostess (AA)
Barnfield, Richard [m] (1574-1627) British poet (AA)
Barrie, James M. [m] (1860-1937) British author (GGG Sep 92)
Bartel, Paul [m] filmmaker (MH)
Bartlett, John [m] fashion designer (MH)
Basil II [m] (r: 976-1025) Byzantine emperor (NF)
Bates, Alan [m] (1934-1992) British-born U.S. actor (TM)
Bauman, Robert [m] (1937- ) U.S. politician (AA, MH)
Beach, Sylvia [f] (1887-1962) U.S. expatriate literary figure (AA)
Beard, James [m] (1903-1985) U.S. chef and author (TM)
Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent [m] (1872-1898) British artist (GGG May 90)
Beaton, Sir Cecil [m] (1904-1980) British photographer (GGG Sep 90)
"Beautiful South, The" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Beck, Pia [f] singer and pianist (MH)
Beckford, William [m] (1760-1844) British writer and politician (AA)
Beecher, Henry Ward [m] (1813-1887) U.S. lecturer and pastor (AA)
Beethoven, Ludwig von [m] (1770-1827) German composer (AA)
Behan, Brendan [m] (1923-1964) Irish author (BOL, TM)
Bell, Andy [m] (____- ) Musician of the group "Erasure" (various, LS, MH)
Benedict IX [m] (1020-1055?) Pope (AA, GBOL-popes, OOAT)
Bennett, Michael [m] (1943-1987) U.S. choreographer (GGG Aug 89)
Ben-Shalom, Miriam [f] sued military for reinstatement after expulsion for being lesbian (MH)
Bentley, Eric [m] critic, theatre director and translator (MH)
"Berlin" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Bernhard, Sandra [f] (1955- ) U.S. comedian-actress (TM, MH)
Bernstein, Leonard [m] (1918-1990) U.S. composer (GGG Nov 90, TM, LS)
Beyazid I [m] (r: 1389-1402) Ottoman sultan (NF)
Beza, Theodore [m] (1519-1605) French theologian (AA)
Birisima, George [f] actor and playwright (MH)
Blackwell, Mr. [m] fashion designer; creator of annual "Ten Worst Dressed" list (MH)
Blais, Marie-Claire [f] French-language novelist (MH)
Blake, Nayland [ ] artist (MH)
Blaser, Robin [ ] writer (MH)
Blitzstein, Marc [m] (1905-1964) U.S. composer (GGG Mar 91)
Bogarde, Dirk [m] (1920- ) British actor (GBOL-once, MH)
Bonheur, Rosa [f] (1822-1899) French artist (AA)
Bono, Chastity [f] daughter of Sonny Bono and Cher (MH)
Boswell, John [m] historian (MH)
Botticelli, Sandro [m] (1444?-1510) Italian painter (BOL, TM)
Bowie, Angela [f] poet and performance artist; ex-wife of David Bowie (MH)
Bowie, David [m] (1947- ) British rock singer (GBOL-once, BOL, TM, LS, MH "experimenting")
Bowles, Jane [f] (1917-1973) U.S. writer (AA)
Bowles, Paul [m] writer (MH)
Boy George (George O'Dowd) [m] (1961- ) British pop singer (LS, MH)
Boyd, Malcolm [m] (1923- ) U.S. Episc. priest & gay activist (AA, BOL, TM, MH)
Bradley, Dan [m] (1940-1988) U.S. political activist (AA)
Bradshaw, Terry [m] (____- ) U.S. football player (TM "wrestler")
Brainard, Joe [m] poet and artist (MH)
Brando, Marlon [m] (1924- ) U.S. actor (GBOL-once, MH)
Bray, Robert [m] spokesman for National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (MH)
Britt, Harry [m] former President of the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors (MH)
Britten, Benjamin [m] (1913-1976) British composer (AA, GGG Jul 90, TM, LS)
Broderick, Matthew [m] actor (MH-not)
"Bronski Beat" British gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Brooks, Romaine [f] (1874-1970) U.S. painter (AA)
Brossard, Nicole [f] novelist (MH)
Broughton, James [m] poet, filkmaker and playwright (MH)
Broumas, Olga [f] poet (MH)
Brown, Rita Mae [f] (____-____) U.S. novelist, author of "Rubyfruit Jungle" (TM, MH)
Brunner, John [m] writer (MH)
Buchanan, James [m] (1791-1868) U.S. president (AA "speculation")
Burke, Glenn [m] ex-Major League baseball player (MH)
Burns, John Horne [m] (1916-1953) U.S. novelist (GBOL-forces)
Burroughs, William S. [m] (1913- ) U.S. writer (GBOL-forces, GGG Jan 91, AA, TM, MH)
Burson, Scott [m] artist (MH)
Burton, Richard [m] (1925-1984) British actor (GBOL-once)
Burton, Sir Richard [m] (1821-1890) British explorer & scholar (AA, GGG Jan 91)
Busch, Charles [m] writer, director and actor (MH)
Bush, Kate [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Busi, Aldo [m] Italian novelist (MH)
Bussotti, Sylvano [m] (1931- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Butler, Samuel [m] (1835-1902) British author (BOL, TM)
Button, Dick [m] Olympic athlete (MH)
"Buzzcocks, The" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Cadmus, Paul [m] (____-____) painter (TM, MH)
Cage, John [m] (1912-1992) U.S. composer (TM, LS, MH)
Caja, Jerome [m] artist (MH)
Califia, Pat [ ] advice columnist (MH)
Caligula [m] (r: AD 37-41) Roman emperor (NF)
Callen, Michael [m] (1955-1993) singer, member of musical group "The Flirtations" (MH, LS)
Callow, Simon [m] (1949- ) British actor (GGG Apr 92, TM, MH)
Cambaceres, Jean Jaques Regis de [m] (1753-1824) Fr lawmaker (AA)
Campbell, Jack [m] millionaire Florida businessman and activist (MH)
Camus, Renaud [m] French novelist (MH)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Amerighi) [m] (1571-1610) Ital painter (GGG Apr 92)
Carpenter, Edward [m] (1844-1929) English reformer (AA, GGG Nov 91, TM)
Carswell, G. Harold [m] (1920- ) U.S. jurist (AA)
Carver, Craig [m] artist (MH)
Casanova, Giovanni Giacomo [m] (1725-1798) Italian adventurer (GBOL-once)
Casement, Sir Roger [m] (1864-1916) Irish patriot (AA, OOAT, GGG Oct 91)
"Casselberry and Dupree" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Cather, Willa [f] (1873-1947) U.S. writer (OOAT, AA)
Catherine II (The Great) [f] (r: 1762-1796) Russian empress (NF)
Catullus Gaius Valerius [m] (c 84-45 BC) Roman poet (GGG Nov 91)
Cavafy, Constantine [m] (1863-1933) Greek poet (AA, GBOL-bro, GGG Jun 91)
Cellini, Benvenuto [m] (1500-1571) Italian goldsmith (BOL, TM)
Chamberlain, Richard [m] (1945- ) U.S. actor (GGG Oct 90, TM, MH)
Chambers, Jane [m] (1937-1983) U.S. writer (AA)
Chambers, Whittaker [m] (1901-1961) U.S. journalist (GBOL-once)
Channell, Carl "Spitz" [m] fundraiser for the Nicaraguan contras (MH)
Chapman, Graham [m] (1941-1989) British actor (GGG May 90)
Chapman, Tracey [f] African-American folksinger (TM, LS, MH-not)
Charles IX [m] (r: 1560-1574) French king (NF)
Charles XII [m] (r: 1697-1718) Swedish king (NF)
Charles XV [m] (r: 1859-1872) Swedish king (NF)
Cheever, John [m] (1912-1982) U.S. writer (AA, GGG May 91, GBOL-forces)
Cho, Margaret [f] comedian (MH)
Christian, Meg [f] (1946- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS, MH)
Christian VII [m] (r: 1766-1808) Danish king (NF)
Christina [f] (1626-1689) Swedish queen (AA, BOL, OOAT, NF, TM)
Churchill, Sir Winston (1874-1965) British statesman & author (AA "once", GBOL-once)
Ciccone, Christopher [m] artist and set designer; brother of Madonna (MH)
Claiborne, Craig [m] (1920- ) U.S. author and gourmet (GBOL-forces, MH, TM)
Clarke, Arthur C. [m] (1917- ) British writer (GBOL-once)
Claudius I [m] (r: AD 41-54) Roman emperor (NF)
Clift, Montgomery [m] (1920-1966) U.S. actor (AA, TM)
Clinton, Kate [f] comedian (MH)
Cocteau, Jean [m] (1889-1963) french author (BOL, AA, GGG Aug 89, TM)
Cohn, Roy [m] (1927-1986) U.S. attorney (AA, NSGGG Oct 89, TM)
"Coil" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Colette (Sidonie Colette Goudeket) [f] (1873-1954) Fr novelist (AA)
Commodus [m] (r: AD 180-192) Roman emperor (NF)
Connelly, Arch [m] artist (MH)
Conner, Bart [m] (1958- ) U.S. Olympic gymnast (TM)
Conners, Dave [m] (1945-1985) U.S. gay-porn star (GBOL-forces)
Conradin [m] (1252-1268) Titular king of Jerusalem and Sicily (AA)
"Consolidated" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Constantine IX [m] (r: 1042-1055) Byzantine emperor (NF)
Constantine VIII [m] (r: 1025-1028) Byzantine emperor (NF)
Cooling, Janet [f] artist (MH)
Copland, Aaron [m] (1900-1990) U.S. composer (GGG Aug 91, LS)
Corigliano, John [m] classical composer (MH)
Corll, Dean [m] (1939-1973) U.S. serial murderer (NSGGG Apr 91)
Corn, Alfred [m] poet (MH)
Corrine, Tee A. [ ] artist (MH)
Costanza, Midge [f] White House aide to President Carter (MH)
Coward, Sir Noel [m] (1899-1973) Br playwright, composer & actor (AA, GGG Oct 88)
Crane, Hart [m] (1899-1932) U.S. poet (AA)
Crew, Louie [m] professor, founder of Integrity (lesbigay Episcopal group) (MH)
Crisp, Quentin [m] (1908- ) British naked civil servant (GGG Jan 91, TM, MH)
Crowley, Mort [m] playwright "The Boys In The Band" (MH)
Cukor, George [m] (1899-1983) U.S. film director (AA, GGG Dec 88)
Curtis, Jamie Lee [f] (1958- ) U.S. actress (TM)
Curtis, Tony [m] (1925- ) U.S. actor (TM)
Cushman, Charlotte [f] (1816-1876) U.S. actress (BOL, GGG Jun 92, TM)
da Vinci, Leonardo [m] (1452-1519) Ital artist, scientist & painter (AA, GGG Oct 88, BOL, TM)
Dallesandro, Joe [m] actor in Andy Warhol films (MH)
Daly, Mary [f] feminist writer (MH)
Damata, Gasparino [m] Brazilian writer (MH)
Damon, Betsy [f] artist (MH)
Damron, Bob [m] (1928-1989) U.S. travel-book publisher (GGG Nov 90)
David [m] (1035?-960? BC) Israeli king (AA, OOAT)
Davila, Juan [m] writer (MH)
Dean, Craig (and Patrick Gill) [m] male couple suing D.C. government for a marriage license (MH)
Dean, James [m] (1931-1955) U.S. actor (AA, GBOL-once, OOAT, TM)
Deee-lite [ ] Musician (LS)
Deitch, Donna [f] filmmaker (Desert Hearts) (MH)
Delany, Samuel [m] (1942- ) U.S. writer (AA, TM, MH)
Demetrius Poliorcetes [m] (336-288 BC) Macedonian king (NF, GGG Dec 91)
D'Emilio, John [m] historian (MH)
Demosthenes [m] (384-322 BC) Athenian orator (AA)
Demuth, Charles [m] (1883-1935) U.S. painter (AA, GGG Aug 91)
Dennis, Patrick [m] novelist (MH)
"Depeche Mode" Musical group (LS, MH)
Diaghilev, Sergei [m] (1872-1929) Russian impresario (AA, GGG Dec 89)
Diamond, David [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS, MH)
Dickinson, Emily [f] (1830-1886) U.S. poet (OOAT, TM)
Diller, Barry [m] entertainment executive (MH-not)
DiMaria-Kuiper, Rev. Johannes Willem [m] minister (MH)
Disch, Thomas M. [m] poet and science-fiction writer (MH)
Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead) [m] (1945-1988) U.S. actor (GGG Feb 90)
Dobkin, Alix [ ] folksinger (MH)
Dolan, Terry [m] (1950-1986) U.S. conservative activist (AA, NSGGG Apr 91)
Domitian [m] (r: AD 81-96) Roman emperor (NF)
Donovan, Rick [m] (1963- ) U.S. gay-porn star (GBOL-forces)
Douglas, Alfred Lord [m] (1870-1945) British socialite(?) (OOAT, GGG Oct 92)
Dressler, Marie [f] (1869-1934) U.S. actress (TM)
Dreva, Jerry "Jerri Bonbon" [m] writer (MH)
Duane, Tom [m] New York City Council member (MH)
Duberman, Martin [m] historian and writer (Cures) (MH)
Duggan, Hacksaw Jim [m] (____- ) U.S. wrestler (TM)
Duncan, Robert Edward [m] poet (MH)
Duquesnoy, Francois [m] (1597-1643) Flemish sculptor (GBOL-bro)
Duquesnoy, Jerome [m] (1602-1654) Flemish sculptor (AA)
Dureau, George [m] (____- ) U.S? photographer (TM)
Dworkin, Andrea [f] feminist writer and anti-pornography activist (MH)
Earhart, Amelia [f] (1898-1937?) U.S. aviator (AA "speculation")
Edward II [m] (1284-1327) English king (AA, GGG Jun 89, OOAT, NF)
Edwards, Sally [f] athlete and businesswoman (MH)
Eisenstein, Sergei [m] (1898-1948) Russian film pioneer (TM)
Elagabalus (aka Heliogabalus) [m] (AD 204-222) Roman emperor (OOAT, NF)
"Electronic" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Ellis, Havelock [m] (1859-1939) Br essayist & physician (AA)
Ellis, Perry [m] (1940-1986) U.S. fashion designer (GGG Jan 91, TM)
Elmslie, Kenward [m] writer and librettist (MH)
Enrique IV [m] (r: 1454-1474) Castilian (Spanish) king (NF)
Epstein, Brian [m] (1934-1967) British businessman, "Beatles" promoter (AA)
Erasmus, Desiderius [m] (1466?-1536) Dutch theologian & scholar (AA, GGG Aug 88)
Eshius, Evelien [ ] member of Dutch parliament (MH)
Estrada, Erik [m] (1949- ) U.S. actor (TM)
Etheridge, Melissa [f] (____- ) musician (LS)
Euripides [m] (480?-406? BC) Greek dramatist (BOL, TM)
Everett, Rupert [m] British actor (Another Country) (MH)
Farrell, Perry [m] lead singer of Jane's Addiction (MH)
Fashanu, Justin [m] (____- ) English footballer (TM, MH)
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner [m] (1946-1982) German film maker (GGG Jun 89)
Feinberg, David F. [m] novelist (Eighty-Sixed; Spontaneous Combustion) (MH)
Ferdinand I [m] (r: 1908-1918) Bulgarian king (NF)
Fernandez, Dominique [f] French novelist (MH)
Ferron, [ ] folksinger (MH, LS)
Field, Edward [m] poet (MH)
Fierstein, Harvey [m] (1954- ) U.S. playwright-actor (GGG Aug 91, TM, MH)
Finley, Karen [f] One of the "NEA Four", performance artists whose federal grants were cut off because of "homoerotic" content in their work (MH)
Finn, William [m] Tony-winning Broadway actor (Falsettos) (MH)
Fleck, John [m] One of the "NEA Four", performance artists whose federal grants were cut off because of "homoerotic" content in their work (MH)
Flipper [dolphin] (____-____) dolphins are polymorphously perverse (TM)
Flowers, Wayland [m] (1939-1988) U.S. entertainer (GGG Jun 90)
Floyd, Gary [m] leader of Sister Double Happiness (MH)
Flynn, Errol [m] (1909-1959) U.S. actor (AA)
Forbes, Malcolm [m] (1919-1990) U.S. publisher (GGG Oct 91)
Forster, E.M. [m] (1879-1970) British author (BOL, AA, GGG Dec 88, TM)
Foster, Jodie [f] (1962- ) U.S. actress (TM, MH-not)
Foster, Stephen [m] (1826-1864) U.S. composer (AA)
Foucault, Michel [m] (1926-1984) French philosopher (AA)
Frank, Anne [f] (1929-1945) German diarist (AA)
Frank, Barney [m] (1940- ) U.S. congressman (GGG Jun 90, AA, TM, MH)
Frederick II (The Great) [m] (1712-1786) Prussian king (AA, BOL, GBOL-bro, GGG Dec 89, OOAT, NF, TM)
Fredrick II [m] (r: 1212-1250) Holy Roman Emperor (NF)
Freelove, Laurie of "Two Nice Girls" [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Fricke, Aaron [m] (1962- ) U.S. author (GGG Dec 92)
"Frogs, The" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Fry, Stephen [m] (____- ) British actor (Melchett in "Blackadder") (TM)
Gacy, John [m] (1942-1994) U.S. serial killer (NSGGG Oct 89)
Gaozu [m] (r: 206-194 BC) Chinese emperor (NF)
Garbo, Greta [f] (1905-____) U.S. actress (TM)
Garet, Jedd [m] artist (MH)
Gearhart, Sally [f] professor, writer and activist (MH)
Geffen, David [m] (____- ) U.S. head of the Geffen Corporation (TM, MH)
Genet, Jean [m] (1910-1986) French author (GGG Jul 90, BOL, AA, TM)
Germino, Dante [m] professor and political theorist (MH)
Getty, Gordon [m] classical composer (MH)
Gide, Andre [m] (1869-1951) French author (BOL, AA, OOAT, TM)
Gielgud, John [m] (1904- ) British actor (GGG Feb 89, TM, MH)
Gilbert and George, visual artists (MH)
Gilbert, Ronnie [ ] folksinger, member of The Weavers (MH)
Gill, Patrick (and Craig Dean) [m] male couple suing D.C. government for a marriage license (MH)
Gilles de Rais [m] (1404-1440) French general (AA)
Gilmore, Gary [m] (1941-1977) U.S. murderer (GBOL-once)
Ginsberg, Allan [m] (1926- ) U.S. poet (BOL, GGG Sep 90, TM, MH)
Glanville-Hicks, Peggy [f] classical composer (MH)
Gless, Sharon [f] (1943- ) U.S. actress (TM)
Glick, Deborah [f] New York state legislator (MH)
Glines, John [m] Broadway producer (MH)
Gomes, Rev. John [m] chaplain of Harvard University (MH)
Gomez, Jewelle [f] writer (MH)
Goodman, Paul [m] (1911-1972) U.S. writer (AA)
Gordon, George, Lord Byron [m] (1788-1824) British poet (AA, BOL, GGG Feb 89, TM)
Goytisolo, Juan [m] Spanish novelist (MH)
Grace, Nicholas [m] (____- ) U.S? actor (TM)
Grainger, Percy [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Grant, Cary [m] (1904-1986) U.S. actor (GGG Dec 89, TM)
Graves, Michael [m] (1934- ) U.S. architect and interior designer (TM)
Grewel, Annemarie [f] Dutch politician and scholar (MH)
Grieg, Edvard [m] (1843-1907) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Grier, Barbara [f] writer and publisher (MH)
Griffin, Merv [m] singer, talk-show host and entertainment executive (MH-not)
Grimke, Angelina Weld [f] (1880-1958) U.S. writer (AA)
Grumbach, Doris [f] writer and critic (MH)
Guerin, Daniel [m] French journalist (MH)
Gunn, Thom [m] poet (MH)
Gurganus, Allan [m] novelist (Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All) (MH)
Gustavus III [m] (1746-1792) Swedish king (BOL, TM)
Gustavus V [m] (r: 1907-1950) Swedish king (NF)
Hacker, Marilyn [f] poet (MH)
Hadrian [m] (AD 76-138) Roman emperor (AA, BOL, OOAT, NF, TM)
Hafiz (Shams-ud-din Mohammed) [m] (1320-1388) Persian poet (GGG Aug 91)
Halford, Rob, of "Judas Priest" [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Hall, Daryl [m] (1948- ) U.S. pop singer (GBOL-once)
Halloran, Andrew [m] novelist (MH)
Halsted, Fred [m] (1941-1989) U.S. erotic-film maker (GGG May 90)
Hammarskjold, Dag [m] (1905-1961) Swedish UN secretary general (BOL, AA, TM)
Hampton, Christopher [m] playwright (MH)
Hansberry, Lorraine [f] (1930-1965) U.S. playwright (AA)
Hardwicke, Michael [m] challenged Georgia's sodomy law; the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, upheld the law in 1986 (MH)
Haring, Keith [m] (1958-1990) U.S. artist (TM)
Harjo, Joy [f] Native American poet (recently visited U.Va.) (MH)
Harmodius [m] (532?-514 BC) Athenian patriot (AA)
Harris, Sherry [f] Seattle City Council member; first African-American lesbian elected official in U.S. (MH)
Harrison, Lou [m] classical composer (MH)
Hattoy, Bob [m] adviser to Bill Clinton; spoke at Democratic convention (MH)
Hawkins, Sophie B. [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Hay, Harry [m] founder of the modern gay-rights movement (MH)
Hayes, Bruce [m] Olympic gold medallist in swimming (MH)
Hemphill, Essex [m] (____-____) U.S. writer (TM, MH)
Henri III [m] (1554-1589) French king (OOAT, NF, GGG Dec 92)
Henry, Prince of Prussia [m] (1726-1802) Prussian general (AA)
Henze, Hans Werner [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Herzenberg, Joseph [m] mayor pro-tem of Chapel Hill, N.C. (MH)
Higgins, Colin [m] (1941-1988) U.S. film writer, producer & director (AA)
Hinson, Jon [m] (1942- ) U.S. congressman (AA, MH)
Hirschfeld, Magnus [m] (1868-1935) German sexologist (AA, GGG May 91)
Hisham II [m] (r: 965-1013) Cordoban ruler (NF)
Hockney, David [m] (1937- ) British/U.S. artist (TM, MH)
Hoffman, William S. [m] (____- ) U.S? writer "As Is" (TM, MH)
Holleran, Andrew [m] (1946- ) U.S. writer (GBOL-forces)
Hoover, J. Edgar [m] (1895-1972) U.S. criminologist (AA, NSGGG Apr 91)
Hopkins, Gerard Manley [m] (1844-1889) British poet (GGG Aug 92)
Horton, Jeff [m] member of Los Angeles School Board (MH)
Housman, A.E. [m] (1859-1936) British poet & educator (AA, GBOL-bro)
Houston, Whitney [f] (____- ) U.S. gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Howard, Richard [m] poet, translator and editor (MH)
Hudson, Rock (ne Roy Scherer) [m] (1925-1985) U.S. actor (AA, GBOL-forces, TM)
Hughes, Langston [m] (1902-1967) U.S. poet & writer (AA)
Hulce, Tom [m] (1953- ) U.S. actor (TM, MH)
"Human League" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Hunter, Alberta [f] (1895-1984) U.S. vocalist (AA)
Hunter, Holly [f] One of the "NEA Four", performance artists whose federal grants were cut off because of "homoerotic" content in their work (MH)
Hunter, Tab [m] (1931- ) U.S. actor (TM)
Hutter, David [m] painter (MH)
Hutton, Kate [m] seismologist (MH)
Hyde, Edward (Lord Cornbury) [m] (1661-1724) Br colonial governor (AA)
Hyde, Sue [f] (____- ) U.S. activist (TM)
Ian, Janis [f] singer (MH)
Indiana, Robert [m] artist (MH)
"Indigo Girls" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Inge, William [m] (1913-1973) U.S. playwright (GGG Nov 91)
Ireland, Patricia [f] president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) (MH)
Isherwood, Christopher [m] (1904-1986) U.S. writer (b. England) (AA, BOL, OOAT, TM)
Ivory, James [m] British film producer (MH)
Jackson, Joe [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Jackson-Paris, Rod [m] pro model/bodybuilder (MH)
Jacobs, Marc [m] fashion designer (MH)
Jahangir [m] (r: 1605-1627) Indian emperor (NF)
James IV/I [m] (1566-1625) Scottish/English king (NF, BOL, GGG Feb 90. OOAT, AA, TM)
James, Sheila [f] (____- ) U.S. actress (Zelda on "Dobie Gillis") (TM)
Jarman, Derek [m] (1942-1994) British filmmaker "Edward II" (TM, MH)
Jenkins, Walter [m] (1918-1985) U.S. political aide (AA)
Jesus of Nazareth [m] (4 BC-AD 28) Jewish rabbi (OOAT)
Jewett, Sarah Orne [f] (1849-1909) U.S. writer (OOAT)
Jin Diyi [m] (r: AD 336-371) Chinese emperor (NF)
John, Elton [m] (1947- ) British singer (BOL, TM, LS, MH)
John XII [m] (AD 937-964) Catholic pope (GBOL-popes, OOAT)
Johns, Jasper [m] artist (MH)
Johnson, Holly [f] lead singer of "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" (MH, LS)
Johnson, Philip [m] (____-____) U.S? architect (TM, MH)
Johnson, Sonia [f] feminist, minor-party presidential candidate (MH)
Jonathan [m] (1045?-1013 BC) Israeli crown prince (AA, GGG Apr 92, OOAT)
Jones, Bill T. [m] African-American dancer (MH)
Jones, Cleve [m] initiator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, now running for San Francisco city supervisor (MH)
Jones, Grace [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Jones, Howard [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Joplin, Janis [f] (1943-1970) U.S. rock singer (GBOL-once, BOL, TM)
Juan II [m] (r: 1406-1454) King of Castile & Leon (Spain) (NF)
Julius Caesar [m] (100?-44 BC) Roman statesman (AA, GGG Apr 92, NF, BOL, TM)
Julius II [m] (1443-1513) Pope (GGG May 92)
Julius III [m] (1487-1555) Pope (AA, BOL, OOAT, GBOL-popes, TM)
Jung, Carl [m] (1875-1961) Swiss founder analytical psychology (GBOL-once)
Kameny, Frank [m] longtime activist; first openly gay person to run for Congress (1971) (MH)
Kamran [m] (r: early 19th C) Afghani emir (NF)
Kantrowitz, Arnie [m] writer, teacher and activist (MH)
Katz, Jonathan Ned [m] historian (MH)
Kaye, Danny (ne David Daniel Kaminsky) [m] (1913-1987) U.S. actor (GGG Oct 92, Spoto)
Kelly, Dennis [m] poet (MH)
Kemp, Jack [m] (1935- ) U.S. politician (AA "rumors")
Kenny, Maurice [m] poet (MH)
Kert, Larry [m] (1930-1991) U.S. stage actor (GGG Apr 92)
Keynes, John Maynard [m] (1883-1946) British economist (AA, BOL, TM)
King, Billie Jean [f] (1943- ) U.S. tennis pro (GBOL-once, AA, TM, MH)
"King Missile" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
King, William Rufus de Vane [m] (1786-1853) U.S. politician (AA)
Kitchener, Horatio Herbert [m] (1850-1916) English general (AA, GGG Dec 92)
"Kitchens of Distinction" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Klein, Calvin [m] (1942- ) U.S. fashion designer (TM)
Kopay, David [m] (1942- ) U.S. athlete (NFL football) (AA, TM, MH)
Kramer, Larry [m] (____- ) U.S. writer-activist (TM, MH)
Kray, Ronald [m] (1933- ) English gangster (TM)
Krohnke, Friedrich [m] German writer (MH)
Krupp, Friederich [m] (1854-1902) German industrialist (AA)
Kureishi, Hanif [m] novelist and screenwriter (My Beautiful Laundrette; Sammy and Rosie Get Laid) (MH)
Kuzmin, Mikhail [m] (1875-1936) Russian poet (AA)
La Fosse, Robert [m] (1959- ) U.S. ballet dancer (GGG Sep 92)
Laaksonen, Touko "Tom of Finland" [m] (1920-1991) Finnish artist (GGG May 92)
Laettner, Christian [m] Duke U basketball star (MH-not)
Lakich, Lili [f] artist (MH)
lang, k.d. [f] (1961- ) Canadian singer (Advocate 1992, TM, LS, MH)
Laughton, Charles [m] (1899-1962) British actor (AA, TM)
Lavner, Lynn [f] comedian (MH)
Lawrence, Thomas Edward "of Arabia" [m] (1888-1935) Br adventurer (OOAT, AA, BOL, TM)
Leavitt, David [m] (1961- ) U.S. author "The Lost Language of Cranes" (TM, MH)
Lebowitz, Fran [f] writer and satirist (MH)
LeGuin, Ursula [f] novelist (MH)
Lekakis, Paul [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Lennox, Annie [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Leo X [m] (1475-1521) Catholic pope (GBOL-popes, OOAT)
Leopold, Nathan [m] (1906-1971) U.S. murder (with Loeb, Ric.) (NSGGG Oct 89)
Leppard, Raymond [m] classical composer (MH)
LeVay, Simon [m] medical researcher; found physiological differences between brains of gay and straight men (MH)
Levertov, Denise [f] poet (MH)
Levi, Jeffrey [m] (____- ) U.S. activist NGLTF (TM, MH)
Lian Jianwen [m] (r: AD 550-551) Chinese emperor (NF)
Liberace, Wladziu Valentino [m] (1919-1987) U.S. showman (AA, GGG Jul 90, LS)
Liebman, Marvin [m] conservative activist, top aide to William F. Buckley (MH)
Lindsay, Vachel [m] (1879-1931) U.S. poet (GGG Jun 90)
Little Richard, [m] rock singer (*but* claims a Christian conversion expelled his homosexuality) (MH)
Livingston, Jenny [f] filmmaker (Paris Is Burning) (MH)
Locke, Alain [m] (1886-1954) U.S. writer (AA)
Locke, Richard [m] (1941- ) U.S. gay-porn star (GBOL-bro, GBOL-forces)
Loeb, Richard [m] (1907-1936) U.S. murder (with Leopold, Nat.) (NSGGG Oct 89)
Lorde, Audre [f] (1934- ) U.S. writer-activist (AA, TM, MH)
Loud, Lance [m] columnist; came out to his family on TV during 1973 PBS documentary series "An American Family" (MH)
Louganis, Greg [m] (1960- ) U.S. olympic diver (TM, MH)
Louis XIII [m] (1601-1643) French king (AA, NF)
Louise, Tina [f] (1934- ) U.S. actress (TM)
"Love and Rockets" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
"Love Tractor" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Lovett, Lyle [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Lowell, Amy [f] (1874-1925) U.S. poet (AA)
Lucius Cornelius Sulla [m] (138-78 BC) Roman Emperor (GGG Aug 92)
Ludwig II [m] (1845-1886) Bavarian king (AA, OOAT, NF)
Lully, Jean-Baptiste [m] (1632-1687) French composer (BOL, TM)
Lynde, Paul [m] (1926-1982) U.S. actor (TM)
Lyon, Phyllis [f] co-founder of the Daughters of Bilitis, first lesbian organization in the U.S. (MH)
MacDowell, Malcolm [m] Br. actor. an endless rumor about the gay droog panther (TM)
MacKaye, Ian, of "Minor Threat" [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Mackintosh, Cameron [m] (1946- ) British theatrical producer (GGG Dec 91)
Maclean, Donald [m] British spy (MH)
Madonna [f] (1958- ) U.S. gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Magnus VII [m] (1316-1373) Swedish king of Norway (GGG Jul 92)
Mahmud [m] (r: 997-1030) Ghazni (Afghani) emperor (NF)
Mapplethorpe, Robert [m] (1947-1989) U.S. photographer (GGG Feb 90)
Marais, Jean [m] French actor (MH)
Margoyles, Miriam [f] actress (MH)
Marlowe, Christopher [m] (1564-1593) British playwright (BOL, AA, OOAT, GGG Nov 90, TM)
Martin, Del [f] co-founder of the Daughters of Bilitis, first lesbian organization in the U.S. (MH)
Mass, Lawrence [m] (1946- ) U.S. doctor and writer (GGG Apr 92)
Mastroianni, Marcello [m] (1924- ) Italian actor (GBOL-once)
Mathis, Johnny [m] (1935- ) U.S. singer-composer (GGG Dec 88, MH)
Matlovich, Leonard [m] (1942- ) U.S. gay rights activist (GBOL-forces, GGG Jun 89)
Matusak, John [m] (____- ) U.S. wrestler (TM)
Maugham, W. Somerset [m] (1874-1965) British author (GGG Jun 89, AA)
Maupin, Armistead [m] (____- ) U.S. writer of "Tales of the City" serials (TM, MH)
Maxey, Glen [m] Texas state legislator (MH)
Mayes, Bernard [m] Episcopal priest, journalist, founding chairman of National Public Radio, now Asst. Dean of U.Va. College of Arts and Sciences (MH)
McCarthy, Joseph [m] (____-1957) U.S. congressman (OOAT, TM)
McCoy, Rev. Renee [f] African-American minister and activist (MH)
McCullers, Carson [m] (1917-1967) U.S. writer (GBOL-once)
McDermott, David [m] artist (MH)
McDowell, Roddy [m] (1928- ) British actor and ape (TM)
McFeeley, Tim [m] head of the Human Rights Campaign Fund (MH)
McFerrin, Bobby [m] (____- ) U.S. gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
McGillis, Kelly [f] (____- ) U.S. actor (TM)
McGough, Peter [m] artist (MH)
McKellen, Ian [m] (1939- ) British actor (GGG Sep 91, MH)
McKuen, Rod [m] (1933- ) U.S. poet (AA, GBOL-once, MH)
McNaught, Brian [m] writer (MH)
McNeill, Rev. John J. [m] Jesuit priest, scholar and writer (MH)
McNichol, Kristy [f] (1962- ) U.S. actress (TM, MH-not)
Mead, Margaret [f] (1901-1978) U.S. anthropologist (AA)
Mead, Taylor [m] poet and actor (MH)
Medley, Robert [m] painter (MH)
Mehmed (Muhammad) II [m] (r: 1451-1481) Ottoman sultan (NF)
Meigs, Mary [f] painter (MH)
Melchior, Lauritz [m] (1890-1973) Danish opera singer (GGG Oct 91)
Meldrum, Ian "Molly" [m] (____- ) Australian media personality (TM)
Melville, Herman [m] (1819-1891) U.S. author (GGG Aug 89, AA, OOAT)
Menotti, Gian Carlo [m] opera composer (MH)
Merchant, Ismail [m] British film producer (MH)
Mercury, Freddie [m] (____-1992) British singer from "Queen" (TM, LS)
Meredith, William [m] poet (MH)
Merrick, Gordon [m] (1916-1988) U.S. author (GGG Feb 89)
Merrill, James Ingram [m] poet (MH)
Michael II [m] (r: AD 741-775) Byzantine emperor (NF)
Michaels, Duane [m] photographer (MH)
Michelangelo Buonarroti [m] (1475-1564) Italian artist (AA)
Migden, Carole [f] San Francisco city supervisor (MH)
Milk, Harvey [m] (1930-1978) U.S. politician (AA, GBOL-forces, TM)
Millay, Edna St. Vincent [f] (1892-1950) U.S. poet (AA)
Miller, Merle [m] (1919-1986) U.S. writer (AA, BOL, GBOL-forces, TM)
Miller, Tim [m] One of the "NEA Four", performance artists whose federal grants were cut off because of "homoerotic" content in their work (MH)
Millet, Kate [f] (1934- ) U.S. author (BOL, TM, MH)
Millington, June [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Milton, John [m] (1608-1674) British author (BOL, TM)
Minkowitz, Donna [f] (____- ) U.S. Pulitzer nominee (TM, MH)
Mishima, Yukio [m] (1925-1970) Japanese writer (AA, GGG Jan 90)
Moliere [m] (1622-1673) French dramatist (AA)
Monette, Paul [m] novelist (MH)
Moorehead, Agnes [m] (1906-1974) U.S. actress (TM)
Moraga, Cherrie [f] writer (MH)
Morris, Mark [m] dancer and choreographer (MH)
Morrissey [m] (____- ) Musician, of "The Smiths" (LS, MH)
Mosbacher, Dee [f] activist; daughter of President Bush's campaign chairman and Secretary of Commerce (MH)
Mould, Bob /Husker Du/Sugar [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Moyet, Alison [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Murphy, Peter [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Mwanga [m] (r: 1884-1897) Bugandan (Ugandan) king (NF)
Nabors, Jim [m] (1933- ) U.S. actor (TM)
Navarre, Yves [m] French novelist (MH)
Navratilova, Martina [f] (1956- ) tennis player (various, TM, MH)
Near, Holly [f] (1949- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS, MH)
Nero [m] (r: AD 54-68) Roman emperor (NF)
Nerva [m] (r: Ad 96-98) Roman emperor (NF)
Nestle, Joan [f] writer (MH)
Newman, John Henry Cardinal [m] (1801-1890) Br religious leader (GGG Jan 92)
Nicholson, Harold [m] (1886-1968) British author-diplomat (BOL, TM)
Nicomedes IV [m] (r: early first century BC) Bithynian king (NF)
Nightingale, Florence [f] (1820-1910) British nurse (AA)
Nijinsky, Vaslav [m] (1890-1950) Polish ballet dancer (GGG Jan 92, AA, BOL, TM)
Nkoli, Simon [m] South African anti-apartheid activist (MH)
Noble, Elaine [f] first openly lesbian or gay person elected to a state legislature (Massachusetts, 1974) (MH)
Norse, Harold [m] poet (MH)
Novak, Kim [f] (1933- ) U.S. actress (TM)
Novarro, Ramon [m] (1899-1968) Mexican-U.S. silent movie actor (GGG Oct 88, TM)
Nugent, Richard Bruce [m] writer and artist (MH)
Nureyev, Rudolf [m] (____-1993) ballet star (MH)
Ochs, Robyn [ ] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Oda Nobunaga [m] (r: 1568-1582) Japanese military dictator (NF)
O'Dowd, Frank [m] (1951-1988) U.S. skater and tv producer (GGG Apr 92)
O'Hara, Frank [m] (1926-1966) U.S. poet (GBOL-forces)
Oliver, Mary [f] Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (MH)
Oliveros, Pauline [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Olivier, Lord Lawrence [m] (1907-1989) British actor (Spoto, GGG Dec 92)
Olson, Donald [m] writer (MH)
Orlovsky, Peter [m] (1933- ) U.S. poet (GBOL-forces)
Orton, Joe [m] (1933-1967) British playwright (AA, GGG Jan 90)
Ostertag, Bob [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Otho [m] (r: January-April AD 69) Roman emperor (NF)
Otto III [m] (AD 980-1002) German Holy Roman Emperor (GGG Jul 92)
Paglia, Camille [f] (1947- ) U.S. writer "Sexual Personae" (TM, MH)
Pallone, David [m] (____- ) U.S. ex-baseball umpire (TM, MH)
Palomo, Juan [m] newspaper columnist (MH)
-Paris, Bob Jackson- [m] (1960- ) U.S. pro model/bodybuilder (GGG Sep 91, TM, MH)
Parker, Al (Andrew Robert Okun) [m] (1952-1992) U.S. erotic-film maker (GGG Nov 91)
Pasolini, Pier Paolo [m] (1922-1975) Italian film director (AA, BOL, GGG Mar 91, TM)
Patrick, Robert [m] (1937- ) U.S? playwright "Kennedy's Children" (TM, MH)
Paul II [m] (1417-1471) Catholic pope (GBOL-popes, OOAT)
Paxton, Ross [m] artist (MH)
Pears, Peter [m] (1910-1986) British tenor (AA, TM)
Penteado, Darcy [m] Brazilian writer (MH)
Perkins, Anthony [m] (1932-1992) U.S. actor (GBOL-once)
Perry, Rev. Troy [m] (1940- ) U.S. M.C.C. founder (GBOL-forces, GGG Dec 91, MH)
"Pet Shop Boys, The" British musical group (LS, MH-not)
Peter the Great [m] (1672-1725) Russian czar (BOL, TM)
Peters, Robert [m] poet, critic and teacher (MH)
Peyrefitte, Roger [m] French writer (MH)
Phillips, Paul [m] of "Romanofsky and Phillips," folksinger (MH, LS)
Phranc [m] (____- ) Folksinger (LS, MH)
Pierce, Charles [m] female impersonator (MH)
Pindar [m] (518-438 BC) Greek lyric poet (GGG Mar 91)
Pinto, Jody [ ] artist (MH)
Plato [m] (427?-347 BC) Athenian philosopher (AA, GGG Oct 90)
Platt, Minnie Bruce [ ] poet and teacher (MH)
Pop, Iggy [m] rock star (MH)
Porter, Cole [m] (1891-1964) U.S. songwriter (GGG Aug 88, TM, LS)
Posner, Jill [f] photographer (MH)
Power, Tyrone [m] (1913-1958) U.S. actor (GBOL-forces)
Praunheim, Rosa von [m] German filmmaker (MH)
"Pretenders" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Price, Deb [f] Gannett newspapers columnist (MH)
Price, Edward Reynolds [m] novelist (MH)
Proust, Marcel [m] (1871-1922) French author (BOL, AA, GGG Oct 90, TM)
Pruitt, Dusty [f] sued military for reinstatement after expulsion for being gay (MH)
Przhevalsky, Nikolai [m] (1839-1888) Russian explorer (AA)
Ptolemy IV [m] (r: 145-144 BC) Greek king (NF)
Ptolemy VII [m] (r: 221-205 BC) Greek king (NF)
Quaintance, George [m] (1915-1957) U.S. artist (GGG Aug 88)
Quantz, J.J. [ ] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Radice, Anne-Imelda [f] acting head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), appointed by President Bush (MH)
Rainey, Ma (Gertrude Pridgett) [f] (1886-1939) U.S. vocalist (AA, LS)
Rama VI [m] (r: 1910-1925) Thai king (NF)
Rasputin [m] (____-1916) Russian monk (OOAT)
Rechy, John [m] (1934- ) U.S. writer (GBOL-forces, MH)
Reed, Lou [m] rock star, of "Velvet Underground" (*but* now says he was just experimenting) (MH, LS)
"REM" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Renault, Mary [f] (1905-1983) British writer (AA)
Reno, [ ] comedian (MH)
"Rhiannon" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Rich, Adrienne [f] novelist (MH)
Richard I, the Lion Hearted [m] (1157-1199) English king (GGG Jan 92, BOL, NF, AA, TM)
Richard II [m] (1367-1400) English king (BOL, GGG Sep 92, TM)
Rickter, Sviatoslav [m] Russian pianist (MH)
Riggs, Marlon [m] (1957-1994) U.S. film-maker ("Tongues Untied") (TM, MH)
Rimbaud, Arthur [m] (1854-1891) French poet (AA, BOL, TM)
Ritts, Herb [m] (1952- ) U.S. photographer (TM, MH)
Rivers, Larry [m] painter and sculptor (MH)
Robbins, Harold [m] (1916- ) U.S. writer (GBOL-once)
Robespierre, Maximilien de [m] (1758-1794) French statesman (AA)
Robinson, Svend [m] (____- ) Canadian member of parliament (various, MH)
Robinson, Tom [m] singer/songwriter (MH)
Roditi, Edouard Herbert [m] writer (MH)
Rohm, Ernst [m] (1887-1934) German militarist (AA, BOL, OOAT, NSGGG Oct 89, TM)
Rolfe, Frederick, Baron Corvo [m] (1860-1913) British author (BOL, TM)
Romanofsky, Ron [m] of "Romanofsky and Phillips", folksinger (MH, LS)
Roosevelt, Eleanor [f] (1884-1962) U.S. first lady (OOAT, AA, GGG Jun 92)
Rorem, Ned [m] (1923- ) U.S. composer (AA, TM, MH)
Rowse, A. L. [ ] historian (MH)
Roy [m] of "Siegfried and Roy," comedian (MH, TM)
Rubinstein, William [m] gay-rights lawyer (MH)
Rudolf II [m] (r:1572/5/6-1608/11/12) Hungarian k/Bohemian k/H.R.Emperor (NF)
Rule, Jane [f] writer (MH)
Rumi, Jalal-Ud Din [m] (1207-1273) Persian poet (GGG Sep 91)
Russ, Joanna [f] feminist and science-fiction writer (MH)
Russo, Vito [m] (1946-1990) U.S. writer (GGG Apr 92)
Rustin, Bayard (1910-1987) U.S. civil rights activist (AA)
Rutherford, Paul [m] singer, "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" (MH, LS)
Sabato, Larry [m] political analyst and professor (MH-not)
Sackville-West, Victoria [f] (1892-1962) British author (BOL, TM)
Sade, Count Donatien Alphonse Francois de (Marquis de Sade) [m] (1740-1814) French writer (AA, NSGGG Apr 91)
"Saffire the Uppity Blues Women" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Saint-Laurent, Yves [m] fashion designer (MH)
Saint-Saens [m] (1835-1921) French composer (GGG Jun 91)
Sappho [f] (613?-565? BC) Greek poet (OOAT, AA, BOL, TM)
Sargent, Dick [m] (1933-1994) U.S. actor (various, TM, MH)
Sarria, Jose [m] drag entertainer; first openly gay candidate for public office in U.S. history (San Francisco, 1961) (MH)
Sarton, May [f] writer (MH)
Saslow, James M. [m] (1947- ) U.S. author (GGG Apr 92)
Satie, Erik [m] (1866-1925) French composer (TM)
Schatz, Ben [m] gay-rights lawyer (MH)
Scheinberg, Sidney [m] entertainment executive (MH-not)
Schlafly, John [m] son of anti-gay conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly and lawyer for her Eagle Forum organization (MH)
Schlesinger, John [m] (1926- ) British film director (GGG Oct 91, MH)
Schneider, Maria [f] actress (Last Tango in Paris) (MH)
Schubert, Franz [m] (1797-1828) Austrian composer (GGG May 91, LS)
Schulman, Sarah [f] (1958- ) U.S. novelist (GGG Jun 92)
Schulte, Steve [m] (1946- ) U.S. politician (AA)
Schuyler, James [m] poet (MH)
Scondras, David [m] Boston City Council member (MH)
Sebastian, Saint [m] (____-____) catholic Saint (TM)
Sebktigin [m] (10th Cen.) Ghaznavid Empire (Afghanistan) founder (NF)
Selleck, Tom [m] actor (MH-not)
Serrault, Michael [m] (1928- ) French actor (GBOL-once)
Shakespeare, William [m] (1564-1616) English playwright (AA "no proof")
Sher, Antony [m] actor (MH)
Shilts, Randy [m] journalist (The Mayor of Castro Street; And the Band Played On) (MH)
Shipp, John Wesley [m] (____- ) U.S. actor ("The Flash") (TM)
Shocked, Michelle [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS "maybe")
Siegfried [m] of "Siegfried and Roy," comedian (MH, TM)
Signorile, Michelangelo [m] U.S. journalist-activist, co-founder of Queer Nation (MH)
Silva, Aguinaldo [m] Brazilian writer (MH)
Sischy, Ingrid [f] (____- ) U.S. editor, INTERVIEW (TM, MH)
Sixtus IV (Francisco della Rovere) [m] (1414-1484) pope (OOAT, GBOL-popes)
Small, Fred [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Small, Judy [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Smith, Bessie [f] (1898?-1937) U.S. vocalist (AA, BOL, TM)
Smith, Christopher [m] member of the British Parliament (MH)
Socrates [m] (469?-399 BC) Athenian philosopher (AA, BOL, GGG Aug 89, TM)
Sodoma, Il (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi) [m] (1477-1549) Ital painter (GGG Apr 92)
"Soft Cell" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Sommerville, Jimmy [m] pop singer (Bronski Beat, The Communards) (MH, LS)
Sophocles [m] (496-406 BC) Greek tragedian (GGG May 90, BOL, TM)
Southerland, Lori [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Spada, James [m] writer (MH)
Spear, Allan [m] Minnesota state senator (MH)
Spender, Stephen [m] poet and critic (MH)
Sperr, Martin [m] German writer (MH)
Stael, Madame de [f] (1766-1817) French author (BOL, TM)
Stambolian, George [m] (1937-1991) U.S. writer/editor (GGG Jul 92)
Steffan, Joe [m] top Naval Academy cadet expelled for being gay, now suing for reinstatement (MH)
Stein, Gertrude [f] (1864-1946) U.S. writer (AA, OOAT, BOL, GGG Jun 92, TM)
Steward, Samuel "Phil Andros", writer (MH)
Stipe, Michael [m] lead singer of R.E.M. (MH-not)
Stoddard, Tom [m] gay-rights lawyer (MH)
Strachey, Lytton [m] (1880-1932) British biographer and critic (AA)
Stryker, Jeff [m] star of gay, straight and bi porno films (MH)
Studds, Gerry E. [m] (1937- ) U.S. politician (AA, TM, MH)
Suleiman the Magnificent [m] (1495?-1566) Ottoman emperor (OOAT)
Sullivan, Andrew [m] (____- ) U.S. editor: The New Republic (TM, MH)
Sullivan, Sir Arthur [m] (1842-1900) British composer (AA, GGG Jan 90)
Swann, Glenn [m] (1959- ) U.S. gay-porn star (GBOL-forces)
Sweeney, Terry [m] comedian (Saturday Night Live's Nancy Reagan) (MH)
"Sweet Honey in the Rock" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Swinburne, Algernon [m] (1837-1909) British poet (BOL, AA, TM)
Sylvester [m] (1946-1988) U.S. entertainer (GGG Sep 90, LS)
Symonds, John Addington [m] (1840-1893) British essayist & critic (AA, GGG Feb 90)
Takahashi, Mutsuo [m] Japanese poet (MH)
Takei, George [m] (____- ) U.S. actor (Mr Sulu in "Star Trek") (TM)
Tardi, Carla [f] artist (MH)
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich (1840-1893) Russian composer (OOAT, AA, GBOL-bro, BOL, TM, LS)
Teasdale, Sara [f] (1884-1933) U.S. poet (AA)
Tesla, Nikola [m] (1856-1943) Croatian scientist (GGG Apr 92)
Thomas, Betty [f] (1947- ) U.S. actress (TM)
Thompson, Dorothy [f] (1893-1961) U.S. journalist (AA)
Thompson, Karen [f] obtained custody of her disabled lover Sharon Kowalski after six-year court battle (MH)
Thompson, Scott [m] Canadian comedian (The Kids in the Hall) (MH)
"Thompson Twins" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Thorne, Lt. j.g. Tracy [f] U.S. Navy officer who came out on Nightline, now fighting expulsion (MH)
"Thrill Kill Kult" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Tiberius [m] (r: AD 14-37) Roman emperor (NF)
Tikaram, Tanita [ ] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS "maybe")
Tilden, William "Big Bill" [m] (1893-1953) U.S. tennis player (GGG Oct 88, BOL, AA, TM)
Tiny Tim [m] (1925- ) U.S. performer (GBOL-once)
Tippett, Mickael [m] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Toklas, Alice B. [f] (1877-1967) U.S. author-cook (BOL, TM)
Tokugawa Iemitsu [m] (r: 1622-1651) Japanese shogun (NF)
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi [m] (r: 1680-1709) Japanese shogun (NF)
Tolstoy, Leo [m] (1828-1910) Russian author (TM)
Tomlin, Lilly [f] (1939- ) U.S. entertainer (TM, MH-not)
Tournier, Michel [m] French writer (MH)
Townshend, Pete [m] (____- ) British musician, "The Who" (LS, MH)
Trajan [m] (r: AD 98-117) Roman emperor (NF)
Travanti, Daniel J. [m] (1940- ) U.S. actor (TM)
Travolta, John [m] (1954- ) U.S. actor and Scientologist (TM, MH-not)
Tress, Arthur [m] photographer (MH)
Tripp, C. A. [m] psychologist (author, The Homosexual Matrix) (MH)
Tryon, Tom [m] (1926-1991) U.S. actor-author (GGG Oct 92)
Tune, Tommy [m] Tony-winning Broadway singer/actor (MH)
Turing, Alan M. [m] (1912-1954) British mathematician (AA, GGG Sep 90, TM)
Tyler, Robin [f] comedian, producer and activist (MH)
"U2" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Ulrichs, Karl Heinrich [m] (1825-1895) German lawyer & gay right activist (AA, GGG Dec 88)
Vaid, Urvashi [ ] head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (MH)
Valentian III [m] (r: AD 425-455) Roman emperor (NF)
Valentino, Rudolph [m] (1895-1926) Italian-U.S. actor (AA)
Van Sant, Gus [m] (____- ) U.S. filmmaker (TM, MH)
Vega, Suzanne [f] (____- ) Gay/gay-positive musician (LS)
Verlaine, Paul [m] (1844-1896) French poet (BOL, TM)
Vidal, Gore [m] (1925- ) U.S. writer (TM, MH)
"Village People, The" [m,m,m,m] The members of the band (MH)
Visconti, Luchino [m] (1906-1976) Italian film director (AA)
Vivien, Renee [f] (1877-1909) French writer (AA)
"Voice Farm" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Voltaire [m] (1694-1778) French philosopher (GBOL-once)
von Humboldt, Alexander [m] (1769-1859) German naturalist (BOL, TM)
von Praunheim, Rosa [m] (1942- ) German filmmaker (GGG Aug 92)
von Romer, Lucien S.A.M. [m] (1873-1965) Dutch Sexologist (GGG May 92)
Waddell, Thomas [m] (1938-1987) U.S. athlete (AA, GGG Jun 91, GBOL-forces)
Wagner, Jane [f] playwright, life partner of Lily Tomlin (MH-not)
Walker, Alice [f] African-American novelist (MH-not)
Walpole, Horace [m] (1717-1797) British writer (AA)
Warhol, Andy [m] (1927-1987) U.S. artist (AA, GGG Oct 90, TM)
Washington, George [m] (1732-1799) U.S. president (AA "speculation")
"Washington Sisters, The" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Waters, John [m] filmmaker (Pink Flamingos; Polyester; Hairspray) (MH)
Watkins, Sgt. Perry (ret.), won Supreme Court case for reinstate-ment to Army after expulsion for being gay; African-American (MH)
Watney, Simon [m] (____- ) U.S? AIDS academic (TM)
Webb, Clifton [m] (1893-1966) U.S. actor (GGG Sep 92)
Weber, Bruce [m] (1942- ) U.S. photographer (TM)
Wei Wen [m] (r: AD 220-227) Chinese emperor (NF)
Weinberg, George [m] psychologist; coined the term "homophobia" in his book "Society and the Healthy Homosexual" (MH)
Welty, Eudora [f] (1909- ) U.S. writer (TM, MH)
Whale, James [m] (1896-1957) British-U.S. film director (GGG Feb 89, AA)
White, Edmund [m] (1940- ) U.S. author (GGG Dec 91, TM, MH)
Whitman, Walt [m] (1819-1892) U.S. poet (AA, BOL, GGG Nov 90, OOAT, TM)
Wieners, John [m] poet (MH)
Wilde, Dolly [f] (1899-1941) British wit (Oscar's niece) (AA)
Wilde, Oscar [m] (1854-1900) Irish dramatist & wit (AA, BOL, GGG Mar 91, TM)
Wilder, Thornton [m] (1897-1975) U.S. novelist (AA)
Wilhelm, Gale [f] novelist (MH)
William II Rufus [m] (1056-1100) English king (OOAT, AA, NF)
William III [m] (r: 1689-1702) British king (NF)
Williams, Jonathan [m] poet and teacher (MH)
Williams, Pete [m] Pentagon spokesman (MH-not)
Williams, Tennessee [m] (1911-1983) U.S. playwright (AA, BOL, TM)
Williamson, Chris [ ] (____- ) Folksinger (LS, MH)
Wilmer, Val [f] photographer and writer (MH)
Wilson, Millie [f] artist (MH)
Winant, Fran [f] artist (MH)
Winterson, Jeanette [f] novelist (MH)
Wittgenstein, Ludwig [m] (1889-1951) Austrian philosopher (AA)
Wittig, Monique [f] writer (MH)
Wollstonecraft, Mary [f] (1759-1797) British writer (AA)
Wong, B. D. [m] Tony-winning Broadway actor (M. Butterfly) (MH)
Woodlawn, Holly [f] actor in Andy Warhol films (MH)
Woolf, Virginia Stephens [f] (1882-1941) British writer (OOAT, BOL, AA. TM)
Woollcott, Alexander [m] (1887-1943) U.S. journalist & critic (AA)
Wu [m] (r: 140-86 BC) Chinese emperor (NF)
"XTC" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
"Yaz" Gay-positive/gay-membership musical group (LS)
Yourcenar, Marguerite [f] (1903-1987) French writer (AA, TM)
Zeno of Elea [m] (5th century BC) Greek philosopher (BOL, TM)