Musician

Pianist & Entertainer

b. May 16, 1919
d. February 4, 1987

“Nakedness makes us democratic; adornment makes us individuals.”

Liberace was a world-class pianist and showman, as famous for his flamboyant wardrobe and stage persona as he was for his immense talent.

Wladziu Valentine Liberace was born into a musical family in West Allis, Wisconsin. His parents emigrated from Poland and Italy. A prodigy, Liberace could play the piano by the age of 4.

As a child, Liberace was bullied for his effeminacy, avoidance of sports and speech impediment. He took refuge at the piano. As a teenager, he began studying at the Wisconsin College of Music and performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

When his family suffered financial hardship during the Great Depression, Liberace earned money playing popular music at weddings, movie theaters, speakeasies and other venues. Those experiences helped shape his trademark style, which he called “classical music with the boring parts left out.”

Liberace created a unique mix of classical and contemporary arrangements, often performed in extravagant medleys. Critics uniformly bashed him, but their opinions left his popularity unaffected.

In response to one caustic review, he famously quipped, “My manager and I laughed all the way to the bank.”

In 1944 Liberace premiered in Las Vegas and eventually made the city one of his many homes. Routinely wardrobed in sequins, lace, feathers and fur, he dazzled audiences at an enormous, jeweled piano topped with a Louis XIV candelabra.

Liberace debuted on television in 1952 with his own variety show. A smash hit, it was broadcast on more than 200 U.S. stations. His autobiography, published in 1972, became a best seller, and he wrote several cookbooks, the first of which was reprinted seven times.

Liberace became one of the most famous and highly paid performers of the 20th century. He maintained an overwhelmingly female fanbase and consistently denied — and sued over — allegations that he was gay. After his death, his close friend, the actress Betty White, confirmed his sexual orientation.

The HBO biopic, “Behind the Candelabra” (2013) depicts the now well-known affair between Liberace and Scott Thorson, his much younger lover. When Liberace kicked Thorson out of his mansion, Thorson attempted to sue Liberace in the first same-sex palimony case in U.S. history. The judge threw out the claim, but Liberace settled anyway.

Liberace produced six gold albums, earned two Emmy Awards and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He turned one of his mansions into a museum and started a foundation offering scholarships to young artists.

Though undisclosed at the time, Liberace died less than two years after he was diagnosed with HIV.

Composer

b. March 1, 1810
d. October 17, 1849

“Sometimes I can only groan, suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!”

Frédéric Chopin was a famous Polish French pianist and composer of the Romanic period. Among the greatest composers in history, he was renowned for his solo piano compositions and piano concerti.

Chopin was born in a small town near Warsaw, Poland. His father made a living tutoring the children of upper-class families, before becoming a French teacher. Chopin’s mother and sister played piano, which enthralled him from the time he was a toddler.

As a young child, Chopin took piano lessons from Wojciech Zywny, a talented local musician. Before long, the boy excelled beyond his teacher’s capabilities and the constraints of formal music education.

Chopin composed and published his first work at the age of 7. He was performing at private events and charity concerts before he was 10, and he played for the Russian tsar at age 11. At 16, Chopin entered Warsaw Conservatory of Music, where he studied musical theory from Joseph Elsner, a Polish composer.

Elsner was a Romanticist who encouraged Chopin’s prodigious talent and creativity. At age 20, Chopin moved to Paris, the hub of Romanticism in music.

While gaining recognition for his compositions, Chopin earned a living in Paris as an acclaimed piano teacher. After his spectacular debut, which was attended by the composers Franz Liszt and Felix Mendelssohn, he became an overnight celebrity. His major contributions during this time include the Nocturnes, (Op. 9 and 15), the 2 Études, and Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor (Op. 35).

Chopin was engaged to Maria Wodzinski for a brief time before her parents called off the marriage in 1837. He had what many believe to have been a romantic relationship with the female novelist Aurore Dudevant, who was known by the pen name George Sand. Chopin spent nine years corresponding with Dudevant and composed some of his greatest works during their involvement. Their liaison ended after they spent a winter on the Spanish island of Majorca.

Over the years, biographers and archivists have largely concealed Chopin’s attraction to men and exaggerated his involvements with women. A Swiss radio documentary titled “Chopin’s Men” contended that his sexuality had been strategically misrepresented by Polish historians to comport with the country’s conservative values. Researchers uncovered romantic and suggestive letters that Chopin wrote to men. The music journalist Moritz Weber found historical evidence that many of Chopin’s letters had been intentionally mistranslated, exchanging his male lovers’ pronouns to female.

Chopin contracted tuberculosis and died in Paris at the age of 39. He composed more the 200 works for the piano during his life.

Rapper

b. April 9, 1999

“I 100% want to represent the LGBT community.”

Montero Hill, known as Lil Nas X, is a Grammy Award-winning rapper and social media sensation. A trailblazer in the hip-hop community as a gay rapper who speaks freely about his sexuality, Nas X entered the international spotlight with his single “Old Town Road.”

Nas X was born outside of Atlanta, Georgia. His father is a gospel singer. His parents divorced when he was 6, and he spent much of his childhood living in housing projects.

As a youth struggling with his sexual orientation, Nas X spent most of his time alone. At age 13, he turned to social media and experimenting with memes. He eventually carved a niche for himself as an internet personality, working to create catchy content he hoped would go viral. He began with short Facebook videos and finally found success on Twitter, where he accumulated more than four million followers. He amassed nine million followers on YouTube. As his songwriting progressed, he adopted his stage name as an homage to the rapper Nas.

In December 2018, Nas X bought beats online and recorded the country rap song “Old Town Road.” He promoted the song on social media with hundreds of memes and with a musical “challenge” on the video-sharing app TikTok. Popular with all kinds of listeners, the song rapidly jumped to the radio, then to the Billboard charts.

With its unique blend of country and hip-hop, “Old Town Road” provoked controversy about its place on the country music charts. Nas X and the country star Billy Ray Cyrus subsequently recorded a remix. Released in April 2019, the single shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for 19 weeks—longer than any song in history. It went 10 times platinum. Only 34 songs have ever achieved that status.

In June 2019, Nas X released “7,” his debut EP on Columbia Records. The seven-track recording features “Old Town Road” and the single “Panini,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100. Nine days after the EP’s release, Nas X came out as gay on Twitter. He is the first artist to do so with a No. 1 hit currently on the charts.

Nas X was nominated for six Grammy Awards in 2020. He won two for “Old Town Road” and also became the first LGBT artist to win a Country Music Association (CMA) Award. He was named to the TIME 100 Next list and the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Blues Performer

b. August 12, 1907
d. January 18, 1960

“It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought I was.”

Gladys Bentley was a celebrated African-American blues singer and pianist. Her cross-dressing lesbian persona, deep voice and bawdy lyrics catapulted her to fame during the Harlem Renaissance.

Born in Philadelphia, the eldest child of an African-American father and a Trinidadian mother, Bentley grew up poor. She felt scorned, particularly by her mother, who wanted a son. Bentley believed the rejection helped shape the gender nonconformity she exhibited from an early age.

In school Bentley faced ridicule for wearing boys’ clothes and for her crushes on female teachers. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with “extreme social maladjustment.” At age 16, no longer able to endure the abuse she received from her family and peers, she moved to New York City’s Harlem neighborhood.

The 1920s welcomed an explosion of African-American arts and culture in Harlem, and Bentley flourished there. Wearing men’s formal attire, which became her trademark, she quickly found success performing at local speakeasies and blues clubs. She recorded with a variety of music labels and signed for a year with OKeh Records.

Bentley adopted the stage name Bobbie Minton and headlined at Harry Hansberry’s Clam House, a popular nightspot frequented by gays and lesbians. She later headlined at the Ubangi Club, backed by a chorus of drag queens. Bentley sang unabashedly about sexuality and male abuse of power. She quickly became one of the most famous entertainers—and famous lesbians—in Harlem. After earning acclaim in New York, she toured nationwide, performing in Chicago, Hollywood and other major cities.

Though interracial and same-sex marriage were illegal, Bentley married a white woman in 1931 in a public civil ceremony in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As the decade pressed on and the Great Depression shrouded the nation, social mores began to shift. Prohibition ended, and Bentley tried unsuccessfully to bring her act to Broadway. Her performances were often shut down by police. In 1937 she moved to Los Angeles, where her success continued, but some club owners forced her to wear dresses.

In the 1950s, McCarthyism all but extinguished tolerance in America, and Bentley tried to transform her image. In a 1953 Jet magazine article, she announced that she had transitioned from the “third sex” to a “true female.” She dressed like a woman and claimed to have married a man, Charles Roberts, a Los Angeles cook.

Bentley died of pneumonia at her Los Angeles home. Almost 60 years later, The New York Times published her obituary as part of its “Overlooked” series.

Award-Winning Country Music Star

b. October 25, 1970

“I hear the word "tolerance"… I am gay, and I am not seeking to be ‘tolerated.’ One tolerates a toothache, rush-hour traffic, an annoying neighbor with a cluttered yard. I am not a negative to be tolerated.”

Chely Wright is an award-winning country singer-songwriter and LGBT activist. She is widely regarded as the first major American country music artist to come out publicly.

Raised in a musical family in Wellsville, Kansas, Wright started piano lessons at age 4. She knew she was a lesbian by age 9. Growing up Christian in a small farming town, she believed her feelings were “sinful” and kept her sexuality secret long into adulthood. 

Wright always dreamed of becoming a country star. She started to sing professionally when she was 11. In her senior year of high school, she began performing in the Ozark Jubilee, a music show in Branson, Missouri. After graduation, Wright sang as part of a production in Opryland USA, a theme park outside of Nashville. 

Wright’s career took off in her mid 20s. In 1995 she earned the Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Female Vocalist on the merits of her debut album, “Woman in the Moon.” Some of her most famous hits include “Shut Up and Drive” (1997), “I Already Do” (1998) and “Single White Female” (1999), which reached No. 1 on the country music charts. The song earned her several award nominations, most notably for top female artist and best music video. 

Wright’s 2001 album, “Never Love You Enough,” reached the Top 5. Her 2005 ballad “The Bumper of My SUV” was nominated for Best Patriotic Song by the Country Weekly Awards. She performed it while entertaining U.S. troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Germany. 

By 2006 Wright had grown severely depressed and suicidal. No longer able to hide her sexuality, she poured her soul into a memoir, “Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer.” When the book was published in May 2010, Wright came out on NBC’s “The Today Show” and in People.com. Her widely publicized coming out was chronicled in the award-winning documentary, “Wish Me Away.”

Wright founded the LIKEME® Organization to promote LGBT equality and prevent bullying in classrooms. The organization expanded to offer college scholarships to young LGBT advocates, and in 2012 opened the LIKEME Lighthouse, a community center for LGBT youth in Kansas City, Missouri.

Wright has released eight studio albums and more than 19 singles. She continues to perform and advocate for LGBT rights. Among other honors, she has received a Lambda Literary Award for her autobiography; the Family Equality Council’s award for Outstanding Work as an LGBT Activist; and the Black Tie Media Award.

Wright married  Lauren Blitzer in 2011. They are the parents of identical twins.

Grammy-Winning Singer

b. September 23, 1970

“We so often fall in that trap of trying to convince somebody they're wrong, when really it's just go find the good people doing the good work and help them out.”

Angela Maria “Ani” DiFranco is a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, musician and progressive social activist. Her unique musical style and lyrics combine elements of folk, alternative rock, funk and other influences.

Born in Buffalo, New York, DiFranco was playing guitar and singing Beatles covers at local venues by the age of 9. At 14 she was writing and performing her own songs at bars and coffee houses. She graduated from the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts at 16 and became an emancipated minor. 

At the age of 19, DiFranco started her own record label, Righteous Babe Records. She released her self-titled first album—and more than 20 subsequent studio albums—on the label. DiFranco openly identified as bisexual in the early ’90s. During that decade, she toured nationally and internationally. She addressed her love for men and women in several of her songs and became a pioneering voice for the LGBTQ community. 

As DiFranco’s fame and visibility increased, she appeared on music television programs such as MTV and VH1 and in cover stories for Spin, Ms. magazine and other popular publications. In 1995 she performed as part of a concert at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her cover of “Wishin’ and Hopin’” appeared in the opening credits of the 1997 film “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”

In 1999 Righteous Babe Records began releasing albums by other artists. The label also created the Righteous Babe Foundation through which DiFranco has supported grassroots initiatives to advance abortion rights, LGBT rights and other issues. 

DiFranco has performed at benefit concerts and spoken at feminist rallies. She headlined the LEAF and Clearwater festivals in support of environmental protection. In 2004, along with celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Margaret Cho, she led the March for Women’s Lives on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. For her 2017 “Rise Up” concert tour, she partnered with Emily’s List, a leading Democratic organization aimed at electing pro-choice female politicians.

DiFranco has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards. Her 12th album, “Evolve,” earned the 2004 Grammy for Best Recording Package. In 2006 the National Organization for Women honored DiFranco with the “Woman of Courage Award.” In 2009 she received the prestigious Woody Guthrie Award as a consistent advocate for social change. 

DiFranco married her sound engineer, Andrew Gilchrist, in 1998 and divorced five years later. She married Mike Napolitano in 2009. They have two children.

Feminist Singer-Songwriter

b. 1946

“She was a big tough woman, the first to come along that showed me being female meant you still could be strong” – Lyrics from “Ode to Gym Teacher.” 

Meg Christian is an American feminist folk singer-songwriter and a founding member of Olivia Records. She became a leader of the women’s music movement, focusing on feminist causes and lesbian rights. 

Christian was raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. She graduated from the University of North Carolina with a double degree in English and music. She moved to Washington, D.C., where she performed in nightclubs and began to shift her musical focus to social justice and feminist themes. Christian became one of the first singers to incorporate lyrics about lesbianism and feminism into her music.  

Christian came out as a lesbian in the 1970s. At that time, such an acknowledgement confined her to the fringes of the music industry. It relegated her music to independent labels and limited her media exposure. She turned this into an asset, becoming a leader in the women’s music movement. She embraced women’s separatism, and during periods of the ’70s, performed exclusively at women-only venues. 

In 1973 Christian and other feminist and lesbian activists founded Olivia Records. Christian recorded the label’s first album and toured extensively throughout the country, particularly at music festivals.

Olivia Records successfully recorded and marketed women-produced music, which often contained feminist lyrics or themes. To celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary, Christian performed at Carnegie Hall with pioneering lesbian singer-songwriter Cris Williamson. 

Christian began a two-decades-long break from performing in the mid 1980s. She studied and embraced Eastern mysticism and focused on her spirituality.

In 1988 Olivia Records founded Olivia, a lesbian cruise ship company. Christian has performed frequently on the cruise line. 

Christian has recorded nine major albums, most of which were produced and distributed by Olivia Records. In 2009 Equality Virginia honored Christian as one of its “Outstanding Virginians.” She continues her music and LGBT activism.

Rock Star

b. January 8, 1947
d. January 10, 2016

“It’s true—I’m bisexual. … I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Born David Robert Jones in London, David Bowie was a singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He is among the best-selling recording artists in the world. 

Bowie first splashed onto the music charts in 1969 with “Space Oddity.” The song became one of his best known and among three of his recordings to be included in The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Bowie went on to experiment with a variety of musical styles that came to define him as an innovator.

With his first album, “The Man Who Sold the World,” Bowie helped usher in the era of glam rock, a style known for its androgynous-looking performers, make-up and flamboyant costumes. 

Bowie followed his debut with a string of musical successes, notably “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” The 1972 concept album featured his gender-bending alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust, an alien rock star. The same year, in an interview with Melody Maker magazine, Bowie came out as gay. He later told Playboy he was bisexual. 

In 1976 Bowie starred in “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” the first of his many film roles. He experimented with highly theatrical live shows and narrated “Peter and the Wolf” with the Philadelphia Orchestra—the first of his many children’s projects. He made his Broadway debut in “The Elephant Man.” In addition to music, film and theater, Bowie was also an accomplished artist whose work was shown at international galleries.

Bowie produced important albums for Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and Mott the Hoople, and collaborated with artists such as John Lennon, the band Queen, and Mick Jagger, with whom he had been romantically linked. 

In 1993 he told Rolling Stone magazine that declaring his bisexuality was “the biggest mistake” he ever made. He would later say he had “no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners nor be a representative of any group of people.”  

In 1996 Bowie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and became the first musician to release a song for download. His 30th and final studio album, “Blackstar,” was released just two days before he died of cancer.

Bowie was married twice to women, the second time to the model Iman (his widow). He was the father of a son and a daughter. 

Transgender Activist

b. March 4, 1969

“A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again; that’s not the case in my family.”

Chaz Bono, born Chastity Bono, is the only child of American entertainers Sonny and Cher. In 2008 Bono began undergoing gender reassignment procedures, publicly discussing the experience in the Emmy-nominated documentary “Becoming Chaz.” 

A native of Los Angeles, Bono grew up in the spotlight, often appearing on his parents’ popular variety show. Later he said he felt uncomfortable wearing dresses on TV and remembered wanting to be more like his father. 

After his parents divorced in 1975, Bono split his time between them and later moved to New York City to attend college and pursue a career in music. He formed the band Ceremony, for which he sang lead vocals and played guitar and drums. The band released an album called “Hang Out Your Poetry,” which featured guest appearances by the Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Bono’s parents. 

By 1990 the tabloids began speculating that Bono was a lesbian. Bono came out publicly five years later in The Advocate, eventually becoming the entertainment director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Bono published “Family Outing,” a book that explores his coming out and gender issues. 

In his next book, “The End of Innocence,” published in 2002, Bono provided insights into the music business and his relationship with an older woman. 

Bono went public with his substance abuse problems before becoming sober in 2004. He appeared on the reality show “Celebrity Fit Club” to address body issues, and later competed as the first transgender contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.” 

After completing his transition in 2010, Bono legally changed his first name to Chaz. He shared his experiences in the best-selling book “Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man” (2011). He also starred in a television special about his transition called “Being Chaz.” His mother, Cher, said that she initially had difficulty accepting Bono’s sexuality, though she has since become an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights.

Bono is a leading transgender advocate and speaks out worldwide for LGBT rights.

Rock Star

b. July 26, 1943

“I wasn’t trying to be rebellious … I was just being me.”

Mick Jagger is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, a British rock band whose popularity has spanned more than 50 years. As one of the most influential and charismatic front men in history, Jagger has received many awards and accolades. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and was knighted in 2003. Rolling Stone magazine names him among the top 20 on its List of 100 Greatest Singers.

Immersed in the counterculture of the 1960s, Jagger and his bandmates became famous after releasing a string of successful albums and making TV and live concert appearances around the world. They collaborated with fellow superstars throughout the ’70s and ’80s, rubbing elbows with the famous and infamous, including Andy Warhol, the gay pop artist who created a portrait series of Jagger.

During the 1970s, Jagger adopted a gender-nonconforming stage persona, experimenting with makeup and glam-rock fashion. He became a fixture at New York’s famed Studio 54, often seen with gay icons like writer Truman Capote, fashion designer Halston and dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Jagger is credited with opening up “definitions of gendered masculinity.”

In 1985 Jagger performed at Live Aid in Philadelphia, where he covered “Dancing in the Street” with David Bowie, another gender-nonconforming rock star with whom he has been romantically linked.

Jagger also launched a successful solo career and acted in several movies, most notably the 1970 British crime drama “Performance,” in which he plays a bisexual.

Jagger and the Rolling Stones have been the subject of many documentaries, including “Gimme Shelter,” filmed during the band’s 1969 U.S. tour, during which several people died; “Sympathy for the Devil” by Jean-Luc-Goddard; and “Shine a Light” by Martin Scorsese.

Jagger has been married twice and is the father of seven children. He has been involved with other women and men over the years.