Long gone are the days when homosexuals had to peek out the closet, assess the cultural temperature, then decide if they were going to declare their orientation publicly. Today, they don’t just walk out of the closet; they are strutting, and without any fear of the backlash that, for example, Ellen DeGeneres had to endure when she first made her sexual preference known in the mid-1990s. It temporarily derailed DeGeneres’ career but then she rebounded spectacularly to usurp the all-time queen of talk shows, Oprah Winfrey, in the ratings before Winfrey retired from the game.
With the help of theroot.com, the following is a list of LGBT authors, filmmakers, activists, athletes, educators and legislators whose body of work and devotion to LGBT causes has opened doors for young people and successive generations. –terry shropshire
Click continue to read more about the top black gay influencers.
