One hundred or less role models
06 Dec 2020.

Out Magazine’s The Out 100 List is out, and what can I say? Once again, I don’t see my name anywhere. Or hardly any other queer comedians, unless they are black lesbians (this year’s list includes Punkie Johnson, Wanda Sykes, and Gina Yashere). 

So what do we have? A quick look at the list seems to offer seven designers, five singers, three business leaders, four directors, 12 activists, four drag queens, nine politicians, and so many transpeople I lost count. The rest is a mixed bag, with very few recognizable names. It’s obvious that I never read Out Magazine. 

I guess the importance of the list is to show how widespread queer people are in today’s society, and in so many different and influential aspects of it. And I guess people like Tim Cook, Andre Leon Talley, Rachel Maddow, Mary Trump and Lizzo are inspirational role models for some. If I can cite any role model at all this year, it would be me, for getting through this endless boring quarantine in one piece. 

Out Magazine celebrated the list with four distinct covers, one each for actor Wilson Cruz, who apparently has just saved the world; singer Janelle Monae, who shows us the way (hey, that rhymes!); theatre and film director Joe Mantello, coming to Hollywood from God knows where; and activist Janaya Khan, who builds bridges, like the bridge she built between BLM and the Toronto Pride Committee back in 2016. At least Mantello directed the new film version of The Boys in the Band, possibly the only gay thing I enjoyed all year. 

I must be a terrible gay, because I don’t care about any of it. The Out List, which goes back to the '90s, was always tedious. I’m much more interested in something like the ‘Top 100 Bass Players According to Rolling Stone Magazine.’ At least I’d recognize most of those names.