10 legendary gay icons and how they earned their titles
Judy Garland
Did you think people called gay men “friends of Dorothy” for no reason?
Judy Garland very well might be the original gay icon. As early as 1967, writers would note just how many of Garland’s fans at her live performances were homosexual, as they seemed to gravitate towards her and practically “tear at their hair and practically levitate from their seats” in the audience.
Many believe that the gay community’s love of Judy Garland stems from her personal struggles. An Esquire article from the ’60s read: “Homosexuals tend to identify with suffering. They are a persecuted group and they understand suffering. And so does Garland. She’s been through the fire and lived — all the drinking and divorcing, all the pills and all the men, all the poundage come and gone — brothers and sisters, she knows”
That seems to be a common trait among most of the people on this list. Gay men were able to relate to the struggles they went through, or the sense of otherness, being misunderstood and different from the norm. Garland related to them too. She would frequent gay bars with some of her openly homosexual friends, something that MGM did not like.
Garland’s role in The Wizard of Oz is often linked with her gay icon status as well. Dorothy was accepting of those who were different and cast away by others, like the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow. She saw a whole new world — a world of color, no less — and accepted it for its beauty and accepted the people around her for being different.
There’s also a widely believed theory that the Stonewall Riots — which started the gay rights movement — were because the gay community were already depressed about Judy Garland’s death and chose to fight back. Though Garland did, in fact, die the day before, historians have stated that the first person to make this connection was actually an anti-gay writer who said it in a mocking manner.
It may be a joke, but since Judy Garland was always such a strong supporter of the LGBTQ community even back when it was considered a crime, June will always be both pride month, and the month of both Judy Garland’s birth and death.
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Did we miss any of your favorite gay icons? Let us know in the comments!