Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell has campaigned for sexual freedom and human rights since 1969. His activism mirrors almost exactly the whole history of the modern, post-Stonewall Riot gay liberation movement.
Throughout more than 30 years of political activism and writing, he has helped develop new analyses and theories of queer emancipation, and contributed to changing public opinion and overturning homophobic discrimination.
Thought-provoking and unafraid to ask awkward questions, he is the author of six books and over 3,000 published articles, many of which have presented heretical, innovative ideas on issues of sexuality and sexual human rights.
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Lord Waheed Alli
Waheed Alli is a businessman and politician. He has achieved prominence in the television industry and was a director of Planet 24 and Carlton.
He was made a life peer in 1998 and sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords. He is the first openly gay member of the Lords and one of very few openly gay Muslims in public life anywhere in the world.
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CBE, (born May 25, 1939) is a highly acclaimed stage and screen actor, the recipient of a Tony Award and two Oscar nominations.
Best known for his roles as Gandalf in the 2001-2003 Lord of the Rings film trilogy, as Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code, and as Magneto in the X-Men series of movies, his work has spanned genres from serious Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction movies. He is also known as an activist for the rights of the LGBT community.
He was made a CBE in 1979 and knighted in 1990 for his outstanding work and contributions to the theatre.
Clare Summerskill
Clare Summerskill is a lesbian comedienne who has performed on the comedy circuit in England for many years. Most years she tours her own one woman comedy shows to theatres and she also has her own theatre company which performs plays for lesbians and gay men, the last of these being a production called "Gateway To Heaven" which was scripted entirely from the memories of older lesbians and gay men. This play has now been filmed by the charity Age Concern and made into a training film for that organisation who are using it to educate those who work with the elderly about the very rich and colourful history that is specific to the lesbian and gay community.
Clare has been described by Radio Four Woman's Hour as "A Lesbian Victoria Wood" and has appeared on television on The Richard and Judy Show on Channel Four.
"One of the funniest women in the country" What's On
"Unorthodox and Uninhibited!" Independent
Paul O’Grady
Paul James O'Grady is a comedian and television personality. He is the creator of comic drag character Lily Savage, a vampish Birkenhead woman. He is noted for his strong Scouse accent.
O'Grady is openly gay, his long term lover and business partner of 20 years was Irishman Brendan Murphy, who died of cancer in 2005, five days before Paul's fiftieth birthday. After the first show of series three of The Paul O'Grady Show there was a tribute to him. Born in Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, O'Grady was brought up in Tranmere.
In 1977, Paul went to Manila where he worked as a waiter in Gussy's Bar (also a brothel). It was here he got the idea for Lily Savage, his now infamous drag alter-ego. He returned to London in the early 1980s and subsequently achieved fame with his creation of Lily, initially playing to gay clubs and pubs up and down the country. Lily was best known at the time for her eight year residency at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London.
In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2006 he was listed in The Guardian as one of the most powerful men in media.