Melissa Etheridge, Singer

b. May 29, 1961

“What do they know about this love anyway?”

Melissa Etheridge is a Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer and songwriter. She came out at the 1993 Triangle Ball, the Clinton administration’s inaugural gala for gays and lesbians, when she exclaimed, “Gee, I’m really excited to be here, and I’m really proud to have been a lesbian all my life!” 

She was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, and studied at The Berklee School of Music in Boston. Etheridge moved to Los Angeles and evolved from a bluesy sound to her renowned rock/alternative style.

Etheridge shot to stardom with her trademark blues-rock hit “Come to My Window,” for which she received a Grammy Award in 1994 for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. With its powerful lyrics, the song became an anthem for gay rights. 

In 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she gave one of her most memorable performances with Janis Joplin’s hit, “Piece of My Heart.” She exposed her head, left bald from chemotherapy. 

Etheridge’s songs have not only entertained, but have helped heal in times of tragedy. Her songbook includes “Scarecrow,” a tribute to Matthew Shepard; “Tuesday Morning,” dedicated to the memory of Mark Bingham, a hero of 9/11; “Four Days,” about those devastated by Hurricane Katrina; and “I Run for Life,” an anthem for breast cancer survivors. 

Julie Cypher, Etheridge’s long-term ex-partner, gave birth to their two children. After their breakup, Etheridge exchanged vows with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. In 2006, Michaels had twins.

In 2006, Etheridge received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which honors openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professionals who have made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the community. “I Need to Wake Up,” featured in the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” won an Academy Award for Best Original Song (2007).

Ricky Martin – Pop Star

b.December 24, 1971

Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.
During his career he has sold more than 60 million worldwide.

23 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011

No straight man could ever shake his bon-bon like Ricky Martin could. Despite years denying he was gay, eventually the Latin lovely fessed up and told us what we knew long before he did. In 2008, Ricky became a father to twin boys via a surrogate mum. And that spurred him on to post on his website in 2010 that he was, indeed, gay. “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,” he wrote. “If I’d known how good it was going to feel, I would have done it ten years ago.” His admittance made him a trailblazer as the first multi-million selling Latino artist to come out.

Sia Furler, Australian. Singer/songwriter.

b. 18 December 1975

"I've always been honest if anyone ever asked me. Before I was actually successful I'd always said I've always dated boys and girls and anything in between. I don't care what gender you are, it's about people.

Pop, down tempo, and jazz singer and songwriter. In 2000, her single, "Taken for Granted" was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. Her 2008 album, Some People Have Real Problems peaked in the top 30 on the Billboard 200. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, she won the award for 'Best Music DVD' and received six nominations at the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 and won 'Best Independent Release' and 'Best Pop Release' for We Are Born and 'Best Video' for the song "Clap Your Hands".

In 2008, Furler discussed her bisexuality in interviews with Scotland on Sunday and AfterEllen.com. In June 2010, Furler expressed a wish to marry her then girlfriend JD Samson of electro-punk band Le Tigre. The couple have since broken up.

She was included on a list of gay entertainers in the June–July 2009 issue of The Advocate, and was nominated for the Australian "SameSame25" awards as among the 25 "most influential" gay and lesbian Australians in 2010, 2009

"My name is Sia Furler. I am a unicorn fart. I was born out of the butthole of a unicorn called Steve. Someday I'll die. Between now and then I'm going to keep my shit together and sing my fucking heart out."

Clap Your Hands for our favourite singing star! The mega-successful yet humble Sia had unprecedented success in 2010 as the Adelaide-born songbird returned to Australia to accept ARIAs for her latest tracks.

Based in New York, she's enjoying making key music industry contacts - and can now name-drop with the very best of them - but often says in interviews that she misses Australia and one day hopes settle back down here with her DJ partner JD Samson.

Last year she released her fifth album which includes singles Clap Your Hands, Bring Night and You've Changed. The album, which is noticeably more upbeat than her previous few, was honoured picked up three ARIAs, including Best Pop Release and Best Independent Album.

Sia is currently touring Australia and NZ as part of the Big Day Out line-up.

-SameSame 25, 2010 

Jake Shears, US/UK. Singer, Scissor Sisters

b. October 3, 1978

Jason F. Sellards, aka Jake Shears, is the lead male vocalist for the American music group Scissor Sisters.

Born in Arizona as the son of an entrepreneur father and a Baptist mother, Shears grew up on San Juan Island, north of Seattle. While living on San Juan Island, he attended school at Friday Harbor High School, where he was bullied. At 18, he moved into a dorm at The Northwest School in Seattle and finished high school there.Shears came out to his parents at the urging of Dan Savage, who later called his advice "the worst I've ever given". (In 2010, he participated in Savage's It Gets Better Project.)

At 19, he was introduced to Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy). Shears and Hoffman hit it off immediately and, a year later, both moved to New York. For a while, Shears was a fixture on the New York gay and electroclash scene.

Shears and Hoffman formed the Scissor Sisters in 2001 as a kind of performance art lark, playing outrageous shows in clubs like Luxx, the heart of the electroclash scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Shears lived. After a couple years struggling in New York (working with record label A Touch of Class, who produced "Comfortably Numb" and "Filthy/Gorgeous"), the Sisters finally found success in the UK and Ireland—ending 2004 with the biggest-selling album of the year in the UK.

He was listed at number 45 on the DS list of "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011:

Flamboyant, talented and a dab hand with a sequined costume wouldn’t even begin to do him justice. The Scissor Sisters front man came out to his parents as a teenager and has never looked back. Although the band’s hits may have dried up in recent years, his determination not to shy away from challenging his audience hasn’t. Take the artwork for their last album Night Work, for example, which featured the clenched buttocks of a male ballet dancer. “I had to fight like hell for that picture,” he says. “I had one of the guys from my record company call me up and tell me it was going to be one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made in my whole career. I just thought if it was going to pose any challenges for us, then those are challenges we can transcend.”

Kristen Chenoweth on being a Christian and a gay rights supporter - PinkNews.co.uk

Kristen Chenoweth says she is a liberal Christian

"US singer and actress Kristen Chenoweth has described how she balances her Christian faith with support for gay rights.

The West Wing and Wicked star has been praised for supporting equality and last year, defended her Promises, Promises co-star Sean Hayes after an article said he couldn’t play a straight man.

She told The Advocate: “I read my Bible and I pray and all of that – I really do. But at the same time, I don’t think being gay is a sin. Period"
- PinkNews.co.uk

Melissa Etheridge, Singer and songwriter

b. May 29, 1961

“What do they know about this love anyway?”

Melissa Etheridge is a Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer and songwriter. She came out at the 1993 Triangle Ball, the Clinton administration’s inaugural gala for gays and lesbians, when she exclaimed, “Gee, I’m really excited to be here, and I’m really proud to have been a lesbian all my life!” 

She was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, and studied at The Berklee School of Music in Boston. Etheridge moved to Los Angeles and evolved from a bluesy sound to her renowned rock/alternative style.

Etheridge shot to stardom with her trademark blues-rock hit “Come to My Window,” for which she received a Grammy Award in 1994 for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. With its powerful lyrics, the song became an anthem for gay rights. 

In 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she gave one of her most memorable performances with Janis Joplin’s hit, “Piece of My Heart.” She exposed her head, left bald from chemotherapy. 

Etheridge’s songs have not only entertained, but have helped heal in times of tragedy. Her songbook includes “Scarecrow,” a tribute to Matthew Shepard; “Tuesday Morning,” dedicated to the memory of Mark Bingham, a hero of 9/11; “Four Days,” about those devastated by Hurricane Katrina; and “I Run for Life,” an anthem for breast cancer survivors. 

Julie Cypher, Etheridge’s long-term ex-partner, gave birth to their two children. After their breakup, Etheridge exchanged vows with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. In 2006, Michaels had twins.

In 2006, Etheridge received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which honors openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professionals who have made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the community. “I Need to Wake Up,” featured in the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” won an Academy Award for Best Original Song (2007).