In Out Magazine yearly portfolio, they capture the year’s most entertaining, heroic, and compelling people, from all walks of life—including professional athletes, trans pioneers, actors, activists, designers, journalists, emerging musicians, artists, and dancers.
For their special 20th anniversary OUT100, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” all of the subjects reference pivotal moments in LGBT history.
Here is a selection of our favourite ladies.
Ellen Page: Actress
On coming out Ellen Page says,
“You just feel different in the world. Once you’ve done something that you used to think was impossible, what could ever really scare you again? Even now, press is more enjoyable because I don’t have to have certain conversations. For instance, I’m never going to have to have a conversation about a dress, or heels, ever again.”
Angel Haze: Rapper
The rap artist Angel Haze, who identifies as pansexual and eschews gender pronouns in her music, exhibits an insatiable thirst for authenticity and a take-no-prisoners attitude, making her rapid-fire rhymes all the more compelling.
“This year has been remarkable because I have been finding myself. It feels good.”
Evan Rachel Wood: Actress
The year, two-time Golden Globe nominee Evan Rachel Wood has been increasingly vocal about the things she’s passionate about – including the importance of coming out.
Samira Wiley: Actress
On coming out Samira Wiley says,
“I remember it so vividly. There was this girl who went to my school, and she did a Nikki Giovanni poem, ‘Ego Tripping,’ and it was just different from everyone else’s. It wasn’t flat recitation. It had an energy and a life to it. And it made me sit up in my seat, and my eyes got wide, and I really felt inside myself, She’s making me feel things. I want to do that.”
Ariel Schrag: Writer, Illustrator
You may know Ariel Schrag from her graphic memoirs, each detailing a year in her life at Berkeley High School in excruciating, heartfelt detail. But this year she channeled all of that awkward energy into her first novel, Adam.
Lena Waithe: Comedian
This year, Lena Waithe turned 30; took the first film she ever produced, Dear White People, to Sundance; sold a pilot to BET based on her Web series Twenties; and was named one of Variety’s 10 Comedians to Watch.
“But the coolest thing I did was fall in love with an amazing woman. That put all the other things into perspective.”
Lisa Kron: Playwright And Actress
This year, while performing in a wacky production of Bertolt Brecht’s Good Person of Szechwan, Kron also served as the book writer and lyricist for the musical adaptation of Fun Home, based on Alison Bechdel’s modern classic, a graphic memoir about her own coming out and her father’s complicated life and death.
Source: Out Magazine – Photography by JUCO | Retouching by Anna Glen at Wet Noodle.
