OUT Magazine has announced its annual OUT100 list, with four special covers, each featuring actor Jonathan Groff, Chelsea Manning, actress-producer Lena Waithe or designer Shayne Oliver.
The 22nd annual list highlights the year’s most interesting actors, politicians, musicians and activists in the LGBTQ+ community.
Along with Groff, Manning, Waithe, and Oliver, the 2017 list includes the likes of Adam Shankman, Andrew Rannells, Billie Jean King, Colton Haynes, Jill Soloway and “Stranger Things” fan-favourite Shannon Purser.
Talking about the current culture surrounding coming out in Hollywood, “Mindhunter” star Groff said, “I watched the Tab Hunter documentary on Netflix, about the 1950s actor who was gay and closeted and set up on dates with Natalie Wood. I just thought, Wow, I’m a product of my time—it’s 2017 and I can be out and playing these parts. That’s not wasted on me. We’re definitely benefiting a lot from the history and struggle of those who came before us.”
Meanwhile, Manning discussed how serving in the military in Iraq helped her own process of coming out as trans. “I really got to understand that I needed to be myself,” she explained. “I wore women’s clothes in public for the first time and started experimenting with different identities and names as a trans woman.”
Oliver talked to OUT about how being queer sets him apart from his competitors in the fashion world, saying that he embraces his difference: “Queerness has to do with me being different than you and you saying you can handle it.”
Waithe, who was named Artist of the Year by the magazine, also celebrates being different. “The things that make us different, those are our superpowers,” she said. “Every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape… go out there and conquer the world, because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren’t in it.”
Go to OUT Magazine to check out the full OUT100 list.
