Publisher's Synopsis
100 of the Most Influential Gay Entertainers is a creative nonfiction book featuring the Nation's most influential entertainers in the GLBTQI (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, inter-sexed) communities across the United States. Read the true life stories of your favorite entertainers as they provide intimate details of their early childhood, the discovery of their individualism, their challenges and achievements, and their disappointments and accomplishments. Read the stories of injustice on every level of inhumanity imagined, beginning with a society whose lack of knowledge and understanding set out to discourage and disband a culture of people by putting into place dehumanizing rules and laws such as requiring entertainers to wear at least one piece of men's clothing under t heir drag attire or risk being arrested, laws requiring drag entertainers to purchase a license in order to perform, and the law against walking the street in drag attire; read about police trickery, abuse of power and physical abuse during raids at local entertainment venues and apartments shared by entertainers. Also read how an entire congregation of parishioners tried to force the hand of their pastor to throw h is own son out of the church, and the story of an entertainer whose family has disowned her for over twenty-five years because of her sexual preference. Most importantly, read how these entertainers have not only excelled in their crafts as female impersonators, male lead entertainers and female-to-male illusionists, but also as productive, educated citizens in mainstream society as celebrity look-alikes, successful business owners, accomplished singers and musicians, television personalities, professional choreographers, managers, models, and actors. Reformatted and re-edited with new and updated photos and other personal information that includes a brief autobiography of the author.
