Man.... I guess my websites in my 30s really pulled me out of pop culture. I don't ever remember hearing Michael Stipe's official coming out. (Like that's surprising news tough....)

I agree with LavenderLounge Mark that the list reads like a committee project.

I mean.... come on - no Bronski Beat / Jimmy Sommerville? Or what about Marc Almond? My association with "gay pop" for the 1980s was fueled by those guys... but I guess they probably weren't widely known in the US outside of gay disco circles.

On a related note - the other day I ran across some tracks from Soft Cell's Non Stop Erotic Cabaret. I originally picked that LP up in a bargain bin like in 1985 at age fifteen. I played it all through high school. I hadn't really heard it in years (except maybe some 50 millionth Tainted Love remix)

Listening to it the other day, I found it very intriguing to hear all these portents to things I had subsequently become much more familiar with in life --- seedy / sleazy films, nights in smoky bars, frustrations with age, and, of course the "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" torch song.

Steve