loading . . . FFRF salutes Pride Month and famous LGBTQ+ freethinkers ďżź
In honor of Pride Month, FFRF is publishing highlights about some of the many distinguished LGBTQ+ individuals, past and present, who have made known their dissent from religion. For more information, see FFRFâs Freethought of the Day series. Compiled by Sarah Weinstock and Bill Dunn.
JANE ADDAMS
ďżźJane Addams was an American philanthropist and co-founder of the Hull House,  a space for âsocial settlementâ for immigrants and working-class Americans. After 120 years of operation,  it closed its doors in 2012. Addams was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for her  peace activism. She had a 40-year relationship with Mary Rozet Smith. Smith spent her life helping with work at the Hull House, becoming a benefactor and supporter. Smith suddenly died of pneumonia in 1934, and Addams died 13 months later.
âA wise man has told us that âmen are once for all so made that they prefer a rational world to believe in and live in.ââ
â Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (1912).
JAMES BALDWIN
ďżźAuthor James Baldwinâs experiences living as a disenfranchised, Black, gay man in a country that largely shunned these characteristics inspired many of his great novels and essays. Baldwin was a leading voice for the civil rights movement. As an out gay man in the 1950s, Baldwin wrote his book Giovanniâs Room, which focused on his experience of being Black and a homosexual. His writings are considered one of the most influential pieces on Black and LGBTQ-plus activism and communities.
âIf the concept of God has any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him.â
â Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963).â¨(James Baldwin: Allan Warren / CC 3.0 )
JOSH BARRO
ďżźJosh Barro is an American journalist focusing his work on American politics. Buzzfeed News in 2013 quoted aides to President Obama saying that Josh Barro, although a registered Republican at the time, was his favorite columnist. Barro has been openly out since high school and is outspoken against anti-LGBTQ hate speech. He met his husband Zachary Allen, a former Democratic National Committee official and Obama alumnus, in 2013 at a Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, and they married in 2017.
âMentioning that I am an atheist seems to have led to a bunch of email trying to convince me of the existence of God.â
â Barro tweet (Dec. 28, 2013).
BILL BLASS
ďżźAmerican fashion designer Bill Blass was openly gay, but notoriously private about his personal life. He was early to contribute to Gay Menâs Health Crisis (GMHC) and other AIDS care centers during the AIDS crisis. Fashion writer Bernadine Morris wrote in a New York magazine piece (July 8, 2002): âYou could never tell he was gay, because although he had good manners, he was not effete, and if he ever had lovers, it wasnât anything anyone knew about.â
Bill Blass: I have a firm belief in such things as, you know, the water, the Earth, the trees and sky. And Iâm wondering, it is increasingly difficult to find those elements in nature, because itâs nature I believe in rather than some spiritual thing.
SF Weekly: Youâre not a religious man?
BB: No. And I do suppose that science has taken, to a large extent and for a number of people, has taken the place of religion.
SFW: What do you mean by that?
BB: That one can have more belief in scientific cures or scientific miracles than you do in God miracles. Itâs inevitable that we will eventually diffuse into nothingness.
â Interview, SF Weekly (Sept. 1, 1999).
ROSA BONHEUR
ďżźRosa Bonheur is recognized as the 19th centuryâs most famous female painter, best known for her realistic interpretations of animals. Bonheur was able to obtain a âcross-dressing permitâ in 19th-century France. This permit allowed her to wear menâs clothing without fear of legal persecution. She had two female partners, Nathalie Micas and Anna Klumpke. She was with Micas for 40 years. The American portraitist Anna Klumpke came into her life after Micas died. Bonheur viewed womanhood as superior to anything a man could offer or experience and said the only males she had time for were the bulls she painted.â¨â¨âYet, though I make this concession as to my body, my philosophical belief remains unalterable.â
â Bonheur agreeing to a church funeral so she could be buried with Nathalie Micas, Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur, ed. Theodore Stanton (1910).
TRUMAN CAPOTE
ďżźTruman Capote, a literary star, was most notably known for two of his novels adapted into movies, Breakfast at Tiffanyâs (1958) and In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was openly gay and had a long-term relationship with writer and playwright Jack Dunphy.
âI belong to no churches and am not a âBelieverâ in any formal sense.â
â Capote letter to death row inmate Perry Smith, whose crime he documented in In Cold Blood (Jan. 25, 1965).
AARON COPLAND
ďżźAmerican composer Aaron Copland wrote many ballets, chamber music, vocal works, operas and film scores. Copland, who never married, was gay but not outspoken about his relationships. He had several relationships with other male artists. Copland lived and died at age 90 in 1990 as a nonbeliever and specified that his funeral service, if any, be ânonreligious.â
âHowever, in adult life, although retaining strong memories of the music he heard in the synagogue and at Jewish weddings, Copland evidenced little direct connection with Judaism or Jewish culture. He was neither religious nor observant.â
â From âCopland and the Prophetic Voiceâ by Howard Pollack in Aaron Copland and His World (2005).
RUSSELL T. DAVIES
ďżźRussell T. Davies is a Welsh television writer and creator of the British television show âQueer as Folk.â An out gay and atheist, Davies often inserts atheist and homosexual themes into his work. âThe only way I can write â whether thatâs good or bad â is to put my worldview into everything. I have to challenge that worldview from time to time, but in terms of the atheism of the show, I find that very powerful.â (The Boston Phoenix, July 24, 2009) He frequently depicts religion as nonexistent or very different in the future. He was the showrunner for âDoctor Whoâ from 2005 to 2010 and from 2021 onward. Davies finished a few years ago a television show depicting the AIDS crisis in London in the 1980s called âItâs a Sin.â
âYes, Iâm deeply atheist. If they havenât reached that point by the Year Five Billion, then I give up! When did the Doctor do that speech about believing in things that are invisible? Itâs Episode 5, isnât it? Thatâs another bit of atheism chucked in. Thatâs what I believe, so thatâs what youâre going to get.â
â Davies interview, Doctor Who magazine (Sept. 14, 2005).
SIMONE DE BEAUVIOR
ďżźSimone de Beauvoir is the writer of the 1949 The Second Sex, a fundamental book of the feminist movement. Born in France, Beauvoir was raised Catholic and was devout until the age of 14, when she had a crisis of faith that ended with her concluding that there was no God. Beauvoir was bisexual, had a long-term open relationship with atheist Jean-Paul Sartre, and had multiple relationships with various women.
âMan enjoys the great advantage of having a God endorse the codes he writes; and since man exercises a sovereign authority over woman, it is especially fortunate that this authority has been vested in him by the Supreme Being. For the Jews, Mohammedans and the Christians, among others, man is master by divine right; the fear of God, therefore, will repress any impulse toward revolt in the downtrodden female.â
â De Beauvoir, âSituation and Character,â The Second Sex (1949, translated and edited by H.M. Parshley, 1953).
MARLENE DIETRICH
ďżźMarlene Dietrich was a German-born actress and entertainer. She is remembered in part for her gender-bending style. Dietrich was bisexual and penned the name âSewing Circleâ for the group of Hollywood actresses who were either bisexual or lesbian. In the 1930 film âMorocco,â Dietrich, dressed in a tuxedo, shares the first lesbian kiss on film with Juliette Compton.
âI lost my faith during the war and canât believe they are all up there, flying around or sitting at tables, all those Iâve lost.â
â Dietrich, quoted in Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend by Steven Bach (2011).
BARRY DUKE
ďżźJournalist/editor and gay rights activist Barry Duke was born in Johannesburg, and from an early age showed âa strong antipathy toward religion, especially the Calvinist form of Christianity that was used to justify South Africaâs horrific persecution of people of color during the apartheid era,â as Duke commented in 2022. Dukeâs left-leaning, anti-apartheid activism and censorship battles led to him being declared a âdangerous undesirable.â Alerted that an arrest warrant was being issued, he left South Africa in 1973 for the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum. An outspoken atheist, he joined the National Secular Society and was a co-founder in 1979 of the Gay Humanist Group, which changed its name to the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in 1987.
âSince [1950s John Birch Society claims], War on Christmas reports have simply become a silly festive season tradition, generating more mirth than fury. All are intended to reinforce the belief of Christian fundamentalists that they really are being persecuted by a coalition of atheists, secularists, freethinkers, abortionists â and those who identify as LGBTQ. Seriously!â
â Duke, âAnd so it begins ⌠the âwarâ on Christmas 2021â (The Freethinker, Nov. 25, 2021).
HARVEY FIERSTEIN
ďżźHarvey Fierstein is a Tony Award-winning actor, playwright, comedian and a leading LGBT who has consistently made his views on religion known. He perceives himself as Jewish but does not believe in God. His plays have focused on queer themes, and his âLa Cage aux Follesâ has been adapted into a movie twice, most recently named âBirdcage,â starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. Fierstein often incorporates drag into his shows and performs in female drag, most notably as Edna Turnblad in the 2003 production of âHairspray.â Fierstein has recently rewritten âFunny Girlâ for its 2022 revival.
In a 2022 People magazine interview, Fierstein stated, âIâm still confused as to whether Iâm a man or a woman,â and said that as a child he often wondered if heâd been born in the wrong body. âWhen I was a kid, I was attracted to men. I didnât feel like a boy was supposed to feel. Then I found out about gay. So that was enough for me for then.â
âWe are lucky enough to be living in a country that not only guarantees the freedom to practice religion as we see fit, but also freedom FROM religious zealots who would persecute and prosecute and even physically harm those of us who do not believe as they do. ⌠Predicating patriotism on a citizenâs belief in God is as anti-American as judging him on the color of his skin. It is wrong. It is useless. It is unconstitutional.â
â Fierstein, âIn the Lifeâ broadcast by Generation Q (November 2004).â¨â¨E.M. FORSTER
ďżźEnglish author E.M. Forsterâs most well-known novels are A Room With a View (1908), Howards End (1910), Maurice (1913-14) and A Passage to India (1924). Forster called himself a humanist and was president of the Cambridge Humanists from 1959 to his death. Forster was 16 when Oscar Wilde was jailed for homosexuality, making him cautious of projecting his own homosexuality. Nonetheless, Forster had a long relationship with Robert Buckingham, whom he was with until he died.
âI do not believe in Belief⌠There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.â
â Forsterâs essay âWhat I Believe,â The Nation magazine (July 21, 1938).
JODIE FOSTER
ďżźJodie Foster is an Academy Award-winning actress best known for breakthrough roles in âSilence of the Lambsâ and âTaxi Driver.â Foster is a lesbian. When winning  and accepting the Golden Globe in 2021 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in âThe Mauritanian,â she publicly kissed her wife, Alexandra Hedison.
âI absolutely believe what Ellie [the atheist astronomer in the movie âContactâ] believes â that there is no direct evidence, so how could you ask me to believe in God when thereâs absolutely no evidence that I can see? I do believe in the beauty and the awe-inspiring mystery of the science thatâs out there that we havenât discovered yet, that there are scientific explanations for phenomena that we call mystical because we donât know any better.â
â Foster, interview with The Georgia Straight weekly (July 10, 1997).â¨(Jodie Foster: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock)
FREDERICK THE GREAT
ďżźWhen Frederick ascended the Prussian throne in 1740, he instituted many domestic reforms, including the promotion of education and the arts, improved infrastructure, the creation of new industries and, while he was largely irreligious, the enforcement of universal religious toleration. He married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern in 1733, an arranged union. Frederick and Elisabeth saw little of each other during his reign but remained married until his death. He was widely believed to have been gay and there are multiple accounts of him trying to run away with lovers before he ascended to the throne.
âTheologians are all alike, of whatever religion or country they may be. Their aim is always to wield despotic authority of menâs consciences. They therefore persecute all of us who have the temerity to unveil the truth.â
â Frederick the Great, letter to Voltaire (Nov. 4, 1736).
STEPHEN FRY
ďżźBritish actor Stephen Fry has been openly gay for his entire professional life and advocates for gay rights. Fry depicted Oscar Wilde in the movie âWildeâ(1997). Fry married his husband, Eliott Spencer, in 2015.
âI love how when people watch I donât know, David Attenborough or Discovery Planet type thing you know where you see the absolute phenomenal majesty and complexity and bewildering beauty of nature and you stare at it and then ⌠somebody next to you goes, âAnd how can you say there is no God? Look at that.â And then five minutes later youâre looking at the lifecycle of a parasitic worm whose job is to bury itself in the eyeball of a little lamb and eat the eyeball from inside while the lamb dies in horrible agony and then you turn to them and say, âYeah, where is your God now?â â
â Fry, bigthink.com interview (Dec. 17, 2009).
GRETA GARBO
ďżźFamously private Swedish actress Greta Garbo is described by her biographer as bisexual; however, she was primarily lesbian and probably asexual. Garbo was a part of what Marlene Dietrich called the âSewing Circle,â which consisted of Hollywood actresses having relationships with each other.
âI would like to believe in a life after death, but the different religions have each got their own different solution. In America people go to church a lot, but I donât know if theyâre any more religious for all that. I know that there are many people who are convinced of life after death, but I havenât been given the capacity for belief.â
â Garbo comments to journalist and biographer Sven Broman on one of their walks, Garbo on Garbo (1991).
ROXANE GAY
ďżźRoxane Gay is a New York Times bestselling author. Gayâs work concerns racial issues and feminism. In 2011, she published Ayiti, a short story collection. In 2014, she published the novel An Untamed State and the New York Times bestseller Bad Feminist, a collection of essays about feminism, race, gender, and pop culture. Time Magazine declared 2014 âthe Year of Roxane Gay.â She is a nationally ranked Scrabble player and a professor of English at Purdue University. Although Gay describes her younger self as âa good girl who went to church,â she no longer believes in God. Gay is openly bi and in 2019 announced her engagement to Debbie Millman.â¨â¨âI try to understand faith and religion. I was raised by wonderful Catholic parents who were deeply faithful and taught us that God is a God of love. Even though I am lapsed, I respect that others turn to God and religion for guidance, for solace, for salvation. What I cannot respect is when that faith dictates how others should live their lives. I cannot respect when such faith tells some people that their lives are unworthy of dignity.â
â Gay, quoted in The Guardian, âIndiana is not protecting religious freedom but outright zealotryâ (March 27, 2015).
GEORGE HAHN
ďżźMedia personality George Hahn decided to come out while he was enrolled in Boston College, a Jesuit University. âI was a classic Catholic closet case, tightly wrapped in fear, guilt and shame. If anything or anyone came close to exposing me and my proclivity, Iâd do what many do: run and shun.â (Blog, April 29, 2020) Currently, he uses his media platforms to criticize abuse of power in the name of religion.
âCan we get back to the fight against religious psychos who think itâs appropriate to impose their will and their reign of terror onto women?â
â Hahn tweet after a SCOTUS draft opinion on abortion was leaked (May 4, 2022).
MEGAN HUNT
ďżźMegan Hunt is a political activist and entrepreneur, currently serving as a state senator in Nebraska in her second elected term. Hunt broke barriers as the first âoutâ LGBTQ-plus state senator, as a single working parent and as an atheist. She was among the key opponents of a bill to give full tax credit on donations to private school scholarships, citing the number of religious schools that would benefit, including schools that discriminate against LGBTQ-plus youth. She was the 2022 recipient of an FFRF Champion of the First Amendment award, which she accepted at its national convention in San Antonio.
âIâve never been a person of faith, so it wasnât a big deal for me to just be who I am.â
â Hunt, commenting on FFRFâs âAsk an Atheistâ about making her nonbelief public (May 4, 2022)
ELTON JOHN
ďżźOne of the most recognizable names in the music industry, Elton John is also a notable face in the queer community. His homosexuality drew him to denouncing religion: âReligion has always tried to turn hatred toward gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.â (Observer Monthly magazine, November 2006.) He was knighted in 1998 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to music and fundraising for AIDS.
âFrom my point of view, I would ban religion completely. The reality is that organized religion doesnât seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and itâs not really compassionate.â
â John, Observer Music Monthly interview (November 2006).
ANGELINA JOLIE
ďżźAngelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning American actress, screenwriter, and director. Jolie has been open about her bisexuality. Famously married to Brad Pitt, now divorced, she has had relationships with women. In an interview on â20/20â (July 11, 2003), Barbara Walters asked Jolie if she was bisexual, and she answered, âIâm a very sexual person who loves who she loves, whatever sex they may be.â In an interview for her movie âMaleficent Mistress of Evil,â she admitted to having a teen crush on Michelle Pfeiffer.
âFor the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesnât need to be a God for me.â
â Jolie, responding to the question âIs there a God?â The Onion A.V. Club (Sept. 6, 2000).
BILL T. JONES
ďżźBill T. Jones is a renowned American choreographer. His major work, âStill/Hereâ (1950), incorporates terminally ill dancers, including AIDS and HIV-positive performers. It is one of his most controversial pieces of work. In an interview with Jeffrey Brown (Oct. 8, 2021) for âNews Hourâ on PBS, he told Brown, âIâm an atheist.â Jones is married to designer and creative director Bjorn Amelan.
âI am a humanist, as all Christians are supposed to be. For me, the bottom line is commonality. It is the only thing I accept. I donât even know if a soul exists. But I do know there is a condition called humanity that we are a part of, with wonderful potential for good and evil. I believe in limited free will. God? I believe there is an intelligence in the universe, but I donât believe in absolute morality, in sin.â
â Jones interview, Los Angeles Times (March 10, 1991).
FRIDA KAHLO
ďżźFrida Kahlo is a famous Mexican painter and is a well-known name in the LGBTQ-plus community. Kahlo was bisexual and open about her sexuality and atheist beliefs. While once married to a man, Diego Rivera, she had multiple relationships with women, including Dolores del Rio, Paulette Goddard, Josephine Baker and others.
 âI hope the exit is joyful â and I hope never to return.â
â Kahlo diary entry a few days before her death.
TONY KUSHNER
ďżźTony Kushner is a playwright, author, and screenwriter whose recent work includes writing the 2020 version of âWest Side Story.â His play Angels in America (1991-1992) metaphorically depicts the American AIDS crisis and homosexuality. Kushner had a commitment ceremony with his partner Mark Harris, an editor for Entertainment Weekly, in 2003, and the couple officially married in 2008.
âI wrote the play in part out of my feeling as an agnostic. Huge questions about God emerge whenever a crisis the size of the AIDS epidemic or I think the political crisis of Reaganism appear on the scene. One begins to ask questions about the benevolence or presence of any kind of consciousness in the universe. I asked those questions â I was thinking a lot about death, I was thinking a lot about my own mortality, I was thinking a lot about justice and whether or not the world would resume what seemed to me a serious hampered progress towards something like social justice with someone like Reagan in the White House.â
â Kushner in an interview on his play âAngels in Americaâ (NPR, Dec. 9, 2003).Â
JACK LAWRENCE
ďżźBrooklyn-born American songwriter Jack Lawrence wrote some of the most popular songs of his time, working with singers like Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin. Psychologist and social worker Walter Myden was his longtime partner. After Myden died, Lawrence met Richard Debnam, a former Broadway dancer and Ice Follies performer. In 1979, in his mid-60s, he adopted Debnam, 20 years his junior. Before same-sex marriage became legal, it was not uncommon for gay couples to pursue adoption as legal protection for inheritance and other purposes.
âWhen I am asked what religion I am, I donât hesitate to answer. I donât believe in religion.â
â They All Sang My Songs (2004).
FRAN LEBOWITZ
ďżźFran Lebowitz is a political liberal author, public speaker, and lesbian. She states she has been an atheist since she was seven years old. Lebowitz once told an interviewer. âMy Jewish identity is ethnic or cultural or whatever people call it now. But itâs not religious.â (New Jersey Jewish News, Jan. 27, 2016)
âIâve been an atheist since I was about 7 years old.â
âHaaretz interview (Oct. 6, 2011).
AMY LOWELL
ďżźAmy Lowell was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet who was more open about her sexuality in her life than in her poetry. She was in a âBoston marriage,â which historically refers to a lesbian or other relationship in which two women live together and are self-sufficient from any male influence. Lowell met her partner Ada Dwyer in 1912 and was with her for the rest of her life.
And every year when the fields are highâ¨With oat grass, and red top, and timothy,â¨I know that a creed is the shell of a lie.
â Lowellâs poem âEvelyn Rayâ from Whatâs OâClock (1925).
JANE LYNCH
ďżźShe is best known for portraying Sue Sylvester in the television series âGlee.â She is an out lesbian and an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ-plus rights. She made a video for the âIt Gets Betterâ campaign and performed in a play titled â8,â which focused on marriage equality and Californiaâs anti-gay Proposition 8. She is active in several organizations that promote equality for people of all sexual orientations. She was recently in the revival of Broadway âFunny Girl,â playing Mrs. Brice. Lynch advocated for state/church separation in a humorous song performed with Jordan Peele and produced by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.â¨â¨âYes. They say you die just a little bit when you sneeze. And Iâm kind of an atheist, but yet I will say that just in case.â
â Lynch in response to a TMZ reporter asking her âIs it still necessary to say God bless you when someone sneezes?â (May 28, 2013).
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
ďżźW. Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright of works like Of Human Bondage. Maugham was bisexual and married to a woman, but after his divorce, he lived with men for the rest of his life. âTried to persuade myself that I was three-quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer â whereas really it was the other way around,â he remarked.
âI do not believe in God. I see no need of such idea. It is incredible to me that there should be an after-life. I find the notion of future punishment outrageous and of future reward extravagant. I am convinced that when I die, I shall cease entirely to live; I shall return to the earth I came from.â
â Maugham, A Writerâs Notebook (1949).
SIR IAN MCKELLEN
￟English actor Sir Ian McKellen is open about atheism but does not often speak on the subject. He came out publicly as a gay man in 1988, and was a founding member of the UK LGBT advocacy group, Stonewall, to advocate against discriminatory legislation. McKellen was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, and was knighted in 1991 for his contributions to the theater. In 2008, he was made a Companion of Honor for his services to drama and equality.
Matt Lauer: There have been calls from some religious groups. They wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because, again, one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear. ⌠How would you all have felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie?
Ian McKellen: Well, Iâve often thought the bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that itâs true, not that itâs factual, but that itâs a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after theyâve seen it.
â McKellen interview on âThe Today Showâ about âThe Da Vinci Codeâ (May 17, 2006).
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
ďżźAlexander McQueen was an English fashion designer and winner of several âBest British Designerâ awards. Among his famous clients were David Bowie and Kate Winslet, for whom he designed her iconic âTitanicâ dress. In 2000, he had a marriage ceremony with his partner George Forsyth, a documentary filmmaker. He died in 2010.â¨â¨âIâm an atheist and an anti-royalist, so why would I put anyone on a pedestal?â
â McQueen, 1996 interview, Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters with David Bowie,âed. Sean Egan (2015).
HARVEY MILK
￟Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay man to hold public office in California. During the peak of his political career, Milk supported anti-discrimination bills, established day care centers for working mothers, and converted military facilities into low-cost housing. Milk spoke out on state and national issues for LGBTQ-plus people, women, racial and ethnic minorities, and other marginalized communities. Milk was assassinated in 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by former city supervisor Dan White, a rabid opponent of gay rights.
âAbout six months ago, Anita Bryant in her speaking to God said that the drought in California was because of the gay people. On Nov. 9, the day after I got elected, it started to rain. On the day I got sworn in, we walked to City Hall and it was kinda nice, and as soon as I said âI do,â it started to rain again. Itâs been raining since then and the people of San Francisco figure the only way to stop it is to do a recall petition.â
â Milk keynote speech in San Diego to the Gay Caucus of the California Democratic Council (March 10, 1978).
TIG NOTARO
ďżźTig Notaro is an openly gay American comedian. The 2015 Netflix movie âTigâ chronicled her attempts to become pregnant with her fiancĂŠe Stephanie Allynne, an actress and comedian. They married in 2016 and that year they welcomed twin sons.
âMy biggest problem with people who talk about God and prayers is how confident they are about how it all works out until it doesnât work out. This kind of willful blindness astounds me. If something is a miracle when it works, then when it doesnât work that should not just be ignored; it should be questioned.â
â From Notaroâs memoir Iâm Just a Person (2016).
DIANA NYAD
ďżźDiana Nyad, a record-breaking long distance swimmer, is now a multilingual motivational speaker who was honored by the International Swimming Hall of Fame and National Womenâs Sports Hall of Fame. She is âoutâ about her long-term relationship with a woman.
âIâm not a god person. ⌠Iâm an atheist whoâs in awe.â
â Nyad on âThe Oprah Winfrey Showâ (Oct. 13, 2013).
COLE PORTER
ďżźThe American composer, socialite and gay man was famously married to a woman, Linda Porter, for what they both considered social convenience. He considered his art a religion. And when asked by a clerk what religion he was, he replied, âPut down none.â
âAlthough later in life Cole briefly considered embracing religion, he was never a believer, and his several comments about his motherâs attachments to Peru [Indiana] churches were dismissive.â
â Porter biographer William McBrien, Cole Porter (1998).
PAULA POUNDSTONE
ďżźPaula Poundstone is an American stand-up comedian, author and actor. She identifies as asexual. She told EDGE online (Aug. 21, 2013) that sheâs asexual: âI donât like sex. Therefore, I donât have sex. It frees up time, but thatâs not by design, itâs just a bonus.â
âIâm an atheist. The good news about atheists is that we have no mandate to convert anyone. So youâll never find me on your doorstep on a Saturday morning with a big smile, saying, âJust stopped by to tell you there is no word. I brought along this little blank book I was hoping you could take a look at.ââ
â Poundstone, Thereâs Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say (2006).
JAMES RANDI
ďżźâThe Amazingâ James Randi was a magician and escape artist who investigated and exposed claims of the paranormal. He had come out as gay at age 81 in 2010, announcing: âThis declaration of mine was prompted just last week by seeing an excellent film â starring Sean Penn â that told the story of politician Harvey Milk. ⌠Iâm in excellent company: Barney Frank, Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachel Maddow, are just a few of those who were in my thoughts as I pressed the key that placed this on Swift and before the whole world.â He died in 2020 at age 92.
â[T]here are two sorts of atheists. One sort claims that there is no deity; the other claims that there is no evidence that proves the existence of a deity. I belong to the latter group, because if I were to claim that no god exists, I would have to produce evidence to establish that claim, and I cannot.â
â Randi, newsletter at randi.org (Aug. 5, 2005).
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
ďżźEleanor Roosevelt was the wife of the 32nd president Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and niece of the 26th president Theodore Roosevelt. As First Lady from 1933-45, she revolutionized the position and threw herself into reforms, including championing social justice. As an author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she supported freedom of conscience: âEveryone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief.â The United Nations adopted the declaration in 1948. In the 2016 book Eleanor and Hicks: The Love Affair That Shaped the First Lady, Susan Quinn depicts her romantic relationship and friendship with journalist Lorena Hickock.
âThe bible illustrated by Dore occupied many of my hours â and I think probably gave me many nightmares.â
â Roosevelt, This Is My Story (1937).
JANE RULE
ďżźJane Rule was an American author whose first novel, Desert of the Heart, was turned into the 1984 movie âDesert Hearts.â While teaching at Concord Academy in Massachusetts, she fell in love with Helen Sonthoff, a creative writing instructor who was married to Herbert Sonthoff. Rule moved to Vancouver in 1956, and taught intermittently at the University of British Columbia until 1976. At age 40, Sonthoff came to Vancouver to visit Rule, then 25, and they resumed their intimate relationship. They lived as a couple until Sonthoff died in 2000.
âIâm a nonbeliever. I donât believe in the existence of a God. I donât believe in the Christian dogma. I find it horrifyingly silly. The intolerance that flows from organized religion is the most dangerous thing on the planet.â
â Rule, Brave Souls: Writers and Artists Wrestle with God, Love, Death and the Things That Matter by Douglas Todd (1996).
AMY SCHNEIDER
ďżźâJeopardy!â champion Amy Schneider is the first transgender contestant in âJeopardy!â history to make the Tournament of Champions and the highest-winning woman ($1,382,800). Schneider grew up watching the show with her devout Catholic parents. She participated in theater in high school before majoring in civil engineering and computer science at the University of Dayton on her way to becoming a software engineer.
âMs. Schneider describes herself as an atheist who doesnât believe in the occult or the supernatural but, as she said, âItâs not a queer meet cute if thereâs not tarot.â â
â Interviewer Shane OâNeill, explaining âThe Starâ tarot card on a necklace Schneider was wearing that her girlfriend gave her. (New York Times, Jan. 26, 2022).
DAN SAVAGE
ďżźDan Savage is a gay rights activist and writer famous for his sex advice column âSavage Love,â which is syndicated in more than 70 publications. He is also known and respected for his longtime advocacy for LGBTQ-plus rights. He drew media attention in 2012 when he gave a talk to high school students and encouraged them to âignore the bullshit in the bible about gay people.â In 2010, he and his husband Terry Miller started the âIt Gets Betterâ project in response to a series of teens who committed suicide because they were bullied about their sexual orientation. Over 150,000 people submitted videos encouraging LGBTQ-plus teens that their lives will improve and they will find acceptance. The videos have received over 50 million views. Savage received FFRFâs Emperor Has No Clothes Award in 2013.
âMy father was a Catholic deacon, my mother was a lay minister and I thought about becoming a priest. I was in church every Sunday for the first 15 years of my life. Now I spend my Sundays on my bike, on my snowboard or on my husband. I havenât spent my post-Catholic decades in a sulk, wishing the church would come around on the issue of homosexuality so that I could start attending Mass again. I didnât abandon my faith. I saw through it. The conflict between my faith and my sexuality set that process in motion, but the conclusions I reached at the end of that process â there are no gods, religion is man-made, faith can be a force for good or evil â improved my life. Iâm grateful that my sexuality prompted me to think critically about faith. Pushed out? No. I walked out.â
â Savage, quoted in âWhat God Wants,â The New York Times (April 14, 2013).
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
ďżźStephen Sondheim was one of the most well-known names in musical theater, writing the music and lyrics for some of the most popular Broadway shows as a composer and lyricist. Sondheim came out in 1970 at the age of 40. He lived with dramatist Peter Jones for eight years in the 1990s and was later in a relationship with Jeff Romley. In a 2019 interview, Romleyâs friend Randy Rainbow, a satirical songwriter, referred to Romley as Sondheimâs husband. It was later revealed that they had married in 2017. He died at 91 in 2022.
âItâs called flowers wilt / Itâs called apples rot / Itâs called thieves get rich / And saints get shot / Itâs called God donât answer prayers a lot / Okay, now you know.â
â âNow You Know,â from the 1981 musical âMerrily We Roll Along.â
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
ďżźThis prolific and most lyrical of the classical composers wrote âRomeo and Julietâ (1869), âSwan Lakeâ (1876), âThe Sleeping Beautyâ (1890) and âThe Nutcrackerâ (1892). Tchaikovskyâs homosexuality, which made him a âtransgressorâ in the 19th century, may have played a role in his religious migration. To cover up his homosexuality, he married a woman and proceeded to attempt suicide two weeks later by jumping in a Moscow river.
âI have found some astonishing answers to my questioning as to God and religion in his book.â
â Tchaikovsky, letter to his brother Modest about reading freethinker Flaubert, Life and Letters of P.I. Tchaikovsky (ed. Rosa Newmarch, 1906).
LILY TOMLIN
ďżźMary Jean âLilyâ Tomlin is an actress, comedian, writer, singer and producer. She is best known for her roles as Ms. Frizzle on the animated series âThe Magic School Busâ and recurring roles on âWill & Grace,â and she has won many Emmys, a Grammy and two Tonys. Tomlinâs career has been supported by her wife Jane Wagner, who developed characters for various shows and even wrote a one-woman Broadway show. Tomlin and Wagner had a star installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012, which reads: Lily Tomlin & Jane Wagner, Actor, Writer.
âIâm not a religious person. I donât have any desire. To me itâs imitative of a conventional culture. Iâm all for it for anybody. I totally have a free and open feeling about how other humans want to live their lives. Itâs just not something that has any real significance for me.â
â âSunday Profileâ interview (Australian Broadcasting Corp., Feb. 26, 2011)
MARY L. TRUMP
ďżźMary L. Trump,  a psychologist and author, is also the niece and harsh critic of Donald Trump. Her book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worldâs Most Dangerous Man was an unauthorized 2020 biography of her uncle Donald. Legal efforts to stop publication failed and it sold nearly a million copies on the first sales day. In her bestseller, Trump said the familyâs homophobia caused her to stay in the closet for many years out of fear of being disowned. She hid her plans to marry a woman.
âIt just seemed absurd that there could be any kind of higher power. None of it made sense to me any more. So, since the age of 16, I have been an unwavering atheist. And I worry a lot about how religion is intertwined in politics in this country.â
â Trump, on the unexpected death of her father at age 42, Sydney Morning Herald (Sept. 17, 2021).
ALAN TURING
ďżźAlan Turing was a mathematician, cryptoanalyst and computer scientist who studied cognitive science and artificial intelligence, among other fields. Turing helped design a revolutionary code-breaking machine called the bombe, which was essential to the Allies throughout World War II. He was a major part of the team that broke the complex code used by the German military to encode their radio communications. The movie âThe Imitation Gameâ is a biography of his contributions to decoding German telegrams during World War II. In 1952, Turing was convicted of homosexuality, under section 11, âgross indecency,â of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment. This is the same law that  Oscar Wilde was convicted under. He died in 1954, and only a few years later, in 1956, the English government repealed the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment. In 2013, the Queen pardoned Turing posthumously.
âI am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past.â
â Turing, âComputing Machinery and Intelligence,â Mind (1950).
GORE VIDAL
ďżźGore Vidal was the prolific author of many novels and plays based on history and politics and worked in TV and the movies. His novels include Julian (1964), Myra Breckenridge (1968), Burr (1974), and Live from Golgotha (1992), an irreverent satire imagining New Testament events if reported on TV. Vital considered himself bisexual and often rejected the âgayâ label, saying it referred to sexual acts rather than sexuality. Vidal enjoyed telling his alleged sexual exploits to friends and claimed to have slept with Fred Astaire when he first moved to Hollywood and with a young Dennis Hopper. In 1950, he met Howard Austen, who became his partner for the next 53 years until Austenâs death. Vidal died in 2012.
âChristianity is such a silly religion.â
â Vidal, Time magazine (Sept. 28, 1992).
ALICE WALKER
ďżźAlice Walker,  a novelist and poet, wrote the 1982 bestseller, The Color Purple, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 and was turned into two movies, including one version directed by Steven Spielberg. Walker introduced the term âwomanistâ to the feminist movement to describe African-American feminism. Her books of essays include In Search of Our Motherâs Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983), Alice Walker Banned (1996), and Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writerâs Activism (1997). She worked on voter registration drives in the 1960s and married fellow civil rights worker Melvyn Leventhal in 1967. They had a daughter, Rebecca, in 1970 and divorced in 1976. She had a relationship with singer Tracy Chapman.
âIt is chilling to think that the same people who persecuted the wise women and men of Europe, its midwives and healers, then crossed the oceans to Africa and the Americas and tortured and enslaved, raped, impoverished, and eradicated the peaceful, Christ-like people they found. And that the blueprint from which they worked, and still work, was the bible.â
â Walker, Anything We Love Can Be Saved (1997).
WALT WHITMAN
ďżźBiographers continue to debate the sexuality of Walt Whitman, an American author and poet. Â He is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. Whitman was influenced by deism and was a religious skeptic. Invited in 1874 to write a poem about the Spiritualism movement, he responded, âIt seems to me nearly altogether a poor, cheap, crude humbug.â (âWalt Whitman: The Song of Himselfâ by Jerome Loving, 1999)
âI think I could turn and live with animals, theyâre so placid and self-containâd,â¨I stand and look at them long and long.â¨They do not sweat and whine about their condition,â¨They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,â¨They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.â
â Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1891 edition).
OSCAR WILDE
ďżźIrish playwright and author Oscar Wilde is one of the most recognized names in literature. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in 1890, followed by his famous plays: âLady Windermereâs Fanâ (1892), âA Woman of No Importanceâ (1893), âSalomeâ (1894), âAn Ideal Husbandâ (1895) and âThe Importance of Being Earnestâ (1895). Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and fathered two sons. In 1895, he sued the father of his male lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, for libel after he accused Wilde of homosexuality. Wilde dropped the ill-advised lawsuit, but was then charged criminally, convicted of gross indecency, and sentenced to two yearsâ hard labor. He died three years after his release, in France, where homosexuality was already decriminalized. In 2017, Wilde was posthumously pardoned because of the Alan Turning law.
âScience is the record of dead religions.â
â Wilde, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894).
MARA WILSON
ďżźMara Wilson  played Natalie Hillard, the daughter of Robin Williams and Sally Field, in âMrs. Doubtfireâ when she was five and had a role in the remake of âMiracle on 34th Streetâ in 1994. She had the title role in 1996 in director Danny DeVitoâs âMatilda,â an adaptation of Roald Dahlâs young adult book. Mara came out publicly as bi â although she now tends to prefer the label queer. âI like queer more than I like bisexual, but I have no problem with people calling me bisexual,â she said on Twitter in the wake of June 2016âs tragedy at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. âMatildaâ Is Bi and So Am I,â was the title of an article about her in medium.com. (Sept. 20, 2017) She was the American Humanist Associationâs 2019 LGBTQ Humanist Award recipient.
âEventually, I saw Julia Sweeneyâs monologue âLetting Go of God.â That changed everything. I walked out of the theater and said, âYou know what, I donât believe there is a God, and Iâm OK with that.â â
â Wilson, TheaterMania interview (Aug. 7, 2013).
VIRGINA WOOLF
ďżźEnglish author Virginia Woolfâs first book, The Voyage Out, was published in 1915, followed by Night and Day (1919), Jacobâs Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and Orlando (1938). Woolf wrote more than 500 essays, among them âA Room of Oneâs Ownâ (1929), in which she famously observed, âA woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.â Her âThree Guineasâ was a feminist rallying cry to women to come into their own. Wolfe had several affairs with women, the most notable being with Vita Sackville-West, which inspired Orlando: A Biography. The two of them remained lovers for a decade and stayed close friends for the rest of Woolfâs life. Leonard Woolf became the love of her life, and even though their sexual relationship was questionable, they loved each other profoundly and formed a strong, supportive, and prolific marriage, which led to the formation of their publishing house. She died in 1941 at age 59.
âI read the Book of Job last night â I donât think God comes well out of it.â
â Woolf Letter to Lady Robert Cecil, Nov. 12, 1922, The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 2, eds. N. Nicolson and J. Trautmann (1976).
In honor of Pride Month, FFRF is publishing highlights about some of the many distinguished LGBTQ+ individuals, past and present, who have made known their dissent from religion. For more information, see FFRFâs Freethought of the Day series. Compiled by Sarah Weinstock and Bill Dunn.
JANE ADDAMS
Jane Addams was an American philanthropist and co-founder of the Hull House,  a space for âsocial settlementâ for immigrants and working-class Americans. After 120 years of operation,  it closed its doors in 2012. Addams was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for her  peace activism. She had a 40-year relationship with Mary Rozet Smith. Smith spent her life helping with work at the Hull House, becoming a benefactor and supporter. Smith suddenly died of pneumonia in 1934, and Addams died 13 months later.
âA wise man has told us that âmen are once for all so made that they prefer a rational world to believe in and live in.ââ
â Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (1912).
JAMES BALDWIN
Author James Baldwinâs experiences living as a disenfranchised, Black, gay man in a country that largely shunned these characteristics inspired many of his great novels and essays. Baldwin was a leading voice for the civil rights movement. As an out gay man in the 1950s, Baldwin wrote his book Giovanniâs Room, which focused on his experience of being Black and a homosexual. His writings are considered one of the most influential pieces on Black and LGBTQ-plus activism and communities.
âIf the concept of God has any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him.â
â Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963).â¨(James Baldwin: Allan Warren / CC 3.0 )
JOSH BARRO
Josh Barro is an American journalist focusing his work on American politics. Buzzfeed News in 2013 quoted aides to President Obama saying that Josh Barro, although a registered Republican at the time, was his favorite columnist. Barro has been openly out since high school and is outspoken against anti-LGBTQ hate speech. He met his husband Zachary Allen, a former Democratic National Committee official and Obama alumnus, in 2013 at a Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, and they married in 2017.
âMentioning that I am an atheist seems to have led to a bunch of email trying to convince me of the existence of God.â
â Barro tweet (Dec. 28, 2013).
BILL BLASS
American fashion designer Bill Blass was openly gay, but notoriously private about his personal life. He was early to contribute to Gay Menâs Health Crisis (GMHC) and other AIDS care centers during the AIDS crisis. Fashion writer Bernadine Morris wrote in a New York magazine piece (July 8, 2002): âYou could never tell he was gay, because although he had good manners, he was not effete, and if he ever had lovers, it wasnât anything anyone knew about.â
Bill Blass: I have a firm belief in such things as, you know, the water, the Earth, the trees and sky. And Iâm wondering, it is increasingly difficult to find those elements in nature, because itâs nature I believe in rather than some spiritual thing.
SF Weekly: Youâre not a religious man?
BB: No. And I do suppose that science has taken, to a large extent and for a number of people, has taken the place of religion.
SFW: What do you mean by that?
BB: That one can have more belief in scientific cures or scientific miracles than you do in God miracles. Itâs inevitable that we will eventually diffuse into nothingness.
â Interview, SF Weekly (Sept. 1, 1999).
ROSA BONHEUR
Rosa Bonheur is recognized as the 19th centuryâs most famous female painter, best known for her realistic interpretations of animals. Bonheur was able to obtain a âcross-dressing permitâ in 19th-century France. This permit allowed her to wear menâs clothing without fear of legal persecution. She had two female partners, Nathalie Micas and Anna Klumpke. She was with Micas for 40 years. The American portraitist Anna Klumpke came into her life after Micas died. Bonheur viewed womanhood as superior to anything a man could offer or experience and said the only males she had time for were the bulls she painted.â¨â¨âYet, though I make this concession as to my body, my philosophical belief remains unalterable.â
â Bonheur agreeing to a church funeral so she could be buried with Nathalie Micas, Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur, ed. Theodore Stanton (1910).
TRUMAN CAPOTE
Truman Capote, a literary star, was most notably known for two of his novels adapted into movies, Breakfast at Tiffanyâs (1958) and In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was openly gay and had a long-term relationship with writer and playwright Jack Dunphy.
âI belong to no churches and am not a âBelieverâ in any formal sense.â
â Capote letter to death row inmate Perry Smith, whose crime he documented in In Cold Blood (Jan. 25, 1965).
AARON COPLAND
American composer Aaron Copland wrote many ballets, chamber music, vocal works, operas and film scores. Copland, who never married, was gay but not outspoken about his relationships. He had several relationships with other male artists. Copland lived and died at age 90 in 1990 as a nonbeliever and specified that his funeral service, if any, be ânonreligious.â
âHowever, in adult life, although retaining strong memories of the music he heard in the synagogue and at Jewish weddings, Copland evidenced little direct connection with Judaism or Jewish culture. He was neither religious nor observant.â
â From âCopland and the Prophetic Voiceâ by Howard Pollack in Aaron Copland and His World (2005).
RUSSELL T. DAVIES
Russell T. Davies is a Welsh television writer and creator of the British television show âQueer as Folk.â An out gay and atheist, Davies often inserts atheist and homosexual themes into his work. âThe only way I can write â whether thatâs good or bad â is to put my worldview into everything. I have to challenge that worldview from time to time, but in terms of the atheism of the show, I find that very powerful.â (The Boston Phoenix, July 24, 2009) He frequently depicts religion as nonexistent or very different in the future. He was the showrunner for âDoctor Whoâ from 2005 to 2010 and from 2021 onward. Davies finished a few years ago a television show depicting the AIDS crisis in London in the 1980s called âItâs a Sin.â
âYes, Iâm deeply atheist. If they havenât reached that point by the Year Five Billion, then I give up! When did the Doctor do that speech about believing in things that are invisible? Itâs Episode 5, isnât it? Thatâs another bit of atheism chucked in. Thatâs what I believe, so thatâs what youâre going to get.â
â Davies interview, Doctor Who magazine (Sept. 14, 2005).
SIMONE DE BEAUVIOR
Simone de Beauvoir is the writer of the 1949 The Second Sex, a fundamental book of the feminist movement. Born in France, Beauvoir was raised Catholic and was devout until the age of 14, when she had a crisis of faith that ended with her concluding that there was no God. Beauvoir was bisexual, had a long-term open relationship with atheist Jean-Paul Sartre, and had multiple relationships with various women.
âMan enjoys the great advantage of having a God endorse the codes he writes; and since man exercises a sovereign authority over woman, it is especially fortunate that this authority has been vested in him by the Supreme Being. For the Jews, Mohammedans and the Christians, among others, man is master by divine right; the fear of God, therefore, will repress any impulse toward revolt in the downtrodden female.â
â De Beauvoir, âSituation and Character,â The Second Sex (1949, translated and edited by H.M. Parshley, 1953).
MARLENE DIETRICH
Marlene Dietrich was a German-born actress and entertainer. She is remembered in part for her gender-bending style. Dietrich was bisexual and penned the name âSewing Circleâ for the group of Hollywood actresses who were either bisexual or lesbian. In the 1930 film âMorocco,â Dietrich, dressed in a tuxedo, shares the first lesbian kiss on film with Juliette Compton.
âI lost my faith during the war and canât believe they are all up there, flying around or sitting at tables, all those Iâve lost.â
â Dietrich, quoted in Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend by Steven Bach (2011).
BARRY DUKE
Journalist/editor and gay rights activist Barry Duke was born in Johannesburg, and from an early age showed âa strong antipathy toward religion, especially the Calvinist form of Christianity that was used to justify South Africaâs horrific persecution of people of color during the apartheid era,â as Duke commented in 2022. Dukeâs left-leaning, anti-apartheid activism and censorship battles led to him being declared a âdangerous undesirable.â Alerted that an arrest warrant was being issued, he left South Africa in 1973 for the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum. An outspoken atheist, he joined the National Secular Society and was a co-founder in 1979 of the Gay Humanist Group, which changed its name to the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in 1987.
âSince [1950s John Birch Society claims], War on Christmas reports have simply become a silly festive season tradition, generating more mirth than fury. All are intended to reinforce the belief of Christian fundamentalists that they really are being persecuted by a coalition of atheists, secularists, freethinkers, abortionists â and those who identify as LGBTQ. Seriously!â
â Duke, âAnd so it begins ⌠the âwarâ on Christmas 2021â (The Freethinker, Nov. 25, 2021).
HARVEY FIERSTEIN
Harvey Fierstein is a Tony Award-winning actor, playwright, comedian and a leading LGBT who has consistently made his views on religion known. He perceives himself as Jewish but does not believe in God. His plays have focused on queer themes, and his âLa Cage aux Follesâ has been adapted into a movie twice, most recently named âBirdcage,â starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. Fierstein often incorporates drag into his shows and performs in female drag, most notably as Edna Turnblad in the 2003 production of âHairspray.â Fierstein has recently rewritten âFunny Girlâ for its 2022 revival.
In a 2022 People magazine interview, Fierstein stated, âIâm still confused as to whether Iâm a man or a woman,â and said that as a child he often wondered if heâd been born in the wrong body. âWhen I was a kid, I was attracted to men. I didnât feel like a boy was supposed to feel. Then I found out about gay. So that was enough for me for then.â
âWe are lucky enough to be living in a country that not only guarantees the freedom to practice religion as we see fit, but also freedom FROM religious zealots who would persecute and prosecute and even physically harm those of us who do not believe as they do. ⌠Predicating patriotism on a citizenâs belief in God is as anti-American as judging him on the color of his skin. It is wrong. It is useless. It is unconstitutional.â
â Fierstein, âIn the Lifeâ broadcast by Generation Q (November 2004).â¨â¨E.M. FORSTER
English author E.M. Forsterâs most well-known novels are A Room With a View (1908), Howards End (1910), Maurice (1913-14) and A Passage to India (1924). Forster called himself a humanist and was president of the Cambridge Humanists from 1959 to his death. Forster was 16 when Oscar Wilde was jailed for homosexuality, making him cautious of projecting his own homosexuality. Nonetheless, Forster had a long relationship with Robert Buckingham, whom he was with until he died.
âI do not believe in Belief⌠There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.â
â Forsterâs essay âWhat I Believe,â The Nation magazine (July 21, 1938).
JODIE FOSTER
Jodie Foster is an Academy Award-winning actress best known for breakthrough roles in âSilence of the Lambsâ and âTaxi Driver.â Foster is a lesbian. When winning  and accepting the Golden Globe in 2021 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in âThe Mauritanian,â she publicly kissed her wife, Alexandra Hedison.
âI absolutely believe what Ellie [the atheist astronomer in the movie âContactâ] believes â that there is no direct evidence, so how could you ask me to believe in God when thereâs absolutely no evidence that I can see? I do believe in the beauty and the awe-inspiring mystery of the science thatâs out there that we havenât discovered yet, that there are scientific explanations for phenomena that we call mystical because we donât know any better.â
â Foster, interview with The Georgia Straight weekly (July 10, 1997).â¨(Jodie Foster: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock)
FREDERICK THE GREAT
When Frederick ascended the Prussian throne in 1740, he instituted many domestic reforms, including the promotion of education and the arts, improved infrastructure, the creation of new industries and, while he was largely irreligious, the enforcement of universal religious toleration. He married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern in 1733, an arranged union. Frederick and Elisabeth saw little of each other during his reign but remained married until his death. He was widely believed to have been gay and there are multiple accounts of him trying to run away with lovers before he ascended to the throne.
âTheologians are all alike, of whatever religion or country they may be. Their aim is always to wield despotic authority of menâs consciences. They therefore persecute all of us who have the temerity to unveil the truth.â
â Frederick the Great, letter to Voltaire (Nov. 4, 1736).
STEPHEN FRY
British actor Stephen Fry has been openly gay for his entire professional life and advocates for gay rights. Fry depicted Oscar Wilde in the movie âWildeâ(1997). Fry married his husband, Eliott Spencer, in 2015.
âI love how when people watch I donât know, David Attenborough or Discovery Planet type thing you know where you see the absolute phenomenal majesty and complexity and bewildering beauty of nature and you stare at it and then ⌠somebody next to you goes, âAnd how can you say there is no God? Look at that.â And then five minutes later youâre looking at the lifecycle of a parasitic worm whose job is to bury itself in the eyeball of a little lamb and eat the eyeball from inside while the lamb dies in horrible agony and then you turn to them and say, âYeah, where is your God now?â â
â Fry, bigthink.com interview (Dec. 17, 2009).
GRETA GARBO
Famously private Swedish actress Greta Garbo is described by her biographer as bisexual; however, she was primarily lesbian and probably asexual. Garbo was a part of what Marlene Dietrich called the âSewing Circle,â which consisted of Hollywood actresses having relationships with each other.
âI would like to believe in a life after death, but the different religions have each got their own different solution. In America people go to church a lot, but I donât know if theyâre any more religious for all that. I know that there are many people who are convinced of life after death, but I havenât been given the capacity for belief.â
â Garbo comments to journalist and biographer Sven Broman on one of their walks, Garbo on Garbo (1991).
ROXANE GAY
Roxane Gay is a New York Times bestselling author. Gayâs work concerns racial issues and feminism. In 2011, she published Ayiti, a short story collection. In 2014, she published the novel An Untamed State and the New York Times bestseller Bad Feminist, a collection of essays about feminism, race, gender, and pop culture. Time Magazine declared 2014 âthe Year of Roxane Gay.â She is a nationally ranked Scrabble player and a professor of English at Purdue University. Although Gay describes her younger self as âa good girl who went to church,â she no longer believes in God. Gay is openly bi and in 2019 announced her engagement to Debbie Millman.â¨â¨âI try to understand faith and religion. I was raised by wonderful Catholic parents who were deeply faithful and taught us that God is a God of love. Even though I am lapsed, I respect that others turn to God and religion for guidance, for solace, for salvation. What I cannot respect is when that faith dictates how others should live their lives. I cannot respect when such faith tells some people that their lives are unworthy of dignity.â
â Gay, quoted in The Guardian, âIndiana is not protecting religious freedom but outright zealotryâ (March 27, 2015).
GEORGE HAHN
Media personality George Hahn decided to come out while he was enrolled in Boston College, a Jesuit University. âI was a classic Catholic closet case, tightly wrapped in fear, guilt and shame. If anything or anyone came close to exposing me and my proclivity, Iâd do what many do: run and shun.â (Blog, April 29, 2020) Currently, he uses his media platforms to criticize abuse of power in the name of religion.
âCan we get back to the fight against religious psychos who think itâs appropriate to impose their will and their reign of terror onto women?â
â Hahn tweet after a SCOTUS draft opinion on abortion was leaked (May 4, 2022).
MEGAN HUNT
Megan Hunt is a political activist and entrepreneur, currently serving as a state senator in Nebraska in her second elected term. Hunt broke barriers as the first âoutâ LGBTQ-plus state senator, as a single working parent and as an atheist. She was among the key opponents of a bill to give full tax credit on donations to private school scholarships, citing the number of religious schools that would benefit, including schools that discriminate against LGBTQ-plus youth. She was the 2022 recipient of an FFRF Champion of the First Amendment award, which she accepted at its national convention in San Antonio.
âIâve never been a person of faith, so it wasnât a big deal for me to just be who I am.â
â Hunt, commenting on FFRFâs âAsk an Atheistâ about making her nonbelief public (May 4, 2022)
ELTON JOHN
One of the most recognizable names in the music industry, Elton John is also a notable face in the queer community. His homosexuality drew him to denouncing religion: âReligion has always tried to turn hatred toward gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.â (Observer Monthly magazine, November 2006.) He was knighted in 1998 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to music and fundraising for AIDS.
âFrom my point of view, I would ban religion completely. The reality is that organized religion doesnât seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and itâs not really compassionate.â
â John, Observer Music Monthly interview (November 2006).
ANGELINA JOLIE
Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning American actress, screenwriter, and director. Jolie has been open about her bisexuality. Famously married to Brad Pitt, now divorced, she has had relationships with women. In an interview on â20/20â (July 11, 2003), Barbara Walters asked Jolie if she was bisexual, and she answered, âIâm a very sexual person who loves who she loves, whatever sex they may be.â In an interview for her movie âMaleficent Mistress of Evil,â she admitted to having a teen crush on Michelle Pfeiffer.
âFor the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesnât need to be a God for me.â
â Jolie, responding to the question âIs there a God?â The Onion A.V. Club (Sept. 6, 2000).
BILL T. JONES
Bill T. Jones is a renowned American choreographer. His major work, âStill/Hereâ (1950), incorporates terminally ill dancers, including AIDS and HIV-positive performers. It is one of his most controversial pieces of work. In an interview with Jeffrey Brown (Oct. 8, 2021) for âNews Hourâ on PBS, he told Brown, âIâm an atheist.â Jones is married to designer and creative director Bjorn Amelan.
âI am a humanist, as all Christians are supposed to be. For me, the bottom line is commonality. It is the only thing I accept. I donât even know if a soul exists. But I do know there is a condition called humanity that we are a part of, with wonderful potential for good and evil. I believe in limited free will. God? I believe there is an intelligence in the universe, but I donât believe in absolute morality, in sin.â
â Jones interview, Los Angeles Times (March 10, 1991).
FRIDA KAHLO
Frida Kahlo is a famous Mexican painter and is a well-known name in the LGBTQ-plus community. Kahlo was bisexual and open about her sexuality and atheist beliefs. While once married to a man, Diego Rivera, she had multiple relationships with women, including Dolores del Rio, Paulette Goddard, Josephine Baker and others.
 âI hope the exit is joyful â and I hope never to return.â
â Kahlo diary entry a few days before her death.
TONY KUSHNER
Tony Kushner is a playwright, author, and screenwriter whose recent work includes writing the 2020 version of âWest Side Story.â His play Angels in America (1991-1992) metaphorically depicts the American AIDS crisis and homosexuality. Kushner had a commitment ceremony with his partner Mark Harris, an editor for Entertainment Weekly, in 2003, and the couple officially married in 2008.
âI wrote the play in part out of my feeling as an agnostic. Huge questions about God emerge whenever a crisis the size of the AIDS epidemic or I think the political crisis of Reaganism appear on the scene. One begins to ask questions about the benevolence or presence of any kind of consciousness in the universe. I asked those questions â I was thinking a lot about death, I was thinking a lot about my own mortality, I was thinking a lot about justice and whether or not the world would resume what seemed to me a serious hampered progress towards something like social justice with someone like Reagan in the White House.â
â Kushner in an interview on his play âAngels in Americaâ (NPR, Dec. 9, 2003).Â
JACK LAWRENCE
Brooklyn-born American songwriter Jack Lawrence wrote some of the most popular songs of his time, working with singers like Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin. Psychologist and social worker Walter Myden was his longtime partner. After Myden died, Lawrence met Richard Debnam, a former Broadway dancer and Ice Follies performer. In 1979, in his mid-60s, he adopted Debnam, 20 years his junior. Before same-sex marriage became legal, it was not uncommon for gay couples to pursue adoption as legal protection for inheritance and other purposes.
âWhen I am asked what religion I am, I donât hesitate to answer. I donât believe in religion.â
â They All Sang My Songs (2004).
FRAN LEBOWITZ
Fran Lebowitz is a political liberal author, public speaker, and lesbian. She states she has been an atheist since she was seven years old. Lebowitz once told an interviewer. âMy Jewish identity is ethnic or cultural or whatever people call it now. But itâs not religious.â (New Jersey Jewish News, Jan. 27, 2016)
âIâve been an atheist since I was about 7 years old.â
âHaaretz interview (Oct. 6, 2011).
AMY LOWELL
Amy Lowell was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet who was more open about her sexuality in her life than in her poetry. She was in a âBoston marriage,â which historically refers to a lesbian or other relationship in which two women live together and are self-sufficient from any male influence. Lowell met her partner Ada Dwyer in 1912 and was with her for the rest of her life.
And every year when the fields are highâ¨With oat grass, and red top, and timothy,â¨I know that a creed is the shell of a lie.
â Lowellâs poem âEvelyn Rayâ from Whatâs OâClock (1925).
JANE LYNCH
She is best known for portraying Sue Sylvester in the television series âGlee.â She is an out lesbian and an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ-plus rights. She made a video for the âIt Gets Betterâ campaign and performed in a play titled â8,â which focused on marriage equality and Californiaâs anti-gay Proposition 8. She is active in several organizations that promote equality for people of all sexual orientations. She was recently in the revival of Broadway âFunny Girl,â playing Mrs. Brice. Lynch advocated for state/church separation in a humorous song performed with Jordan Peele and produced by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.â¨â¨âYes. They say you die just a little bit when you sneeze. And Iâm kind of an atheist, but yet I will say that just in case.â
â Lynch in response to a TMZ reporter asking her âIs it still necessary to say God bless you when someone sneezes?â (May 28, 2013).
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
W. Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright of works like Of Human Bondage. Maugham was bisexual and married to a woman, but after his divorce, he lived with men for the rest of his life. âTried to persuade myself that I was three-quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer â whereas really it was the other way around,â he remarked.
âI do not believe in God. I see no need of such idea. It is incredible to me that there should be an after-life. I find the notion of future punishment outrageous and of future reward extravagant. I am convinced that when I die, I shall cease entirely to live; I shall return to the earth I came from.â
â Maugham, A Writerâs Notebook (1949).
SIR IAN MCKELLEN
English actor Sir Ian McKellen is open about atheism but does not often speak on the subject. He came out publicly as a gay man in 1988, and was a founding member of the UK LGBT advocacy group, Stonewall, to advocate against discriminatory legislation. McKellen was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, and was knighted in 1991 for his contributions to the theater. In 2008, he was made a Companion of Honor for his services to drama and equality.
Matt Lauer: There have been calls from some religious groups. They wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because, again, one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear. ⌠How would you all have felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie?
Ian McKellen: Well, Iâve often thought the bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that itâs true, not that itâs factual, but that itâs a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after theyâve seen it.
â McKellen interview on âThe Today Showâ about âThe Da Vinci Codeâ (May 17, 2006).
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
Alexander McQueen was an English fashion designer and winner of several âBest British Designerâ awards. Among his famous clients were David Bowie and Kate Winslet, for whom he designed her iconic âTitanicâ dress. In 2000, he had a marriage ceremony with his partner George Forsyth, a documentary filmmaker. He died in 2010.â¨â¨âIâm an atheist and an anti-royalist, so why would I put anyone on a pedestal?â
â McQueen, 1996 interview, Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters with David Bowie,âed. Sean Egan (2015).
HARVEY MILK
Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay man to hold public office in California. During the peak of his political career, Milk supported anti-discrimination bills, established day care centers for working mothers, and converted military facilities into low-cost housing. Milk spoke out on state and national issues for LGBTQ-plus people, women, racial and ethnic minorities, and other marginalized communities. Milk was assassinated in 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by former city supervisor Dan White, a rabid opponent of gay rights.
âAbout six months ago, Anita Bryant in her speaking to God said that the drought in California was because of the gay people. On Nov. 9, the day after I got elected, it started to rain. On the day I got sworn in, we walked to City Hall and it was kinda nice, and as soon as I said âI do,â it started to rain again. Itâs been raining since then and the people of San Francisco figure the only way to stop it is to do a recall petition.â
â Milk keynote speech in San Diego to the Gay Caucus of the California Democratic Council (March 10, 1978).
TIG NOTARO
Tig Notaro is an openly gay American comedian. The 2015 Netflix movie âTigâ chronicled her attempts to become pregnant with her fiancĂŠe Stephanie Allynne, an actress and comedian. They married in 2016 and that year they welcomed twin sons.
âMy biggest problem with people who talk about God and prayers is how confident they are about how it all works out until it doesnât work out. This kind of willful blindness astounds me. If something is a miracle when it works, then when it doesnât work that should not just be ignored; it should be questioned.â
â From Notaroâs memoir Iâm Just a Person (2016).
DIANA NYAD
Diana Nyad, a record-breaking long distance swimmer, is now a multilingual motivational speaker who was honored by the International Swimming Hall of Fame and National Womenâs Sports Hall of Fame. She is âoutâ about her long-term relationship with a woman.
âIâm not a god person. ⌠Iâm an atheist whoâs in awe.â
â Nyad on âThe Oprah Winfrey Showâ (Oct. 13, 2013).
COLE PORTER
The American composer, socialite and gay man was famously married to a woman, Linda Porter, for what they both considered social convenience. He considered his art a religion. And when asked by a clerk what religion he was, he replied, âPut down none.â
âAlthough later in life Cole briefly considered embracing religion, he was never a believer, and his several comments about his motherâs attachments to Peru [Indiana] churches were dismissive.â
â Porter biographer William McBrien, Cole Porter (1998).
PAULA POUNDSTONE
Paula Poundstone is an American stand-up comedian, author and actor. She identifies as asexual. She told EDGE online (Aug. 21, 2013) that sheâs asexual: âI donât like sex. Therefore, I donât have sex. It frees up time, but thatâs not by design, itâs just a bonus.â
âIâm an atheist. The good news about atheists is that we have no mandate to convert anyone. So youâll never find me on your doorstep on a Saturday morning with a big smile, saying, âJust stopped by to tell you there is no word. I brought along this little blank book I was hoping you could take a look at.ââ
â Poundstone, Thereâs Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say (2006).
JAMES RANDI
âThe Amazingâ James Randi was a magician and escape artist who investigated and exposed claims of the paranormal. He had come out as gay at age 81 in 2010, announcing: âThis declaration of mine was prompted just last week by seeing an excellent film â starring Sean Penn â that told the story of politician Harvey Milk. ⌠Iâm in excellent company: Barney Frank, Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachel Maddow, are just a few of those who were in my thoughts as I pressed the key that placed this on Swift and before the whole world.â He died in 2020 at age 92.
â[T]here are two sorts of atheists. One sort claims that there is no deity; the other claims that there is no evidence that proves the existence of a deity. I belong to the latter group, because if I were to claim that no god exists, I would have to produce evidence to establish that claim, and I cannot.â
â Randi, newsletter at randi.org (Aug. 5, 2005).
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of the 32nd president Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and niece of the 26th president Theodore Roosevelt. As First Lady from 1933-45, she revolutionized the position and threw herself into reforms, including championing social justice. As an author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she supported freedom of conscience: âEveryone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief.â The United Nations adopted the declaration in 1948. In the 2016 book Eleanor and Hicks: The Love Affair That Shaped the First Lady, Susan Quinn depicts her romantic relationship and friendship with journalist Lorena Hickock.
âThe bible illustrated by Dore occupied many of my hours â and I think probably gave me many nightmares.â
â Roosevelt, This Is My Story (1937).
JANE RULE
Jane Rule was an American author whose first novel, Desert of the Heart, was turned into the 1984 movie âDesert Hearts.â While teaching at Concord Academy in Massachusetts, she fell in love with Helen Sonthoff, a creative writing instructor who was married to Herbert Sonthoff. Rule moved to Vancouver in 1956, and taught intermittently at the University of British Columbia until 1976. At age 40, Sonthoff came to Vancouver to visit Rule, then 25, and they resumed their intimate relationship. They lived as a couple until Sonthoff died in 2000.
âIâm a nonbeliever. I donât believe in the existence of a God. I donât believe in the Christian dogma. I find it horrifyingly silly. The intolerance that flows from organized religion is the most dangerous thing on the planet.â
â Rule, Brave Souls: Writers and Artists Wrestle with God, Love, Death and the Things That Matter by Douglas Todd (1996).
AMY SCHNEIDER
âJeopardy!â champion Amy Schneider is the first transgender contestant in âJeopardy!â history to make the Tournament of Champions and the highest-winning woman ($1,382,800). Schneider grew up watching the show with her devout Catholic parents. She participated in theater in high school before majoring in civil engineering and computer science at the University of Dayton on her way to becoming a software engineer.
âMs. Schneider describes herself as an atheist who doesnât believe in the occult or the supernatural but, as she said, âItâs not a queer meet cute if thereâs not tarot.â â
â Interviewer Shane OâNeill, explaining âThe Starâ tarot card on a necklace Schneider was wearing that her girlfriend gave her. (New York Times, Jan. 26, 2022).
DAN SAVAGE
Dan Savage is a gay rights activist and writer famous for his sex advice column âSavage Love,â which is syndicated in more than 70 publications. He is also known and respected for his longtime advocacy for LGBTQ-plus rights. He drew media attention in 2012 when he gave a talk to high school students and encouraged them to âignore the bullshit in the bible about gay people.â In 2010, he and his husband Terry Miller started the âIt Gets Betterâ project in response to a series of teens who committed suicide because they were bullied about their sexual orientation. Over 150,000 people submitted videos encouraging LGBTQ-plus teens that their lives will improve and they will find acceptance. The videos have received over 50 million views. Savage received FFRFâs Emperor Has No Clothes Award in 2013.
âMy father was a Catholic deacon, my mother was a lay minister and I thought about becoming a priest. I was in church every Sunday for the first 15 years of my life. Now I spend my Sundays on my bike, on my snowboard or on my husband. I havenât spent my post-Catholic decades in a sulk, wishing the church would come around on the issue of homosexuality so that I could start attending Mass again. I didnât abandon my faith. I saw through it. The conflict between my faith and my sexuality set that process in motion, but the conclusions I reached at the end of that process â there are no gods, religion is man-made, faith can be a force for good or evil â improved my life. Iâm grateful that my sexuality prompted me to think critically about faith. Pushed out? No. I walked out.â
â Savage, quoted in âWhat God Wants,â The New York Times (April 14, 2013).
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Stephen Sondheim was one of the most well-known names in musical theater, writing the music and lyrics for some of the most popular Broadway shows as a composer and lyricist. Sondheim came out in 1970 at the age of 40. He lived with dramatist Peter Jones for eight years in the 1990s and was later in a relationship with Jeff Romley. In a 2019 interview, Romleyâs friend Randy Rainbow, a satirical songwriter, referred to Romley as Sondheimâs husband. It was later revealed that they had married in 2017. He died at 91 in 2022.
âItâs called flowers wilt / Itâs called apples rot / Itâs called thieves get rich / And saints get shot / Itâs called God donât answer prayers a lot / Okay, now you know.â
â âNow You Know,â from the 1981 musical âMerrily We Roll Along.â
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
This prolific and most lyrical of the classical composers wrote âRomeo and Julietâ (1869), âSwan Lakeâ (1876), âThe Sleeping Beautyâ (1890) and âThe Nutcrackerâ (1892). Tchaikovskyâs homosexuality, which made him a âtransgressorâ in the 19th century, may have played a role in his religious migration. To cover up his homosexuality, he married a woman and proceeded to attempt suicide two weeks later by jumping in a Moscow river.
âI have found some astonishing answers to my questioning as to God and religion in his book.â
â Tchaikovsky, letter to his brother Modest about reading freethinker Flaubert, Life and Letters of P.I. Tchaikovsky (ed. Rosa Newmarch, 1906).
LILY TOMLIN
Mary Jean âLilyâ Tomlin is an actress, comedian, writer, singer and producer. She is best known for her roles as Ms. Frizzle on the animated series âThe Magic School Busâ and recurring roles on âWill & Grace,â and she has won many Emmys, a Grammy and two Tonys. Tomlinâs career has been supported by her wife Jane Wagner, who developed characters for various shows and even wrote a one-woman Broadway show. Tomlin and Wagner had a star installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012, which reads: Lily Tomlin & Jane Wagner, Actor, Writer.
âIâm not a religious person. I donât have any desire. To me itâs imitative of a conventional culture. Iâm all for it for anybody. I totally have a free and open feeling about how other humans want to live their lives. Itâs just not something that has any real significance for me.â
â âSunday Profileâ interview (Australian Broadcasting Corp., Feb. 26, 2011)
MARY L. TRUMP
Mary L. Trump,  a psychologist and author, is also the niece and harsh critic of Donald Trump. Her book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worldâs Most Dangerous Man was an unauthorized 2020 biography of her uncle Donald. Legal efforts to stop publication failed and it sold nearly a million copies on the first sales day. In her bestseller, Trump said the familyâs homophobia caused her to stay in the closet for many years out of fear of being disowned. She hid her plans to marry a woman.
âIt just seemed absurd that there could be any kind of higher power. None of it made sense to me any more. So, since the age of 16, I have been an unwavering atheist. And I worry a lot about how religion is intertwined in politics in this country.â
â Trump, on the unexpected death of her father at age 42, Sydney Morning Herald (Sept. 17, 2021).
ALAN TURING
Alan Turing was a mathematician, cryptoanalyst and computer scientist who studied cognitive science and artificial intelligence, among other fields. Turing helped design a revolutionary code-breaking machine called the bombe, which was essential to the Allies throughout World War II. He was a major part of the team that broke the complex code used by the German military to encode their radio communications. The movie âThe Imitation Gameâ is a biography of his contributions to decoding German telegrams during World War II. In 1952, Turing was convicted of homosexuality, under section 11, âgross indecency,â of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment. This is the same law that  Oscar Wilde was convicted under. He died in 1954, and only a few years later, in 1956, the English government repealed the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment. In 2013, the Queen pardoned Turing posthumously.
âI am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past.â
â Turing, âComputing Machinery and Intelligence,â Mind (1950).
GORE VIDAL
Gore Vidal was the prolific author of many novels and plays based on history and politics and worked in TV and the movies. His novels include Julian (1964), Myra Breckenridge (1968), Burr (1974), and Live from Golgotha (1992), an irreverent satire imagining New Testament events if reported on TV. Vital considered himself bisexual and often rejected the âgayâ label, saying it referred to sexual acts rather than sexuality. Vidal enjoyed telling his alleged sexual exploits to friends and claimed to have slept with Fred Astaire when he first moved to Hollywood and with a young Dennis Hopper. In 1950, he met Howard Austen, who became his partner for the next 53 years until Austenâs death. Vidal died in 2012.
âChristianity is such a silly religion.â
â Vidal, Time magazine (Sept. 28, 1992).
ALICE WALKER
Alice Walker,  a novelist and poet, wrote the 1982 bestseller, The Color Purple, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 and was turned into two movies, including one version directed by Steven Spielberg. Walker introduced the term âwomanistâ to the feminist movement to describe African-American feminism. Her books of essays include In Search of Our Motherâs Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983), Alice Walker Banned (1996), and Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writerâs Activism (1997). She worked on voter registration drives in the 1960s and married fellow civil rights worker Melvyn Leventhal in 1967. They had a daughter, Rebecca, in 1970 and divorced in 1976. She had a relationship with singer Tracy Chapman.
âIt is chilling to think that the same people who persecuted the wise women and men of Europe, its midwives and healers, then crossed the oceans to Africa and the Americas and tortured and enslaved, raped, impoverished, and eradicated the peaceful, Christ-like people they found. And that the blueprint from which they worked, and still work, was the bible.â
â Walker, Anything We Love Can Be Saved (1997).
WALT WHITMAN
Biographers continue to debate the sexuality of Walt Whitman, an American author and poet. Â He is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. Whitman was influenced by deism and was a religious skeptic. Invited in 1874 to write a poem about the Spiritualism movement, he responded, âIt seems to me nearly altogether a poor, cheap, crude humbug.â (âWalt Whitman: The Song of Himselfâ by Jerome Loving, 1999)
âI think I could turn and live with animals, theyâre so placid and self-containâd,â¨I stand and look at them long and long.â¨They do not sweat and whine about their condition,â¨They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,â¨They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.â
â Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1891 edition).
OSCAR WILDE
Irish playwright and author Oscar Wilde is one of the most recognized names in literature. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in 1890, followed by his famous plays: âLady Windermereâs Fanâ (1892), âA Woman of No Importanceâ (1893), âSalomeâ (1894), âAn Ideal Husbandâ (1895) and âThe Importance of Being Earnestâ (1895). Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and fathered two sons. In 1895, he sued the father of his male lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, for libel after he accused Wilde of homosexuality. Wilde dropped the ill-advised lawsuit, but was then charged criminally, convicted of gross indecency, and sentenced to two yearsâ hard labor. He died three years after his release, in France, where homosexuality was already decriminalized. In 2017, Wilde was posthumously pardoned because of the Alan Turning law.
âScience is the record of dead religions.â
â Wilde, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894).
MARA WILSON
Mara Wilson  played Natalie Hillard, the daughter of Robin Williams and Sally Field, in âMrs. Doubtfireâ when she was five and had a role in the remake of âMiracle on 34th Streetâ in 1994. She had the title role in 1996 in director Danny DeVitoâs âMatilda,â an adaptation of Roald Dahlâs young adult book. Mara came out publicly as bi â although she now tends to prefer the label queer. âI like queer more than I like bisexual, but I have no problem with people calling me bisexual,â she said on Twitter in the wake of June 2016âs tragedy at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. âMatildaâ Is Bi and So Am I,â was the title of an article about her in medium.com. (Sept. 20, 2017) She was the American Humanist Associationâs 2019 LGBTQ Humanist Award recipient.
âEventually, I saw Julia Sweeneyâs monologue âLetting Go of God.â That changed everything. I walked out of the theater and said, âYou know what, I donât believe there is a God, and Iâm OK with that.â â
â Wilson, TheaterMania interview (Aug. 7, 2013).
VIRGINA WOOLF
English author Virginia Woolfâs first book, The Voyage Out, was published in 1915, followed by Night and Day (1919), Jacobâs Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and Orlando (1938). Woolf wrote more than 500 essays, among them âA Room of Oneâs Ownâ (1929), in which she famously observed, âA woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.â Her âThree Guineasâ was a feminist rallying cry to women to come into their own. Wolfe had several affairs with women, the most notable being with Vita Sackville-West, which inspired Orlando: A Biography. The two of them remained lovers for a decade and stayed close friends for the rest of Woolfâs life. Leonard Woolf became the love of her life, and even though their sexual relationship was questionable, they loved each other profoundly and formed a strong, supportive, and prolific marriage, which led to the formation of their publishing house. She died in 1941 at age 59.
âI read the Book of Job last night â I donât think God comes well out of it.â
â Woolf Letter to Lady Robert Cecil, Nov. 12, 1922, The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 2, eds. N. Nicolson and J. Trautmann (1976).
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