‘A' begins our alphabet, and ALEXANDER THE GREAT conquered much of the world and began many things including-ultimately-the spread of Christianity. Alexander's favorite lover-he bedded men and women-- was a masculine stunner named Hephaestion, his best friend since boyhood. After Hephaestion died uexpectedly, Alexander became deeply despondent and himself died only 8 months later.

TOM CRUISE was on everyone's ‘Is he?" radar for a while and has spent a lot of time and money seeing to it that we all KNOW that he is straight. He has successfully sued a British tabloid, a porn actor and a magazine publisher to see to it that his name is cleared, not queered.....

KATHLEEN HANNA was a member in uber-edgy bands like Bikini Kill and Le Tigre and was part of the riot girlllll movement of the 90's. She is an activist and has worked with rowdy bands like Green Day, the Rickets and even the big Blackheart-Joan Jett.

PEREZ HILTON is certainly a chunky presence to be dealt with in media-saturated America. Coming seemingly out of nowhere-sorry-- he is actually from Miami; recent years have seen him tangled in lawsuits and litigation with the likes of Britney's ‘people', Nsync's Lance Bass (who he sort-of outed), and ever- re-lapsing Lindsey Lohan. Oh yes-- let's not forget that posting of the Colin Farrell sex video-Ouch!!well-hung-uni-browed-irish-boy...Perez remains as unrepentant as his hair color(s)....

ALBERTA HUNTER-one of the most famous female Blues artists-- was a black lesbian born in the 1895.

She recreated herself again and again throughout her long life. Leaving the Deep South in her teens she first toured Europe in 1917, performed for US troops in the ‘40's, was ‘re-discovered' in the ‘60's and was performing regularly right into the ‘80's. She died in 1984 at the age of 89, after having sustained several long-term relationships and being a regular on the queer scene in Harlem for decades.

ALBERT CASHIER was born Jennie Irene Hodgers on Christmas Day 1843. He enlisted and fought perhaps forty battles with Union forces during the Civil War. He was an excellent soldier and even escaped from Confederate captors, wrestling a gun away from a guard and returning to his unit. As a civilian his ‘secret' was discovered but remained concealed until he was institutionalized for senility. Ultimately, Albert Cashiers was the only woman to serve in the Civil War for the full engagement of a unit, she was the only woman to receive a Civil War pension and the first woman to vote in the state of Illinois...You Go!!Girl-Man.

BRIAN MOLKO, the bi-sexual lead singer of the band Placebo, was recently ranked one of the sexiest rockers in the world by Kerrang! magazine. He had his 15minutes years before that playing a role in the underground hit movie,"Velvet Goldmine". He even got a little double time in the movie, with Placebo doing a cover version of a song by another queer-rock icon-T Rex.......

Not unused to controversy-what about those child porn charges?- rapper R. KELLY has raised eyebrows again by his use of "Down Low" in title and lyrics of a recent song. This sexpression is lingo in the African-American community referring to a ‘straight' man who has sex with other men... Damn Black!!even Oprah knows that...

All sorts of fascinating gay-tinged tidbits can be found online at various sites like Wikipedia.com which we thank for information gleaned here

Mark O. Conway