Gays and lesbians

• Richard O'Brien created "The Rocky Horror Show," a hit on the stage. (It became the cult movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show.") The show features Dr. Frank N. Furter, a transvestite scientist who gives straight-couple Brad and Janet a night that changes their lives. All his life, Mr. O'Brien never felt completely male or completely female but somewhere in the middle. He does have a word to describe how he feels: transgender. He has been married twice and has children, and when he told his children that he was transgender, they said, "Dad, and your point is?" At a family gathering when his father was very elderly, his father asked him, "Richard, are there any things in your life you'd like to have changed?" Mr. O'Brien replied, "Well, I'm very grateful for the gift of life, but I think it would have made more sense if I'd been born a girl." And his father said, "I think I understand exactly what you're saying."

• Scott Evans played a gay character in the soap opera "One Life to Live"; he is gay in real life. On the soap opera, his character's coming out led to a lot of anguish; in real life, his coming out did not. When he told his mother, Lisa, that he was gay, she replied, "Cool. What do you want for dinner?" Actually, according to Lisa, she always knew that her son was gay. A family story is that when Scott was born, Lisa looked at him and said, "Oh, yay. I got a gay one." Scott also came out to Chris, his brother. Chris told him, "I am a little pissed." Scott asked, "Why?" Chris said, "You told everyone else six months ago. Why did it take you so long?" Now Scott remembers, "I was terrified to tell him. I look back on it now kind of laughing hysterically, thinking that I thought I couldn't."

• The classic "coming out" novel about a lesbian is "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown. The classic "coming out" autobiography about a gay man is "The Best Little Boy in the World" by John Reid (pseudonym of financial writer Andrew Tobias). Despite having different publishers, both books were published in hardback in 1973, and both books were published in paperback in 1977. But for the real coincidence, read this: As children, both Mr. Tobias and Ms. Brown attended summer camp in Maine. Andy went to Camp Wigwam, and Rita Mae went to its sister camp, Camp Hiawatha. On a couple of occasions, the two went to the movies together, double dating with a couple of older counselors.

• When personal-finance guru Suze Orman realized that Kathy "KT" Travis was the right romantic partner for her, she did something extravagant. When Ms. Travis traveled back home, Ms. Orman sent her driver and car to meet her. The car was not empty: It was filled with gardenias — Ms. Travis' favorite flower. After Ms. Travis had returned home, the doorbell rang. A deliveryman was outside, holding a bunch of Casablanca lilies and wanting to know where to put the rest of the flowers — Ms. Orman had bought all the flowers in a flower shop. (By the way, Ms. Orman does not want anyone to buy flowers for her. Why not? She says, "They die.")

• In September 2009, same-sex marriage became legal in Vermont. To celebrate, Ben & Jerry's, the famed ice-cream company, temporarily renamed its Chubby Hubby ice cream Hubby Hubby ice cream. Response to the move was positive. Sean Greenwood, Ben & Jerry's grand pooh-bah of public relations (I did not make that up — it is his real title) received an email from a lesbian in Illinois, where same-sex marriage is not legal. In the email the woman said that she cried when she heard her daughter say, "At least Ben & Jerry's recognizes mommy and mommy are married."

• David Moretti, an actor in the TV series "The Lair," was very worried about coming out to his father. But he told him, and he waited for his reaction. All his father said was this: "Wow — hey, can I still get grandkids?" This was a relief to David, who says, "All I could do was laugh. He was a progressive liberal alpha Italian — who knew! He completely deflated the 'situation' with one sentence. I told him that kids were definitely a possibility, just not sure how soon. We later had lunch, and that was that. I was a very fortunate kid."

• Rick and George, two close friends of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, both died of AIDS. George died first, and then Rick. As Rick lay dying, he asked Jamie to take care of their dog, Teddy. Jamie agreed immediately without even asking her husband and child. She says, "I just took Teddy home with me, knowing that my husband, Chris, and our daughter, Amy, would understand. Teddy was depressed for a while, but Jamie says, "Gradually, he's become spry and playful again. He's a lovely addition to our family."

• Gay British television celebrity Dale Winton once walked past a pub only to hear a hooligan in a pack of hooligans yell at him, "Poof! F**king queer!" He thought about walking away, but instead he turned, went up to the hooligans, smiled and asked, "Who said it? Who said that? Who called me a f**king poof? I want to know." Finally, one of the hooligans admitted calling him that. Mr. Winton then said, "You're absolutely right, you win a tenner. Have a drink."

• The American Family Association, whose major accomplishment is raising money, really, really doesn't like the word "gay." In fact, for a while in 2008 its website had an autobot that automatically "corrected" the word "gay" in any story that appeared on its site, changing it to the word "homosexual." Unfortunately, a lot of stories about American track star Tyson Gay suddenly became stories about American track star Tyson Homosexual.

• Gays Stan Zimmerman and Jim Berg have written for "The Golden Girls" and "Roseanne," as well as for their own Lifetime sitcom, "Rita Rocks." While working on a script for "Rita Rocks," they discovered that all the straight men on their staff had held a discussion about who they would sleep with if they were gay: Stan or Jim? Jim says, "He got the executive producer, but I got the hotter writers — so it all worked out."