OUT 100: Men of “Looking,” Richard Chamberlain, Dan Savage, Armistead Maupin and others make list

Out Magazine continues to roll out its Out 100 list. Here are the names unveiled today:

Looking’s Jonathan Groff, Murray Bartlett, and Russell Tovey: The Looking band of brothers have become as close as brothers off the set as well. Prepping for the second season, their sophomore effort will be packed with more early-adulthood existential crises and tangled relationships – but at a more fevered pitch. “The show took its time to set up the characters and story lines last year,” Groff says. “This season moves at a faster pace. A lot happens quickly.”

Richard Chamberlain: Already a legend, the 80-year-old Chamberlain returned to the stage this fall for the Off-B roadway production of David Rabe’s Stick and Bones. Though he’d been in a relationship for years, it wasn’t until 2003 that Chamberlain decided to publicly address being gay. “Remaining in hiding was a totally valuable part of my life,” he notes. “I was a romantic lead in films at a time before some of the new relaxations and new diminishment of total ignorance. If I were ever outed, my career- which was my entire life, for the longest time- wouldn’t have happened. I spent a great deal of my life pretending to be somebody else.”

Michael J. Willett: Openly gay before making a splash, the Faking It and GBF star is fast becoming a new kind of leading man, but more importantly, he’s becoming the embodiment of queer as cool. In GBF he replaced the tiara as every would-be prom queen’s accessory, and in Faking It he’s the most popular kid in a school where being gay is a badge of honor.

Dan Savage: Savage’s sex advice column, “Savage Love,” is in its 24th year, and his weekly podcast, Savage Lovecast, now has more than 200,000 listeners and is a top 50 podcast on iTunes. In his OUT100 photo, Savage pays tribute to Harvey Milk, who aspired to give gay youth a choice beyond suicide or the closet. “I was that kid. I read those stories. I was given hope by San Francisco and Harvey Milk,” Savage says. “I’ve always felt a very personal connection.”

Greg Berlanti: The noted writer and producer is hard at work producing two CW superhero series, Arrow and The Flash, and serving as a producer on Pan, a film about the mischievous Peter Pan. About his career, Berlanti says, “I think in television in particular, I’ve been able to have gay characters in most, if not all, of what I’ve done. I had to threaten to quit to get a gay kiss on Dawson’s Creek. It’s rewarding when you talk to younger writers and directors who say they saw something you did and that it had an impact on them.”

Gregg Araki: 2014 started with a bang for the filmmaker, whose White Bird in a Blizzard debuted at Sundance earlier this year. While its plot has poignant curveballs indicative of his films, it’s streaked with camp reminiscent of his beloved John Waters. “He’s my hero,” Araki says. “When I die, I want to go wherever John is going.”

Armistead Maupin: For nearly four decades, the Tales of the City series has influenced popular culture, and in 2014, creator Armistead Maupin officially said goodbye with his final book in the series. His favorite moment from Tales? “Michael’s coming out letter to his mom was my coming out letter to my parents,” he says. “It’s hard to imagine now, but when the letter appeared [in 1977], it was shocking for someone to say they were gay, and that it was the best thing that ever happened to them.”

Scout and Liz Margolies: Scout’s marriage proposal to Liz Margolies at the White House in 2012 thrust the couple into the national spotlight, but their advocacy work is no less worth of attention. This year Margolies brought the top 60 LGBT cancer researchers together to create a National LGBT Cancer Action Plan, while Scout started the health arm of CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, and spent a month in Bellagio, Italy, on a transgender writing fellowship.

To read the full profiles and see all the portraits, go to Out.com