Reveal of OUT 100 begins: Prop. 8 plaintiffs w/Dustin Lance Black; Steve Grand; and George Takei!

OUT is beginning the big reveal of its OUT 100 today with 10 of the selections.

I’m highlighting three here with excerpts from the write-ups on them. Go to OUT.com to see the full features.

Let’s kick off with Kris Perry, Sandy Stier, Dustin Lance Black, Jeff Zarrillo & Paul Katami.

When California voters rejected marriage equality, passing Proposition 8 in 2008, they set the stage for one of the most compelling equality battles in history. With the backing of the American Foundation for Equal Rights — of which screenwriter and director Black (middle) is an eloquent board member — two LGBT couples, Perry (far left) and Stier (second from left) and Zarrillo (second from right) and Katami (far right), challenged the constitutionality of Prop 8 in district court and won.

The story of that struggle is immortalized in 8, a play by Black that reenacts the initial Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial, a powerful reminder that we’re writing our social and political history even as we’re still living it.

Next up is Steve Grand who, of course, I met this weekend at Palm Springs Pride (did I mention that already?)

Grand tells Out: “By 12 I was already set on being a rock star.”

His viral hit, All-American Boy, turned a classic country music template — falling for the wrong man — into a catchy anthem of gay longing and regret.

Even in America in 2013, finding a record label to support that kind of song is near impossible, which is what makes Grand’s decision to self-release his song on YouTube, complete with a sexy video he paid for with his life savings, so bold.

His tastes may be mainstream, but his methods are anything but, demonstrating — if proof were still needed — that the once-mighty labels have been outmaneuvered by technology. For gay musicians everywhere, that can only be a good thing.

“This has been my dream,” says Grand. “It makes me feel really good that something I created has inspired others, or made them feel a little less alone in the world.”

And finally, the one and only George Takei.

He has been everywhere lately: on TV, in Hawaii Five-O and The New Normal; voicing characters on Transformers Prime, Adventure Time, and Futurama; and on stage, starring in Allegiance, a musical set in the Japanese-American internment during World War II and inspired by his personal experience.

As active as Takei is on issues that face LGBTs globally — including campaigning for marriage equality and the relocation of the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia — he sees a bright future. “When younger people have two uncles or when two male friends of Daddy’s and Mommy’s get married, it’s no big thing — it’s natural. That’s the way it should be… In their innocence there’s great wisdom.”