Heath Ledger

Creative brilliance, a superb actor. Our enormous loss.

For those of us in the GLBTQ community, Ledger is something of a hero for his courageous, sensitive, and tender portrayal of a deeply closeted gay man in "Brokeback Mountain." It was clear to us that he thoroughly understood the dynamics that his character confronted, internally and externally, and felt the wrenching conflicts deeply. His was not a safe, surface portrayal, a la a TV sitcom. He had to be willing to assume his character's deepest reality, and that can't be an easy thing for a straight man or woman to do in a thoroughly homophobic world.

I'm really sorry that he's gone, and I will miss his talent and his willingness to risk ridicule and exile in order to show his world a glimpse of ours.