Some writers consider Poulenc one of the first coming out gay composers.

"Out Classics" asks the buyer to join in a celebration of the "incalculable contributions that gay composers have made to the field of classical music."

The company even lent its name to "Out Classics," a compact disk with works by gay composers.

Tippett was one of the first openly gay composers to explore issues of sexuality in his work.

A collection of works by gay composers was a runaway hit with sales of 7,000, a minuscule figure by pop standards.

He's proud to be a gay composer and interested in talking about what that might mean.

And, reassuringly, Ivry does not try to create the category of gay composers.

Works from the new generation of openly gay composers, on the other hand, are sometimes distinguished more by good intentions than sound inspiration.

I am not, as Mr. James would have it, "a gay composer," but a composer.

How did Copland and the gay composers in his circle come to write music the way they did?