Then again, I suppose you could say so did the late Fred Phelps, the evangelical wing nut minister from Topeka, Kansas who coined the phrase “God Hates Fags”, and features an animated image of gay bashed murder victim Matthew Shepard burning in hell on his website landing page. Joseph Friedlander and Ralph Banay, two US medical researchers who carried out an extensive study on the use of ice pick through-the-eye-lobotomies as a treatment for male homosexuality, could be called “influencers” too. As could scores of other professionals responsible for the forced institutionalization and gross human rights abuses of literally thousands of gay and lesbian Americans before 1981.