Sherman has also adapted for the stage E. M. Foster's novel A Passage to India (2002), as well as updated versions of Pirandello's Così è, si vi pare (as Absolutely! [Perhaps], 2003) and Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (2007).

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Among Sherman's screenwriting credits are Waris Hussein's movie made for British television Clothes in the Wardrobe (also known as The Summer House, 1992), Franco Zeffirelli's Callas Forever (2002), Robert Allan Ackerman's American television version of Tennessee Williams's The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003), and Stephen Frears' Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005).

Although his screenplays for these projects all have gay elements and appeal, Sherman's most explicitly gay-themed screenplay (other than for Bent) is the one he wrote for Nancy Meckler's Indian Summer (also known as Alive and Kicking, 1996), which explores the growing relationship between an HIV-positive dancer (Jason Flemyng) and an older AIDS counselor (Anthony Sher).

Sherman has a long-standing interest in popular music--among his earliest major assignments was writing the script for a television special featuring Cass Elliot, "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore," in 1973. However, it was thirty years later before Sherman ventured into musical theater.

In 2003, he was commissioned to write a new book for the American premiere of The Boy from Oz, based on the original Australian libretto by Nick Enright. The musical, starring the charismatic Hugh Jackman, set for itself the rather daunting task of telling the life story of Peter Allen (using his music and lyrics) from cradle to grave. Sherman unflinchingly tackled Allen's complicated bisexuality. His work on The Boy from Oz earned Sherman a Tony nomination for best book of a musical.

Like many writers, Sherman sees an aesthetic strength in being an outsider, not only as a gay Jewish man, but also as an American who has lived in London since 1980. "I have been able to flourish there in a way that I don't think I could have done here [in America]," he told reporters. He added that he did not move to London to "leave" the United States because he was "disgusted" with his home country; rather "I fell in love with England."

As a self-described outsider, Sherman has remained very discreet about his personal life. Actor and friend Rupert Graves has remarked that Sherman is "kind of elusive, very hard to pin down," a judgment with which Ian McKellen concurs: "There's a lot about Martin that's very private."

In 1991, Sherman joined other openly gay British artists in an open letter to the Guardian to distance themselves from Derek Jarman's public criticism of Ian McKellen's acceptance of a knighthood from the anti-gay Conservative Government. "Never again will public figures be able to claim that they have to keep secret their homosexuality in fear of it damaging their careers. Ian McKellen provides an inspiration to us all, not only as an artist of extraordinary gifts, but as a public figure of remarkable honesty and dignity."

Critical reaction to Sherman's work for stage and screen is often mixed, but audiences regularly respond favorably to his multifaceted characters caught up in tumultuous historical situations.

As the author of one of the seminal gay dramas of the twentieth century, Sherman has no regrets about being a pioneer, but he does not want to be limited as to his subject matter. As he told The Advocate in 2000, "At the time I wrote Bent it was important to declare yourself as a gay writer. It seems to me that we have now reached this point, which I think is extremely healthy, where I can write about anything."

Since Stonewall, gay and lesbian drama has flourished, especially in the United States.

Since cinema began, Hollywood has been fascinated with finding ways of representing homosexuality.

Jewish-American gay and lesbian literature is marked by its rich heritage, diverse subject matter, and thriving vitality.

The musical has been a significant aspect of American gay male culture, manifesting itself both in diva worship and, more recently, in the presentation of openly gay characters and shows written by gay writers primarily for gay audiences.

There has always been homosexual involvement in American musical theatre and a homosexual sensibility even in straight musicals, and recently the Broadway musical has welcomed openly homosexual themes and situations.

As part of its agenda to preserve an "Aryan master race," Nazism persecuted homosexuals as "asocial parasites"; more than 100,000 men were arrested on homosexual charges during the Nazi years, with 5,000-15,000 gay men incarcerated in concentration camps.

Although film may be a director's rather than a writer's medium, gay and lesbian screenwriters have made significant contributions to both mainstream and independent film.

From ancient times, homoerotic writing has been a notable part of the literature of war.

Although not publicly out as a gay man, Australian singer and songwriter Peter Allen signaled his homosexuality through his flamboyant persona and the subtexts of many of his songs.

Versatile British actor Simon Callow has played a wide variety of roles on the stage, in films, and on television, but has remarked on his special affinity for gay roles.

One of the finest English novelists of the twentieth century and a tireless defender of humane values, Forster deserves a special place in the gay and lesbian literary heritage.

Controversial playwright, novelist, and essayist Larry Kramer has been a pioneer in the gay political response to AIDS in America.

Arguably the finest Shakespearean actor of his generation, Ian McKellen was the first British subject to be knighted after publicly revealing his homosexuality, an event that proved more controversial within the gay community than in the mainstream.

Originally a mark of criminalization and persecution under the Nazis, the pink triangle was later reclaimed by gays both as a memorial and as a celebration of sexual identity.

The confrontations between police and demonstrators at the Stonewall Inn in New York City the weekend of June 27-29, 1969 mark the beginning of the modern glbtq movement for equal rights.

Conflicted over his own sexuality, Tennessee Williams wrote directly about homosexuality only in his short stories, his poetry, and his late plays.