Unfortunately, I am not the correct person to ask about this. Levi is the ~Liberal Arts Gay~ of our duo (look at his Mastodon avatar, it's Danielle Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg, haha). However! There are a few names that pop into my head when I read the phrase 'gay canon'. Immediately I think of Langston Hughes, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, and Truman Capote. When you say arts I have a feeling you mean the visual arts, but I'm going to use this ambiguity to shamelessly mention how much I love George Michael, Elton John, and Sir Ian McKellen, and how much I feel they belong in any gay canon for being wonderful performing artists who had an impact on so many.

And although I recognise this is terribly Americentric of me, I feel Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name deserve slots in this canon as well.

well, in general I have complicated feelings about the creation of canons. I can see the value in having shared cultural touchstones, as that can help people to relate to each other and to art. at the same time, when you create a canon, that inevitably means that some fantastic works are going to be overlooked

as for a "gay canon", my mind goes to a few places. first I think of queer writers who have been canonized by either academia at large or queer theory. james baldwin, oscar wilde, allen ginsberg, william s burroughs, michel foucault, audre lorde, judith butler, eve kosofsky sedgwick, keith haring, adrienne rich, come to mind.

second, I think of works that have gained a great deal of popularity in the queer community. redefining realness, angels in america, call me by your name, carol / the price of salt, brokeback mountain, some like it hot, but I'm a cheerleader, pink flamingos, the wizard of oz, hedwig, rocky horror show, etc...

third, I think about works and artists who are really well-regarded among queer writers + other literary queers, but who aren't necessarily in "the canon" and aren't all that popular either. kathy acker, dennis cooper, sarah schulman, alexander chee, pat califia, samuel r delany (I'm not quite sure where to place him tbh), dionne brand, maggie nelson, etc.

I feel like I've absolutely missed some important ones, but hey, that's how it goes