Audre Lorde February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992

Audre Lorde described herself as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” In her writing, she frequently expressed her anger at the treatment of people of color, women, and LGBTQ folk. In the above quotation, she calls for others to express their anger. To many in the queer community, staying silent and in the closet felt like a safety blanket. However, Lorde encouraged them to step out into the light, telling them that the only true safety is in making yourself known and demanding the acceptance and respect that is your right.

Brenda Howard December 24, 1946 – June 28, 2005

Brenda Howard is known as the “Mother of Pride.” She was instrumental in organizing the first ever Pride marches: events that have become a vital part of the fight for acceptance. Howard was also one of the few activists to focus on rights for those who identified as bisexual or polyamorous: two groups that are often underrepresented in LGBTQ activism.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy October 25, 1940

Miss Major has dedicated 50 years of her life to organizing for trans women of color. She is a veteran of the Stonewall riots, a survivor of Attica Correctional Facility, and the founding executive director of Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a nonprofit that centers and supports trans, gender-nonconforming, and intersex people in and out of prisons, jails, and detention centers. 

Lina Waithe May 17, 1984

Lina Waithe, a queer screen writer, producer and actor, made history as the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing. She continues to use her platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ communities and tell the stories of queer communities of color.

Alicia Garza January 4, 1981

Alicia Garza is an American civil rights activists on issues of health, student services and rights, rights for domestic workers, ending police brutality, anti-racism, and violence against trans and gender non-conforming people of color. Alicia is most notably known as the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. She unleashed the power of digital activism to create a movement and revealed to us that a hashtag, a post, an image, and a video shared online could change the course of history.

Edith Winsor June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017

Edith Windsor brought a lawsuit to the Supreme Court regarding tax laws for widowed LGBTQ+ spouses. In 2013 the Court ruled in favor of Windsor, thus making headway for the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in favor of same sex marriage

Zanele Muholi July 19, 1972

Zanele Muholi is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work looking at black lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex individuals. In 2002, Muholi co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, a black lesbian organization dedicated to providing a safe space for women to meet and organize. In 2009, Muholi founded Inkanyiso, a non-profit organization concerned with queer visual activism. It is involved with visual arts and media advocacy for and on behalf of the LGBTI community. The organization's vision statement is "Produce. Educate. Disseminate."

Sylvia Rivera July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002

Sylvia Rivera was a trans activist who with Marsha P. Johnson co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization serving homeless LGBTQ+ youth. Rivera was a vocal advocate for trans rights and often admonished the gay rights movement for not being inclusive of the drag and trans communities

Marsha P. Johnson August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992

Marsha “Pay it no mind” Johnson was a force of change for the trans and queer liberation movement. Through her entire life, she advocated for the homeless, sex workers, and poor and incarcerated queer people. “I may be crazy, but that don’t make me wrong”

Alexya Salvador November 18, 1980

Alexya Salvador is a trans woman and pastor in Brazil, one of the most dangerous places in the world for trans folks. She calls herself the “first transgender shepherd of Latin America.” Along with other pastors from around the world, she helped organize a groundbreaking LGBTQ-friendly mass in Cuba

Alice Nkom January 14, 1945

Alice Nkom has been a fierce ally to the LGBTQ+ Community in Cameroon, where homosexuality is still criminalized. Nkom works as a human rights lawyer to fight for the rights of the Cameroon LGBTQ+ communities and founded the Association for the Defense of Homosexuality

Arsham ParsI September 20, 1981

Arsham Parsi first began his work as an underground LGBTQ+ activist in Iran, where homosexuality remains illegal. In 2005, he was forced to flee Iran, and now lives in exile in Canada where he started the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. This organization seeks to support LGBTQ+ asylum seeker from the Middle East

Harvey Milk May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978

Harvey Milk was one of the first openly gay politicians to be elected to public office. While working as the City Supervisor for San Francisco he introduced legislation to protect the gay community, including the 1978 ordinance which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ communities in housing

Michael Sam JANUARY 7, 1990

In 2014, Michael Sam became the first openly gay football player to be drafted in the NFL. Sam’s time in the NFL was discouraging as he was passed from team to team and eventually left without a team. He ended up leaving the NFL a year after he was first drafted but continues to highlight the rampant discrimination and homophobia within the sports world.

Billie Jean King November 22, 1943

Billie Jean King was the first female tennis player to win Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Award in 1972, and in 1981. She lost all her endorsement deals after she confirmed her relationship with another woman. King continues to advocate for LGBTQ+ communities, especially within athletics.

Laverne Cox May 29, 1972

Laverne Cox is mostly known for her role as Sophia on the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.” In 2018, she was the first openly trans woman to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine and has continued to advocate for trans folks using her social media platforms and the #transisbeautiful movement.

Tammy Baldwin May 11, 1962

In 2013, Tammy Baldwin made history by becoming the first openly gay Senator in the United States. In her speech at the Millennium March for Equality, she spoke to LGBTQ folks, encouraging them to be out and proud. In this quotation, she states that the only way to normalize non-heterosexual orientations is for the queer community to act like they are normal, because they are.

James Baldwin August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987

Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924 during its intellectual, social, and artistic Renaissance —  he was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet and activist. Baldwins’ first published work, Notes of a Native Son (1955), appeared in The Nation and explored intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies.

Baldwin was an active participant in the civil rights movement. His essays and articles on the movement appeared in Harper’s magazine, Partisan Review, Mademoiselle, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. Baldwin’s novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, was adapted into an Academy Award-winning dramatic film in 2018.

Bayard Rustin August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987

A brilliant organizer and tactician, the reasons to cite him are many. Not only did he urge [Reverend Dr. Martin Luther] King to lean deeper into the politics and practice of nonviolence, but he was also an unabashed pacifist who was jailed for two years for refusing to enter the draft during World War II. And in addition to organizing the 1963 March on Washington, three years later he and labor leader A. Philip Randolph devised an ambitious plan to end poverty in the United States.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ leader of a nation, but to many of her constituents she was just another leader. In 2010, a year into Sigurdardóttir’s tenure as prime minister, Iceland passed a marriage equality law. She and her partner, author Jonina Leosdóttir, were one of the first couples to take advantage of it. The women, both divorced mothers, had been in a civil partnership since 2002.” Sigurðardóttir left office in 2013.