In today’s world, it might seem to the younger generations that the LGBTQ+ community always had a space to be themselves and a seat at the table. However, progress in social justice has been a long road. Without activists getting out there and fighting, equality for the LGBTQ+ community wouldn’t be where it is now. These 13 LGBTQ+ activists have all been essential in shaping American history and civil rights.
Marsha P. Johnson
Masha P. Johnson was an African American gay man and drag queen as well as a popular and welcoming face in New York City’s gay scene throughout their adult life. In 1969, Johnson became a significant figure in the LGBT scene during the Stonewall uprising when they stood up to police. The Stonewall uprising inspired a massive push forward in LGBT political activism. Later that year, they founded the Gay Liberation Front. Then in 1970, Johnson co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries with Sylvia Rivera. Johnson is known as the Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement and spent their life tirelessly advocating for gay rights.
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera became an active member of the LGBT rights movement largely thanks to meeting drag queen activist Marsha P. Johnson. Rivera is known for throwing the second Molotov cocktail at the police during the Stonewall uprising in 1969 at age 17. Being transgender, she fought not only for gay rights, but she also stood up to the exclusion faced by transgender people inside the movement, most notably transgender people of color, throughout her life.
Larry Kramer
During the 1980s and 1990s, Larry Kramer’s loud and provocative methods of calling attention to the AIDS crisis helped alter national health policy. Kramer, a gay author, wrote a piece in the San Francisco Examiner in 1988 directly addressing the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, calling him a killer for not seeing the gravity of the AIDS crisis. Fauci got the message and later cited Kramer for his essential role in effectively getting the AIDS crisis under control.
Harvey Milk
Among the first openly gay elected officials in the US was Harvey Milk. In 1977, he took his seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Aside from being a known human rights leader, Milk’s authenticity played a significant role in his election, giving hope to the marginalized LGBT community around the world. Sadly, his political career and life ended far too soon, as he was assassinated less than a year after taking office.
Janet Mock
Born in 1983, Janet Mock transitioned from male to female as a teen, though she didn’t tell anyone that she was transgender until 2011 in an article she wrote for Marie Claire. She found that hiding the fact that she was transgender helped her to live a “normal” life, especially in places like New York City in 2004 where she got a master’s degree in journalism. However, when she came out, she subsequently became one of the most prominent transgender figures in today’s world. Her 2014 memoir was the first mainstream book detailing the life of a young trans person. Now, Netflix has signed Mock as the director, producer, and writer for its original series Pose. She is the first openly transgender woman to be in this position for a major media company.
Billy Porter
Pose actor and Tony Award winner Billy Porter revealed to The Hollywood Reporter in May 2021 that he got an HIV-positive diagnosis 14 years ago in 2007. His silence since then stemmed from the fact that he knew his diagnosis would be yet another way for society to discriminate against him. Being gay and black was enough. Coming out with this information helps destigmatize HIV. People can now see that he’s been living with HIV for well over a decade and they were none the wiser, providing space for society to recognize that their beliefs about HIV are likely outdated misconceptions.
Audre Lorde
As a black lesbian born in 1934, Audre Lorde had a lot of obstacles to overcome to achieve her great success as a writer. She used that success as a springboard for her activism against racial and LGBTQ+ oppression. Her impressive collection of work, including poetry and essays, has made her an internationally recognized revolutionary. Lorde has never been afraid to speak the truth in her writing, fighting especially hard to carve out space for black queer women in the feminist movement. Her 1984 book Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches has become canonical in feminist and queer studies.
Bayard Rustin
Most people have never heard of Bayard Rustin, though his activism and dedication paved the way during the American Civil Rights Movement. An advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., Rustin was the principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. His role as an activist didn’t end with civil rights, however. In the 1980s, Rustin came out as gay after being closeted his whole life (Rustin was born in 1912), realizing that this was an obligation he had to the gay community to help encourage others to come out of the closet. He then fought hard to help the NAACP understand their necessary role in the AIDS crisis.
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker used her platform as a highly successful African American dancer and performer in France to truly impact the world. During that time, she served as a French spy against the Nazs during World War II. When she returned to the US after living in France for many years, her work as an activist didn’t stop. She refused to perform at segregated venues, causing many clubs to allow mixed-race attendance for her shows. As a bisexual black woman, she was an icon to queer audiences for her willingness to display eroticism in her performances.
Edith Windsor
Before the US government made it unconstitutional for states to ban same-sex marriage, there was Edith Windsor paving the way for that landmark decision. In 2013, Windsor was denied spousal exemption from federal estate taxes when she inherited her partner’s estate in 2009. They had been living together for 40 years and married in 2007. Her case led to the Supreme Court declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. The 2013 Windsor decision granted same-sex partners in marriage equal benefits and recognition under federal law for the first time in history.
Laverne Cox
Thanks to her outstanding performance in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, actress Laverne Cox became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in acting in 2014. That role and nomination helped her to bring the trans rights movement to prominence with her 2014 Time magazine cover: “The Transgender Tipping Point.” She was also the first openly transgender person to win a Daytime Emmy Award in 2015.
Cecilia Chung
The nationally recognized transgender human rights activist Cecilia Chung has worked tirelessly fighting for social justice and LGBTQ+ equality. Her work to improve medical access to transgender people and those living with HIV has gone past social justice in the streets. She was the former Chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and is now serves on the Health Commission. Her advocacy has helped to provide significant policy change that benefits the transgender community.
Jewelle Gomez
Jewelle Gomez is a black lesbian writer whose work has been enormously influential in changing the literary scene where black lesbian fiction was largely absent. Representation in literature is important, and her fiction has allowed queer black women to see themselves reflected in the mainstream as never before. While her impressive body of work, which also includes poetry, plays, and essays, accounts for plenty of queer, black activism on its own, Gomez has also been a prominent activist off of the page, having served on the boards of various foundations fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
Jess Lakritz 