Queer Pioneers
She is best known for possibly throwing the first punch of the June 27, 1969 uprising at Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.
Storme DeLarverie
Who is the first transgender person to be elected to a state legislature in the United States?
Althea Garrison
This style of dance was made popular by Madonna's hit song.
Vogue
Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.
Bessie Smith
He is an American essayist, journalist, and writer who often explored contemporary race relations, perhaps most notably in his book Between the World and Me (2015), which won the National Book Award for nonfiction.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
She was an American blues singer and songwriter who dressed in men’s clothing and had zero regard for other’s opinions on it. After she passed in 1984, she was officially inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thorton
Who won the Democratic primary for New York’s consistently blue 17th Congressional District, paving the way for the Obama Administration alum to become the nation’s first Black openly queer member of Congress.
Mondaire Jones
In Ballroom competitions they represent their houses and lead their families down the runway
House Mother
He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Nicknamed "The Innovator, The Originator, and The Architect of Rock and Roll," he known for his song "Tutti Frutti."
Little Richard
A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” she dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.
Audre Lorde
He was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California in 2003, he made history by becoming the first openly gay African American man elected mayor of an American city.
Ron Oden
She is a civil rights leader and attorney, became the first African American elected to the Texas Senate in 1966, and the first woman and first African American elected to Congress from Texas in 1972.
Barbara Jordan
This show is known for it's unique slang—"work," "gagging," "eleganza," "hunty".
RuPaul's Drag Race
His immeasurable tunes like “Do You Wanna Funk” and “(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real” (the later hit No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100) outlined the experimental beauty of disco music, which subsequently influenced the contemporary electronic genre.
Sylvester
He wrote so eloquently, thoughtfully, and passionately on the subject of race in America in novels, essays, and plays. He is perhaps best known for his books of essays, in particular Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963).
James Baldwin
She is black transgender woman and activist at the forefront of the fight for trans rights. She faced many hurdles during her life — including homelessness and incarceration — and it's these challenges that fueled her activism.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
He became the youngest elected official in New York City, not to mention the first openly LGBTQ+ elected official from the Bronx.
Ritchie Torres
He was an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the AADT.
Alvin Ailey
She is a rock and roll hall of fame inductee, winner of four posthumous Grammy awards and the voice of jazz, who organically garnered notoriety by performing in local clubs before trotting her way across larger stages.
Billie Holiday
She was the first African-American and youngest playwright to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Her play A Raisin in The Sun (named from a line from “Harlem” by Langston Hughes) was the first play by a Black woman on Broadway.
Lorraine Hansberry
She was an outspoken transgender rights activist and is reported to be one of the central figures of the historic Stonewall uprising of 1969.
Marsha P. Johnson
Who is on her way to becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ state senator in Georgia history.
Kim Jackson
The Queen of Bounce, an internationally acclaimed bounce musician, hailing from New Orleans, has released her own music and provided some of the most memorable features of the 2010s.
Big Freedia
Known as "The Mother of Blues," this artist paved the way for many queer Musicians, especially for women.
Ma Rainey
He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, he is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes