In Activism
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
A former prosecutor with no experience in elected office, this person swept all 50 of Chicago’s wards in the 2019 mayoral runoff election. Becoming the city’s first ever Black female mayor and its first openly LGBTQ mayor.
Who is Lori Lightfoot
This style of dance was made popular by Madonna's hit song.
Vogue
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
This member of the Fab 5 was the first openly gay black man for his role on a 2004 MTV show.
Who is Karamo Brown?
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, Big Mama was officially inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thorton
The first Black woman from a Southern state elected to the House of Representatives; she was in a long-term, private, same-sex relationship.
Who is Barbara Jordan
The only openly LGBTQ artist to win a Country Music Association award and is nominated for 6 Grammy awards.
Who is Lil Nas X
A feminist, social activist, and writer
famous for her novel "The Color Purple."
Who is Alice Walker?
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
This civil rights activist worked to organize many events, such as the March on Washington, legally adopted his partner to create a legal bond.
Who is Bayard Rustin?
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
This drag queen brought the art into public popularity with their self named show.
Who is RuPaul Charles?
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
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
Sylvester
This academic and activist is a Marxist and has written over 10 books over class, feminism, and the US prison business.
Who is Angela Davis?
One of the first two openly Black LGBTQ+ members of Congress (elected 2020) and the first openly gay Afro-Latino in Congress.
Who is Ritchie Torres
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
This transgender Louisiana Creole nonfiction author focuses her writing on the unseen members of the LGBTQIA community and has received the 2020 Transgender Arts Initiative Grant as well as the Bronx recognizes "It's Own Award"
Who is Nahson Dion Anderson
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
This black, bi, trans woman became an activist after being sentenced for manslaughter for stabbing a man who attacked her and her friends
Who is Cece McDonald
the first openly transgender Black woman elected to public office in the U.S., according to LGBTQ advocacy groups and researchers.
Who is Andrea Jenkins
"Shade came from reading; reading came first" is a quote from this documentary
What is Paris Is Burning
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
Known as "The Mother of Blues," this artist paved the way for many queer Musicians, especially for women.
Ma Rainey