#MatterOfCultureHonors LGBTQ+ Pride — June 2021
LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated each year in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, which was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, agender, genderqueer, and other nonconforming individuals have had on history, nationally and internationally.
In celebration, #MatterOfCultureHonors will highlight members of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the month, featuring a few profiles every day on Instagram and LinkedIn. (You may also check out the full 2020 LGBTQ+ ICONS list that inspired this #MatterOfCultureHonors campaign.)
We honor the accomplishments and contributions of these outstanding humans!
MENAKA GURUSWAMY & ARUNDHATI KATJU
Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju are Indian lawyers who won a historic 2018 Indian Supreme Court case decriminalizing homosexuality. For the pair, who came out as a couple in the international media afterward, the ruling represented a personal triumph as well as a watershed victory for LGBTQ+ people in India. In 2019, Time named Guruswamy and Katju to its list of the 100 most influential people.
YANCE FORD
Yance Ford is an African American transgender producer and director. He received the Fledgling Fund Fellowship at MacDowell, has been listed on The Root 100, and named one of Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. In 2018, he directed and co-produced Strong Island, a documentary about the 1992 murder of his brother William. The film earned Ford and co-producer, Joslyn Barnes, a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making Ford the first openly transgender man to be nominated for any Academy Award. The pair also received an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, making Ford the first openly trans man and the first Black openly transgender person to win an Emmy award, as well as the first openly transgender filmmaker to win a Creative Arts Emmy.
MADISON BUTLER
Madison Butler (aka the Blue Haired Unicorn) is an outspoken advocate for mental health, destigmatizing trauma, DEI, and the ability to be “human at work.” Her work is focused around creating equitable spaces and scalable strategies to achieve psychological safety. Butler is committed to deconstructing the status quo and rebuilding corporate America, one organization at a time. Her mission is to ensure that no one ever feels like corporate spaces were not made for them, and they can live, work, and exist out loud.
TIM GUNN
Tim Gunn is an asexual author, actor and TV personality. He has been the mentor to designers on the TV series Project Runway since the show’s debut in 2004, and also serves as co-host and mentor to designers in Netflix’s Making the Cut. Gunn joined Parsons School of Design in New York City in 1982, became associate dean there in 1989, and then took over as the school’s chair of the department of Fashion Design in 2000. In 2007, he left Parsons to become the chief creative director of Liz Claiborne, Inc. That year he also published Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste, & Style.
TASHNUVA ANAN SHISHIR
A Bangladeshi satellite TV station has hired the country’s first transgender news anchor, saying it hopes the appointment will help change society. Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who previously worked as a rights activist and actress, debuted on Dhaka-based Boishakhi TV on International Women’s Day. Bullied and sexually exploited since her early teens, when she began to live publicly her female identity, Shishir started feeling that it was impossible to continue living and attempted suicide. After moving to the capital, she underwent hormone therapy, worked for charities, and acted with a local theater group. Shishir said her dream is to build a team with aspiring dancers, actors and media personalities from the transgender community to raise awareness about the obstacles they face.
LUKE TUFFS
Luke Tuffs is an openly gay English soccer player, coach and manager. Not easily offended by much, he gives the stereotypical locker-room nonsense as well as he takes it, using the banter and conversation to open honest discussion about how people feel, a tactic he has found to be particularly effective. For Tuff’s part, he’s focused on being the best club manager he can be. Now the head manager at Ashford Town FC — a club currently in the eighth-tier Isthmian League — he has his sights set on moving the club up to higher levels. Wherever his career takes him, Tuffs will continue to break down barriers as an out gay man in English soccer.
JACKIE COX
Jackie Cox is the stage name of Darius Rose, a Canadian drag queen based in New York City who became the first contestant to dress in a Muslim-inspired outfit on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Throughout that season of the popular show, Jackie Cox shared many poignant stories that highlighted anti-Muslim policies. Born in Nova Scotia to a Canadian father and an Iranian mother, Rose attended UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television to study theater.
KELLY CAMPBELL
After selling her cause marketing firm in 2016, Kelly Campbell began to mentor creative and technology agency owners as a Conscious Leadership Coach under her consultancy, Agency Growth Consultant LLC — pulling from a holistic mix of Buddhist psychology, contemplative science, shadow work and integral theory. In addition to co-founding Consciousness Leaders, she is a keynote speaker at agency growth and leadership conferences across the US, has been featured in The New York Times, Woman Entrepreneur and Forbes.com — where she is also a member of the Forbes Business Council. Campbell hosts THRIVE: Your Agency Resource, a bi-weekly video podcast that helps creatives and technologists become conscious leaders of sustainable organizations.
JAVIER AMBROSSI & JAVIER CALVO
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, the duo known as Los Javis, are Spanish LGBTQ+ advocates best known for writing, producing and directing the critically acclaimed Veneno, which was released on HBO Max during Transgender Awareness Week in 2020. The series follows the life of 90s transgender icon, Cristina Ortiz, and features the largest transgender cast in the history of Spanish cinema. The series marked an important milestone for the LGBTQ+ community and is currently nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Scripted Television Series in the Spanish Language category.
KERI HULME
Keri Hulme is an atheist, aromantic, and asexual novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Her novel, The Bone People, won the Man Booker Prize in 1985. She was the first New Zealander to win this award. Hulme’s writing explores themes of isolation, postcolonial and multicultural identity, and Maori, Celtic, and Norse mythology. She has been the recipient of various awards including the New Zealand Literary Fund grant, the Katherine Mansfield Memorial award, the Maori Trust Fund prize, the East-West Centre award, the Booker prize, and the Chianti Ruffino Antico Fattor award, among others.
RUSSELL TOVEY
Russell Tovey is an openly gay English art collector and actor best known for playing the roles of Harry Doyle on the thriller series Quantico and Kevin Matheson in HBO’s Looking. Recognized as one of the most serious young collectors in Britain, Tovey’s fascination with art began when he bought a Tracey Emin monotype after The History Boys. He is a patron of Chisenhale Gallery and Studio Voltaire, both in London, and an honorary member of the New Museum in New York’s Contemporary Council. His engagement with the art world has taken him beyond collecting to also being one of its greatest proselytizers through his podcast Talk Art, which he co-hosts with gallerist Robert Diament.
CHANNING JOSEPH
Channing Joseph is an award-winning journalist and writer who has served as editor-in-chief of SF Weekly, as well as both a staff editor and writer at Associated Press and The New York Times. While at the latter, he edited projects that led to the release of several wrongfully convicted prisoners, and helped earn the paper two Polk Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Joseph is the 2020 winner of a Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, and a 2019 winner of a Whiting Grant for Creative Nonfiction, as well as a Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellowship, for his forthcoming biography, House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens. The book is the untold story of William Dorsey Swann — a former slave who became the world’s first self-described “drag queen,” and a progenitor of ballroom culture. Through the lens of Swann’s extraordinary life, the book tells the forgotten history of the earliest efforts at queer resistance and liberation in America, just after the Civil War.
IZZY LOWELL
Izzy Lowell is an American family medicine doctor who has spent years championing trans health care in the South. A member of World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), Dr. Lowell gives lectures regularly to educate other medical providers and students about transgender medicine. Dr. Lowell is proud to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and is passionate about equality and respect for all. She lives in Atlanta with her wife and two children.
LUCAS MURNAGHAN
Lucas Murnaghan was an openly gay orthopedic surgeon and photographer whose images involved water and its surroundings. His early work focused primarily on surf and adventure photography, and he always preferred to immerse himself in his environment. His love of photography further evolved into fine art and editorial work in the underwater realm, and worked with several brands, subjects, and locations to create evocative and ethereal images. An accomplished triathlete and free diver himself, he worked without additional SCUBA equipment, allowing him a deeper connection to his subject. This personal and organic approach allowed for greater versatility in his shoots and a heightened level of intimacy to the finished product. Murnaghan brought a fresh eye to a challenging medium and takes his audience with him, below the surface, to see things from a novel perspective.
ZOE DOLAN
Zoe Dolan is a writer and trial lawyer based in Los Angeles and New York City. Her law practice focuses on criminal defense, with an emphasis on national security and death penalty cases. She is the author of There Is Room for You: Tales from a Transgender Defender’s Heart, and the creator of the Being Transgender — Naked project, a series of blogs, photographs, and artworks on the theme of identity in society today. Dolan has been profiled by The New York Times, Al Jazeera, and The Advocate.
ALAN IBBOTSON
Alan Ibbotson is a British changeologist and founder of The Trampoline Group, a group dedicated to making work a great place to spend half your life. He is also the host of the Wisdom You Didn’t Ask For series. Aside from 80s Brit pop, his passion has always been the development of people and the ignition of vibrant, engaged work cultures. Ibbotson is a popular keynote speaker on change leadership, emotional intelligence, and resilience. He lives in Connecticut with his husband, two adopted kids and three dogs.
SARAH PETERS
Sarah Peters is an American politician and environmental engineer serving as a member of the Nevada Assembly. She is one of three openly pansexual legislators in the United States. A day after she came out publicly as pansexual, she presented a bill that would require “all single-occupancy public restrooms be gender-neutral.” Peters has also introduced legislation that she describes as strengthening indigenous sovereignty rights within tribal jurisdictions. She sponsored a piece of legislation which made neon the official element of Nevada and encouraged state residents to enroll in health insurance programs. She supported an effort which opposed the United States Air Force’s acquisition of 1.1 million acres in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge for a bombing range. Peters is the vice chair of the Health and Human Services committee and sits on two other committees.
DEMI LOVATO
Demi Lovato is a successful actress and recording artist who came out as non-binary in 2021, announcing their decision to officially change their gender pronouns to “they/them.” Lovato was the star of their own Disney Channel TV show, called Sonny with a Chance. The series debuted in 2009, becoming one of the channel’s most popular programs and making Lovato one of its brightest stars. In 2015, Lovato unveiled a new single entitled “Cool for the Summer” from their album Confident. The single hit №11 on the Hot 100, while the album reached №2 on the Billboard 200. The artist enjoyed more success with their follow-up album, Tell Me You Love Me, which spawned the hit single “Sorry Not Sorry.” The artist opened up about their bipolar disorder and other difficulties in the 2017 documentary Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated. Lovato also shared they had a heart attack and three strokes after an overdose in the 2021 documentary Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil.
CRISTINA ORTIZ
Cristina “La Veneno” Ortiz was a Spanish singer, actress, sex worker and media personality. Considered one of the most important and beloved LGBTQ+ icons in Spain, she rose to fame in 1996 after briefly appearing on the late-night talk show Esta noche cruzamos el Mississippi. She would later appear regularly on the show as well as on La sonrisa del pelícano. La Veneno was one of the first transgender women to become widely known in Spain, and has since been recognized as a pioneering trans icon. In 2019, a plaque was unveiled to honor her in the Parque del Oeste. A week later, the plaque was stolen. In October 2020, the City Council of Madrid announced that the plaque would be replaced after many popular petitions were submitted. It was placed on December 4. The 2020 TV series Veneno is based on her life.
TODD SEARS
Todd Sears is the founder and principal of Out Leadership, a global strategic advisory firm that connects leaders across the world’s most influential industries to create business opportunities, cultivate talent, and drive LGBTQ+ equality forward. An active philanthropist and community leader, he is the founding co-chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, a fundraiser supporting LGBTQ+ civil rights, youth and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, which has applied an innovative cost-structure to raise millions of dollars since its inception. Sears also serves on the non-profit boards of The Williams Institute of UCLA, The Palette Fund, and Lambda Legal. He received Aid for AIDS International’s My Hero Award in 2014. A year later, he was awarded the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Paula L. Ettelbrick Award for achievements in advancing LGBTQ+ attorneys.
MAX CURRIE
Max Currie is a multi-award-winning writer, director and producer from New Zealand whose screen career began when he joined the reporting team on groundbreaking LGBTQ+ show Queer Nation. After making some short films and writing for Shortland Street, Currie’s debut feature was nominated for Moa Awards in 2014 for Best Director, Writer and Film. Everything We Loved is a drama about two magicians dealing with the loss of their child. In 2020, Currie directed Rūrangi, about a trans activist who returns to his hometown. It became the first web series selected to screen at the annual NZ International Film Festival. Currie is a pit crew member of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.
ANDREA DI GIOVANNI
Andrea Di Giovanni is an Italian singer-songwriter. Becoming aware of his own sexuality from a young age left him confused, often feeling shameful and full of guilt. His only release was to sing, and when he did so, he felt completely invincible. Chosen as the face of Song4Life, a national alcohol awareness campaign, and participating in the TV show Amici di Maria de Filippi, he began to carve out his own story. Making the decision to be the master of his own destiny, Di Giovanni packed his bags and headed to London, not only in pursuit of a career in music but in search of a place where he felt more comfortable expressing his sexuality. Influenced by a wide variety of styles and genres, his delivery of playful, quirky electronic pop is enough to get you moving, and his compelling honesty makes you want to stop and listen intently.
HANNE GABY ODIELE
Hanne Gaby Odiele is an intersex activist and fashion model. They have appeared in features for Vogue and became the face of Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti. They have booked some of the industry’s most lucrative campaigns, including those for Mulberry, Balenciaga, Anna Sui, Vera Wang, and DKNY Jeans. After publicly disclosing their intersex status in 2017, Odiele partnered with interACT to advocate for intersex human rights. In the same year, in interviews with The Times and Dazed, they described their identity as an intersex woman, and their desire for an intersex community. In 2019, Odiele came out as non-binary in Flemish newspaper De Morgen.
NIKOLAY ALEXEYEV
Nikolay Alexeyev is Russia’s best-known and most quoted LGBTQ+ activist, and the founder of Moscow Pride. Through both illegal public protests and legal appeals, his uncompromising fight for the right to hold Moscow Pride drew international attention to the issue of LGBTQ+ rights in his country. In 2009, alongside Russian, French and Belarusian activists, Alexeyev organized a protest to denounce the inaction of the European Court in considering the legality of the Moscow Pride bans. A year later, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had violated Alexeyev’s right to protest and fined the government. The verdict marked the first international legal defeat of the Russian government on the issue of LGBTQ+ rights. Alexeyev has received numerous international awards, including an honor from the International Gay and Lesbian Cultural Network (IGLCN) for “outstanding and courageous efforts in the face of unusually fierce homophobia.”
ANNE MCCLAIN
Anne McClain is a former NASA astronaut and US Army lieutenant colonel who served as flight engineer for Expeditions 58/59 to the International Space Station. She is the second LGBTQ+ person to become an American astronaut. Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, McClain dreamed of becoming an astronaut from an early age. She graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering, earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Bath, and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Bristol, where she was a Marshall Scholar. A competitive athlete, she played rugby for the Women’s Premiership in England and for the USA Rugby Women’s National Team.
SAM SMITH
Sam Smith is an English singer and songwriter who announced in 2019 that they prefer to use non-binary pronouns. They first hit the charts as the featured singer on the 2012 Disclosure song “Latch,” and released their first single, “Lay Me Down,” soon after. In 2014, Smith released In the Lonely Hour, their heartfelt debut full-length album, which contained the smash hit “Stay With Me,” a radio staple over the course of the entire year. For the album, Smith was awarded four Grammys, among them Song of the Year and Record of the Year. They also revealed that despite the album being full of love songs, they’ve never experienced it firsthand.
GOTTMIK
Gottmik is the stage name of Kade Gottlieb, an American make-up artist and drag performer who became the first trans man to compete on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Described by Out as “someone transmasculine who does high femme drag,” Gottlieb uses she/her pronouns when portraying Gottmik, and he/him pronouns out of drag. In 2021, Gottmik launched a YouTube channel in 2021, having previously appeared on the Gigi Gorgeous, Pearl, and World of Wonder channels. Gottmik was featured on the cover of Attitude for its April Style issue.
DEBORAH BATTS
Deborah Batts was the first openly gay federal judge. She presided over prominent cases involving political corruption, terrorism and criminal justice. A trailblazer for women, African Americans and LGBTQ+ people, she is remembered as a devoted jurist whose humanity inspired generations of lawyers. A lifelong advocate for equality and justice, Batts worked closely with a mentoring program that sought to increase diversity among lawyers appointed for indigent defenders. She also worked with RISE, a program aimed at reducing recidivism among at-risk offenders.
ANARAA NYAMDORJ
A self-described queer transgender man, Anaraa Nyamdorj is a leading Mongolian LGBTQ+ civil rights activist who has dedicated his life to helping other Mongolians find self-knowledge and social acceptance. In 2007, along with a group of activists, he founded Mongolia’s first LGBT Center, which focuses on social awareness, community programming, and legislative advocacy. Although discrimination remains pervasive in the country, the organization has pushed the government to adopt LGBTQ+ protections, including passage of a law preventing medical and police discrimination. Through its many initiatives, the organization has worked extensively to educate and train medical professionals, law enforcement officials and the community.
DAN LEVY
Dan Levy is the co-creator, executive producer, and costar of the Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek. He created the series with his father, Eugene Levy, who also acted on the show. The show has received 19 Emmy nominations and several Canadian Screen Awards. Prior to his time on Schitt’s Creek, Levy was a TV host, writer, producer, and actor on MTV Canada. In 2013, Levy formed Not a Real Company Productions, and in 2019 he signed a deal with ABC Studios to develop scripted content. He also stars in HBO Max’s satirical film Coastal Elites alongside Bette Midler, Issa Rae, and Sarah Paulson, which was filmed entirely in coronavirus quarantine.
BOLU OKUPE
Bolu Okupe is a Nigerian-born bodybuilder based in Paris who came out publicly in 2021 by sharing a shirtless picture of himself carrying a Pride flag on Instagram with the loud and proud caption: “Yes I’m Gay AF.” As the son of Doyin Okupe, a staunchly homophobic former top Nigerian presidential aide, his post quickly went viral. He suffered stinging criticism from social media users as well as from his own family, with one Instagram user saying that if he were in Kenya he would “be a corpse.” Nigeria has been ranked as the worst place for LGBTQ+ safety, due to the prospect of 14 years in prison or the death penalty for homosexuality, as well as the criminalization of LGBTQ+ rights discussions.
CALLUM HOWELLS
Callum Howells is a queer Welsh actor, singer, and TV personality who began his career as a child. He is known for his role as Colin Morris-Jones in the TV drama It’s a Sin, which takes place during a time when so many others wrongfully thought that the spread of AIDS throughout a predominantly gay demographic was some form of moral or cosmic retribution. Howells brings a remarkable sensitivity to the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed character of Colin, a neophyte tailor on Savile Row, who at first forms a friendship with an older gay coworker (played by Neil Patrick Harris), and eventually moves in with the Pink Palace crew.
RANJIT “RANJ” SINGH
Ranjit “Ranj” Singh is a British doctor, TV presenter, author and columnist who is best known as a celebrity dancer on the series Strictly Come Dancing. His TV career began in 2012, having become the presenter for Get Well Soon, a children’s TV show that received a children’s BAFTA award in the Interactive — Adapted category. Singh is the author of two children’s educational books, Food Fuel and Skelebones, and a Sunday Times bestselling cookbook. He is also a contributor and columnist for Al Jazeera, Attitude magazine and NetDoctor. Ranj has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, especially among minorities, and won the 2019 Attitude TV Award.
CLAIRE RUBY FOSTER
Claire Rudy Foster is a queer, nonbinary trans writer who lives in Portland, Oregon, and the author of short story collection Shine of the Ever, which O: The Oprah Magazine named as one of the best LGBTQ books of the year. Their award-winning work has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize four times, as well as several small press awards for excellence, including Lambda Literary Award, Foreword INDIES Award, Speculative Literature Foundation’s Working Class Writer Grant, NLA-International Nonfiction Writing Award, and SFWA Writing Award. Foster, who has been in recovery from alcoholism and addiction since 2007, is the face of Google’s recovery awareness campaign.
NIÑA DIOZ
Niña Dioz is the first queer female hip-hop MC from Monterrey, Mexico. With inventive flows, razor-sharp wordplay, and an infectious, laid-back delivery, she quickly made a name for herself within Monterrey’s scene. As a light-skinned, openly queer woman, Dioz’s physical identity and sexuality challenged every preconception of what a rapper should look like in the city’s machista hip-hop culture. She also pushed the scene’s soundscape beyond its usual boundaries by infusing her work with experimental beats, introducing unexpected electronic, Caribbean, and Latin elements into her songs. On the track “América,” she candidly spotlights the racism she’s witnessed since moving to the United States, especially as a Mexican immigrant. With her signature self-assured and unhurried delivery, backed by a smooth marimba-driven beat, Dioz confronts intolerance with grit and grace.
DEVIN IBAÑEZ
Devin Ibañez, the first openly gay Major League Rugby player, is dedicated to LGBTQ+ advocacy in sport, hoping to inspire the next generation of LGBTQ+ athletes and make sport an inclusive space for them. Raised in Boston, MA, he played for Major League Rugby team, the New England Free Jacks, in their 2019 exhibition season. He won a gold medal while representing Team USA at the 2017 World Maccabiah Games in Israel, and the 2018 D1 National Championship with his club team, Mystic River Rugby Club. When not playing, Ibañez has coached rugby at Westlake Boys High School in New Zealand, his alma mater Brookline High School, and with the Northeast Academy. He holds a degree in sport management and education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
EDDIE SHIEH
As an Asian American transgender man, Eddie Shieh gets what it’s like to make daily trade-offs between different identities and cultural values on the job. His style is warm, playful and heartfelt as he helps clients unpack and undo the effects of systemic oppression on their self-image and ability to lead diverse teams. A member of the Consciousness Leaders collective, Shieh is a professional certified leadership coach who specializes in addressing burnout among professionals, often with intersecting minority identities that struggle to step into their full power at work and in life. Shieh applies his experience coaching leaders, facilitating collaboration and design thinking to help further the mission of LYRIC, a San Francisco non-profit focused on LGBTQ+ youth leadership development. He is also a member of the UNtraining, a group dedicated to eradicating internalized racism through cultivating radical self-love.
SAPPHO
Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre. Her poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, and she was among the canon of Nine Lyric Poets most highly esteemed by scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. Sappho’s poetry is still considered extraordinary, and her works continue to influence other writers. Beyond her poetry, she is well known as a symbol of love and desire between women, with the English words sapphic and lesbian being derived from her own name and the name of her home island, respectively. Whilst her importance as a poet is confirmed from the earliest times, all interpretations of her work have been colored and influenced by discussions of her sexuality.
ANDERSON COOPER
Anderson Cooper is an American author, journalist, and TV personality. He is the main host of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°, and a major correspondent for 60 Minutes. Born in New York City, he is the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, fashion designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. Cooper has won 18 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, as well as an Edward Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club in 2011. He came out as gay in 2012, becoming “the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television” at the time, according to The New York Times. In 2016, Cooper became the first openly LGBTQ+ person to moderate a presidential debate. He has received several awards from the LGBTQ+ rights organization GLAAD.
KHELANI
Kehlani is a singer-songwriter and young mom who has amassed a slew of accolades since releasing their debut mixtape, Cloud 19. Kehlani, who uses both “she” and “they” pronouns, is as prolific with their work as they are passionate about it. They have released three commercial mixtapes and two full-length studio albums since 2014. With all of her success, Kehlani is one of only a few LGBTQ+ artists who has been able to break through into mainstream cultural consciousness — and that’s not something the 25-year-old takes for granted. Kehlani is also proud to be a part of a new generation of musical artists that is unapologetic about their sexual identity and gender, and that is celebrating all of the things that make them different and freer than generations past.
TRAVIS WALL
Travis Wall is a dancer, instructor, and choreographer specializing in contemporary, and jazz dance styles who rose to international attention in 2006 as a competitor on the second season of So You Think You Can Dance. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winning choreographer and has long been known as a visual musician. He has choreographed for the Los Angeles City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, the New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck, and the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, where he worked with Florence and the Machine, Chelsea Handler, Eminem and Drake. His New York Theater choreography debut was the Off-Broadway production of BARE: A Rock Musical.
ANICK SONI
Anick Soni is a British Asian human rights activist, creative and researcher, as well as Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Describing himself as favoring personal consent and bodily autonomy, he campaigns for protections from discrimination and forced surgeries, and for better support for children and caregivers, visibility and community healing. Soni participated in his first event by and for intersex people in 2018, at an OII Europe conference in Copenhagen. He has been the subject of a BBC TV and radio documentary named The Intersex Diaries. In 2020, he became the first intersex person on the cover of Attitude. Soni is the co-founder and trustee of new intersex charity InterconnectedUK (iConUK).
MARCO LEHMANN
Marco Lehmann is a Swiss professional basketball player who came out publicly in 2021 because he wanted to play his next season as a proud and happy gay man. His goal now is to live openly as a gay athlete, while also helping Switzerland National Team qualify for the 2024 Olympics. “I am really looking forward to the fact that from this point on, I won’t have to lead a double life anymore,” he beamed. “That I will be able to live normally and put my main focus on basketball again.”
RYAN BURKE
Ryan Burke is a New York-based multi-disciplinary artist who uses makeup, photography, and design to transform himself and other subjects into otherworldly personas. He works as a makeup artist and photographer in the fashion industry, and is also known for his self-portraits in the fashion, art, and drag community. Burke became interested in makeup while living in Los Angeles and exploring the nightlife/drag community. He describes his style as a bit surreal, a bit sci-fi, and usually graphic and colorful.
ELLIOT DRAZNIN
Elliot Draznin is an American social entrepreneur and community builder who was the first openly transgender person at the University of Cincinnati to serve as the president of a Greek organization. Prompted by Draznin and two other transgender individuals joining Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi (or SAEPi), the sorority changed its policy to make it clear that transgender and gender nonconforming people are welcomed as members. Draznin describes being able to find a home on campus where they and other gender nonconforming people are accepted as “incredible.” They are a financial planner in Cincinnati.
IQRAN RASHEED
Iqran Rasheed is a Pakistani filmmaker whose Aadat (“Habit”) takes an intimate and unflinching look at the realities of gay life in South Asia, a region where LGBTQ+ life remains largely relegated to the shadows. The 13-minute film follows the story of a young man who hires a sex worker in an attempt to fulfill his desire for emotional and sexual connection in a conservative Islamic country. The ensuing scenes show the personal toll of repressing your innermost desires as well as the potentially devastating consequences for those who express them. Aadat, which received the Merit Award at the Best Shorts Competition Film Festival in the US, and was runner-up in Paksitan’s EACPE Film Awards, was a labor of love for Rasheed, who lives in Karachi, Pakistan. Homosexuality remains illegal in Pakistan and punishable with jail time. While the law is rarely enforced by the government, conservative attitudes mean that extrajudicial violence against and “honor killings” remain a tragic reality. Rasheed spent a year and half creating the film, a process slowed down by the refusal of many actors and venues to be a part of it.
JAVICIA LESLIE
Javicia Leslie is an openly bisexual American actress best known for becoming the first Black woman to be cast in the lead role of the TV series Batwoman. She previously appeared on God Friended Me, The Family Business and Always a Bridesmaid. Born into an American military family in Germany, Leslie was raised in Maryland. She earned a business degree from Hampton University, a historically Black university in Virginia, where she also starred in multiple theater productions and began to fall in love with acting. Leslie has been an advocate for diverse on-screen representation and acknowledged that her new role has the potential to be a game changer when it comes to diversity in the superhero genre — especially for Black and LGBTQ+ performers.
IAN MCKELLEN
Sir Ian McKellen is an English actor who has been widely regarded as one of greatest stage and screen actors, twice nominated for the Oscar, and recipient of every major theatrical award in the UK and US. Very few people knew of his homosexuality until 1988, when he publicly came out on the BBC while discussing Margaret Thatcher’s “Section 28” legislation, which made the promotion of homosexuality as a family relationship by local authorities an offense. He has been active in the gay rights movement ever since. McKellen was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for his efforts in the arts.
SEAN COLEMAN
Sean Coleman is the founder and executive director of Destination Tomorrow, where he oversees the organization’s LGBT Community Center in the South Bronx. He is the first African American of transgender experience to operate an LGBT Center in NYC history, and plays a key role in advocating for policies that directly impact the lives of millions of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. He is a member of the Consciousness Leaders collective, and the managing partner of Sean Ebony Coleman Consulting, a consultancy that specializes in working to increase Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement strategies for LGBTQ+ communities. Coleman has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes and the Advocate.
BIMINI BON BOULASH
Bimini Bon Boulash (also known mononymously as Bimini) is the stage name of Tommy Hibbitts, a British drag queen based in East London. Bimini is non-binary and opened up about coming to terms with their gender identity in a conversation with a fellow contestant during the recording of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, where they placed as a runner-up. Their open conversation was praised by many and sparked confidence in many to discuss their gender identity with those closest to them. Aside from making their London Fashion Week runway debut in 2021, Bimini is writing a book with the working title A Drag Queen’s Guide to Life, scheduled for release in October.
ARLO PARKS
Arlo Parks is an openly bisexual British singer-songwriter and poet. Her debut studio album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim, peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart, and earned her nominations for Album of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2021 Brit Awards. Parks made the front cover of NME, and won the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch in 2020.
JONATHAN BAILEY
Jonathan Bailey is a British actor, best known for the drama Broadchurch, the BBC’s Doctor Who, and the Netflix period drama, Bridgerton. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for his portrayal of Jamie in the 2018 West End revival of Company, and has acted in many British films, such as Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Permanent Vacation, Testament for Youth, and The Mercy. Bailey made his American film debut with The Young Messiah. He has spoken about his experiences as a gay actor in interviews with The Times and Attitude magazine.
HIG ROBERTS
Hig Roberts is an openly gay alpine skier who was one of a few former college skiers to join the United States Ski Team B. In 2017, he earned his first national title when he beat Tim Jitloff in the giant slalom at Sugarloaf, Maine. He won again in 2018, and was the first alternate US team at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Roberts had 31 starts in the World Cup between 2015 and 2019, and won 2 giant slalom national titles competing on the United States Ski Team. After retiring from sports in 2019, Roberts worked in finance in Norway and continues to ski recreationally.
LUKE EVANS
Luke Evans is an openly gay Welsh actor and singer who began his career on the stage, performing in many of London’s West End productions before making his film breakthrough in the Clash of the Titans 2010 remake. Following his debut, Evans was cast in such action and thriller films as Immortals, The Raven, and the re-imagined The Three Musketeers. In 2013, he starred as the antagonist Owen Shaw in the blockbuster Fast & Furious 6, and also played Bard the Bowman in Peter Jackson’s three-part adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Evans had a lead role in the period drama series The Alienist in 2018.
RINA SAWAYAMA
Rina Sawayama is a Japanese-British model and singer-songwriter based in London who is releasing a new version of her LGBTQ+ anthem Chosen Family in collaboration with Elton John. In 2018, Sawayama came out during an interview with Broadly, declaring: “I’ve always written songs about girls. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned a guy in my songs, and that’s why I wanted to talk about it.” She identified as both bisexual and pansexual. In 2020, Sawayama signed an open letter to the UK Equalities minister Liz Truss calling for a ban on all forms of conversion therapy.
YOTAM OTTOLENGHI
Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born British chef, restaurateur, and food writer. Along with Sami Tamimi, he is the co-owner of six delis and restaurants in London, as well as the author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Ottolenghi, Plenty, and Jerusalem. He married Karl Allen in 2012 and “came out as a gay father” in a 2013 Guardian essay that detailed the lengthy process of conceiving Max via gestational surrogacy, an option that he believes should be more widely available to those who cannot conceive naturally. The couple and their two sons live in Camden.
JOJO SIWA
JoJo Siwa is an American singer, dancer and YouTube personality who is famous for donning big bows in her hair, and for her hit singles “Boomerang” and “Hold the Drama.” In 2021, she came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community by posting a photo on her Twitter account of her wearing a shirt that said “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” She has been able to further capitalize on her fame through merchandising deals and a contract with Nickelodeon, through which she co-hosted Lip Sync Battle Shorties with Nick Cannon. Siwa has transformed her bow obsession to a business and has launched her own line. She snagged a voice role in 2019’s The Angry Birds Movie 2, before appearing on the TV competition series The Masked Singer as T-Rex in early 2020.
NIKKI HILTZ
Nikki Hiltz is a mid-distance runner and a six-time NCAA Division I All-American. Hiltz is openly gay and came out as transgender and non-binary on International Transgender Day of Visibility in 2021. In 2020, Hiltz organized Virtual Pride 5k races and donated proceeds to Trevor Project, a non-profit organization founded in 1998 focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth. Thousands of people supported Hiltz’s race.
ANGELA PONCE
Angela Ponce is a Spanish fashion model and activist who made history in 2018 as the first transgender woman to win the Miss Universe Spain title, and to compete in the international Miss Universe contest. Although she did not advance to the international Miss Universe finals, she won the hearts of people around the world, and blazed the trail for other transgender women. Ponce uses her recognition as a platform for activism. She collaborates with the Daniela Foundation, a nonprofit organization for transgender youth, where she speaks in schools and meets with children and parents struggling with gender identity issues. She works to raise awareness for suicide prevention among trans youth, and has participated in conferences for Doctors of the World in Spain as an advocate for transgender equality.
CARSON TUELLER
Carson Tueller is a speaker, presenter, and personal development coach whose life took an unexpected turn in 2013, when he came out as a gay man, and also injured his spinal cord in an accident that paralyzed him from the chest down. Shortly after his spinal cord injury, Tueller began sharing his experiences as a gay disabled man, including his journey with grief, loss and worth. He quickly generated interest online and gained visibility on Instagram as an LGBTQ+/disability advocate.
TEMPLE GRANDIN
Temple Grandin is an American scientist, animal behaviorist, and prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter. Diagnosed with autism as a child, she went on to pursue work in psychology and animal science, and has become a leading advocate for autistic communities. Her books Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human have garnered critical acclaim. When she was in boarding school, Grandin chose to live a celibate life. In a 2013 interview with The New York Times Magazine said, “Now I’m old enough to where [sexual urges are] all gone, and it’s like, good riddance.”
GERT KASTEEL & DOLF PASKER
Dutch couple Gert Kasteel and Dolf Pasker made history 20 years ago when they tied the knot in the world’s first legally-recognized same-sex wedding in the Netherlands. Most European Union countries, Britain, the United States, Australia, Mexico and South Africa are among 29 nations to have legalized same-sex marriage since 2001. “I’m very proud that it’s possible,” said Kasteel, who before he could complete his sentence had Pasker jump in and finish it: “that we could play a little part of it. We made history.”
ANA ROXANNE
Ana Roxanne is an ambient artist and musician who explores themes of gender and identity. She came out publicly as intersex in 2018, and now dedicates herself to being a voice for her community, speaking out about social justice for intersex youth. Roxanne promotes music as a healing force, and her transfixing tones become a kind of therapy, a remedy and a restoring after the horrors of a near-death experience.
LORAINE JAMES
Loraine James is a queer producer and a rising voice in the electronic music community, using a minimalist setup and unbound creativity. Taking piano lessons as a child and growing up listening to a wide range of genres instilled a voracious musical curiosity in her that resonates throughout her productions. Often expressing her love for IDM, her intricate, highly intuitive and emotional tracks and openly queer identity stand in direct opposition with the genre’s traditionally male, white and gear-fetishizing intellectualism. Though her 2017 self-released debut album Detail caught the ear of many music aficionados, it was her 2019 sophomore LP, For You and I, that made her a breakthrough star.
JENN T. GRACE
Jenn T. Grace is a nationally recognized business strategist, speaker, and award-winning author who is committed to giving underrepresented voices power and a stage to share their stories, speak their truth, and impact their communities. She is a member of the Consciousness Leaders collective, and the founder of Publish Your Purpose, a publishing company that includes programs like Getting Started for Authors and the PYP Academy, that teach aspiring authors how to write and publish their books. In addition to publishing 70+ books that share the stories of others, Grace has written six, including her memoir, House on Fire.
RIVER GALLO
River Gallo is a GLAAD award-winning Salvadoran-American filmmaker, actor, writer, model and intersex activist. They are a recipient of the 2019 GLAAD Media Rising Star Award, and the 2020 Ryan Murphy HALF Initiative for television directing. Their work explores the dynamics of personal and confessionary storytelling, and media’s ability to transcend human consciousness. Ponyboi, which they wrote, starred in, and co-directed with Sadé Clacken Joseph, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and was named one of Forbes’ “five not to be missed short films.” Ponyboi is the first narrative film created by and starring an out intersex person in cinema history. Gallow was named one of the “Most Exciting Queer People to Follow in 2019” by Out, and PAPER Magazine included them on their list of “100 People Taking Over 2019.”
LESLIE JORDAN
Leslie Jordan was an actor, writer and singer best known for his roles as Lonnie Garr in Hearts Afire, Beverly Leslie in Will & Grace, several characters in the American Horror Story franchise, Sid in The Cool Kids, and Phil in Call Me Kat. One of his best-known onstage performances was in Sordid Lives, where he played Earl “Brother Boy” Ingram, a role he took to the big screen in the popular cult film of the same name. Early in the AIDS crisis, Jordan became involved in AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), and Project Angel Food. He starred in the pilot episode of Laugh Out, the world’s first interactive, gay-themed comedy show. In 2021, he released the gospel music album, Company’s Comin’.
OWEN J. HURCUM
Owen J. Hurcum has become Wales’ first openly non-binary mayor after being chosen by fellow councilors on Bangor City Council in Gwynedd. Hurcum is also understood to be Wales’ youngest-ever mayor. The newly-elected official said it is “an honor” to serve as the city’s mayor, adding that their first goals will involve bringing the community together after a difficult year. Hurcum hopes their appointment will open the door for more young, diverse groups to enter into the political sphere.
LOLA RODRÍGUEZ
Lola Rodríguez is a Spanish actress, model, and LGBTQ+ rights activist. With the support of her parents, she began her transitioning process at 13, and went on to study psychology in Portugal before she began acting. In 2015, she was the first transgender minor candidate for Queen of the Carnival of Las Palmas with the fantasy La vida es bella, sponsored by the Island Council. She followed in the footsteps of Isabel Torres, who had been the first trans woman candidate in 2005. Rodríguez’s first job in a TV series was a starring role playing young Valeria Vegas in Veneno, created by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo.
ALI HANNON
Ali Hannon is an award-winning comedy performer, inclusion consultant, and communications professional helping companies put the joy into business training, learning and development. They have developed a uniquely safe and nurturing queer-centered teaching practice that is enjoyed by students across the world through their popular improv comedy workshops and courses. Hanon also led American Express’s multi-award-winning LGBTQ Network, developing a portfolio of interventions to progress the companies’ D&I agenda both internally and externally as a key sponsor of Brighton Pride. This included a successful schools’ outreach program, mentoring scheme with local universities and consultation on company policy and procedure for LGBTQ+ people. Hannon is also a member of the Consciousness Leaders collective.
JOHN WATERS
John Waters is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, he began the rise to prominence and gained a cult following in the 1970s with his audacious, so-called “trash films.” His 1972 film, Pink Flamingos, is notorious for its reliance on shock value and repulsive imagery. As his filmmaking career progressed, Waters’ work took on a more mainstream sensibility. Some of his best-known films, which often include the same cast or recurring actors, include Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and Serial Mom. In the early 1990s, Waters began to create installation art, sculpture, and photo-based projects. An openly gay man, Waters is an avid supporter of gay rights and gay pride.
SEVEN GRAHAM
Seven Graham is a British intersex activist, comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and drug addiction counselor. They were a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, and are a co-founder of the Amy Winehouse Foundation. In recognition of their intersex activism, The Independent called them an LGBT “national treasure” and ranked them second in its 2015 “Rainbow List” of the most influential LGBT people in the UK. In 2017, Graham wrote and performed in a solo play called Angels are Intersex, and in 2018 they executive produced the short film Ponyboi. In 2020, Graham joined other intersex activists to help the Los Angeles LGBT Center expand care for intersex patients.
SALLY KOHN
Sally Kohn is one of the leading progressive voices in America, and a frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. She is also a TED Curator and her three hit TED Talks have been viewed more than 6 million times. Before that, Kohn served as Executive Director of the Third Wave Foundation, the leading young women’s organization in the country. She was also a distinguished Vaid Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, where she published a groundbreaking guidebook for organizing campaigns to win domestic partnership benefits. Kohn also worked as a consultant with the Urban Justice Center, publishing a report on the experiences of gay youth in the New York juvenile justice system.
JEN HENDERSON
Jen Henderson is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, certified Scaled Agile Framework practitioner, Scrum coach, innovative technical architect, people leader, and champion of women in technology and LGBTQ+ causes. She was a board member of GLSEN Cincinnati; career development lead for the Chicago chapter of Women Who Code; and chair of the Trans Queer Plus subcommittee of Out Front, Capital One’s LGBTQ+ business resource group. Because of her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and for her work on transgender policies at WPP, Henderson was named Grand Marshal of the 2016 Cincinnati Pride parade, and was honored as Out & Equal’s 2018 “Outie” Champion of the year award.
RHODES PERRY
Rhodes Perry is a best-selling author, sought-after keynote speaker, award-winning social entrepreneur, and CEO of Rhodes Perry Consulting, a national leadership and management consulting firm helping visionaries and change-makers build psychological safety, trust, and belonging at work. Nationally recognized as a LGBTQ+ thought leader, he has 20 years of leadership experience, having worked at the White House, the Department of Justice, and PFLAG National. Perry created the Belonging at Work Summit, an annual virtual conference empowering DEI practitioners, ERG, and DEI Committee members to build community, gain new skills, and recommit to building healthier workplace cultures. A member of the Consciousness Leaders collective, Perry currently serves on the National LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce’s Transgender Inclusion Task Force and on the Cascade AIDS Project’s Board of Directors.
CARTER SICKELS
Carter Sickels is the author of The Prettiest Star, and winner of the 2021 Southern Book Prize and the Weatherford Award. His novel was also selected as a Kirkus Best Book of 2020 and a Best LGBT Book of 2020 by O Magazine. His debut novel The Evening Hour, an Oregon Book Award finalist and a Lambda Literary Award finalist, was adapted into a feature film that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Sickels’ essays and fiction have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Atlantic, Oxford American, Poets & Writers, BuzzFeed, Joyland, Guernica, Catapult, and Electric Literature. He is the recipient of the 2013 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award, and earned fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and MacDowell. Sickels is an assistant professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University.
TRUMAN CAPOTE
Truman Capote was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the true crime novel In Cold Blood, which he labeled a “nonfiction novel.” Throughout his career, Capote remained one of America’s most controversial and colorful authors, combining literary genius with a penchant for the glittering world of high society. Though he wrote only a handful of books, his prose styling was impeccable, and his insight into the psychology of human desire was extraordinary. His flamboyant and well-documented lifestyle has often overshadowed his gifts as a writer, but over time Capote’s work will outlive the celebrity.
JUSTINE AMMENDOLIA
Justine Ammendolia is a queer environmental scientist and science communicator based in Toronto, Canada. After graduating with her BSc from the University of Guelph in 2014, she was awarded a National Geographic Early Career Grant to research Arctic seabirds in Greenland. During this off-grid fieldwork, Ammendolia became aware of the pressing issue of environmental plastic pollution and developed a passion for protecting our natural world. She co-developed the Placentia Bay Ocean Debris Survey, a research program that fosters citizen science in collaboration with rural communities to better understand sources of marine plastics. Ammendolia is a published scientist and a National Geographic Explorer who advocates for LGBTQ+ visibility in STEM, and has also produced educational material and presented to youth leaders and educators. She is a member of the Youth Council to the Chief Science Advisor of Canada.
LAREN HOUGH
Lauren Hough is a New York Times best-selling author and equestrian. A three-time Pan American medalist who is currently ranked among the top 50 riders in the world, Hough has represented Team USA at the Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe–to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile–but it wasn’t until she finally left for good that Hough understood she could have a life beyond “The Family.” The essays in her best-selling Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely.
TODRICK HALL
Todrick Hall is a rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, director, choreographer and YouTuber who rose to fame after making it to the semifinals of the ninth season of American Idol. A man of many talents that include singing, acting, dance choreography, and directing, Hall decided to transform his brief moment of fame into a fully-fledged career that traversed the arts. He began by creating an ongoing series of viral videos dedicated to some of his favorite music artists. He landed a starring role in a pop music safety video commissioned by Virgin America (for which he also wrote the music), gained a spot on the judge’s panel of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and starred in his own MTV documentary series, Todrick. Hall starred as Lola in Broadway’s Kinky Boots for a four-month stretch.
VIKTORIA MODESTA
Viktoria Modesta is a bisexual Latvian-born British singer-songwriter, performance artist, and model. Often referred to as the world’s first amputee pop star, Modesta brings her unique aesthetic, experimentation, and future-focused vision to all of her creative outlets — from art and music direction, design, public speaking, DJing, acting, and to the world of science and medicine as an MIT Media Lab fellow. She first gave us a fresh and glamorous perspective of post-disability in a cultural way when she performed as the Snow Queen during the closing ceremony of Paralympics 2012 wearing a diamond-encrusted prosthetic. Her latest work continues to build on her vision — in 2019 she art directed and starred as the “Bionic Showgirl” at the legendary Parisian cabaret Crazy Horse, a residency spanning 31 sold-out shows. Following her time in Paris, she art directed and starred in a stunning art film commissioned by Rolls-Royce Black Badge, where she became the “physical representation of the machine itself.”
SCOTT HEIM
Scott Heim is a gay American author who he wrote his first novel, Mysterious Skin, while enrolled in the M.F.A. program in Writing at Columbia University. The novel was adapted for the stage, premiering in San Francisco, and later adapted to film by director Gregg Araki and Antidote Films. Heim has won fellowships to the London Arts Board as their International Writer-in-Residence, and to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for his adaptation of Mysterious Skin. He is also the author of a book of poems, Saved From Drowning.
WANDA SYKES
After Wanda Sykes established herself as a popular stand-up comic, she built on her success to become a TV and film star. While she had two TV series of her own — Wanda at Large and Wanda Does It — Sykes was better known for her work on other shows, including Inside the NFL and The New Adventures of Old Christine. She won the 1999 Emmy Award for outstanding writing in a variety, music, or comedy special for The Chris Rock Show; the 2001 American Comedy Award for funniest female stand-up comedian; and the 2005 BET Comedy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a theatrical film, for Monster-in-Law. Sykes launched a secondary career as an author with Yeah, I Said It, a book of humorous essays.
ADAM RIPPON
Adam Rippon is a former figure skater with back-to-back wins at the world junior championships. Though he missed out on berths with the US teams for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, he regained his standing in the sport with a win at the 2016 US national championships. In 2018, Rippon became the first openly gay American man to qualify for the Winter Olympics, where he won a bronze medal, and emerged as a fan favorite. Rippon made additional history with his Olympic debut in 2018, becoming the oldest first-time Olympian to represent the US in figure skating since George Hill in 1936. That year, paired with Jenna Johnson, Rippon won Dancing with the Stars: Athletes.
TS MADISON
Ts Madison is a transgender reality TV personality, entertainer, entrepreneur, former pornography star, and LGBTQ+ activist. She has spoken out on human rights relating to the LGBTQ+ community, and stated that the hardest part of transitioning was finding acceptance from her family. In 2015, she wrote an autobiography called A Light Through The Shade: An Autobiography of a Queen. In 2014, she recorded and released an EP of original music titled The New Supreme.
ALICIA ROTH WEIGEL
Alicia Roth Weigel has dedicated her career to working with marginalized populations and advocating for women’s rights. By day, she is a policy, advocacy and campaign strategist for the progressive movement — changing the legislative landscape for marginalized populations in Texas and beyond. Alongside student activists she helped train and candidates she has helped manage, her work has contributed to various state-level laws and city ordinances against sexual assault and human trafficking. By night, she serves as an advisor for interACT, which employs legal and media strategies to advocate for the human rights of children born with intersex traits like her. Through this work, Weigel hopes to foster more intersectional advocacy in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.
DAVE MARSHALL
Dave Marshall is an openly gay Australian professional wrestler and personal trainer. Fascinated with the spectacle and the physical endurance of the sport since he was a kid, he started his wrestling career in 2015, at the age of 26. The 6'3″ Aussie said he’s not experienced any homophobia during his wrestling career, although his sexuality isn’t part of his on-stage persona. Since 2018, when his father committed suicide, Marshall has been raising awareness about mental health and suicide prevention, supporting organizations such as Beyond Blue.
MICHAEL BAILEY-GATES
Michael Bailey-Gates is an artist, model and photographer who uses their medium to gracefully dissolve binary perceptions of gender, identity and sexuality. In their intimate, exuberant portraits of themselves and the friends they collaborate with, nothing is fixed; the labels we are conditioned to use ebb into irrelevance and, with each photograph, expectations are tossed aside. At the heart of Bailey-Gates’ practice is a desire to reflect a world where gender, identity and sexuality are boundless conditions — perpetually in motion and attune to each individual and each moment. Bailey-Gates has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, at the Hoxton Square Gallery in London, and at the New York Film Festival. Their work was published by several magazines, including The New York Times, British Journal of Photography, The New Yorker, Aperture, and Interview.
KARAMO BROWN
Karamo Brown is an author, actor, activist and social worker who debuted in reality show when he joined the cast of Real World: Philadelphia. He received a 2020 Primetime Emmy nomination as Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition program for Queer Eye, and most recently starred in Freeform’s romantic comedy The Thing About Harry, opposite Jake Borelli. Brown is the co-founder of the beauty and skincare company MANTL, and the author of Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope and I Am Perfectly Designed, co-written with his son Jason ‘Rachel’ Brown.
ROB WOODCOX
Rob Woodcox is a fine art and fashion photographer who strives to capture fragments of a vivid life sewn by the threads of reality, memory and dream. Each concept is a declaration of his experience and seeks to tell a meaningful story to each individual that views it. His passion for photography has developed into a dedication to advocacy, producing projects raising consciousness and conversation around the US foster system and adoption, queer identity, body neutrality, racial equality, and environmental justice. Woodcox has been featured in various major publications and gallery exhibits, and has produced commercial work for clients like Universal Pictures and Capitol Records. In 2020, Woodcox released his first photographic art book Bodies of Light.
SERENA ISIOMA
The self-proclaimed “nonbinary rockstar,” Serena Isioma, is a rapper who commands the microphone with a magnetic presence and accentuates their soft croon with gentle, fluid arm movements. Throughout the two EPs Isioma released in 2020, Sensitive and The Leo Sun Sets, the amorphous artist melds elements of R&B, hip-hop, and indie pop. By slipping and sliding through modes of musical experimentation, Isioma demonstrates that they are neither interested in, nor phased by, arbitrary categories that systems of oppression impose on their music or their identity. With sharp lyricism and lively hooks, they’re differentiating themselves from the large pack of young DIY musicians today, making music out of their bedrooms. Instead of putting on a perfect facade, Isioma is presenting themself as a new kind of rockstar, one that uses their songs as a vehicle for communicating the lessons of growing up.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Tennessee Williams is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama, with works that include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. Like the characters in his plays, he was troubled and self-destructive. He was awarded four Drama Critic Circle Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1975, Williams published Memoirs, which detailed his life and discussed his addiction to drugs and alcohol, as well as his homosexuality. The US Postal Service honored Williams on a stamp issued is 1995 as part of its literary arts series.
VANESSA CARLTON
Vanessa Carlton is a bisexual singer, songwriter and pianist who helped usher in a new era of female songwriters during the early 2000s. Her first single, the Grammy-nominated “A Thousand Miles,” was one of the biggest songs of 2002, topping the pop charts in the US, and cracking the Top Ten in England. Her fourth studio LP, 2011’s Rabbits on the Run, became her fourth straight appearance on the Billboard 200. Carlton returned in 2020 with Love Is an Art, her sixth album of original material.
BIG FREEDIA
Big Freedia is a New Orleans-based hip-hop artist and worldwide ambassador of bounce music. After a series of cult hit singles during the mid 2000s, she was tapped for a reality show, Big Freedia Bounces Back on Fuse TV. The docuseries followed the life of a choirboy turned bounce rapper and remains the highest rated original series on the network. She was featured on both Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning single, “Formation,” and Drake’s “Nice For What.” Big Freedia released the critically acclaimed album, 3rd Ward Bounce in 2018. She graced the cover of Billboard, and was invited by Vogue to be the official host of the Iive Instagram stream for the Met Gala. In 2019, Big Freedia and multi-platinum pop artist Kesha released their new pop single “Raising Hell.” Big Freedia is also the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Big Freedia: God Save the Queen Diva!
WILL YOUNG
Will Young is a gay singer-songwriter, author and actor who came to prominence after winning the inaugural season of Pop Idol. His debut single, “Anything Is Possible,” was released two weeks after the show’s finale and became the fastest-selling single in the UK. Alongside his music career, Young has acted in film, on stage and TV. For his performance in the 2013 London revival of the musical Cabaret, he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He has also participated in philanthropy and released the books Anything is Possible, On Camera, Off Duty, and his autobiography Funny Peculiar.
DAVID JAY
David Jay is an American asexual activist, and the founder and webmaster of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). Frustrated with the lack of resources available regarding asexuality, Jay launched AVEN’s website in 2001. Since then, he has taken a leading role in the asexuality movement, appearing on multiple TV shows, and being featured heavily in Arts Engine’s 2011 documentary (A)sexual. AVEN is the most prolific and well-known of the various asexual communities that started to form since the advent of the World Wide Web and social media. Its two main goals are to create public acceptance and discussion about asexuality, and to facilitate the growth of a large online asexual community.
HANS LINDAHL
Hans Lindahl is an American writer, artist, and digital creative known for accessible and colorful commentary on intersex representation. While serving as Communications Director for interACT, the nation’s leading intersex advocacy organization, Lindahl was cited as a “major figure” in the passage of the country’s first legislation denouncing genital surgeries on intersex infants. Their groundwork and digital strategies helped pass California’s resolution SCR-110, and launched subsequent bills to discipline doctors who perform surgeries such as infant clitoral reductions. Lindahl’s commentary has been featured in Wired, Teen Vogue, NBC, Out, and in an annual Stanford medicine course lecture, “The Medical Politics of Intersex.”
EDWARD GOREY
In a 1980 interview, noted artist and children’s book author Edward Gorey stated that his asexuality absolutely informed his work. Known for his pen-and-ink drawings often depicting vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings, Gorey’s writings have been translated into 15 languages. In 1972, he published Amphigorey, his first anthology containing fifteen of his early works. Three more anthologies followed that have now become Gorey classics, and the cornerstones of his large body of work. He left his estate to The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, which he established for the welfare of all living creatures. After his death in 2000, his Cape Cod home was converted into the Edward Gorey House, a museum whose profits and programs help benefit animal rights and literacy causes.
KATE MCKINNON
Kate McKinnon is an American actress, comedian, and writer known for her character work and celebrity impressions on the sketch comedy series The Big Gay Sketch Show and Saturday Night Live. She has been nominated for eight Primetime Emmy Awards, including one for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, and seven for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2016 and 2017. While presenting Ellen DeGeneres with the Carol Burnett Award at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards, McKinnon opened up about being a lesbian and thanked DeGeneres for making it less scary for her to accept her sexual orientation while watching her TV sitcom Ellen.
KIM DEAL
Kim Deal is a singer-songwriter who was bassist and co-vocalist in the alternative rock band Pixies, before forming the Breeders in 1989. She became a gay icon because of her androgynous dress and playful lyrics. Deal won over fans with her band’s second album, Last Splash, with offbeat songs like “Cannonball.” While many pop and fellow rock stars like flaunted their sexuality with suggestive songs and videos, Deal let her music stand on its own without gimmicks, making it the blueprint for no-nonsense female LGBTQ+ rock musicians like Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker.
RODNEY WILSON
Rodney Wilson is an American high school teacher credited with creating Gay History Month, celebrated in October. In 1994, as a teacher at Mehlville High School in suburban St. Louis, MO, Wilson came out to his history class during a lesson about the Holocaust. If he had lived in Germany during World War II, he explained, he likely would have been imprisoned and murdered by the Nazis for being gay. He became the first openly gay K-12 teacher in the state. What began as a lesson evolved into a much broader mission to teach young people about gay history. He said, “LGBT history gave me self-confidence as a gay person and strengthened my resolve to live, as best I could, an honest, open and integrated life.” In 1995, Gay History Month received its first mainstream media coverage in Newsweek.
VASIL GARVANLIEV
Vasil Garvanliev is a Macedonian child prodigy star, choir soloist, classical opera singer and pop singer known mononymously as Vasil. He was due to represent North Macedonia with the song “You” in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam before the event was cancelled. In 2021, he came out as gay in an interview with Attitude, adding that he came to terms with his sexuality as a high school student, and has been out to his friends and family for nearly two decades. He represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song “Here I Stand.”
SCHUYLER BAILAR
Schuyler Bailar is a celebrated inspirational speaker and inclusion advocate, and the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men’s team. Coming to terms with being transgender presented him with a difficult decision: whether to continue as a possible NCAA champion on the women’s team, or to transition to a man and be authentic to himself, accepting the consequences and challenges it would entail. His choice to be true to himself has been historic. In 2019, Bailar was awarded the prestigious Harvard Athletics Director’s Award, which is not granted annually, but only when an athlete demonstrates outstanding contribution to Athletics through education. He is only the seventh recipient of the award.
PIDGEON PAGONIS
Pidgeon Pagonis is an American intersex activist, writer, artist, and consultant. They are an advocate for intersex human rights and against nonconsensual intersex medical interventions. Pagonis joined the advocacy organization interACT a few years after discovering they were intersex. In 2014, Pagonis created a documentary of their own, The Son They Never Had: Growing Up Intersex, which they tour around the country, advocating against nonconsensual “corrective surgeries.” In 2015, Pagonis created the hashtag campaign #IntersexStories for Intersex Awareness Day. The campaign attracted a huge following, with many intersex people sharing their stories. Pagonis was one of nine LGBTQ+ artists honored as an Obama White House Champion of Change in 2015.
RUBEM ROBIERB
Rubem Robierb is a visual artist, sculptor and photographer whose work has earned the attention of the media and art critics, and been presented in exhibitions, art galleries and museums around the world. In 2019, when asked by the NYC Parks to display his Dream Machine sculpture in Tribeca Park, Robierb made a bold statement naming the sculpture after Dandara Dos Santos, a Brazilian transwoman who was violently killed. He has used his career to amplify and empower voices calling for social justice, and used his art to open difficult conversations about deep rooted social issues like LGBTQ+ rights, women’s empowerment, immigration, equality, gun control, world-wide protests, climate change, racism, and bullying.
TOM OF FINLAND
Touko Valio Laaksonen, best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist known for his stylized, highly masculinized homoerotic art, and for his influence on late-20th century gay culture. His output came to include over 3500 illustrations, mostly featuring homoerotic archetypes such as lumberjacks, sailors, bikers, and men dressed in leather. His famous Kake comics featured gay men as happy, healthy, and normal people in an effort to change the negative myths and stereotypes about gay people, who were often depicted as unhappy and self-loathing individuals. Thirty years after his death, the artist remains one of the most acclaimed erotic illustrators of the 20th century, gay or otherwise. In 2009, Laaksonen was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame. Some of his original works are at the Leather Archives and Museum.
AMARILDO FECANJI
Amarildo Fecanji is the executive director of ERA — LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey. His vision is to make sure that LGBTQ+ movement in the region focuses its efforts and actions in line with all internal and external dynamics, by developing the necessary organizational, financial, human, institutional capacities and sustainability that would make them protagonists of a new era for LGBTQ+ people in the Balkans, Turkey and beyond.
SERPENTWITHFEET
Josiah Wise, known professionally as serpentwithfeet, is a queer British experimental musician based in Brooklyn who unites R&B, gospel, classical, and electronic music into passionate songs that express the fullness of his life as a gay Black man. His voice — the product of classical training as well as singing in church since childhood — flows over music that mixes the sensual with the divine and touches on inspirations as diverse as Brandy, Björk, Antonin Dvorak, and Toni Morrison. Wise first experimented with using the gospel idiom to profess romantic devotion on soil, but lyrically and musically, the narratives remained blood-soaked. By contrast, Deacon is airy, even sunny. Piano is everywhere, as are echoing beats and layered lyrics that celebrate love and satisfied same-sex domesticity.
OLLY ELEY
Olly Eley is an Australian-British model who made history by becoming the first non-binary person to appear on the cover of Elle UK. Eley, who doesn’t identify with any gender, explains their journey of “finding themselves beyond genders,” writing for the magazine’s June issue — whose groundbreaking cover crossed out the word “Elle” (“she” in English). “I’ve never felt female, but then neither have I felt male. If there was a thin line that connected the two genders, I would be a dot floating somewhere between the two, but untethered to the line altogether. It’s the only way I can describe it,” Eley wrote.
LAUREL HUBBARD
Laurel Hubbard is a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand who could very well make history this summer if she qualifies for the Tokyo Olympics. Hubbard transitioned in her mid-30s and has been competing on an international level since 2017. Her accolades include a second-place finish at the world championships in 2017, and a sixth-place finish at the same competition in 2019. Overall, she ranks 16th in the 87+kg weight class for Olympic qualifying.
SYMONE
Symone is an American drag queen, model, and member of the queer art collective House of Avalon. She is best known as the winner of season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, where she often wore looks that spoke to the cultural and political climate, including an ensemble that referenced the Black Lives Matter movement, complete with a headpiece reading, “Say Their Names.” Symone uses her platform to empower and educate about Black culture.
MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM
Michael Cunningham is an award-winning and best-selling gay author. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Short Stories. The Hours was a New York Times bestseller, and the winner of both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Raised in Los Angeles, Cunningham lives in New York City, and is a senior lecturer at Yale University.
DIVINE
Born Harris Glen Milstead just after the end of WWII, Baltimore’s most outrageous resident eventually became the international icon of bad taste cinema, as the always shocking and highly entertaining transvestite performer, Divine. After meeting maverick film director, John Waters, the two combined to star in and direct several ultra-low budget, taboo breaking cult films of the early 1970s, including Pink Flamingos, in which Divine starred as Babs Johnson, the “filthiest person alive” living in a pink trailer with her egg-eating grandmother, chicken-loving son, and voyeuristic daughter. Divine also starred in Waters’ loving (but still slightly bizarre) salute to teen dance TV shows as Ricki Lake’s mother in the superb Hairspray.
FRAN LEBOWITZ
Fran Lebowitz is an American author, public speaker, and occasional actor known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities. She is known for her books Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, which were combined into The Fran Lebowitz Reader in 1994. She has been the subject of two projects directed by Martin Scorsese, the HBO documentary film Public Speaking, and the Netflix docu-series Pretend It’s a City. Lebowitz is famously resistant to technology, and does not own a cellphone, computer, or typewriter.
DORIC WILSON
Doric Wilson was one of the first playwrights at NYC’s legendary Caffe Cino. Raised on his grandfather’s ranch at Plymouth on the Columbia River of Washington State, he wrote his first play in high school, but was accused of plagiarism when his teacher informed him that no student she taught would ever be able to write a play. Wilson moved to NYC in 1958 where, under the mentorship of producer Richard Barr, he became a pioneer of the Off-Off-Broadway movement, writing, directing, producing and/or designing over a hundred productions and becoming a founding member of Circle Repertory Theater and the Barr/Wilder/Albee Playwright’s Unit. In 1974, Doric Wilson (with Billy Blackwell, Peter del Valle and John McSpadden) formed TOSOS (The Other Side of Silence), the first professional theatre company to deal openly and honestly with the gay experience. Wilson’s plays Street Theater (titled Stonewall 69 outside the US), The West Street Gang, Forever After and became staples of the emerging Gay Theater circuit.
PETER HUJAR
Peter Hujar was an influential American photographer who worked in B&W portraiture, often portraying his friends and acquaintances in intimate or sexually suggestive settings. After struggling through a difficult childhood marked by abandonment, he went on to work in the field of commercial photography before joining the burgeoning downtown art scene in New York. Making contact with Andy Warhol and befriending several important art world figures like his partner David Wojnarowicz, Hujar created a seminal body of work throughout the 1970s and 80s. Portraits in Life and Death is his best-known book of prints, combining photographs of his friends with those taken during a Fulbright grant trip documenting the dead in the Palermo catacombs of southern Italy. Death was consistently a theme in Hujar’s work, a subject he explored until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1987, after which his dead body was touchingly photographed one final time by his partner.
CHARLES BUSCH
Charles Busch has forged a unique place in the world of entertainment as a playwright, actor, director, novelist, cabaret performer and drag icon. He is the author and star of over 75 plays including The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest running plays in the history of Off-Broadway. His play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife won the Outer Circle Critics’ John L. Gassner Award for playwrighting, received a Tony nomination for Best Play and is the longest running Broadway comedy of the past 25 years. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
ALICE OSEMAN
Alice May Oseman is an English author of young adult fiction whose novels have been praised for being “relatable” and realistic in their portrayal of contemporary teenage life. She secured her first publishing deal at 17, and had her first novel, Solitaire, published in 2014. The novel won the 2017 Silver Inky Award for young adult literature. She is also the author of Radio Silence, I Was Born for This, Loveless, and the web comic Heartstopper. Themes such as academic pressures and LGBTQ+ relationships and identities are central to Oseman’s work.
ROCK HUDSON
Rock Hudson was an award-winning actor of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Despite his public success, his private life was shrouded in secrecy. Fear of social stigma and professional disaster kept him, and other gay actors of the day, closeted. In 1955, to keep up appearances, Hudson entered a short-lived marriage to Phyllis Gates, arranged by his agent. A handsome leading man who appeared in nearly 70 films, he became the face of the early AIDS epidemic at a time when the virus and its victims were demonized. In coming out with his diagnosis — and his homosexuality — he helped raise public awareness and humanize the disease.
HARVEY FIERSTEIN
Acclaimed originally for his groundbreaking writing and performance in his 1981 Torch Song Trilogy, Harvey Fierstein has refined and redefined the persona of the drag queen in the theater. Two years later, Fierstein brought that insight and humor into his book for the musical adaptation of La Cage aux Folles. He subsequently wrote the book for Legs Diamond, with music and lyrics by Peter Allen, who also starred in the show. After playing Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Fierstein wrote the book and starred in the 2008 musical, A Catered Affair. As a writer and actor, Fierstein has won three Drama Desk Awards and four Tonys, most recently for his portrayal of Edna in Hairspray.
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
Pedro Almodóvar is an openly gay Spanish filmmaker, director, screenwriter, producer, and former actor. His films are marked by his employment of certain actors and creative personnel with complex narratives, melodrama, pop culture, popular songs, irreverent humor, strong colors, and glossy décor. He came to prominence as a director and screenwriter during “La Movida Madrileña,” a cultural renaissance that followed after the end of Francoist Spain. His first few films characterized the sense of sexual and political freedom of the period. Acclaimed as one of the most internationally successful Spanish filmmakers, Almodóvar and his films have gained worldwide interest and developed a cult following. He has won two Academy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards, six European Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, nine Goya Awards and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2019, he was awarded the Honorary Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.
ANA BRNABIĆ
Ana Brnabić is a Serbian politician serving as the prime minister of Serbia since 2017. She is the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the office. In 2019, Brnabić was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 88th most powerful woman in the world, and as the 19th most powerful female political and policy leader.
ELLIOT PAGE
Elliot Page is a Canadian actor and producer who publicly came out as transgender in 2020. He is recognized for his media image and activism, particularly towards LGBTQ+ youth and transgender rights. With his breakout role in the hit comedy Juno, Page received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Best Actress nominations, and won the Independent Spirit Award for his performance. He provided voice acting and motion-capture acting for the main character in the video game Beyond: Two Souls, for which he received a BAFTA Games Award nomination. His later TV credits include hosting the documentary series Gaycation, for which he was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, and portraying Vanya Hargreeves in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy. In 2021, Page became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
