Peter Adair

1943 – 1996

Film-maker best known for 1977’s Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, offering a clear, detailed picture of the broad spectrum of the LGBTQ population.

Gloria Anzaldua

1942-2004

Vexillologist, artist, activist and designer of the rainbow flag — the universal symbol of gay pride, hope and inclusion — who was playfully called the Betsy Ross of gay liberation.

Gilbert Baker

1951 – 2017

Vexillologist, artist, activist and designer of the rainbow flag — the universal symbol of gay pride, hope and inclusion — who was playfully called the Betsy Ross of gay liberation.

Bernice Bing

1936-1998)

San Francisco artist and activist whose emotive work combined Abstract Expressionism and Zen calligraphy to explore themes of cultural assimiliation and sexual identity.

Tullalah Bankhead

1902-1968

Openly “ambisextrous” stage and screen actress, gay icon, and pioneering civil rights activist who strongly and publicly opposed racism and segregation.

Esther Eng

1914-1970

San Francisco native, affectionately known as Big Brother Ha, the first Chinese-American woman to produce a motion picture in Hollywood, direct a film in Hong Kong and film in color.

Billie Holiday

1915-1959

Incomparable bi-sexual jazz legend, known for vocal elegance, dramatic intensity, and great improvisational skills, who unapologetically performed her signature song “Strange Fruit” as a declaration against American racism.

Marlon Riggs

1954-1994

Award-winning film maker whose examinations of Black gay life boldly confronted racism and sexual repression, most notably with 1989’s Tongues Untied.

Jon Reed Sims

1947-1984

Founder of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps (now San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band), the first openly LGBT musical group ever formed in United States history, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the country’s first openly gay American choral group.

Sophie Xeon

1860–1935

Pioneering social reformer, activist for women’s rights and world peace, public philosopher, author, first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize