Lorraine Hansberry

1930-1965

First African American woman to have a play performed on Broadway and the youngest playwright to receive the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.

Magnus Hirschfeld

1868-1935

Pioneering German physician and sexologist, outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, important theorist of sexuality, and a prominent advocate for sexuality minorities in the early 20th century.

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.

Langston Hughes

1901-1967

Leader of the Harlem Renaissance, whose poetry, plays, novels, and columns gave fresh insight into the experience of Black men in the United States.

Carlos Jáuregui

1956-1996

A courageous Argentinian activist who fiercely fought for the rights of the full spectrum of the LGBTQ community

Marsha P. Johnson

1945-1992

African American transgender activist, drag performer, and a key participant in the Stonewall uprising.

Larry Kramer

1935-2020

American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, LGBT rights activist, and a founding member ACT UP, created to publicize and protest the lack of treatment and funding for people with AIDS.

Anne Lister

1924-2020

Was an English diarist, famous for revelations for which she was dubbed “the first modern lesbian“.

Phyllis Lyon

1924–2020

Pioneering activist for lesbian visibility and civil rights whose decades of leadership helped to shape the modern LGBT and women’s health movements.

Xulhaz Mannan

1976-2016

Human rights activist brutally murdered for working openly to promote social acceptance and legal protections for LGBT people in Bangladesh.