Honorees
Celebrating LGBTQIA+ trailblazers who shaped history, culture, and community
Jane Adams
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
Alvin Ailey
1931-1989
American dancer and choreographer who drew upon his black cultural heritage to revolutionize African-American participation in 20th century performance
W. H. Auden
1907-1973
Anglo-American poet whose brilliant insights, political engagement and unsurpassed technical virtuosity in nearly every verse form influenced a generation of writers.
Josephine Baker
1906-1975
African-American born French dancer, singer, actress, Resistance fighter and world-famous entertainer who refused to perform for segregated audiences
James Baldwin
1924–1987
Eloquent novelist, essayist, poet, social critic, civil rights leader and passionate advocate for racial equality and human rights for gays.
Gladys Bentley
1907-1960
Pioneering pianist and blues singer of the Harlem Renaissance who challenged established gender roles with her appearance and choice of material.
Glenn Burke
1952-1995
First openly gay major league baseball player whose raised hand, after a home run, led to the invention of the high five.
Roger Casement
1864–1916
Irish patriot, diplomat and pioneering activist for the human rights of indigenous peoples, martyred for his pivotal role in Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising.
George Choy
1960–1993
Passionate activist for queer Asians and Pacific Islanders and AIDS awareness who was instrumental in bringing LGBT counseling programs into San Francisco public high schools.
Quentin Crisp
1908-1999
Writer, lecturer and raconteur whose flamboyance and caustic wit attracted public interest in his views about social manners, style and conformity.
Divine
1945–1988
Singer and actor whose exceptional magnetism, radical artistry and flamboyant drag persona celebrated queer culture in film and theatrical appearances.
Marie Equi
1872-1952
American physician and political radical who fought for peace, an eight-hour workday, women’s suffrage and their right to birth control.
Fereydoun Farrokhzad
1938-1992
Iranian cultural icon and political activist who fought to have a free and open society for his homeland and for people everywhere.
Federico Garcia Lorca
1898–1936
Poet, dramatist and political activist whose heroic opposition to totalitarianism resulted in his murder by Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
Allen Ginsberg
1926–1997
Renowned poet, leading figure of the Beat Generation of American writers and artists, champion of freedom of expression and sexual self-determination.
Keith Haring
1958–1990
American artist and social activist whose distinctive outline figures express universal concepts of birth, sex, love and joy.
Harry Hay
1912–2002
Sexual revolutionary who defined LGBT as a cultural identity and founded the first enduring gay rights organization in the United States.
Sylvester James
1947–1988
Multi-gold record singer and songwriter known as the “Queen of Disco” and “a visionary of queerness, music and race”
Barbara Jordan
1936-1996
Noted politician and civil rights leader, widely considered to be the first openly lesbian representative elected to the United States.
Christine Jorgensen
1926–1989
American entertainer whose highly publicized gender change in the 1950s first brought widespread mainstream attention to transgender issues.
Frida Kahlo
1907–1954
Artist who used indigenous symbols, imagery, colors and traditions of Mexican culture to resolutely depict and celebrate women’s form and experience.
Kiyoshi Kuromiya
1943-2000
Japanese-American human rights activist and founder of the Critical Path Project, one of the earliest resources for information about HIV research and treatment.
Audre Lorde
1934-1992
American writer, political activist, and self-described black feminist lesbian mother warrior poet, whose work confronted racism, sexism and homophobia.
Del Martin
1921–2008
American feminist, civil rights activist and cofounder of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first social and political organization for lesbians in the United States.
Leonard Matlovich
1943-1988
Decorated American serviceman who outed himself to confront the U.S. military’s ban on gays serving in the armed forces.
Freddie Mercury
1946-1991
Singer, songwriter and showman whose talent, versatility and commanding stage presence made him an innovative and dazzling global ambassador of rock.
Yukio Mishima
1925–1970
Japanese novelist, playwright, poet, actor and film director whose work blended modern and traditional aesthetics to explore sexuality and political change.
Sally Ride
1951-2012
Physicist and astronaut, the first American woman in space, where as a mission specialist she helped to launch satellites and conduct scientific experiments.
Silvia Rivera
1951-2002
Gay liberation and transgender rights advocate, a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, Gay Activist Alliance and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
Bob Ross
1934-2003
Pioneer in gay journalism, co-founder and longtime publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, president of the Tavern Guild and Meals on Wheels, Emperor VII of the Imperial Court.
Vito Russo
1946-1990
Activist, film historian, author and co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation who brought attention to stereotyping of LGBTs in film.
Bayard Rustin
1912–1987
African-American civil rights activist credited as the chief organizer of the watershed 1963 March on Washington and advocate for gay and lesbian causes.
José Sarria
1922-2013
Army veteran, drag performer, politcal activist, first openly gay candidate for public office in the world, founder of the Imperial Court System.
Maurice Sendak
1928-2012
American writer and illustrator of beloved and groundbreaking children’s books who brought to life a luminous world of fantasy and imagination.
Randy Shilts
1951–1994
Influential author and journalist, the first openly gay reporter to cover LGBT issues for American mainstream media.
Gertrude Stein
1874–1946
Experimental American writer whose Paris salon brought together many of the artists and authors who would help define modernism in literature and art.
Rikki Streicher
1926-1994
San Francisco entrepreneur and sports advocate who worked within the City’s bar culture to create social activism.
Gerry Studds
1937-2006
First openly gay member of the U.S. Congress and bold champion of civil rights, AIDS funding and marriage equality.
Lou Sullivan
1951-1991
Transgender historian and activist who challenged the denial of medical treatment to trans people who would be gay or lesbian after gender transition.
Alan Turing
1912–1954
British cryptanalyst, logician, philosopher and mathematician widely recognized as a pioneer of artificial intelligence and the father of computer science.
Chavela Vargas
1919-2012
Legendary Costa Rican-born, gender transgressive troubadour of Mexican song and cultural icon whose deeply moving performances expressed universal truths of romance, tenderness, heartbreak and hope.
Tom Waddell
1937–1987
Physician, decathlete, founder of the Gay Games which created an international community of LGBT athletes and helped shatter stereotypes of LGBT people worldwide.
Oscar Wilde
1854–1900
Irish dramatist, poet, novelist and essayist known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, glittering conversation and artistic achievements.
Tennessee Williams
1911–1983
Two time Pulitzer prize winning dramatist whose powerful, timeless portraits of the human condition revolutionized American theatre and whose works are regularly reviewed.
Virginia Woolf
1882–1941
Pioneer of modernist literature and feminist whose work explored the artistic, sexual and religious roles imposed on women during her lifetime.
We’wha
1849-1896
Respected Zuni lhamana, or two spirit, accomplished potter, weaver and cultural ambassador of the Zuni nation.
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.
Willem Arondéus
1894-1943
Dutch artist and author who joined the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement during World War II. His last words before being executed by the Nazis were “Tell people that homosexuals are not cowards.”
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.
Bobbi Campbell
1952-1984
Early self-identified person with AIDS whose prolific writing helped inform the public, empower early sufferers, and destigmatize the condition.
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.
Leslie Feinberg
1949-2014
Radical activist and author whose book, Stone Butch Blues, familiarized readers with transgender, non-binary and genderqueer terms, pronouns, concepts, and politics.
Sally Gearhart
1931-2021
American teacher, radical feminist, science-fiction writer, and political activist.
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.
Mario Mieli
1952–1983
Italian gay rights activist and irreplaceable provocateur whose exuberant, flamboyant and controversial way of life personified his hugely influential theory of queerness and vision of a new sexual utopianism.
Pauli Murray
1910-1985
American civil rights activist, advocate, legal scholar and theorist, author and – later in life – an Episcopal priest. Murray’s work influenced the civil rights movement and expanded legal protection for gender equality.
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.
Charley Parkhurst
1812-1879
The only known stagecoach driver in California history identified as female at birth, famed and respected for his expertise, resourcefulness, bravery, daring, fearlessness and attention to duty.
Oliver Sacks
1933-2015
Neurologist, naturalist, historian of science and author who wrote of his experiences with some of his patients to inform and inspire others.
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.
Edith Windsor
1929-2017
Celebrated champion for human rights whose courageous lawsuit for marriage equality transformed public perception and secured freedoms, privileges and benefits for married same-sex couples.
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