Canada

• Irshad Manji
  Irshad Manji
  Irshad Manji is a Canadian author, journalist and an advocate of "reform and progressive" interpretation of Islam. Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at the Robert F...
  
  
• Svend Robinson
  Svend Robinson
  Svend Robinson is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party...
  
  
• Steven Hazlett
• Bill Siksay
  Bill Siksay
  William Livingstone Siksay, former MP is a Canadian politician, and was the Member of Parliament who represented the British Columbia riding of Burnaby—Douglas for the New Democratic Party from 2004 to 2011.Receiving his high school diploma from McLaughlin Collegiate and Vocational Institute in...
  
  

Colombia

• Virgilio Barco Isakson
  Virgilio Barco Isakson
  Virgilio Barco Isakson is a Colombian economist, son of former President of Colombia Virgilio Barco Vargas. An openly out gay man, Barco has been a LGBT rights activist fighting for LGBT rights in Colombia and is the co-founder of Colombia Diversa, a NGO that advocates for legal and political...
  
  , son of former President of Colombia
  President of Colombia
  The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
  
   Virgilio Barco Vargas
  Virgilio Barco Vargas
  Virgilio Barco Vargas was a politician and diplomat from Colombia. He was a member of the Colombian Liberal Party and served as president of Colombia from August 7, 1986 until August 7, 1990....
  
  , he is the founder of Colombia Diversa, an NGO that advocates for LGBT rights in Colombia
  LGBT rights in Colombia
  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rights in Colombia have progressed since consensual homosexual activity was decriminalized in 1980 with amendments to the Criminal Code. Between February 2007 and April 2008 three rulings of the Constitutional Court granted registered same-sex couples the same...
  
  .

Germany

• Volker Beck
  Volker Beck
  Volker Beck is a German politician. He is a sitting member of parliament for the Green Party in the Bundestag. Beck served as the Green Party Speaker for Legal Affairs from 1994–2002, and as the Green Party whip in the Bundestag since then...
  
  
• Magnus Hirschfeld
  Magnus Hirschfeld
  Magnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which Dustin Goltz called "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights."-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a...
  
  
• Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
  Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
  for the periodical directory, see Ulrich's Periodicals DirectoryKarl-Heinrich Ulrichs , is seen today as the pioneer of the modern gay rights movement.-Early life:...
  
  

Italy

• Franco Grillini
  Franco Grillini
  Franco Grillini is an Italian politician and Italy's most prominent gay rights activist.-Career:He was born in Pianoro, Province of Bologna. During the 1970s, he took part in student political movements. He attended the University of Bologna, graduating in 1979 with a degree in education, and...
  
  
• Vladimir Luxuria
  Vladimir Luxuria
  Vladimir Luxuria born Wladimiro Guadagno in Foggia, Apulia is an Italian actress, writer, politician and television personality. Luxuria was a Communist Refoundation Party member of the Italian parliament, belonging to Romano Prodi's L'Unione coalition...
  
  

Romania

• Florin Buhuceanu
• Romaniţa Iordache

United Kingdom

• Jeremy Bentham
  Jeremy Bentham
  Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
  
   19th century jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer.
• Christine Burns
  Christine Burns
  Christine Burns MBE is a British political activist best known for her work with Press for Change. Burns was awarded an MBE in 2004 in recognition of work representing transgender people.-Career:...
  
   Trans rights campaigner worked for PfC, awarded MBE
  MBE
  MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
  
   for work with PfC and on the GRB.
• Ian Dunn
  Ian Campbell Dunn
  Ian Campbell Dunn was a gay rights campaigner who lived and worked in Scotland.-Life and career:Dunn began his work in gay rights activism after finding that the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which partially decriminalized homosexual relations between adult men, applied only to England and Wales and...
  
  , founder of the Scottish Minorities Group.
• A.E. Dyson, literary critic and founder of the Homosexual Law Reform Society
  Homosexual Law Reform Society
  The Homosexual Law Reform Society was an organisation that campaigned in the United Kingdom for changes in the laws that criminalised homosexual relations between men.- History :...
  
  .
• Jackie Forster
  Jackie Forster
  Jackie Forster was born 6 November 1926 and died in London on 10 October 1998. She married her novelist husband, Peter Forster in 1958 while she worked as a TV presenter and news reporter, but divorced him in 1962 when she realised her true sexual identity...
  
   actress, TV Personality and Lesbian campaigner.
• Ray Gosling
  Ray Gosling
  Ray Gosling is an English journalist, author, broadcaster and gay rights activist. In February 2010, he claimed during a local BBC television programme to have killed a lover, in an act of euthanasia. He was arrested and released on police bail...
  
  , writer, broadcaster and gay rights activist in the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
  Campaign for Homosexual Equality
  The Campaign for Homosexual Equality is one of the oldest gay rights organisations in the United Kingdom. It is a membership organisation which aims to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales...
  
  .
• Antony Grey
  Antony Grey
  Antony Grey was a leading English lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights activist. He lived with his partner, Eric Thompson, for 50 years after first meeting in 1960...
  
  , Secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, Grey was also the public face of the Albany Trust
  Albany Trust
  The Albany Trust was founded in the United Kingdom as a registered charity in May 1958 to complement the Homosexual Law Reform Society . It takes its name from The Albany, in Piccadilly, London, where J.B...
  
  
• Denis Lemon, Editor of Gay News, involved in blasphemy prosecution brought by Mary Whitehouse.
• Ian McKellen
  Ian McKellen
  Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
  
  , actor and spokesperson for Stonewall (UK)
  Stonewall (UK)
  Stonewall is a lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity in the United Kingdom named after the Stonewall Inn of Stonewall riots fame. Now the largest gay equality organization not only in the UK but in Europe, it was formed in 1989 by political activists and others lobbying against section 28 of the...
  
  
• Robert Mellors
  Bob Mellors
  -External links:* *...
  
   20th century writer and Gay Liberation Front
  Gay Liberation Front
  Gay Liberation Front was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.-The Gay Liberation Front:...
  
   campaigner.
• Michael Steed
  Michael Steed
  Michael Steed is a British psephologist, political scientist, broadcaster, activist and Liberal Democrat politician. He was born in 1940 in Kent, where his father was a farmer. He has written extensively on parties and elections....
  
  , Liberal politician, academic and gay rights activist in the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
• Ben Summerskill
  Ben Summerskill
  Ben Jeffrey Peter Summerskill OBE is a British businessman and journalist, who is the Chief Executive of the UK-based Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual equality organisation Stonewall, now the largest gay equality body in Europe...
  
  , chief executive of Stonewall
• Peter Tatchell
  Peter Tatchell
  Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
  
   politician, human rights and LGBT rights campaigner.
• Stephen Whittle
  Stephen Whittle
  Professor Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD is an active member of the United Kingdom TransActivist organisation Press for Change. Now , Whittle is Professor of Equalities Law in the School of Law at Manchester Metropolitan University....
  
   Trans rights campaigner and former president of PfC and HBIGDA, Law Professor at MMU
  Manchester Metropolitan University
  Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
  
  , awarded OBE for work with PfC and on the GRB

United States of America

• Jacob Appel
  Jacob M. Appel
  Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
  
  , New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
  -based lawyer, advocate for reparations for gays and lesbians
• Chaz Bono (born 1969), transgender son of Sonny Bono
  Sonny Bono
  Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...
  
   and Cher
  Cher
  Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
  
  .
• Christopher R. Barron
  Christopher R. Barron
  Christopher R. Barron is the cofounder of GOProud, a political organization representing gay conservatives. The president of CapSouth Consulting, a political consulting firm, Barron served as the national political director for Log Cabin Republicans, where he directed the organization’s federal...
  
  , Co-Founder of GOProud
  GOProud
  GOProud is an American tax exempt 527 organization representing conservative gays, lesbians, transgendered people, and their allies. GOProud advocates for small government conservatism at the level of federal public policy. GOProud was founded by Christopher R...
  
   which is a political organization representing gay conservatives.
• Meghan McCain
  Meghan McCain
  Meghan Marguerite McCain is an American columnist, author, and blogger. She is a daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain and Cindy Hensley McCain. McCain first received media attention in 2007 for her blog, McCain Blogette, on which she documented life on the campaign trail and mused about...
  
   (born 1984) columnist, blogger and daughter of senator John McCain
  John McCain
  John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
  
  . She has on several occasions expressed support for gay marriage, gay adoption and for repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. She posed for the NOH8 campaign with her mother Cindy McCain.
• Wayne Besen
  Wayne Besen
  Wayne Besen is an American gay rights advocate. He is a former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign and the founder of Truth Wins Out.Besen says he has interviewed hundreds of former and current "ex-gays," and is an outspoken critic of organisations such as Homosexuals Anonymous.- Photos of...
  
   Founder of Truth Wins Out
  Truth Wins Out
  Truth Wins Out is an organization formed by Wayne Besen to fight what it considers "anti-gay religious extremism," especially the ex-gay movement...
  
  . Former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign
  Human Rights Campaign
  The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
  
  .
• Joseph F. Beam
  Joseph F. Beam
  Joseph F. Beam was an African-American gay rights activist and author who worked to foster greater acceptance of gay life in the black community by relating the gay experience with the struggle for civil rights in the United States.-Family:His father Sun Beam worked as a bank security guard in...
  
   (1954–1989), Philadelphia-based journalist, author, and editor
• David P. Brill
  David P. Brill
  David P. Brill was a Boston-based gay rights activist and investigative journalist.Brill studied political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston...
  
   (1955–1979), Boston
  Boston
  Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
  
  -based journalist.
• Margarethe Cammermeyer
  Margarethe Cammermeyer
  Margarethe "Grethe" Cammermeyer is a former colonel in the Washington National Guard and a gay rights activist. Born in Oslo, Norway, she became a United States citizen in 1960. In 1961 she joined the Army Student Nurse Program. She received a B.S. in Nursing in 1963 from the University of...
  
   (born 1942), former colonel
  Colonel
  Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
  
   in the Washington state National Guard
  United States National Guard
  The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
  
   whose coming out story was made into the 1995 movie Serving in Silence, starring Glenn Close
  Glenn Close
  Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
  
  .
• Joanne Conte
  Joanne Conte
  Joanne Conte served as a councilwoman in Arvada, Colorado from 1991 to 1995. She earned her master's degree in political science from the University of Colorado. Conte was born male and underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1973. She is noteworthy for being part of a small group of transsexual...
  
  , transwoman, former Arvada, Colorado
  Arvada, Colorado
  The City of Arvada is a Home Rule Municipality located in Jefferson and Adams counties in the Denver metropolitan area of the U.S. State of Colorado. Olde Town Arvada is located northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver...
  
   City Councilor, currently hosts a radio show on KGNU
  KGNU
  KGNU AM/FM is an independent radio, non-commercial radio, Community radio station for Boulder and Denver, Colorado, USA. KGNU is owned by Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc.-Programming and operations :...
  
  .
• Stephen Donaldson (1946–1996), early bisexual-identified LGBT rights activist
  Activism
  Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
  
   founder of the first American gay students' organization, first person to fight a discharge from the U.S. military for homosexuality, Also an important figure in the modern bisexual rights movement
  Bisexual community
  Bisexual community is a term used to describe members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, "fluid", and queer-identified, as well as their allies...
  
  .
• Danielle Egnew
  Danielle Egnew
  Danielle Egnew is a psychic, musician, actress, media personality, and activist known in the areas of music, film, radio and television for both performing and producing in all four genres...
  
   (born 1969), lesbian musician, actress, producer, and psychic who endorsed and provided campaign materials to Virginia's VoteNO campaign, protecting the legalities of same-sex civil unions in Virginia—also Spiritual leader and founder of The Church of the Open Christ, an inclusive and progressive LGBT ministry.
• Steve Endean
  Steve Endean
  Stephen Robert Endean was an early gay rights activist, first in Minnesota, then nationally.He was born in Davenport, Iowa, and came to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota from 1968-1972, majoring in political science.Some of the visionary items he worked on:* 1971: founded Minnesota's...
  
  , (1948–1993), founder of the Human Rights Campaign Fund
• Matt Foreman
  Matt Foreman (gay rights activist)
  Matt Foreman is an American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activist.As of April 2008, Foreman will lead the Gay & Lesbian Program at the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. The Haas, Jr...
  
   (born 1953), Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
  National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
  The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force builds the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community from the ground up. The Task Force is the country’s premier social justice organization fighting to improve the lives of LGBT people, and working to create positive, lasting...
  
   (NGLTF).
• Barney Frank
  Barney Frank
  Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...
  
   (born 1940), member of the Democratic Party
  Democratic Party (United States)
  The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
  
   who has served as a member of Congress from Massachusetts
  Massachusetts
  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
  
   since 1981.
• Aaron Fricke
  Aaron Fricke
  Aaron Fricke is a gay rights activist. He was born January 25, 1962 in Providence, Rhode Island. He is best known for the pivotal case in which he successfully sued his high school for not allowing him to bring his boyfriend, Paul Guilbert, to the senior prom at Cumberland High School in...
  
   (born 1962), who successfully sued the Cumberland, Rhode Island
  Cumberland, Rhode Island
  Cumberland is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, incorporated in 1746. The population was 33,506 at the 2010 census.-History:...
  
   school system in 1980 for the right to bring his boyfriend to the senior prom.
• Barbara Gittings
  Barbara Gittings
  Barbara Gittings was a prominent American activist for gay equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that...
  
   (1932–2007), founder of the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis
  Daughters of Bilitis
  The Daughters of Bilitis , was the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. It was formed in San Francisco in 1955, conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment...
  
   who also pushed for the American Psychological Association
  American Psychological Association
  The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
  
   to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...
  
  .
• Neil Giuliano
  Neil Giuliano
  Neil G. Giuliano is an educator, activist, philanthropy advisor, leadership coach, and speaker. A former mayor and president of a national advocacy organization, he has been involved with community service and public affairs his entire career. Giuliano is the former four-term mayor of Tempe,...
  
   (born 1956), openly gay mayor of Tempe, Arizona
  Tempe, Arizona
  Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
  
   (1994–2004) and current President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
• James Gruber
  James Gruber
  James "John" Finley Gruber was an American teacher and early LGBT rights activist.-Biography:James Gruber was born August 21, 1928 in Des Moines, Iowa. Growing up he considered himself bisexual and was involved with both men and women. His father, a former vaudevillian turned music teacher,...
  
   (1928—2011), original member of the Mattachine Society
  Mattachine Society
  The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
  
  .
• David M. Hall
  David M. Hall
  David M. Hall is a writer and corporate trainer. Hall is most notable for his book, Allies at Work: Creating a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Inclusive Work Environment. Lisa Sherman, Vice President of Logo , has said that "Allies at Work should be required reading for every corporate...
  
  , author of Allies at Work: Creating a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Inclusive Work Environment, who speaks to corporate audiences across the country and is the co-founder of Out & Equal
  Out & Equal
  Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is a United States non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California....
  
   Philadelphia.
• Harry Hay
  Harry Hay
  Henry "Harry" Hay, Jr. was a labor advocate, teacher and early leader in the American LGBT rights movement. He is known for his roles in helping to found several gay organizations, including the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States.Hay was exposed early in...
  
   (1912–2002), co-founder of the Mattachine Society
  Mattachine Society
  The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
  
  .
• Essex Hemphill
  Essex Hemphill
  Essex Hemphill was an American poet and activist. He was a 1993 Pew Fellowships in the Arts.-Biography:Essex Hemphill was born April 16, 1957 in Chicago and died on November 4, 1995 of AIDS-related complications...
  
   (1957–1995), African American poet
• Daniel Hernandez Jr. (born 1990), member of Tucson’s city commission on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, who was credited with saving the life of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords
  Gabrielle Giffords
  Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords is an American politician. A Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, she has represented since 2007. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress...
  
   after the 2011 Tucson shooting
  2011 Tucson shooting
  On January 8, 2011, a mass shooting occurred near Tucson, Arizona. Nineteen people were shot, six of them fatally, with one other person injured at the scene during an open meeting that U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was holding with members of her constituency in a Casas Adobes Safeway...
  
  .
• Brenda Howard
  Brenda Howard
  Brenda Howard was an American bisexual rights activist and sex-positive feminist. Howard was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement.- Biography :...
  
   (1946–2005), bisexual-identified LGBT rights activist
  Activism
  Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
  
   an instrumental figure in the immediate post-Stonewall era in New York City.. Also an important figure in the modern bisexual rights movement
  Bisexual community
  Bisexual community is a term used to describe members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, "fluid", and queer-identified, as well as their allies...
  
  .
• Cheryl Jacques
  Cheryl Jacques
  Cheryl Ann Jacques is a United States politician who, beginning in January 2004, served for 11 months as president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, advocacy organization...
  
   (born 1962), former member of the Massachusetts State Legislature and the president of the Human Rights Campaign
  Human Rights Campaign
  The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
  
   from January through November 2004. She resigned from this post less than a month after the passage of 11 state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage.
• Janet Jackson
  Janet Jackson
  Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
  
   (born 1966), American singer, songwriter, and actress.
• Dale Jennings (1917–2000), co-founder of the Mattachine Society
  Mattachine Society
  The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
  
  .
• Cleve Jones
  Cleve Jones
  Cleve Jones is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2009...
  
   (born 1954), conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
  NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
  The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt, is an enormous quilt made as a memorial to and celebration of the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes...
  
   and worked with Harvey Milk; co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation
  San Francisco AIDS Foundation
  Committed to ending the pandemic and human suffering caused by HIV, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation develops innovative solutions, combining scientific evidence with community experience to fight HIV/AIDS and promote health...
  
  
• Frank Kameny
  Franklin E. Kameny
  Franklin Edward "Frank" Kameny was "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the Army Map Service in Washington, D.C...
  
   (born 1925), participant in many gay rights rallies of the 1960s and 1970s, most notably the push in 1972–1973 for the American Psychological Association
  American Psychological Association
  The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
  
   to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...
  
  .
• Morris Kight
  Morris Kight
  Morris Kight was a gay rights pioneer and peace activist, based in Los Angeles. He is considered one of the original founders of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States.- Early life :Kight was born and grew up in Comanche County, Texas...
  
   (1919–2003), founder of Los Angeles' Gay and Lesbian Front and Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
  Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
  The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center provides a broad array of services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Its clinic and on-site pharmacy offers free and low-cost health, mental health, HIV/AIDS medical care and HIV/STD testing and prevention, although there are no direct...
  
  .
• Larry Kramer
  Larry Kramer
  Larry Kramer is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning...
  
   (born 1935), author and playwright who helped form the prominent gay rights organizations Gay Men's Health Crisis
  Gay Men's Health Crisis
  The Gay Men's Health Crisis is a New York City-based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization that has led the United States in the fight against AIDS.-1980s:...
  
   and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP)
  AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
  AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and...
  
  .
• Janice Langbehn
  Janice Langbehn
  Janice K. Langbehn is a gay American activist and social worker, who became an activist as a result of the events surrounding the death of her partner, Lisa Marie Pond ....
  
   (born 1968), campaigner for marriage equality and same-sex hospital visitation after being denied access to her dying partner, Lisa Marie Pond, in 2007.
• Cyndi Lauper
  Cyndi Lauper
  Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
  
   (born 1953), founder of the True Colors Fund charity which promotes equality for members of the LGBT community.
• Scott Long
  Scott Long (human rights activist)
  Scott Long is an American activist in the human rights movement working for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. He is now a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School...
  
   (born 1963), Executive Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch
  Human Rights Watch
  Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
  
  .
• Phyllis Lyon
  Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
  Dorothy Louise Taliaferro "Del" Martin and Phyllis Ann Lyon were an American lesbian couple known as feminist and gay-rights activists...
  
   (born 1924), lesbian activist who co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis
  Daughters of Bilitis
  The Daughters of Bilitis , was the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. It was formed in San Francisco in 1955, conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment...
  
   with longtime partner Del Martin.
• Del Martin
  Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
  Dorothy Louise Taliaferro "Del" Martin and Phyllis Ann Lyon were an American lesbian couple known as feminist and gay-rights activists...
  
   (1921–2008), lesbian activist who co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis with longtime partner Phyllis Lyon.
• Harvey Milk
  Harvey Milk
  Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
  
   (1930–1978), openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California
  San Francisco, California
  San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
  
   who was assassinated (along with mayor George Moscone
  George Moscone
  George Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
  
  ) in 1978 by Dan White
  Dan White
  Daniel James "Dan" White was a San Francisco supervisor who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall...
  
  .
• David Nelson
  David Nelson (Utah activist)
  David Nelson is an American activist for the protection of equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He founded or helped found several LGBT-related non-profit organizations in Utah and helped direct others. His work with the Democratic Party encouraged many LGBT citizens to...
  
   (born 1962), founder of Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats, and Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah
  Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah
  Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah is a group of weapons advocates and owners in Utah. It supports the Pink Pistols idea that was described nationally in 2000 by writer Jonathan Rauch for the legal, responsible and safe use of weapons for their self defense, recreation and weapon-sports competition...
  
  .
• Gavin Newsom
  Gavin Newsom
  Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
  
   (born 1967), heterosexual mayor of San Francisco, California
  San Francisco, California
  San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
  
   who directed his office to issue wedding licenses to same-sex couples in February 2004. This process was halted the next month by the California Supreme Court.
• Troy Perry
  Troy Perry
  Troy Deroy Perry Jr founded the Metropolitan Community Church, a Christian denomination with a special affirming ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968.-Early life:...
  
   (1940–), founder of UFMCC, an international Protestant Christian denomination. The Fellowship has a specific outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families and communities.*Hernan Ponce (born 1982) Current President of LACCD Gay Rights Movement,President for all Gay Rights groups in Los Angeles Community College District
• Craig Rodwell
  Craig Rodwell
  Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
  
   (1940-1993), gay rights activist; founder of first gay & lesbian oriented bookshop in the United States; proposed and organized Annual Reminder
  Annual Reminder
  The Annual Reminders were a series of early pickets organized by homophile organizations. The Reminder took place each July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia beginning in 1965 and were among the earliest LGBT demonstrations in the United States...
  
  ; proposed and organized New York's Gay Pride
  Gay pride
  LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
  
   march, then called Christopher Street Liberation day; was a founding member and organizer of Gay People In Christian Science.
• Bayard Rustin
  Bayard Rustin
  Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
  
   (1912–1987), openly gay civil rights
  Civil rights
  Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
  
   activist, principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
  The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
  
   and advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
  
  ; gay rights activist in later life
• Ryan Sallans
  Ryan Sallans
  Ryan Kim-Scout Sallans is an American LGBT rights advocate and out transman. Ryan began his transition from female-to-male in 2005...
  
   (born 1979), out transman and public speaker - travels around the country educating high school and college students on LGBT issues .
• José Sarria
  José Sarria
  José Julio Sarria is an American political activist from San Francisco, California. Known for his years of performing at the historic Black Cat Bar in that city from the 1950s and 1960s, Sarria entertained patrons with satirical versions of popular songs and operas while encouraging them to live...
  
   (born 1922 or 1923), first openly gay candidate for political office in the United States, founder of the Imperial Court System
  Imperial Court System
  The International Imperial Court System is one of the oldest and largest predominantly gay organizations in the world. The court raises money for charity through large annual fancy-dress costume balls in communities throughout North America and numerous smaller fundraisers each year...
  
  .
• Tully Satre
  Tully Satre
  Tully Satre is an American gay rights activist and gay writer. In June 2005, Tully Satre founded Equality Fauquier-Culpeper in the rural suburbs of Virginia. Equality Fauquier-Culpeper was noted that summer in The Washington Post, The Washington Blade, and other news outlets such as The Advocate...
  
   (born 1989), blogger who gained fame in March 2006 for challenging then-Senator
  United States Senate
  The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
  
  
• Dan Savage
  Dan Savage
  Daniel Keenan "Dan" Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in...
  
   (born 1964), columnist of Savage Love
  Savage Love
  Savage Love is a syndicated sex-advice column by Dan Savage. The column appears weekly in several dozen newspapers, mainly free newspapers in the US and Canada, but also newspapers in Europe and Asia...
  
   and author. Founder of the It Gets Better project.
• Michelangelo Signorile
  Michelangelo Signorile
  Michelangelo Signorile is a gay American writer, a national talk radio host whose program is aired each weekday across the United States and Canada. He is a political liberal, and covers a wide variety of political and cultural issues...
  
   (born 1960), gay American writer and a US and Canadian national talk radio host.
• Ruth Simpson
  Ruth Simpson
  Ruth Simpson was the founder of the United States' first lesbian community center, an author, and former president of Daughters of Bilitis, New York....
  
   (1926–2008), founder of the first lesbian community center. Former President of Daughters of Bilitis New York. Author of From the Closet to the Courts.
• Joe Solmonese
  Joe Solmonese
  Joe Solmonese is president of the Human Rights Campaign of the United States and its affiliate the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. He was appointed to this position on March 9, 2005. A native of Attleboro, Massachusetts, Solmonese lives in Washington, D.C...
  
   (born 1965), former political fundraiser and current (as of March 2007) president of the Human Rights Campaign
  Human Rights Campaign
  The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
  
  .
• A. Latham Staples
  A. Latham Staples
  A. Latham Staples is an American civil rights activist and community leader in San Diego, California. He's the founder, and current President & CEO of the Empowering Spirits Foundation, Inc...
  
   (born 1977), founder and current president of the Empowering Spirits Foundation
  Empowering Spirits Foundation
  The Empowering Spirits Foundation , Inc. is a national non-profit, non-partisan lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization in the United States...
  
  .
• Urvashi Vaid
  Urvashi Vaid
  Urvashi Vaid is an American activist who has worked for over 25 years promoting civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.- Political activism :...
  
  , (b. 1958, New Delhi, India) is an American activist who has worked for over 25 years promoting civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.
• Phill Wilson
  Phill Wilson
  Phill Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999 and is a prominent African-American HIV/AIDS activist. Wilson is himself both gay and HIV-positive...
  
  , (b. 1956, Chicago, IL), founder of the National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum and of the Black AIDS Institute
• Emanuel Xavier
  Emanuel Xavier
  In 2005, Suspect Thoughts Press published Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry, a collection Emanuel Xavier edited. The anthology featured the work of thirteen openly queer spoken word artists and new work by the editor himself including: "Legendary", "Outside" and "A Simple Poem." The...
  
   (1971–), Latino American poet
• Fran Drescher
  Fran Drescher
  Francine Joy "Fran" Drescher is an American film and television actress, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer, author, singer, talk show host, political lobbyist and health activist...
  
  , (b. 1957, Flushing, New York) is an outspoken healthcare advocate and LGBT rights activist.