LGBTTQQIAAP
(lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual)

Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie “Moms” Mabley quickly became one of the most successful entertainers of the Chitlin’ Circuit (although, as a black woman, her wages were meager). She made her New York City debut at Connie’s Inn in Harlem. She came out as a lesbian in 1921 at the age of twenty-seven, becoming one of the first openly gay comedians. During the 1920s and 1930s she appeared in androgynous clothing and recorded several “lesbian stand-up” routines.

Alvin Ailey, Jr. was a choreographer who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, one of the most prominent dance companies globally, in 1958. His signature work, including “Cry” and “Revelations,” continue to be performed all over the world. In 2014, Ailey was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his influential work in bringing dance to underserved communities.

James Arthur Baldwin was a writer and social critic, Baldwin is perhaps best known for his 1955 collection of essays, “Notes of a Native Son,” and his groundbreaking 1956 novel, “Giovanni’s Room,” which depicts themes of homosexuality and bisexuality. The novel stood out among literary critics because it features all white characters, unlike the civil rights activist’s other novels which center the experiences of black people. Baldwin spent a majority of his literary and activist career educating others about black and queer identity, as he did during his famous lecture titled “Race, Racism, and the Gay Community” at a meeting of the New York chapter of Black and White Men Together (now known as Men of All Colors Together) in 1982.

Azealia Amanda Banks is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actress. Raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, she began releasing music through Myspace in 2008 before being signed to XL Recordings at age 18. In 2011, her debut single “212” went viral and entered several international charts.

Paris K. C. Barlcay From 2013 to 2017, Barclay served two terms as the President of the Directors Guild of America. For the past three years, he has been listed by Variety as “one of 500 most influential business leaders in Hollywood.”

Gladys Alberta Bentley was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance. Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry’s Clam House in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. The New York Times said Bentley, who died in 1960 at the age of 52, was “Harlem’s most famous lesbian” in the 1930s and “among the best-known black entertainers in the United States.”

Charles McRay Blow is an American journalist, commentator and op-ed columnist for The New York Times and current anchor for the Black News Channel.

Karamo Karega Brown is an American television host, reality television personality, author, actor, and activist. Brown began his career in 2004 on the MTV reality show The Real World: Philadelphia becoming the first openly gay black man cast on a reality show.

Octavia Estelle Butler wasn’t just a giant in science fiction literature, she was also a black lesbian who overcame multiple obstacles to become a bestselling author.

Nell Carter was an American singer and actress. Carter began her career in 1970, singing in the theater, and later crossed over to television. She was perhaps best known for her role as Nell Harper on the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break! which originally aired from 1981 to 1987.

Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, known for her hits “Fast Car”, “Give Me One Reason”, “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution”, and “Baby Can I Hold You”. She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award–winning artist.

RuPaul Andre Charles, known mononymously as RuPaul is an American drag queen, actor, model, singer, television personality, and author.

Laverne Cox Emmy-nominated actress, documentary film producer + prominent equal rights advocate Laverne Cox continues to make history in her career and in her activism.

Lee Daniels is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His first producer credit was Monster’s Ball, with which he became the first African-American film producer to solely produce an Oscar-winning film, when Halle Berry won Best Actress.

Alphonso David became the first person of color to lead the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S., in the organization’s nearly 40-year history. A graduate of the Temple University School of Law, David served as an attorney for Lambda Legal, working on LGBTQ cases around the country, and as the first openly gay counsel to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Angela Yvonne Davis is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She is the author of over ten books on class, feminism, race, and the US prison system.

Terrance Dean is an author, academic and former MTV executive. He is best known for his 2008 memoir Hiding in Hip-Hop and is the author of books including Reclaim Your Power! A 30-Day Guide to Hope, Healing and Inspiration for Men of Color (2003), Straight From Your Gay Best Friend – The Straight Up Truth About Relationships, Love, and Having A Fabulous Life (2010), Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris, (2010).

Stormé DeLarverie was an American woman known as the butch lesbian whose scuffle with police was, according to Stormé and many eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall riots, spurring the crowd to action. She was born in New Orleans, to an African American mother and a white father. She is remembered as a gay civil rights icon and entertainer, who performed and hosted at the Apollo Theater and Radio City Music Hall. She worked for much of her life as an MC, singer, bouncer, bodyguard, and volunteer street patrol worker, the “guardian of lesbians in the Village.” She is known as “the Rosa Parks of the gay community.”

Ernestine Eckstein was a leader in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. She attended “Annual Reminder” picket protests and was frequently one of the only women — and the only black woman — present at early LGBTQ rights protests. Eckstein was also an early activist in the black feminist movement of the 1970s and was involved with the organization Black Women Organized for Action. According to historians, she viewed the fight for civil rights and LGBTQ rights as intrinsically linked.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, often referred to as Miss Major is black transgender woman and activist at the forefront of the fight for trans rights. She faced many hurdles during her life — including homelessness and incarceration — and it’s these challenges that fueled her activism. In 2005, Miss Major joined San Francisco-based Trans Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) as a staff organizer, and later as executive director, to lead the group’s efforts advocating for incarcerated trans women. She has often spoken out against the prison system, which she says contributes to the incarceration of transgender individuals, particularly trans people of color and those with low incomes. Now 79, Miss Major, known to many simply as “Mama,” resides in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she continues to be a vocal activist.

Elzie Lee “LZ” Granderson is an American journalist and former actor. He is currently a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine, a co-host of SportsNation on ESPN, afternoon co-host at ESPN LA 710 and a columnist for CNN.

Brittney Yevette Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association. She played college basketball for the Baylor Lady Bears in Waco, Texas. She is the only NCAA basketball player to score 2,000 points and block 500 shots.

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was a playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago.

Sir Lady Java, also known simply as Lady Java is an American transgender rights activist, exotic dancer, singer, comedian, and actress. Active on stage, television, radio and film from the mid-1960s to 1970s, she is a popular and influential personality in the Los Angeles-area African-American LGBT community.

Andrea Jenkins made history in November 2017 by becoming the first openly transgender black woman elected to public office in the U.S., according to LGBTQ advocacy groups and researchers. Jenkins, a Democrat, was one of two openly trans people to win a seat on the Minneapolis City Council in 2017. She is also a published poet and an oral historian at the University of Minnesota.

Marsha P. Johnson, born and also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an outspoken transgender rights activist and is reported to be one of the central figures of the historic Stonewall uprising of 1969. Along with fellow trans activist Sylvia Rivera, Johnson helped form Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a radical political organization that provided housing and other forms of support to homeless queer youth and sex workers in Manhattan. She also performed with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches from 1972 through the ‘90s and was an AIDS activist with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

Barbara Charline Jordan a civil rights leader and attorney, became the first African American elected to the Texas Senate in 1966, and the first woman and first African American elected to Congress from Texas in 1972. Jordan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 1994 for her work as a political trailblazer. While Jordan never explicitly acknowledged her sexual orientation in public, she was open about her life partner of nearly 30 years, Nancy Earl.

Isis King is an American model, actress, and fashion designer. Most widely known for her role on both the eleventh cycle and the seventeenth cycle of the reality television show America’s Next Top Model, she was the first trans woman to compete on the show, and became one of the most visible transgender people on television.

William Roscoe Leake, better known as Willi Ninja was a dancer, choreographer and the “Grandfather of Vogue,” the dance style that he helped propel to the national stage. Vogueing, characterized by angular body movements and exaggerated runway poses, was introduced to the public in the award-winning 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning,” which Ninja appeared in, and was popularized by Madonna’s 1990 hit song “Vogue.”

Don Lemon anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days as a journalist. Lemon then worked as a news correspondent for NBC on its programming, such as Today and NBC Nightly News, after which he joined CNN in 2006, also as a correspondent. He later achieved prominence as the presenter of CNN Tonight beginning in 2014. Lemon is also a recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award and three regional Emmy Awards. He is the host of Don Lemon Tonight.

Lori Elaine Lightfoot swept all 50 of Chicago’s wards in the 2019 mayoral runoff election after promising to end the city’s famed backroom dealing. She is the city’s first ever black female mayor and its first openly LGBTQ mayor.

Alain Leroy Locke was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. Distinguished in 1907 as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar, Locke became known as the philosophical architect —the acknowledged “Dean”— of the Harlem Renaissance. He is frequently included in listings of influential African Americans. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed: “We’re going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke came through the universe.”

Audre Lorde a self-described “black, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, warrior,” made lasting contributions in the fields of feminist theory, critical race studies and queer theory through her pedagogy and writing. Among her most notable works are “Coal” (1976), “The Black Unicorn” (1978), “The Cancer Journals” (1980) and “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name” (1982). “I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t,” Lorde once said.

Angel Lajuane McCoughtry is American professional basketball player for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women’s National Basketball Association and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. McCoughtry completed her college career at the University of Louisville in 2009.

Tarell Alvin McCraney is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He is the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.

CeCe McDonald is a transgender activist and revered icon of the LGBTQ community. She captured international recognition in 2011 after surviving a white supremacist and transphobic attack, later receiving a second-degree manslaughter conviction and serving 19 months in prison simply for defending herself.

DeRay Mckesson is a civil rights activist focused primarily on issues of innovation, equity and justice.

Janet Mock is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir Redefining Realness, became a New York Times bestseller. She is a contributing editor for Marie Claire and a former staff editor of People magazine’s website.

Renee Danielle Montgomery is a retired American basketball player and sports broadcaster who is currently vice president, part-owner, and investor of the Atlanta Dream. During her 11-year playing career in the Women’s National Basketball Association, she won two championships with the Minnesota Lynx in 2015 and 2017.

Frank Ocean is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. He is recognized for his idiosyncratic musical style, introspective and elliptical songwriting, and wide vocal range.

Ron Oden was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California in 2003, he made history by becoming the first openly gay African American man elected mayor of an American city. Following Oden’s historic election 17 years ago, the Palm Spring City Council made history once again: In December 2017, it became America’s first all-LGBTQ city council.

Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as “the architect of rock and roll”, Richard’s most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard’s innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.

Candace Nicole Parker In high school, Parker won the 2003 and 2004 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year awards, becoming just the second junior and the only woman to receive the award twice. As a college player for Tennessee, she led the team to two consecutive national championships (2007, 2008), was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player in both occasions, and was a two-time consensus national player of the year. As a redshirt freshman, she became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game. After being selected in the WNBA Draft, Parker signed long-term endorsement deals with Adidas and Gatorade.

Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman-Maday, also known mononymously as Raven is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She has received several accolades, including five NAACP Image Awards, two Kids’ Choice Awards, three Young Artist Awards, and three Daytime Emmy Award nominations.

Patrik-Ian Polk is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Polk, who is openly gay, is noted for his films and theatre work that explore the experiences and stories of African-American LGBT people. In 2016, Polk was included in the Los Angeles Times Diverse 100 list, which described him as “the man bringing black gay stories to screens large and small”.

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was the first popular stage entertainer to incorporate authentic blues into her song repertoire and became known as the “Mother of the Blues.”

Janelle Monáe Robinson is an American singer, rapper, and actress. She is signed to Atlantic Records, as well as to her own imprint, the Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations. Monáe won an MTV Video Music Award and the ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2010.

Bayard Rustin was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, in 1941, to press for an end to racial discrimination in employment.

Clifford Ian Simpson, well known by his stage name Kevin Abstract is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and director, and is a founding member of Brockhampton. He released his debut album, MTV1987, in 2014 to critical acclaim, and received attention from a number of major music blogs and magazine publications.

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues”, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.

Amandla Stenberg is an American actress and singer. She was included in Time’s list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016, and has received several accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for four Black Reel Awards and a Critics’ Choice Award.

Darryl Stephens is an American actor and author. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah’s Arc.

Sheryl Denise Swoopes is an American former professional basketball player. She was the first player to be signed in the WNBA, is a three-time WNBA MVP, and was named one of the league’s Top 15 Players of All Time at the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game.

Wanda Yvette Sykes is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America.

André Leon Talley is an American fashion journalist, and the former creative director and American editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. He was the magazine’s fashion news director from 1983 to 1987 and then its creative director from 1988 to 1995. He has authored three books, including two memoirs, and co-authored a book with Richard Bernstein.

Tessa Lynne Thompson is an American actress. She began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College. She appeared in productions of The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet, the latter of which earned her a NAACP Theatre Award nomination. Her breakthrough came with leading roles in Tina Mabry’s independent drama film Mississippi Damned (2009) and Tyler Perry’s drama film For Colored Girls (2010).

Mel Alexander Tomlinson was an American dancer and choreographer. At the time of his debut with the New York City Ballet in 1981, he was the only African-American dancer in the company. Ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille referred to Tomlinson as “the most exciting black dancer in America.”

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple. Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry.

Phill Wilson was a prominent African American HIV/AIDS activist, Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999, in part inspired by the death of his partner from an HIV-related illness and his own HIV diagnosis. In 2010, Wilson was appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Wilson also served as a World AIDS Summit delegate and advocated for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide additional funding to black groups so they would have the resources to educate and mobilize their community around HIV/AIDS issues. His work resulted in the “Act Against AIDS” campaign, now known as the “Let’s Stop HIV Together” campaign, which promotes HIV testing, prevention and treatment.

Raykeea Raeen-Roes Wilson known professionally as Angel Haze is an American rapper and singer. In 2012, Wilson released the EP Reservation and later signed a record deal with Universal Republic Records before moving to Republic Records.