Discover amazing facts about some of the world's most popular songs
The late Marsha P. Johnson, who told people the “P” stood for “pay it no mind,” was an outspoken transgender rights activist and 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.
The famed civil rights activist also penned a groundbreaking 1956 novel, 'Giovanni's Room,' which depicts themes of homosexuality and bisexuality, and 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" in 1982.
Rustin was an LGBTQ+ and civil rights activist best known for being a key adviser to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. He organized the 1963 March on Washington.
A biracial, butch lesbian, the late Stormé DeLarverie is credited by eyewitnesses with throwing the first punch that ignited the Stonewall riots. She was an entertainer, a gay civil rights icon, and a bouncer remembered as "guardian of lesbians in the Village."
After L'Oréal tried to align themselves with Black Lives Matter in 2020 with a post that said "Speaking out is worth it," Bergdorf called attention to the brand's immense hypocrisy.
The posthumous pardoning of his 1953 arrest in 2020, for having sex with two men in a parked car, highlighted how LGBTQ+ people were unjustly punished for their sexuality by US law enforcement.
A self-described "black, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, warrior," Lorde has made significant contributions in the fields of feminist theory, critical race studies and queer theory through teaching and writing.
Oden made history as the first openly gay African-American man elected mayor of an American city back in 2003 in Palm Springs, California. In December 2017, Oden was also part of Palm Springs' historic moment of becoming America's first all-LGBTQ+ city council.
The 'Pose' producer is the first transgender woman to sign a creator-in-charge deal at a leading entertainment company–Netflix. She was also the first young person to write a memoir about transitioning ('Redefining Realness'), and continues her work as a transgender rights activist.
In 2017, Bergdorf became the first transgender model in the UK for L'Oréal, but she was fired soon after following a Facebook post about the killing of an anti-racist protester at a white supremacist rally in the US.
Ailey was a pioneering African-American choreographer who founded one of the most prominent dance companies in the world, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in 1958. His signature works 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.
A civil rights leader and attorney, Jordan 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. While she never explicitly acknowledged her sexual orientation in public, she was open about her life partner of nearly 30 years, Nancy Earl.
See also: Defining moments in black history
A prominent HIV/AIDS activist, Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999, following his own and his partner's HIV diagnoses. He also served as a World AIDS Summit delegate, and his work started what is now called the "Let's Stop HIV Together" campaign, which promotes HIV testing, prevention, and treatment.
Jenkins made history in November 2017 by becoming the first openly transgender Black woman elected to public office, on the Minneapolis City Council. She is also a published poet and an oral historian at the University of Minnesota.
Lightfoot is Chicago's first ever Black female mayor and its first openly LGBTQ+ mayor. A former prosecutor, she earned Chicago's votes after promising to end the city's famed backroom dealing.
In 2019, David became the first person of color to lead the Human Rights Campaign in the organization's nearly 40-year history. He has served as an attorney for Lambda Legal, working on LGBTQ+ cases around the country, and as the first openly gay counsel to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Known as the "Grandfather of Vogue," Ninja was a dancer and choreographer of the dance style that he helped propel to the national stage. Voguing 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.'
The American actress and LGBTQ+ advocate gained fame with her role on 'Orange Is the New Black,' and became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in any acting category, as well as the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on broadcast TV (on 'Doubt'). She's also the first openly transgender person to appear on the covers of Time and Cosmopolitan magazine.
The openly lesbian screenwriter, producer, and actress first found fame in the Netflix comedy-drama series 'Master of None,' where she began her journey of making space for LGBTQ+ stories specifically from people of color.
The Antiguan-American model, born with cerebral palsy, has achieved notable success from exposure on Twitter and Instagram as a Black, transgender, and disabled model.
A CNN political commentator, best-selling author, and journalist, Boykin co-founded the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based civil rights organization dedicated to fighting racism and homophobia, and helped organize the nation's first ever meeting between a sitting president and leaders of the LGBTQ+ community.
The transgender and non-binary actor and model gained fame as Angel Evangelista in the FX series 'Pose,' and in the current social media awakening to the Black Lives Matter Indya Moore has become one of the top cited Instagram accounts to follow to get educated on anti-racism.
CeCe McDonald is an activist, speaker, and icon in the LGBTQ+ community who rose to international recognition after surviving a white supremacist and transphobic attack. She uses that experience to spread knowledge about the personal and political implications of being both Black and trans.
Best known as a radical Black educator, author, and activist for civil rights, Davis co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish prisons, and currently works as a professor and activist who advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, gender equity, prison abolition, and anti-racism.
Strayhorn (R) was a gifted composer best known for his collaboration with Duke Ellington (L) and his jazz standards. He was a genius to all who knew him and music, and many claim he would have been as famous as Ellington if being an openly gay man in that era did not place so many limitations on his career.
A queer African-American activist and editorial writer, Garza co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement. She has bee outspoken on issues of police brutality, student services, rights for domestic workers, anti-racism, and violence against trans and gender non-conforming people of color.
Bentley was a gender-bending performer during the Harlem Renaissance. Donning a top hat and tuxedo, Bentley's blues singing made her "Harlem's most famous lesbian" in the 1930s, and among the best-known Black entertainers in the US.
Miss Major is a Black transgender woman and activist, a survivor of the Stonewall uprising and the Attica Correctional Facility, and a leader of the fight for transgender rights for over 40 years.
There have been black LGBTQ people as long as there have been black people, and there have been black people as long as there have been people, but history gravely fails to remember their stories. They have been overwritten or excluded using a lethal combination of racism, homophobia, and gender discrimination.
It is important to shine a light on specifically black LGBTQ+ lives as people like transgender black man Tony McDade, killed by the police around the same time as George Floyd, go dangerously unrecognized. They are dealing with multiple forces of discrimination and violence at the same time, and yet they have given and continue to give so much to society and the queer and black communities.
Click through to take a look at just a few of the incredible black LGBTQ+ figures of past and present.
Black LGBTQ+ icons who made (and are making) history
Celebrating past and present trailblazers
CELEBRITY Pride
There have been black LGBTQ people as long as there have been black people, and there have been black people as long as there have been people, but history gravely fails to remember their stories. They have been overwritten or excluded using a lethal combination of racism, homophobia, and gender discrimination.
It is important to shine a light on specifically black LGBTQ+ lives as people like transgender black man Tony McDade, killed by the police around the same time as George Floyd, go dangerously unrecognized. They are dealing with multiple forces of discrimination and violence at the same time, and yet they have given and continue to give so much to society and the queer and black communities.
Click through to take a look at just a few of the incredible black LGBTQ+ figures of past and present.