From 1960s civil rights activist Bayard Rustin to Chicago's first lesbian mayor, Lori Lightfoot, Black LGBTQ Americans have long made history with innumerable contributions to politics, art, medicine and a host of other fields.
“As long as there have been Black people, there have been Black LGBTQ and same-gender-loving people,” David J.
Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, told NBC News. Some had to hide the truth about their sexual orientation or gender identity, while others, like Bayard Rustin, were even punished by law for living their truths. Prior to his election, Mondaire worked at the Justice Department during the Obama administration before joining Westchester County’s legal department.
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James Baldwin
James Baldwin is one of the greatest American writers and thinkers of all time. During his life, he was one of only very few openly gay men involved in the civil rights movement. He regularly walked in Jean-Paul Gaultier’s runway shows, appeared in two of Janet Jackson’s music videos from her album “Rhythm Nation” album, and eventually opened his own modeling agency, Elements of Ninja, in 2004.
She is considered to be one of the first out lesbians, reportedly coming out in 1915, and her work helping homesless and at-risk LGBTQ youth is immortalized at the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit, Michigan. His signature work, including “Cry” and “Revelations,” continue to be performed all over the world. 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).
Andrea Jenkins
The first openly transgender Black woman ever elected to public office in the U.S., Andrea Jenkins has served on the Minneapolis City Council since 2018. Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson was a transgender rights activist, drag queen, and one of the key figures of the Stonewall uprising in 1969, which served as the foundation for what we know as Pride today.
The iconic work was then made into a 1961 film starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee.
Prior to “A Raisin in the Sun” fame, Hansberry — who never publicly acknowledged she was a lesbian — joined lesbian rights group Daughters of Bilitis and contributed letters about feminism and homophobia to its magazine, “The Ladder,” according to LGBTQ historian Eric Marcus, host of the “Making Gay History” podcast.
She worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and held a number of leadership positions in the Stonewall Veterans Association. Keith St. John
In 1989, Keith St. John became the first out gay Black person elected to public office after winning his race for Common Council of Albany. 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.
Ernestine Eckstein
Ernestine Eckstein was the first Black woman to be on the cover of the lesbian magazine The Ladder, a magazine published by Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the country. During her 18-year career as a federal judge, Batts presided over high-profile terrorism and corruption cases and served as a mentor to many young lawyers.
In 1991, she founded the influential arts and activism program Poetry for the People at the University of California, Berkeley.
6. Rustin served 50 days in Los Angeles County jail and had to register as a sex offender. 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.
She is also a published poet and an oral historian at the University of Minnesota. Throughout her career, she worked for multiple civil society organizations and served as one of the only openly Black LGBTQ members on the Rio de Janeiro City Council, where she chaired the Women’s Defense Council. In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom pardoned Rustin for his arrest in 1953 when he was found having sex with two men in a parked car in Pasadena.
Despite her own personal and mental health struggles, Johnson was a staunch advocate for trans rights, homeless queer youth, and those affected by the AIDS epidemic. 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.
Phill Wilson (Born 1956)
A prominent African AmericanHIV/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.