LGBT History Month 2013

Marlon Riggs was a filmmaker, educator, poet and gay rights activist. He examined race and sexuality in his documentaries for which he received an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award.

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She later became the only person to serve on the presidential commissions investigating both of the nation’s space shuttle tragedies — the Challenger explosion (1986) and the Columbia disaster (2003).

Ma Rainey, called the “Mother of the Blues,” was one of the earliest known American blues singers and recording artists. She is recognized as one of the great female blues vocalists.

Bruce Nugent was a writer and artist during the Harlem Renaissance. He was the first out black writer.

Simon Nkoli was a South African anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist. He is recognized as the founder of South Africa’s black gay movement.

Known as “Hip-Hop’s First Lady,” Queen Latifah is an acclaimed entertainer in music, film and television. She has received a Grammy, a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards.

Nathan Lane is an award-winning film, television and theater actor. He has received three Emmys, two Tony Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Brenda Howard was an LGBT activist. She organized the first Pride parade and is known as the “Mother of Pride.” Born in the Bronx, Howard was raised on Long Island. In the 1960s, she became involved in the anti-war and feminist movements.

Tom of Finland was an artist whose sexually charged drawings of musclemen impacted gay culture. He is known as the most influential creator of homoerotic images.

Martin Duberman is a historian, a playwright, an LGBT activist and the founder of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School. He is an acclaimed author of more than 20 books.

Elio Di Rupo is the prime minister of Belgium and head of the Socialist Party. He is the first openly gay man to lead a nation.

Anderson Cooper is an award-winning news anchor, author and talk show host. Born in New York City to a prominent family, Anderson Hays Cooper is the son of Wyatt Emory Cooper and heiress and entrepreneur Gloria Vanderbilt.

Tim Cook is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Apple, one of the world’s most valuable companies. In 2011, Steve Jobs handpicked Cook as his successor.

Tracy Chapman is a multi-platinum, four-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. Two of her songs have reached the Top 10 on the BillboardHot 100 chart, and her first No. 1 hit, “Fast Car,” was named one of the best songs of all time by Rolling Stone.

Willa Cather was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of the most prominent American writers of the early 20th century. She is best known for her novels “O Pioneers!” and “My Antonia.”

Mandy Carter describes herself as an “out, southern, black, lesbian, social justice activist.” She has been advocating for human rights for more than 45 years.

Joan Biren is an internationally recognized photographer and filmmaker who chronicles gay life. Her photographs are on display in the Library of Congress.

Gad Beck was a Holocaust survivor who helped gays and Jews escape the Nazis. He was born in Berlin to a Jewish father and a Protestant mother who converted to Judaism. In 1943, Beck and his father were seized by the Nazis.

Joseph Beam was a gay rights activist who helped build a black LGBT community in the 1980s. He was the editor of “In the Life,” the first collection of nonfiction works by and about black gay men.

Djuna Barnes is a prominent modernist writer known for her experimental style and edgy themes. Born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, to a polygamist family, she was inspired to write by her grandmother, a feminist writer and journalist.