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Our collections span centuries and include objects related to protest and politics, medicine and psychology, love and marriage, sports and entertainment, and more. Sometimes, curators and archivists collected objects for a specific reason that later turned out to have LGBTQ+ connections. For example, the numismatics collection has coins that were collected decades ago with the likenesses of emperors and royalty, such as Queen Christina of Sweden, who expressed same-sex attraction. Identities, terms, and definitions related to sexual orientation and gender identity have been in flux as long as there have been humans. The museum is continually adding to and mining our existing resources in order to better understand evolving and overlapping identities such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, transsexual, transvestite, mahu, homosexual, fluid, invert, urning, third sex, two sex, gender-bender, sapphist, hijra, friend of Dorothy, drag queen/king, and many other experiences.

The resources gathered on this page offer a path into the museum's efforts in finding that past and making sense of it.

Archives

Video

Sylvia Rivera: Pushing Boundaries. This episode of our Latinas Talk Latinas series features Sylvia Rivera, a transgender woman who was a fierce defender of LGBTQ+ rights.

Beyond Stonewall. This Smithsonian Channel production revisits the historic moment that began a movement and explores objects from the Smithsonian that tell stories of the gay experience in America.

History Time: LGBTQ+ Pride. This entry from our video series for elementary-age kids uses a rainbow rubber bracelet to explore the meaning of LGBTQ+ pride.

News Releases

National Museum of American History Marks the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising With "Illegal To Be You" Display (June 17, 2019)

Smithsonian Receives Matthew Shepard Collection (October 25, 2018)

LGBTQ Publisher, Journalist and Pioneer Mark Segal Donates Collection to National Museum of American History (May 17, 2018)

National Museum of American History Receives Archival Materials Related to the History of The Academy of Washington, D.C. (March 13, 2018)

National Museum of American History Acquires Archival Collection Related to LGBT Conversion Therapy (October 16, 2017)

National Museum of American History Collects History Related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History (August 19, 2014)

For Michael and Robert, the quick peck before a walk around the lake with Michael's son was an ordinary moment. It was also a history-making photograph.

Skateboarding is known for its laid back vibe of acceptance and inclusion but this was not always the case for LGBTQ+ skaters. There were violent homophobic incidents in the early 1980s and 1990s. Recently, skate has made great strides in its acceptance of LGBTQ+ skaters.

See more blog posts

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LGBTQ+ history is a part of American history that the museum has been documenting since its founding, both knowingly and unknowingly. Our collections span centuries and include objects related to protest and politics, medicine and psychology, love and marriage, sports and entertainment, and more.

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Here is a look at LGBTQ milestones in the United States. LGBTQ is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning. The term sometimes is extended to LGBTQIA, to include intersex and asexual groups. Queer is an umbrella term for non-straight people; intersex refers to those whose sex is not clearly defined because of genetic, hormonal, or biological differences; and asexual describes those who don't experience sexual attraction.

Timeline:

1924 - The Society for Human Rights is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. It is the first documented gay rights organization.

1950 - The Mattachine Society is formed by activist Harry Hay and is one of the first sustained gay rights groups in the United States. The Society focuses on social acceptance and other support for homosexuals.

April 1952 - The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual lists homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance.

April 27, 1953 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order that bans homosexuals from working for the federal government, saying they are a security risk.

September 1955 - The first known lesbian rights organization in the United States forms in San Francisco. Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). They host private social functions, fearing police raids, threats of violence and discrimination in bars and clubs.

July 1961 - Illinois becomes the first state to decriminalize homosexuality by repealing their sodomy laws.

September 11, 1961 - The first US-televised documentary about homosexuality airs on a local station in California.

June 28, 1969 - Police raid the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Protests and demonstrations begin, and it later becomes known as the impetus for the gay civil rights movement in the United States.

June 28, 1970 - Community members in New York City march through the local streets to recognize the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. This event is named Christopher Street Liberation Day and is now considered the first gay pride parade.

1973 - Lambda Legal becomes the first legal organization established to fight for the equal rights of gays and lesbians. Lambda also becomes their own first client after being denied non-profit status; the New York Supreme Court eventually rules that Lambda Legal can exist as a non-profit.

January 1, 1973 - Maryland becomes the first state to statutorily ban same-sex marriage.

March 26, 1973 - First meeting of "Parents and Friends of Gays," which goes national as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in 1982.

December 15, 1973 - By a vote of 5,854 to 3,810, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

1974 - Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly LGBTQ American elected to any public office when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council.

1974 - Elaine Noble is the first openly gay candidate elected to a state office when she is elected to the Massachusetts State legislature.

January 14, 1975 - The first federal gay rights bill is introduced to address discrimination based on sexual orientation. The bill later goes to the Judiciary Committee but is never brought for consideration.

March 1975 - Technical Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich reveals his sexual orientation to his commanding officer and is forcibly discharged from the Air Force six months later. Matlovich is a Vietnam War veteran and was awarded both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. In 1980, the Court of Appeals rules that the dismissal was improper. Matlovich is awarded his back pay and a retroactive promotion.

1976 - After undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 1975, ophthalmologist and professional tennis player Renee Richards is banned from competing in the women's US Open because of a "women-born-women" rule. Richards challenges the decision and in 1977 and the New York Supreme Court rules in her favor. Richards competes in the 1977 US Open but is defeated in the first round by Virginia Wade.

October 14, 1979 - The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights takes place. It draws an estimated 75,000 to 125,000 individuals marching for LGBTQ rights.

March 2, 1982 - Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

1983 - Lambda Legal wins People v. West 12 Tenants Corp., the first HIV/AIDS discrimination lawsuit. Neighbors attempted to evict Dr. Joseph Sonnabend from the building because he was treating HIV-positive patients.

October 11, 1988 - The first National Coming Out Day is observed.

November 1995 - The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act goes into effect as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The law allows a judge to impose harsher sentences if there is evidence showing that a victim was selected because of the "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person."

September 21, 1996 - President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage and defining marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife."

December 3, 1996 - Hawaii's Judge Chang rules that the state does not have a legal right to deprive same-sex couples of the right to marry, making Hawaii the first state to recognize that gay and lesbian couples are entitled to the same privileges as heterosexual married couples.

April 1997 - Comedian Ellen DeGeneres comes out as a lesbian on the cover of Time magazine, stating, "Yep, I'm Gay."

April 30, 1997 - DeGeneres' character, Ellen Morgan, on her self-titled TV series "Ellen," becomes the first leading character to come out on a prime-time network television show.

October 6-7, 1998 - Matthew Shepard is tied to a fence and beaten near Laramie, Wyoming. He is eventually found by a cyclist, who initially mistakes him for a scarecrow. He later dies due to his injuries sustained in the beating.

October 9, 1998 - Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney from Laramie, Wyoming, make their first court appearance after being arrested for the attempted murder of Shepard. Eventually, they each receive two life sentences for killing Shepard.

June 2003 - The US Supreme Court strikes down the "homosexual conduct" law, which decriminalizes same-sex sexual conduct, with their opinion in Lawrence v. Texas. The decision also reverses Bowers v. Hardwick, a 1986 US Supreme Court ruling that upheld Georgia's sodomy law.

May 17, 2004 - The first legal same-sex marriage in the United States takes place in Massachusetts.

September 6, 2005 - The California legislature becomes the first to pass a bill allowing marriage between same-sex couples. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes the bill.

October 25, 2006 - The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that state lawmakers must provide the rights and benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples.

May 15, 2008 - The California Supreme Court rules in re: Marriage Cases that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples is unconstitutional.

November 4, 2008 - Voters approve Proposition 8 in California, which makes same-sex marriage illegal. The proposition is later found to be unconstitutional by a federal judge.

August 12, 2009 - Milk is posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

October 28, 2009 - Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law.

September 20, 2011 - "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is repealed, ending a ban on gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

May 9, 2012 - In an ABC interview,Obama becomes the first sitting US president to publicly support the freedom for LGBTQ couples to marry.

September 4, 2012 - The Democratic Party becomes the first major US political party in history to publicly support same-sex marriage on a national platform at the Democratic National Convention.

November 6, 2012 - Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay politician and the first Wisconsin woman to be elected to the US Senate.

June 26, 2013 - In United States v. Windsor, the US Supreme Court strikes down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, ruling that legally married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits. The high court also dismisses a case involving California's proposition 8.

October 6, 2014 - The United States Supreme Court denies review in five different marriage cases, allowing lower court rulings to stand, and therefore allowing same-sex couples to marry in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin. The decision opens the door for the right to marry in Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

May 17, 2016 - The Senate confirms Eric Fanning to be secretary of the Army, making him the first openly gay secretary of a US military branch. Fanning previously served as Defense Secretary Carter's chief of staff, and also served as undersecretary of the Air Force and deputy undersecretary of the Navy.

June 30, 2016 - Secretary of Defense Carter announces that the Pentagon is lifting the ban on transgender people serving openly in the US military.

November 9, 2016 - Kate Brown is sworn in as governor of Oregon, a day after she was officially elected to the office. Brown becomes the highest-ranking LGBTQ person elected to office in the United States. Brown took over the governorship in February 2016 (without an election), after Democrat John Kitzhaber resigned amidst a criminal investigation.

April 4, 2017 - The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination against LGBTQ employees, after Kimberly Hively sues Ivy Tech Community College for violating Title VII of the act by denying her employment.

June 27, 2017 - District of Columbia residents can now choose a gender-neutral option of their driver's license. DC residents become the first people in the United States to be able to choose X as their gender marker instead of male or female on driver's licenses and identification cards. Similar policies exist in Canada, India, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand and Nepal.

June 30, 2017 - The US Department of Defense announces a six-month delay in allowing transgendered individuals to enlist in the United States military. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis writes that they "will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality." Approximately a month later, President Donald Trump announces via Twitter that the "United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military..."

November 7, 2017 - Virginia voters elect the state's first openly transgender candidate to the Virginia House of Delegates. Danica Roem unseats incumbent delegate Bob Marshall, who had been elected 13 times over 26 years. Roem becomes the first openly transgender candidate elected to a state legislature in American history.

February 26, 2018 - The Pentagon confirms that the first transgender person has signed a contract to join the US military.

November 6, 2018 - Democratic US Representative Jared Polis wins the Colorado governor's race, becoming the nation's first openly gay man to be elected governor.

June 30, 2019 - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs a law banning the use of the so-called gay and trans panic legal defense strategy. The tactic asks a jury to find that a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for a defendant's violent reaction. New York follows California, Rhode Island, Illinois, Nevada and Connecticut as the sixth state to pass such a law.

February 10, 2020 - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a ruling that the state of Idaho must provide gender confirmation surgery for Adree Edmo, an inmate in the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction. The ruling marks the first time a federal appeals court has ruled that a state must provide gender assignment surgery to an incarcerated person. According to the court opinion, "the gender confirmation surgery (GCS) was medically necessary for Edmo, and ordered the State to provide the surgery." In July 2020, Edmo receives her gender confirmation surgery and a May 2020 appeal by Attorney General of Idaho, Lawrence Wasden, is denied as moot by the US Supreme Court in October 2020.

August 26, 2020 - The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of former student, Gavin Grimm in a more than four-year fight over restroom policies for transgender students. The ruling states that policies segregating transgender students from their peers is unconstitutional and violate federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The decision relies in part on the Supreme Court's decision in June 2020, stating that discrimination against people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2021, the Supreme Court chooses not to review the opinion by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

February 2, 2021 - Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg becomes the first openly gay Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate.

March 24, 2021 - Dr. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services becomes the first out transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

June 21, 2021 - Carl Nassib, a defensive lineman with the Las Vegas Raiders, becomes the first active NFL player in league history to announce that he is gay.

June 30, 2021 - The State Department announces it will be updating its procedures to allow applicants to self-select their sex marker for passports and that it "will no longer require medical certification" if an applicant's self-selected sex marker doesn't match the sex listed on other official identity documents.

October 27, 2021 - The State Department announces that the US has issued the first US passport with an X gender marker. "As the Secretary announced in June, the Department is moving towards adding an X gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons applying for a U.S. passport or CRBA," State spokesperson Ned Price says in a statement.

October 19, 2022 - The Social Security Administration announces that people can now choose their sex marker in their Social Security records.

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LGBTQ Rights Milestones Fast Facts | CNN

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Here is a look at LGBTQ milestones in the United States. LGBTQ is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning. The term sometimes is extended to LGBTQIA, to include intersex and asexual groups.

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During the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s, actors and actresses shot to fame-but only if they tailored their images to the demands of the big studios. For LGBT actors, that often meant marrying a person of the opposite sex.

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For all of us, learning an LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum can help us better understand our world and our differences. For LGBTQ+ students in particular, it can mean feeling safer at school and hearing homophobic and transphobic remarks less frequently, according to GLSEN research. That's why we're sharing the resources below, from an interactive timeline and coloring book to many other classroom resources.

Recognizing these benefits, former GLSEN Chapter leader Rodney Wilson, with the support of GLSEN's founder Kevin Jennings and many others, founded LGBTQ+ History Month in October 1994. While you can use these resources every October, they're perfect for use all year, so that students see the benefits year round.

A great resource you can use to learn and teach about LGBTQ+ history is Making Gay History, the critically acclaimed and award-winning podcast that brings LGBTQ +history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. Listen to the podcasts below to hear about the lives and legacies of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were participants in the New York Stonewall riots in 1969.

LGBTQ History Coloring Book

A perfect activity for elementary school students and adults alike, this coloring book features leaders and groundbreaking events in LGBTQ+ American history.

This book features these fearless leaders:

We'Wha

Bayard Rustin

Compton Cafeteria Riots

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

Marriage Equality and Edie Windsor

Laverne Cox

Student Resources

These LGBTQ+ students shared their stories about how their identities are affected and represented historically.

Educator Resources

One LGBTQ+ icon to include in class is Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the history of California. Sign up to gain free access to a short animated film about his life and other educational resources, offered by our partner BrainPOP.

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For all of us, learning an LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum can help us better understand our world and our differences. For LGBTQ+ students in particular, it can mean feeling safer at school and hearing homophobic and transphobic remarks less frequently, according to GLSEN research.

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Lambda Legal, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work. Learn More

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We are a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and everyone living with HIV.

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The ACLU works to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, & queer people belong everywhere and can live openly and authentically without discrimination, harassment, or violence. The ACLU has a long history of defending the LGBTQ community. We brought our first LGBTQ rights case in 1936. What is now the Jon L.

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Equality Federation Reacts to Supreme Court Decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis

Today, Equality Federation responded to the Supreme Court's decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case about whether a business that is open to the public can be granted an unprecedented free speech exemption from state nondiscrimination law in order to turn away customers they would rather not serve. In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled for 303 Creative in a highly fact-specific decision authorizing a narrow exception to state nondiscrimination laws for a website developer.

Join Our Team in Supporting Our Members This Give OUT Day

After you donate to Equality Federation, please consider matching that gift with a donation to your closest participating state partner and a BIPOC-focused organization this Give Out Day.

Paid Health Leave and its benefits for everyone

Paid Health Leave for everyone would provide access to taking care of oneself without jeopardizing their employment. This is a part of public health, and we must invest in it to keep everyone safe.

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We accelerate advocacy in the LGBTQ community | Equality Federation

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Equality Federation is an advocacy accelerator rooted in social justice, building power in our network of state-based lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) advocacy organizations.

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Did you know that the number of people who identify as LGBTQ is rising? Today, over 11.5 million adults in the U.S identify as LGBTQ and one in ten youth identifies this way. These numbers are growing because society is becoming more accepting of people for who they are.

Despite this progress, change still needs to happen. It can be scary to be proud of who you are when there are still people and laws that that discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals.

Nonetheless, showing off your pride can be incredibly rewarding. There's so much history behind the different kinds of pride flags that exist today.

Keep reading to learn about the diverse range of the pride flags that have been designed over the years. The variety that exists may surprise you!

The Pride Flag That Started It All

The history of the original pride flag should be in textbooks and taught in school. It was created by Gilbert Baker in 1977. Tasked by Harvey Milk, a historic figure in the fight for LGBTQ rights, to create a flag for the queer community, Baker created a rainbow flag with eight different colors.

Inspired by the classic song "Over the Rainbow" from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Baker created a rainbow flag to represent LGBTQ folks. Each color in the flag also had a specific meaning.

Hot pink symbolizes sex

Red equals life

Orange symbolizes healing

Yellow stands for sunlight

Green represents nature

Turquoise equals magic and art

Indigo stands for serenity

Violet represents the spirit of LGBTQ people

The 6-Color Pride Flag

One of the most well known and used of the LGBT flags throughout history has been the 1979, six-color flag. This flag includes the colors red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet on it.

Hot pink wasn't included in the fabrication of these flags, because the fabric was hard to find as the demand for the flag started to rise. The turquoise color was also taken off the flag to keep an even number of colors.

The Philadelphia Pride Flag

The Philadelphia Pride Flag came about in response to the demand for more inclusivity across the LGBTQ+ community. The flag launched in 2017 as part of the "More Color More Pride" Campaign in Philadelphia.

The addition of black and brown stripes to the traditional pride flag symbolized people of color who are often not represented in the queer community.

Lena Waithe's choice to wear the Philadelphia Pride Flag as a cape at the 2018 Met Gala is the perfect example of this type of inclusion. She is a powerful advocate for black people within the entertainment industry and this flag spiked in popularity after she elevated its visibility.

The Transgender Flag

There are more than 1.4 million trans adults living in the U.S. Violence against the queer community affects trans people of color the most.

This is why the trans flag is so important. The trans community needs representation and resources to be visible without fear.

The flag was first created in 1999 by Monica Helms, a transgender woman. Pink and blue represent girls and boys respectively. The white stands for those in transition or those who don't feel identified with any gender.

The Nonbinary Pride Flag

In 2014, Kye Rowan created the nonbinary pride flag. The colors of the nonbinary flag are yellow, white, purple, and black. The colors each symbolize a different subgroup of people who identify as nonbinary.

Yellow signifies something on its own or people who identify outside of the cisgender binary of male or female. White, a color that consists of all colors mixed together, stands for multi-gendered people. Purple, similar to the lavender color in the genderqueer flag, represents people who identify as a blending of male and female genders.

Finally, black (the absence of color) signifies those who are agender or who feel they do not have a gender.

The Nonbinary Trans Flag

Up to this point in history, people who identified as both nonbinary and trans either had to use both flags or use neither. Now, nonbinary trans folks have their own unique flag to fly with pride.

Naturally, most transgender people would like to be inclusive of nonbinary people and visa versa. Thus, this new flag embraces both of these identities in a single six-striped flag.

This nonbinary trans flag is a combination of the colors of the trans pride flag and the nonbinary pride flag, merged into one.

The Intersex Flag

This flag went through a variety of iterations before the current intersex flag emerged. Previous versions embraced the rainbow that is often associated with queer pride, while others used colors like blue and pink, which are found on the transgender flag.

In 2013, Morgan Carpenter chose the colors yellow and purple for the intersex flag. Morgan moved away from the rainbow symbolism and selected these colors because neither is associated with the social constructs of the gender binary.

The circle, perfect and unbroken, represents the wholeness of intersex people. It is a reminder that intersex people are perfect the way they are or choose to be.

The Flag for the Asexual Community

The asexual flag was created in 2010 by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. This flag represents the asexual community. Because this is a less common identity and asexuality can mean different things to different people, it is best to ask each individual what it means to them.

For some people, it may mean that they rely on other types of attraction instead of or in place of sexual attraction.

Once again, each color in this flag also represents something unique.

The Bisexual Pride Flag

The bi pride flag was created in 1998 by Michael Page. His idea for the flag represents pink and blue blending to make purple. The way that bisexual people can blend into the straight community and the gay community.

The colors of the flag also represent attraction to different genders. The pink symbolizes attraction to the same gender, while the blue represents attraction to a different gender. The purple represents attraction to two or more genders, the definition of bisexuality.

Black stands for asexuality

Gray represents demisexuality, sexual attraction after an emotional bond

White stands for the allies of the community

Purple represents the entire community of asexual folks

The Pansexual Flag

The flag that symbolizes the pansexual community was created in 2010. Pansexuality represents those people who feel attracted to a person without thinking about gender. This means that they can feel attraction to those who identify as women, men, both or neither.

The pink on the flag represents attraction to women, blue represents attraction to men, and yellow stands for attraction to those who don't identify with either gender.

The Flag for the Lesbian Community

The lesbian flag is one of the flags fewer people know about. This flag features different shades of pink and sometimes comes with a red kiss on it to represent lipstick lesbians.

This flag was created by Natalie McCray in 2010. Some lesbians oppose this flag because of its exclusion of butch lesbians but no other flag has as much popularity as this one.

The Gay Men Pride Flag

The gay men's pride flag is another lesser known pride flag. It features different shades of green, blue and purple.

This modern gay men's pride flag is a revamp of an earlier gay men's pride flag that featured a range of blue tones. That version was problematic because it used colors that were stereotypical of the gender binary.

This updated flag is inclusive of a much wide ranger of gay men, including but not limited to transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming men.

The Modern Pride Flag

Given the evolving nature of the LGBTQ+ community and society at large, the modern pride flag integrates many of these flags into one. Thankfully, it has been redesigned to be more substantially more inclusive.

The modern pride flag now includes stripes to represent the experiences of people of color, as well as stripes to represent people who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC) and/or undefined.

Everything You Need to Know About Pride Flags

There are so many pride flags that represent the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. Given this, it's important to know the meaning behind the flags that represent different members within our community.

Which flag do you identify with and prefer to fly? Let me know in the comments below.

Interested to learn more? Join a half million other readers or connect with Cade on Instagram.

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Beyond the Rainbow: Your Complete Guide to Pride Flags

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Did you know that the number of people who identify as LGBTQ is rising? Today, over 11.5 million adults in the U.S identify as LGBTQ and one in ten youth identifies this way. These numbers are growing because society is becoming more accepting of people for who they are.

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When the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on June 15 intended to protect LGBTQ people from employment discrimination, writer and activist Raquel Willis said the good news was overshadowed by reports that two Black transgender women had been murdered just two days before. It was also on the same day news surfaced that Oluwatoyin Salau, an activist who had fought for justice for the murder of Black trans man Tony McDade, had been killed.

"It was a day of celebration, but it also was still a day of mourning for so many Black, queer and trans folks," said Willis, who recently helped plan a massive March For Black Trans Lives in Brooklyn, New York, to bring attention to the violence that disproportionately affects transgender people of color in the U.S.

WATCH: Remembering the '80s HIV epidemic this Pride

This year alone, at least 16 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been fatally shot or killed by other violent means, according to Human Rights Campaign.

"We should always carry an understanding that even with these winds of change...there's also the truth that queer and trans folks who are Black are literally being killed every day," Willis said.

June 26 marked five years since the ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges - the landmark Supreme Court case legalizing same-sex marriage. Nearly 300,000 same-sex couples have married since, but the fight for marriage equality represents just one piece of the LGBTQ agenda for progress and equality. The recent killings of Black trans women is a reminder that many LGBTQ lives are still in danger. Activists and scholars say major wins in the Supreme Court do not negate the myriad setbacks that have occurred at the state and local level for the LGBTQ community as a whole, even after the Obergefell ruling.

This past weekend, some 50,000 protesters gathered for the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality. The group - which has placed itself apart from more mainstream, corporate Pride celebrations - clashed with members of the NYPD, and some members were beaten and pepper-sprayed. It was a reminder to some LGBTQ activists that despite progress made since the Stonewall Riots, members of the community are still subject to targeting by law enforcement and other U.S. institutions. The LGBTQ community is not a monolith, and progress means different things to different people.

Five years after Obergefell, and 50 years since the first gay Pride march in New York City, many LGTBQ activists say there's still much work to be done. Amid the latest calls for action against police brutality and systemic racism, some are turning away from larger institutions and looking within their own communities to effect change.

5 years ago, a historic win signaled a shift in public opinion on same-sex marriage

When William Eskridge, now a law professor at Yale, agreed to represent Craig Dean when he sued the District of Columbia for the right to marry in 1991, he was surprised at how much pushback there was to same-sex marriage.

"I certainly did not expect the huge backlash that there was," Eskridge told the PBS NewsHour. "Like wow, that was a steamroller. It surprised me how hysterical people were." They lost the case and in 1996, then-president Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

"I certainly did not expect the huge backlash that there was."

By that time, Eskridge had laid out his case for same-sex marriage in a book, and in 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize it. Still, Eskridge said any honest advocate for same-sex marriage at the time would have expressed skepticism that it could be achieved in the next decade.

"I was a little bit surprised at how quickly the dominoes fell after Massachusetts," Eskridge said of the push for nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage. "I was still prepared for it to be a long haul, not 2015."

When the Supreme Court ruled five years ago that same-sex couples could marry anywhere in the U.S., it was with the support of conservative justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored the decision. Cheers erupted outside of the court when the ruling was delivered, and the White House of then-President Barack Obama lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the decision.

The hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since have gained access to the same benefits - such as health care, adoption, and recognition on birth and death certificates - that straight couples are entitled to. The plaintiff in the case, Jim Obergefell, who sued for his marriage to his late partner to be recognized, said the symbolic impact has been important, too.

Obergefell said that as more family members, friends and coworkers of same-sex couples have seen them get legally married, it's normalized the process: "It makes what for some people seemed like such a foreign concept, such a hard thing to understand or to grasp or to accept - it's made it just normal. It's part of everyday life."

Eskridge - who has another book on marriage equality called "From Outlaws to In-Laws" coming out in August - noted that although Congress once labeled homosexual people as "sexual psychopaths," in recent years, "space has been made in American political and social culture for people who who do not follow majority approaches to sexual orientation or gender identity."

Indeed, positive public opinion of legal same-sex marriage has continued to rise steadily since the Obergefell ruling, with a 63 percent majority favoring it as of last May.

Conservative backlash follows a landmark ruling

While same-sex marriage was a historic win for LGBTQ rights in the U.S., it still represented the interests of a narrow bloc of the community: mostly cisgender same-sex couples. As Eliel Cruz, an activist and director of the New York City anti-violence project, noted, "I don't think five, 10 years ago, if you asked Black trans women, 'what is the legislation that we need to keep you safe?' that marriage would have been what folks said."

Cory Albertson, a lecturer at Smith College and author of "A Perfect Union? Television and the Winning of Same-Sex Marriage," spoke about the limits of the Obergefell decision in a recent interview: "When talking about many of the bigger, practical financial issues that marriage helps, same-sex marriage has really only benefited cisgender white lesbians and gay men who already had some upward mobility," he noted. "So, positioning marriage equality as the LGBTQ civil rights issue was disingenuous because, in many ways, it only helped those who were already privileged."

The legalization of same-sex marriage also triggered a conservative backlash of legislation targeting LGBTQ rights in the workplace, health care, housing, schools and other public accommodations, which has had an impact on wide swaths of the community.

Less than a year after the Obergefell rulings, North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill requiring transgender people to use the bathroom associated with the gender assigned on their birth certificate. The legislation triggered a debate over gender and identity that only resolved last year, when a federal judge approved a settlement affirming transgender people's right to use the bathroom associated with their gender identity. In 2017 alone, 36 states considered similar "bathroom bills," although none ever successfully passed.

Christy Mallory, the state policy director at UCLA's Williams Institute, said there's also been a push at the state and federal level in the last five years to pass legislation that allows for discrimination against LGBTQ people on religious grounds. More than a dozen states have pursued legislation allowing private businesses, medical professionals and state-licensed child welfare agencies to deny services to LGBTQ people, according to tracking by the Movement Advance Project.

As of last fall, more than half of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. lived in states without non-discrimination laws, meaning they could be fired because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. And even with the recent surprise Supreme Court decision prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace - authored by conservative Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch - the Trump administration has continued to roll back LGBTQ protections.

"Just as we saw that Supreme Court decision come out, we are also seeing the Trump administration continue to roll back protections, especially for transgender people," said Mallory.

READ MORE: LGBTQ activists see hard work ahead despite Supreme Court win

Just days before the landmark work discrimination case was decided, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule revoking Obama-era protections for transgender patients in the health care system. The Trump administration also implemented a policy barring openly transgender individuals from serving in the military and rolled back a number of housing protections and policies for LGBTQ individuals. The department for Housing and Urban Development, for example, removed resources from its website that had advised emergency shelters on how to provide equal access to transgender and other LGBTQ people.

These rollbacks are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to target transgender individuals, and narrow the definition of gender to the biological sex one is assigned at birth - a policy that The New York Times first reported on in 2018.

"There's still a lot more work to be done, even though it seems like a huge landmark decision," Mallory said of the workplace discrimination case, Bostock v. Clayton County.

What progress means to LGBTQ activists today

Despite major federal wins, some activists say the patchwork nature of LGBTQ legislation in the U.S. has proved ineffective at protecting their community, and have thus stopped relying on their lawmakers to protect them.

"We're not just looking for progress. We're looking for liberation."

"Policy is only part of what this fight is about," said Fran Tirado, an activist and writer who helped plan the March for Black Trans Lives. Tirado noted that Raquel Willis - one of his partners in organizing the march - has often said that "white people get to worry about policy while Black trans folks have to worry about their lives."

"We're not just looking for progress. We're looking for liberation. And liberation goes beyond just the legislation; that also goes to us being able to live our lives without the threat of violence and murder," Willis said.

Tirado and Willis said that marginalized voices within the LGBTQ community have often not been represented in the broader movement, particularly when it comes to national policy discussions. The recent March for Black Trans Lives is a nod to an intersectional movement that's more representative of marginalized groups, with less focus on support from lawmakers and major non-profits that have traditionally funded LGBTQ actions.

"It is to our benefit to create our own systems, to create our own concepts of power while we can, as we're kind of waiting for the rest of the world to wake up," said Tirado, who noted that since the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests against police brutality and systemic racism, he's noticed a greater awareness among his wider circle about the issues that continue to affect marginalized members of the LGBTQ community, particularly people of color.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated anything, said Willis, it's the strength of the "built-in networks that queer and trans communities of color have always had" for one another, absent support of major state and government institutions, with grassroots initiatives focusing, for example, on HIV advocacy or the LGBTQ homeless population.

"We have been organizing radically to keep each other alive," said Willis. "And this is our moment for the world to take notice and also take notes on what they should be doing to support us in this work."

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LGBTQ activists on what progress looks like 5 years after same-sex marriage ruling

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When the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on June 15 intended to protect LGBTQ people from employment discrimination, writer and activist Raquel Willis said the good news was overshadowed by reports that two Black transgender women had been murdered just two days before.

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Social movements, organizing around the acceptance and rights of persons who might today identify as LGBT or queer, began as responses to centuries of persecution by church, state, and medical authorities. Where homosexual activity or deviance from established gender roles/dress was banned by law or traditional custom, such condemnation might be communicated through sensational public trials, exile, medical warnings, and language from the pulpit. These paths of persecution entrenched homophobia for centuries-but also alerted entire populations to the existence of difference.

Whether an individual recognized they, too, shared this identity and were at risk, or dared to speak out for tolerance and change, there were few organizations or resources before the scientific and political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Gradually, the growth of a public media and ideals of human rights drew together activists from all walks of life, who drew courage from sympathetic medical studies, banned literature, emerging sex research, and a climate of greater democracy.

By the 20th century, a movement in recognition of gays and lesbians was underway, abetted by the social climate of feminism and new anthropologies of difference. However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly from the 1870s to today), leaders and organizers struggled to address the very different concerns and identity issues of gay men, women identifying as lesbians, and others identifying as gender variant or nonbinary. White, male, and Western activists whose groups and theories gained leverage against homophobia did not necessarily represent the range of racial, class, and national identities complicating a broader LGBT agenda. Women were often left out altogether.

What is the prehistory of LGBT activism? Most historians agree that there is evidence of homosexual activity and same-sex love, whether such relationships were accepted or persecuted, in every documented culture. We know that homosexuality existed in ancient Israel simply because it is prohibited in the Bible, whereas it flourished between both men and women in Ancient Greece. Substantial evidence also exists for individuals who lived at least part of their lives as a different gender than assigned at birth. From the lyrics of same-sex desire inscribed by Sappho in the seventh century BCE to youths raised as the opposite sex in cultures ranging from Albania to Afghanistan; from the "female husbands" of Kenya to the Native American "Two-Spirit," alternatives to the Western male-female and heterosexual binaries thrived across millennia and culture.

These realities gradually became known to the West via travelers' diaries, the church records of missionaries, diplomats' journals, and in reports by medical anthropologists. Such eyewitness accounts in the era before other media were of course riddled with the biases of the (often) Western or White observer, and added to beliefs that homosexual practices were other, foreign, savage, a medical issue, or evidence of a lower racial hierarchy. The peaceful flowering of early trans or bisexual acceptance in different indigenous civilizations met with opposition from European and Christian colonizers.

In the age of European exploration and empire-building, Native American, North African, and Pacific Islander cultures accepting of "Two-Spirit" people or same-sex love shocked European invaders who objected to any deviation from a limited understanding of "masculine" and "feminine" roles. The European powers enforced their own criminal codes against what was called sodomy in the New World: the first known case of homosexual activity receiving a death sentence in North America occurred in 1566, when the Spanish executed a Frenchman in Florida.

Against the emerging backdrop of national power and Christian faith, what might have been learned about same-sex love or gender identity was buried in scandal. Ironically, both wartime conflict between emerging nations and the departure or deaths of male soldiers left women behind to live together and fostered strong alliances between men as well. Same-sex companionship thrived where it was frowned upon for unmarried, unrelated males and females to mingle or socialize freely. Women's relationships in particular escaped scrutiny since there was no threat of pregnancy. Nonetheless, in much of the world, female sexual activity and sensation were curtailed wherever genital circumcision practices made clitoridectomy an ongoing custom.

Where European dress-a clear marker of gender-was enforced by missionaries, we find another complicated history of both gender identity and resistance. Biblical interpretation made it illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female dress, and sensationalized public trials warned against "deviants" but also made such martyrs and heroes popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chilling origins of the word "faggot" include a stick of wood used in public burnings of gay men.

Despite the risks of defying severe legal codes, cross-dressing flourished in early modern Europe and America. Women and girls, economically oppressed by the sexism which kept them from jobs and economic/education opportunities designated for men only, might pass as male in order to gain access to coveted experiences or income. This was a choice made by many women who were not necessarily transgender in identity. Women "disguised" themselves as men, sometimes for extended periods of years, in order to fight in the military (Deborah Sampson), to work as pirates (Mary Read and Anne Bonney), attend medical school, etc. Both men and women who lived as a different gender were often only discovered after their deaths, as the extreme differences in male vs. female clothing and grooming in much of Western culture made "passing" surprisingly easy in certain environments.

Moreover, roles in the arts where women were banned from working required that men be recruited to play female roles, often creating a high-status, competitive market for those we might today identify as trans women, in venues from Shakespeare's theatre to Japanese Kabuki to the Chinese opera. This acceptance of performance artists, and the popularity of "drag" humor cross-culturally, did not necessarily mark the start of transgender advocacy, but made the arts an often accepting sanctuary for LGBT individuals who built theatrical careers based around disguise and illusion.

The era of sexology studies is where we first see a small, privileged cluster of medical authorities begin promoting a limited tolerance of those born "invert." In Western history, we find little formal study of what was later called homosexuality before the 19th century, beyond medical texts identifying women with large clitorises as "tribades" and severe punishment codes for male homosexual acts.

Early efforts to understand the range of human sexual behavior came from European doctors and scientists including Carl von Westphal (1869), Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1882) and Havelock Ellis (1897). Their writings were sympathetic to the concept of a homosexual or bisexual orientation occurring naturally in an identifiable segment of humankind, but the writings of Krafft-Ebing and Ellis also labeled a "third sex" degenerate and abnormal. Sigmund Freud, writing in the same era, did not consider homosexuality an illness or a crime and believed bisexuality to be an innate aspect beginning with undetermined gender development in the womb. Yet Freud also felt that lesbian desires were an immaturity women could overcome through heterosexual marriage and male dominance.

These writings gradually trickled down to a curious public through magazines and presentations, reaching men and women desperate to learn more about those like themselves, including some like English writer Radclyffe Hall who willingly accepted the idea of being a "congenital invert." German researcher Magnus Hirschfeld went on to gather a broader range of information by founding Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science, Europe's best library archive of materials on gay cultural history. His efforts, and Germany's more liberal laws and thriving gay bar scene between the two World Wars, contrasted with the backlash, in England, against gay and lesbian writers such as Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe Hall. With the rise of Hitler's Third Reich, however, the former tolerance demonstrated by Germany's Scientific Humanitarian Committee vanished. Hirschfeld's great library was destroyed and the books burnt by Nazis on May 10, 1933.

In the United States, there were few attempts to create advocacy groups supporting gay and lesbian relationships until after World War II. However, prewar gay life flourished in urban centers such as New York's Greenwich Village and Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The blues music of African-American women showcased varieties of lesbian desire, struggle, and humor; these performances, along with male and female drag stars, introduced a gay underworld to straight patrons during Prohibition's defiance of race and sex codes in speakeasy clubs.

The disruptions of World War II allowed formerly isolated gay men and women to meet as soldiers and war workers; and other volunteers were uprooted from small towns and posted worldwide. Many minds were opened by wartime, during which LGBT people were both tolerated in military service and officially sentenced to death camps in the Holocaust. This increasing awareness of an existing and vulnerable population, coupled with Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigation of homosexuals holding government jobs during the early 1950s outraged writers and federal employees whose own lives were shown to be second-class under the law, including Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Allen Ginsberg, and Harry Hay.

Awareness of a burgeoning civil rights movement (Martin Luther King's key organizer Bayard Rustin was a gay man) led to the first American-based political demands for fair treatment of gays and lesbians in mental health, public policy, and employment. Studies such as Alfred Kinsey's 1947 Kinsey Report suggested a far greater range of homosexual identities and behaviors than previously understood, with Kinsey creating a "scale" or spectrum ranging from complete heterosexual to complete homosexual.

The primary organization for gay men as an oppressed cultural minority was the Mattachine Society, founded in 1950 by Harry Hay and Chuck Rowland. Other important homophile organizations on the West Coast included One, Inc., founded in 1952, and the first lesbian support network Daughters of Bilitis, founded in 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Through meetings and publications, these groups offered information and outreach to thousands.

These first organizations soon found support from prominent sociologists and psychologists. In 1951, Donald Webster Cory published "The Homosexual in America," asserting that gay men and lesbians were a legitimate minority group, and in 1953 Evelyn Hooker, PhD, won a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study gay men. Her groundbreaking paper, presented in 1956, demonstrated that gay men were as well-adjusted as heterosexual men, often more so.

But it would not be until 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as an "illness" classification in its diagnostic manual. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, gay men and lesbians continued to be at risk for psychiatric lockup as well as jail, losing jobs, and/or child custody when courts and clinics defined gay love as sick, criminal, or immoral.

In 1965, as the civil rights movement won new legislation outlawing racial discrimination, the first gay rights demonstrations took place in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., led by longtime activists Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings. The turning point for gay liberation came on June 28, 1969, when patrons of the popular Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village fought back against ongoing police raids of their neighborhood bar. Stonewall is still considered a watershed moment of gay pride and has been commemorated since the 1970s with "pride marches" held every June across the United States. Recent scholarship has called for better acknowledgment of the roles that drag performers, people of color, bisexuals, and transgender patrons played in the Stonewall Riots.

The gay liberation movement of the 1970s saw myriad political organizations spring up, often at odds with one another. Frustrated with the male leadership of most gay liberation groups, lesbians influenced by the feminist movement of the 1970s formed their own collectives, record labels, music festivals, newspapers, bookstores, and publishing houses, and called for lesbian rights in mainstream feminist groups like the National Organization for Women. Gatherings such as women's music concerts, bookstore readings, and lesbian festivals well beyond the United States were extraordinarily successful in organizing women to become activists; the feminist movement against domestic violence also assisted women to leave abusive marriages, while retaining custody of children became a paramount issue for lesbian mothers.

Expanding religious acceptance for gay men and women of faith, the first out gay minister was ordained by the United Church of Christ in 1972. Other gay and lesbian church and synagogue congregations soon followed. Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), formed in 1972, offered family members greater support roles in the gay rights movement. And political action exploded through the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the election of openly gay and lesbian representatives like Elaine Noble and Barney Frank, and, in 1979, the first march on Washington for gay rights.

The increasing expansion of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback during the 1980s, as the gay male community was decimated by the Aids epidemic, demands for compassion and medical funding led to renewed coalitions between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Nation. Enormous marches on Washington drew as many as one million gay rights supporters in 1987 and again in 1993. Right-wing religious movements, spurred on by beliefs that Aids was God's punishment, expanded via direct mail. A New Right coalition of political lobby groups competed with national LGBT organizations in Washington, seeking to create religious exemptions from any new LGBT rights protections.

In the same era, one wing of the political gay movement called for an end to military expulsion of gay, lesbian, and bisexual soldiers, with the high-profile case of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer publicized through a made-for-television movie, "Serving in Silence." In spite of the patriotism and service of gay men and lesbians in uniform, the uncomfortable and unjust compromise "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" emerged as an alternative to decades of military witch hunts and dishonorable discharges. Yet more service members ended up being discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

During the last decade of the 20th century, millions of Americans watched as actress Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television in April 1997, heralding a new era of gay celebrity power and media visibility-although not without risks. Celebrity performers, both gay and heterosexual, continued to be among the most vocal activists calling for tolerance and equal rights. With greater media attention to gay and lesbian civil rights in the 1990s, trans and intersex voices began to gain space through works such as Kate Boernstein's "Gender Outlaw" (1994) and "My Gender Workbook" (1998), Ann Fausto-Sterling's "Myths of Gender" (1992) and Leslie Feinberg's "Transgender Warriors" (1998), enhancing shifts in women's and gender studies to become more inclusive of transgender and nonbinary identities.

As a result of hard work by countless organizations and individuals, helped by internet and direct-mail campaign networking, the 21st century heralded new legal gains for gay and lesbian couples. Same-sex civil unions were recognized under Vermont law in 2000, and Massachusetts became the first state to perform same-sex marriages in 2004; with the end of state sodomy laws ( Lawrence v. Texas, 2003), gay and lesbian Americans were finally free from criminal classification. Gay marriage was first legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada; but the recognition of gay marriage by church and state continued to divide opinion worldwide. After the impressive gains for LGBT rights in postapartheid South Africa, conservative evangelicals in the U.S. began providing support and funding for homophobic campaigns overseas. Uganda's dramatic death penalty for gays and lesbians was perhaps the most severe in Africa.

The first part of the 21st century saw new emphasis on transgender activism and the increasing usage of terminology that questioned binary gender identification. Images of trans women became more prevalent in film and television, as did programming with same-sex couples raising children. Transphobia, cissexism, and other language (such as "hir" and "them") became standardized, and film and television programming featured more openly trans youth and adult characters. Tensions between lesbian and trans activists, however, remained, with the long-running Michigan Womyn's Music Festival boycotted by national LGBT groups over the issue of trans inclusion; like many woman-only events with a primarily lesbian base, Michfest had supported an ideal of ingathering women and girls born female. The festival ended after its 40th anniversary in August 2015.

Internet activism burgeoned, while many of the public, physical gathering spaces that once defined LGBT activism (bars, bookstores, women's music festivals) began to vanish, and the usage of "queer" replaced lesbian identification for many younger women activists. Attention shifted to global activism as U.S. gains were not matched by similar equal rights laws in the 75 other countries where homosexuality remained illegal. As of 2016, LGBT identification and activism was still punishable by death in 10 countries: Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen; the plight of the LGBT community in Russia received intense focus during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, to which President Obama sent a contingent of out LGBT athletes. Supportive remarks from the new Pope Francis ("Who am I to judge?") gave hope to LGBT Catholics worldwide.

Perhaps the greatest changes in the U.S. occurred between spring 2015 and spring 2016: in late spring 2015 Alison Bechdel's lesbian-themed Broadway production Fun Home won several Tony awards, former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner, and then in June of 2015, the Supreme Court decision recognized same-sex marriage ( Obergefell v. Hodges). By spring 2016 the Academy Awards recognized films with both lesbian and transgender themes: Carol and The Danish Girl. And the Supreme Court had avowed that a lesbian family adoption in one state had to be recognized in all states.

However, the United States also saw intense racial profiling confrontations and tragedies in this same period, turning LGBT activism to "intersectionality," or recognition of intersections issues of race, class, gender identity, and sexism. With the June 12, 2016, attacks on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, that intersectionality was made plain as straight allies held vigils grieving the loss of young Latino drag queens and lesbians of color; with unanswered questions about the killer's possible identification with ISIS terrorism, other voices now call for alliances between the LGBT and Muslim communities, and the greater recognition of perspectives from those who are both Muslim and LGBT in the U.S. and beyond. The possible repression of identity which may have played a role in the killer's choice of target has generated new attention to the price of homophobia-internalized, or culturally expressed-in and beyond the United States.

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A brief history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements

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Most historians agree that there is evidence of homosexual activity and same-sex love, whether such relationships were accepted or persecuted, in every documented culture.