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What Is Pansexuality And Why Is It So Popular In Modern Film & TV?

Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. All fabulous identities along with many more that are housed under the LGBTQIA+ community. And yet, in recent film and TV, there's one identity that has been particularly visible: pansexuality. Professor Bainbridge along with special guests Megan Townsend and Fran Tirado take a look at the history of queer representation to tell us why pansexuality has become so popular.

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Celebrate Pride Month 2022: 20 LGBT Documentaries from PBS | PBS

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What Is Pansexuality And Why Is It So Popular In Modern Film & TV? Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. All fabulous identities along with many more that are housed under the LGBTQIA+ community. And yet, in recent film and TV, there's one identity that has been particularly visible: pansexuality.

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Over the past few years, movements from March for Our Lives, to Black Lives Matter, to the Youth Strike for Climate have shown us that people around the world are ready for a revolutionary cultural shift. At the forefront of many of these conversations are the voices of a new generation, one that seeks to create a world that is more free, just, and equitable for all.

This Pride Month, we recognize that now more than ever, today's youth, especially LGBTQ young people, play an instrumental role in fostering sustainable and inclusive cultural change. Despite continued attacks on LGBTQ Americans by the Trump administration, there is a new generation of LGBTQ voices that demands to be seen, heard, and protected in ways the world has never witnessed. With young people identifying as LGBTQ at greater rates than any generation before, today's LGBTQ youth are finding new ways to accelerate acceptance and change the hearts and minds of millions around the world.

That's why this year, GLAAD is excited for Teen Vogue to exclusively present GLAAD's inaugural 20 Under 20 list: A diverse collection of 20 young LGBTQ people who are shaping the future of media and activism. As Teen Vogue continues to lead in amplifying the voices and issues of young people across the globe, it is the perfect platform to spotlight the stories and work of these trailblazing individuals.

"At a time when millions across the country are taking a unified stand against racial injustice, we are reminded of the undeniable impact that young people have when they use their voice and platform to call for change," said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. "LGBTQ young people continue to shape the future of LGBTQ visibility, representation, and activism in unique and exciting ways, and this year's 20 Under 20 list is a true reflection of the changemakers who are advancing the dialogue and accelerating acceptance for LGBTQ people."

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Meet 20 LGBTQ Young People Changing the Face of Media and Activism

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GLAAD's 20 Under 20 list is a who's who of young, queer activists changing things for the better.

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October is LGBT History Month.

LGBT History Month celebrates the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender Icons. Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images, and other resources.

Click here to embed the 2023 videos on your site.

Corporate Sponsors

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October is LGBT History Month. LGBT History Month celebrates the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender Icons. Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images, and other resources. Click here to embed the 2023 videos on your site.

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Leffler, Warren K., photographer. Gay rights demonstration at the Democratic National Convention, New York City. 1976. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In the weeks following Stonewall, activists in New York organized the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). A few months later, the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was founded in December 1969. New LGBT+ activist organizations began to form across the United States and internationally. Many of these groups formed at college campuses. While historical accounts have largely focused on the activism on the east and west coasts post-Stonewall, LGBT+ activism was flourishing all over the country, including the midwest and the southern United States.

However, gay liberation was not equally liberating for everyone. People of color, women, and trans people were often marginalized by the mainstream gay rights movements, and continued to form their own organizations. In 1970, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson went on to found the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Lee Brewster and Bunny Eisenhower formed the Queens Liberation Front in 1969. People of color largely continued to work in separate movements for racial justice and civil rights, never having felt welcome by the predominately white homophile movement.

Similarly, a number of lesbian activists began to organize independent groups, including lesbian separatist organizations and collectives. Del Martin, co-founder of the Daughters of Bilitis wrote in 1970: "Goodbye to the male chauvinists of the homophile movement...Gay is Good but not good enough-so long as it is limited to white males only" (Source: The Advocate).

Lavender Menace and Radicalesbians

In 1970, lesbians in the New York Gay Liberation Front went on to form the Radicalesbians, a lesbian activist organization. Try searching activist's names in the Library of Congress Online Catalog to find relevant materials. Known members included: Karla Jay, Martha Shelley, Rita Mae Brown, Lois Hart, Barbara Love, Ellen Shumsky, Artemis March, Cynthia Funk, Linda Rhodes, Arlene Kushner, Ellen Broidy, and Michela Griffon.
Primary Sources:
"Drag Queens to Form Their Own Organization." Gay, no. 1, 1969, p. 10.

"Drag Queens Demonstrate." Drag Magazine, Vol. 1., 1971.

Homophile Action League, HAL Newsletter, Jan/Feb 1970.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links for additional online content are provided when available.

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Research Guides: LGBTQ+ Studies: A Resource Guide: Activism After Stonewall

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The collections of the Library of Congress tell the rich and diverse story of LGBTQ+ life in America and around the world. This research guide serves as an introduction into the excellent collection of LGBTQ+ resources available at the Library of Congress

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EDITOR'S NOTE:&nbspThis article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.

In the late 1990s, I could always draw dismissive snickers at ESPN production meetings-I was a commentator there at the time-when I lobbied for tennis champion Billie Jean King to be named that network's number-one athlete of the 20th century. In those days, even women sports wonks would roll their eyes and keep plugging for the likes of Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, or Muhammad Ali.

My argument then: that while Billie Jean, like all those worthies, not only dominated her sport, sold tickets, and crossed over into popular culture, she also went well beyond them in fighting successfully for gender equality and against that slavish system of control called amateurism. Meanwhile, she was representing and inspiring half the population of the world.

That was then. Check the recent sports news, please, and grant me a recount. At 77, Billie Jean is still active in the progressive movement in sports. She still marches, speaks, and tweets, while her legacy remains a critical context for current stories like the one about a transgender reality-TV star and former Olympic champion running for governor of California, the upset victory that delivered the Senate to the Democrats, and an impending Supreme Court decision that might upend college sports as we know it (on all of which, more to come).

In her heyday, she was a woman whose life was too often defined in tabloid terms-wearing the "wrong" clothes as a junior tennis player, implicitly endorsing cigarettes, being outed as a closeted lesbian in a blackmail scandal, and taking a star turn in the silly yet symbolically significant 1973 " Battle of the Sexes " tennis match in which she beat aging male-chauvinist former tennis star Bobby Riggs before a TV audience of 50 million.

In this century, however, Billie Jean has emerged as a venerated foremother of American sports. As befits a legend, she's generated at least four autobiographies. The latest, , written with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers (to be released this summer), will help make my case. Now, let me trace her influence through four contemporary sports-related stories, the most complicated and far-reaching first.

The End of Amateurism

Story one. Sometime next month, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver an opinion in NCAA v. Alston. It's an athlete-led flank attack on the present system of compensating college players-basically through "scholarships" that cover only tuition and living expenses-as a violation of antitrust laws.

The Supremes are sure to offer a narrow opinion, because this particular case focuses only on a cap of about $6,000 on various education-related awards that universities are allowed to bestow on athletes. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), with its 1,268 universities, colleges, conferences, and associations, imposed that cap in a relentless attempt to avoid expensive competition among its schools. The greatest fear of its top officials: a burst of uncontrolled bidding wars for high school athletic talent. After all, the NCAA was created in 1906 to enrich itself through the unpaid labor of "student-athletes," of whom the organization estimates there are now about 480,000.

Current Issue

As the justices prepare their decision, the NCAA business model is about to blow up anyway, with new state laws in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and New Mexico that will allow such athletes to be paid by private companies for the use of their names, images, and likenesses. The NCAA, afraid of losing control of its monopoly, is rushing to loosen its own restrictions to stay ahead of a potential tidal wave of change. Ironically, it may soon find itself at cross-purposes with its own Supreme Court case.

All of this feels like nothing less than the welcome death throes of a scam religion called amateurism, which has been defined as playing games for love, not money-or not your own money, anyway. Think of it as the original sin of American sports. No one should be surprised, then, that it came out of slavery. The first celebrated athletes in America were unpaid Black slaves who represented their plantations as boxers, rowers, and jockeys. Their owners gambled on their skills against slaves from other plantations in bare-knuckle fights, as well as horse and crew races. When sports became prestigious and profitable, white people took over playing many of the games.

In the last century, even though Olympic and college athletes, along with golfers and tennis players, became worldwide stars, they remained tightly controlled servants of "shamateurism," as it was dubbed then. This was the practice of denying such athletes the right to accept money as gifts or for expenses, much less as fees for appearances or endorsements.

Meanwhile, coaches, officials, tournament executives, colleges, and corporations raked in the big sports bucks, maintaining their dominance in part by slipping the stars under-the-table payments. Colleges gamed the system with "scholarships" and no-show jobs, while Olympians wore branded shoes that came with cash stuffed under their innersoles. It was all about keeping jocks on the plantation. No wonder the phrase " million-dollar slave " came into vogue as a complaint against the bondage of college rules and sometimes pro contracts too. Sometimes, it was even used as a mocking pejorative by those who held the chains.

Enter Billie Jean Moffitt, a daughter of the working class-her father was a firefighter, her mother sold Avon products-and a prodigy in homemade shorts. She seems never to have forgotten the humiliation of being pushed out of a Southern California tournament group picture because she wasn't wearing a white tennis dress.

But before she was done, she got payback. In the revolutionary year of 1968, spurred by her agitation, tennis finally entered an "open" era in which amateurs and pros played against each other (even if the pros still took the cash). This led to the sport's professionalization and eventually to a movement toward player independence in all sports, part of the " athletic revolution " that informs the Supreme Court case and those five state decisions.

The Equal-Pay Gap

Story two. It's probably no surprise that the professionalization and commodification of sports-the Olympics loosened its rules in the late 1970s to keep restive athletes in the games-benefited men far more than women. Their prize and expense money was simply much higher.

Again, the change began in tennis, led by Billie Jean. In 1970, the men's winner of the Italian Open received $3,500 in prize money and the women's champion (guess who?) got $600, a disparity typical of the times. Billie Jean then led eight other American and Australian women players in rebellion against the ruling United States Lawn Tennis Association, which promptly suspended them. But the women's pro tour they founded, eventually called the Virginia Slims Circuit (with its slogan, "You've come a long way, baby"), soon enough became the centerpiece of a new Women's Tennis Association.

There was a cost, however. By sharing that slogan, women's tennis and Virginia Slims cigarettes became inseparable in the public mind. Was the seeming trade-off worthwhile? There was a spike in women's participation in sports-and in lung-cancer cases. Billie Jean has maintained that the players never directly endorsed smoking. As weak as that justification may seem to many, it was also true that even in a boom time for sports, no other major corporations were willing to sponsor women's tennis.

Even today, that money gap between men and women has not disappeared. On " Equal Pay Day" last March, members of the US women's soccer team joined President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden in discussing that very disparity. That team, far more celebrated and successful (as the winner of four World Cups) than the men's team, recently lost a wage discrimination suit against soccer's equivalent of Billie Jean's ancient nemesis, the United States Lawn Tennis Association. The team plans to appeal.

At about the same time, it was revealed that there was a gap of about $13 million between the money the NCAA budgeted on men and women's living conditions, medical support, and training facilities for its annual basketball "March Madness" tournaments.

Billie Jean was immediately on the case with a video tweet calling for equality, for "the same...[as] we're all in this together."

The Original 9

Story three. The "Original 9," as Billie Jean and her tennis rebels came to be known, offered a singular lesson to the male-dominated sports world-women could act collectively, courageously, and aggressively against the establishment, despite both ongoing oppression and the suppression of their history.

Women's sports began its great awakening as an athletic off-shoot of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. At the time, female Olympic medals became as valuable as men's when it came to propagandizing for the physical and moral superiority of the "Free World," as led by Washington. At home, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which protects against discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance, began to be applied to girls' high-school and college sports. That would affect millions of young women and help bring political activism to their sports.

Meanwhile, in the pro ranks, the most prominent daughters of the Original 9 would be the players of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the marginalized women's version of the NBA. While men regularly left college and began their pro careers as instant millionaires, women who turned pro regularly found that they needed second jobs in the off-season.

But it was in the WNBA, not the NBA, that players, even whole teams, would launch years-long protests against racism, gun violence, and police brutality, which would lead the way to the NBA Black Lives Matter wildcat strikes of 2020. The men, in other words, would find their moral courage in the women's example and that example, in turn, can be traced back to... of course, you know the name I'm about to utter... Billie Jean King.

And that wasn't the end of it either. The WNBA had picked up the Original 9's torch and so became the moral center of the current progressive movements in sports. And then the league got really serious, playing a striking role in the 2020 elections when members of the predominantly Black Atlanta Dream team began wearing T-shirts endorsing Raphael Warnock, the Black Democratic opponent of Republican Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler. It was a gutsy move, since Loeffler, a white woman who had disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement, just happened to be the Dream's co-owner.

The surprise upset victories of Warnock and the other Georgia Democratic Senate candidate, Jon Ossoff, would even the odds in a previously Republican-dominated Senate. Typically, Billie Jean congratulated the victors with a tweet, quoting from the late Representative John Lewis: "The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it."

The Battle of the Sexes Revisited

Story four. The technique men have traditionally used to cancel women athletes (particularly the ones who could beat them) was to declare them ersatz women; that is, either biological men or lesbians. Billie Jean did not escape such rumors, and they turned out to be true. While her first biography extolled her early marriage to Larry King as a fulfilling physical relationship with a liberated soulmate, later bios would describe their union as more of a friendship and business partnership.

At the time, she was actually in an increasingly troubled affair with a hairdresser named Marilyn Barnett. In the end, Barnett threatened to out Billie Jean and that threat, in turn, exploded into a sensational 1981 trial that left the Kings in financial ruin. Millions of promised dollars in endorsement contracts would promptly vanish and her most innovative project, World Team Tennis (now known as Mylan WTT), an innovative league of touring pros who also give clinics to local players, would be damaged.

As a result, Billie Jean needed to keep playing beyond her prime, an ironic comedown for someone who had been transformed into a worldwide symbol of emerging womanhood when she beat Bobby Riggs in their 1973 televised " Battle of the Sexes " spectacular. It may only have been a tennis match between the 29-year-old King and her 55-year-old opponent, but it had been promoted as a gender reckoning.

And even that match of theirs would come to seem quaint in the decades to follow thanks to Bruce Jenner. A handsome, 27-year-old New Yorker, he became the world's greatest all-around athlete by winning the 1976 Olympic gold medal for the decathlon, a test of 10 demanding sports. He would appear on a Wheaties cereal box and eventually marry into the Kardashian family.

Then, in 2015, Jenner would help set in motion the sex/gender story of the first decades of the new century by renaming herself Caitlyn. She would, in other words, come out as a trans woman. This year, she even declared herself a Republican candidate for California and, bizarrely enough, announced, in the manic fashion of present-day Trumpian Republicans, that she did not believe transgender girls should compete on girls' teams. In other words, she canceled herself.

America's Sports Foremother

Billie Jean, who had, of course, backed Caitlyn in her transition, went on to join a vanguard of women stars supporting transgender athletes-and no, she never ran for the governorship of anything. In short, her stands, personal and political, offer a remarkable progressive road map for my own 60-odd years covering sports. The very first time I met her, in the late 1960s, she was only 26 and already under attack. "Almost every day for the last four years," she complained, "someone comes up to me and says, 'Hey, when are you going to have children?' I say, 'I'm not ready yet.' They say, 'Why aren't you at home?'"

She responded that she would answer that question this way: "Why don't you go ask Rod Laver why he isn't at home? I'm a breadwinner, too." Laver was then the best men's player.

She was mocked and berated for her stances in much the same way that, at the time, Black athletes who protested unfair treatment were marked as "ungrateful Negroes." Blacks were told to go back to Africa, women like Billie Jean to the kitchen.

Through her activism, serious introspection, protests, even rants, and more recently Twitter volleys, Billie Jean has continued to adapt to her times. She told me recently that, through therapy, she had come to understand how she had used sports competition as an escape from everyday life, as "a way of putting off all the issues that need eventually to be addressed," including coming out to her aging parents.

Once she stopped playing tennis regularly, she said, she found herself substituting binge eating for the addiction of competitive matches.

"You don't need to face fears when you can focus on the next match," was how she put it.

In her late 60s, she began revising the symbolism of the Battle of the Sexes, an event adapted for a 2017 film starring Emma Stone. Now, however, she described it to me in terms more fitting for the sensibilities of her fellow boomers-less a battle of the sexes than, in her phrase, an alliance of the ages.

In retrospect, she said, the late Bobby Riggs had not been as much a masculine symbol to be bested as a role model for successful aging and for the principle of never giving up. She won, she added, because she took him seriously and respected what he had done in his past. He wasn't some hustler to her still looking for his moment but a player who had won the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1939, and so could never be taken for granted.

The ultimate lesson, she declared on the cusp of her own old age, was respect your elders.

Now in her late 70s, one of those very elders (with America's premier tennis center named after her), and an icon of sports, women's rights, and LGBT rights, she seems ever more clearly number one-and our foremother.

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An American Sports Icon's Legacy of LGBTQ Rights

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EDITOR'S NOTE:&nbspThis article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com . To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch. In the late 1990s, I could always draw dismissive snickers at ESPN production meetings-I was a commentator there at the time-when I lobbied for tennis champion Billie Jean King to be named that network's number-one athlete of the 20th century.

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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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Stonewall Uprising | Timeline

Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement

From the Collection: The LGBTQ+ experience

Gay rights demonstration at the Democratic National Convention, New York City, 1976. Library of Congress

December 10, 1924
The Society for Human Rights is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. The society is the first gay rights organization as well as the oldest documented in America. After receiving a charter from the state of Illinois, the society publishes the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Soon after its founding, the society disbands due to political pressure.

1948
Biologist and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. From his research Kinsey concludes that homosexual behavior is not restricted to people who identify themselves as homosexual and that 37% of men have enjoyed homosexual activities at least once. While psychologists and psychiatrists in the 1940s consider homosexuality a form of illness, the findings surprise many conservative notions about sexuality.

November 11, 1950
In Los Angeles, gay rights activist Harry Hay founds America's first sustained national gay rights organization. In an attempt to change public perception of homosexuality, the Mattachine Society aims to "eliminate discrimination, derision, prejudice and bigotry," to assimilate homosexuals into mainstream society, and to cultivate the notion of an "ethical homosexual culture."

December 15, 1950
A Senate report titled "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government" is distributed to members of Congress after the federal government had covertly investigated employees' sexual orientation at the beginning of the Cold War. The report states since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals "constitute security risks" to the nation because "those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons."

Over the previous few years, more than 4,380 gay men and women had been discharged from the military and around 500 fired from their jobs with the government. The purging will become known as the "lavender scare."

April, 1952
The American Psychiatric Association lists homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance in its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Immediately following the manual's release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social sciences criticize the categorization due to lack of empirical and scientific data.

April 27, 1953
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, banning homosexuals from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors. The Order lists homosexuals as security risks, along with alcoholics and neurotics.

September 21, 1955
In San Francisco, the Daughters of Bilitis becomes the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. The organization hosts social functions, providing alternatives to lesbian bars and clubs, which are frequently raided by police.

August 30, 1956
American psychologist Evelyn Hooker shares her paper "The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual" at the American Psychological Association Convention in Chicago. After administering psychological tests, such as the Rorschach, to groups of homosexual and heterosexual males, Hooker's research concludes homosexuality is not a clinical entity and that heterosexuals and homosexuals do not differ significantly. Hooker's experiment becomes very influential, changing clinical perceptions of homosexuality.

January 13, 1958
In the landmark case One, Inc. v. Olesen, the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of the First Amendment rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) magazine "One: The Homosexual Magazine." The suit was filed after the U.S. Postal Service and FBI declared the magazine obscene material, and it marks the first time the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of homosexuals.

January 1, 1962
Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first U.S. state to decriminalize homosexuality.

July 4, 1965
At Independence Hall in Philadelphia, picketers begin staging the first Reminder Day to call public attention to the lack of civil rights for LGBT people. The gatherings will continue annually for five years.

April 21, 1966
Members of the Mattachine Society stage a "sip-in" at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village, where the New York Liquor Authority prohibits serving gay patrons in bars on the basis that homosexuals are "disorderly." Society president Dick Leitsch and other members announce their homosexuality and are immediately refused service.

Following the sip-in, the Mattachine Society will sue the New York Liquor Authority. Although no laws are overturned, the New York City Commission on Human Rights declares that homosexuals have the right to be served.

August, 1966
After transgender customers become raucous in a 24-hour San Francisco cafeteria, management calls police. When a police officer manhandles one of the patrons, she throws coffee in his face and a riot ensues, eventually spilling out onto the street, destroying police and public property.

Following the riot, activists established the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world.

June 28, 1969
Patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village riot when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar around 1am. Since its establishment in 1967, the bar had been frequently raided by police officers trying to clean up the neighborhood of "sexual deviants."

Angry gay youth clash with aggressive police officers in the streets, leading to a three-day riot during which thousands of protestors receive only minimal local news coverage. Nonetheless, the event will be credited with reigniting the fire behind America's modern LGBT rights movement.

June 28, 1970
Christopher St. Liberation Day commemorates the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Following the event, thousands of members of the LGBT community march through New York into Central Park, in what will be considered America's first gay pride parade.

In the coming decades, the annual gay pride parade will spread to dozens of countries around the world.

December 15, 1973
The board of the American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

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

June 7, 1977
Singer and conservative Southern Baptist Anita Bryant leads a successful campaign with the "Save Our Children" Crusade to repeal a gay rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida. Bryant faces severe backlash from gay rights supporters across the U.S. The gay rights ordinance will not be reinstated in Dade County until December 1, 1998, more than 20 years later.

November 8, 1977
Harvey Milk wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and is responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs. Milk also leads a successful campaign against Proposition 6, an initiative forbidding homosexual teachers.

A year later, on November 27, 1978, former city supervisor Dan White assassinates Milk. White's actions are motivated by jealousy and depression, rather than homophobia.

May 21, 1979
Dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and is sentenced to seven years in prison. Outraged by what they believed to be a lenient sentence, more than 5,000 protesters ransack San Francisco's City Hall, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage in the surrounding area.

The following night, approximately 10,000 people gather on San Francisco's Castro and Market streets for a peaceful demonstration to commemorate what would have been Milk's 49th birthday.

October 14, 1979
An estimated 75,000 people participate in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. LGBT people and straight allies demand equal civil rights and urge for the passage of protective civil rights legislature.

July 8, 1980
The Democratic Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals. At their National Convention on August 11-14, the Democrats become the first major political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform.

July 3, 1981
The New York Times prints the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in New York and California. The CDC initially refers to the disease as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder.

When the symptoms are found outside the gay community, Bruce Voeller, biologist and founder of the National Gay Task Force, successfully lobbies to change the name of the disease to AIDS.

March 2, 1982
Wisconsin becomes the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

March 10, 1987
AIDS advocacy group ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is formed in response to the devastating affects the disease has had on the gay and lesbian community in New York. The group holds demonstrations against pharmaceutical companies profiteering from AIDS-related drugs as well as the lack of AIDS policies protecting patients from outrageous prescription prices.

October 11, 1987
Hundreds of thousands of activists take part in the National March on Washington to demand that President Ronald Reagan address the AIDS crisis.

Although AIDS had been reported first in 1981, it is not until the end of his presidency that Reagan speaks publicly about the epidemic.

May - June, 1988
The CDC mails a brochure, Understanding AIDS, to every household in the U.S. Approximately 107 million brochures are mailed.

December 1, 1988
The World Health Organization organizes the first World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the spreading pandemic.

August 18, 1990
President george Bushsigns the Ryan White Care Act, a federally funded program for people living with AIDS. Ryan White, an Indiana teenager, contracted AIDS in 1984 through a tainted hemophilia treatment. After being barred from attending school because of his HIV-positive status, Ryan White becomes a well-known activist for AIDS research and anti-discrimination.

1991
Created by the New York-based Visual AIDS, the red ribbon is adopted as a symbol of awareness and compassion for those living with HIV/AIDS.

December 21, 1993
The Department of Defense issues a directive prohibiting the U.S. Military from barring applicants from service based on their sexual orientation. "Applicants... shall not be asked or required to reveal whether they are homosexual, " states the new policy, which still forbids applicants from engaging in homosexual acts or making a statement that he or she is homosexual. This policy is known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

May 20, 1996
In the case of Romer v. Evans, the United States Supreme Court decides that Colorado's 2nd amendment, denying gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, is unconstitutional, calling them "special rights."

September 21, 1996
President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act into law. The law defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and that no state is required to recognize a same-sex marriage from out of state.

April 1, 1998
Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., calls on the civil rights community to join the struggle against homophobia. She receives criticism from members of the black civil rights movement for comparing civil rights to gay rights.

April 26, 2000
Vermont becomes the first state in the U.S. to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples.

June 26, 2003
In Lawrence v. Texas the U.S. Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional.

May 18, 2004
Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize gay marriage. The court finds the prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional because it denies dignity and equality of all individuals.

In the following six years, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa and Washington D.C. will follow suit.

August 9, 2007
Sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the Logo cable channel hosts the first American presidential forum focusing specifically on LGBT issues, inviting each presidential candidate. Six Democrats participate in the forum, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while all Republican candidates decline.

November 4, 2008
California voters approve Proposition 8, making same-sex marriage in California illegal. The passing of the ballot garners national attention from gay-rights supporters across the U.S. Prop 8 inspires the NOH8 campaign, a photo project that uses celebrities to promote marriage equality.

June 17, 2009
President Obama signs a Presidential Memorandum allowing same-sex partners of federal employees to receive certain benefits. The memorandum does not cover full health coverage.

October 28, 2009
The Matthew Shepard Act is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on October 28th. The measure expands the 1969 U.S. Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

Matthew Shepard was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming on October 7, 1998 because of his sexual orientation.

August 4, 2010
A federal judge in San Francisco decides that gays and lesbians have the constitutional right to marry and that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. Lawyers will challenge the finding.

December 18, 2010
The U.S. Senate votes 65-31 to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military.

February 23, 2011
President Obama states his administration will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans the recognition of same-sex marriage.

June 24, 2011
New York State passes the Marriage Equity Act, becoming the largest state thus far to legalize gay marriage.

June 26, 2015
With a 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.

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Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement | American Experience | PBS

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In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago.

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While lawmakers in states across the country are trying to restrict the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming children, a new report reveals that their schools are already failing them.

"Young queer and trans folks, particularly LGBTQ youth of color, can be significantly harmed by sex education that cultivates stigma and enables hostile school environments. Our communities need sex education that affirms the identities and real experiences of young people, so they can make informed decisions about their lives," Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE), said in a release.
READ MORE LGBTQ+ STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA TENNESSEE PASSES BILL REQUIRING BUSINESSES TO POST SIGNS SAYING THEY ALLOW TRANS PEOPLE TO USE THEIR BATHROOMS FLORIDA'S NEW BAN ON TRANSGENDER STUDENTS IN SPORTS WOULD ALLOW SCHOOLS TO SUBJECT MINORS TO GENITAL INSPECTIONS NCAA BACKS TRANSGENDER ATHLETES, SAYS IT WON'T HOLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AT PLACES THAT AREN'T 'FREE OF DISCRIMINATION'
Only seven states and the District of Columbia require LGBTQ inclusive sex education and less than 8.2 percent of LGBTQ students reported ever receiving inclusive sex education in school, according to a new report released by URGE. But the same survey found that 85 percent of parents support discussion of sexual orientation as part of sex education in high school and 78 percent supported it as early as in middle school.

With a record number of Americans identifying as part of the LGBTQ community and Gen Z coming into their own , inclusive sex education is more urgent than ever. More than half of transgender and nonbinary youth and 42 percent of all LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, according to a recent survey , while rising hate crimes and violence against transgender Americans looms large. LGBTQ Americans were also disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and continue to struggle without access to gender-affirming health care, which research shows could save the lives of transgender teenagers.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

The report was authored and endorsed by Advocates for Youth, Answer, Black & Pink, the Equality Federation, GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign, the National LGBTQ Task Force, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change in addition to URGE and offers recommendations for parents and families, youth, educators, and policymakers.

"Time and again, statistics reflect that the LGBTQ community is disproportionately impacted by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and a lack of access to LGBTQ-affirming prevention and treatment services. This is particularly true for Black and Latinx LGBTQ youth. We must address these disparities at their root-inaccurate and outdated sexual health education," Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in the release. "It is crucial for LGBTQ youth to learn about their sexuality, their bodies, their relationships, and to learn skills for making healthy decisions into adulthood. This report should serve as a tool to encourage educators to create and expand curricula to include the experiences of all marginalized communities."
READ MORE LGBTQ+ STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA NEW NC BILL WOULD REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO TELL PARENTS IF A CHILD 'EXHIBITS GENDER NONCONFORMITY' ARKANSAS AND SOUTH DAKOTA PASS LBGTQ BANS THAT TARGET TRANSGENDER MINORS TRANSGENDER STUDENT WINS $300K FROM SCHOOL IN DISCRIMINATION CASE FIRST TRANSGENDER US OFFICIAL WINS SENATE CONFIRMATION

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The state of sex education in the United States isn't looking good, according to a new report

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While lawmakers in states across the country are trying to restrict the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming children, a new report reveals that their schools are already failing them. "Young queer and trans folks, particularly LGBTQ youth of color, can be significantly harmed by sex education that cultivates stigma and enables hostile school environments.

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The National LGBTQ Task Force is dedicated to achieving freedom and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer people, and their families through proactive, targeted, change-inducing initiatives.

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All people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, should have equal rights and be able to live free from harm, coercion, or discrimination.

To celebrate Pride Month, we're highlighting some incredible activists past and present working for LGBTQ+ rights.

1. Beverly Palesa Ditsie

South African lesbian activist Beverly Palesa Ditsie, spoke about the importance of LGBT rights in the context of human rights at the 4th UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Not only was she was the first openly lesbian woman to address the UN, but it was also the first time that the United Nations was openly addressed about LGBT issues.
"If the world conference on women is to address the concerns of all women, it must similarly recognize that discrimination based on sexual orientation is a violation of basic human rights."
2. Érika Montecinos

Chilean lesbian activist Érika Montecinos is the founder of Agrupación LésBIca Rompiendo el Silencio (Breaking the Silence LesBIan Association), which advocates for the rights of cis and trans women who identify as lesbian or bisexual.
"Women are taught to be ashamed of our sexuality. And those of us who identify as lesbian, bi, or diverse, can't say it, because there is greater pressure on women regarding the obligations we have to society."
3. Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha P. Johnson was an American trans activist, widely credited with starting the Stonewall uprising. Johnson played an active role in street activism with ACT UP throughout the 1980s. When, in 1992, George Segal's Stonewall memorial was moved to Christopher Street from Ohio to recognize the gay liberation movement, Johnson commented,
"How many people have died for these two little statues to be put in the park to recognize gay people? How many years does it take for people to see that we're all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?."
4 and 5. Menaka Guruswamy & Arundhati Katju

Lawyers Menaka Guruswamy & Arundhati Katju argued for the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, resulting in the unanimous Supreme Court decision to repeal Section 377 in 2018. The couple were honored in Time's 100 most influential people in 2019, with Priyanka Chopra writing:
"Arundhati and Menaka have helped take a giant step for LGBTQ rights in the world's largest democracy. In their committed fight for justice, they have shown us that we as a society must continue to make progress, even after laws are changed, and that we must make an effort to understand, accept and love."
6. Urvashi Vaid

American LGBTQ+ rights activist Urvashi Vaid, works for an inclusive LGBTQ+ movement, one that encompasses everyone regardless of race, class, ethnicity, age, or ability. Her book, Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics, was released in 2012. Vaid hopes that LGBTQ+ community will accomplish two things:
"One is to take care of the parts of our community that are less powerful. That means low-income LGBT people, transgender people, and our community's women, whose rights are getting the crap kicked out of them, parts of our community across the board -- kids, old gay people...The second thing I would love to see happen is for the LGBT community to use its political power and access to create a more just society for all." Read our Pride month edition of Equality Now Recommends, full of books, movies, TV shows, and podcasts, that act as a megaphone for LGBTQ+ rights.

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6 LGBTQ+ activists you should know about this Pride month

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All people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, should have equal rights and be able to live free from harm, coercion, or discrimination. To celebrate Pride Month, we wanted to highlight the work of some incredible activists past and present working for LGBTQ+ rights.

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WASHINGTON-Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, and SHOWTIME announced this year's 25 recipients of "Queer to Stay:...

Despite living in a state of emergency, our community continues to stay resilient. We are still coming together, celebrating ourselves and advocating for our rights. It is more important than ever that we join together to send a clear message: We are not going anywhere.

Read the Summer 2023 issue

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If Enacted, Discriminatory Legislation Introduced in House of Representatives Would Erase LGBTQ+ Identities from Education System

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11 Young Activists Leading the Way for LGBTQ+ Equality

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It's LGBTQ Pride Month - a time to celebrate love, but also to champion equality and LGBTQ rights.

Throughout June, cities around the world have been hosting marches in honor of LGBTQ pride. In many countries today, people are free to join these marches, marry whomever they choose, and openly show their love. But that's still not the case for LGBTQ communities in every country, and even in countries where it is safe to march, there is still a long way to go before true equality is achieved.

Without these incredible activists, the LGBTQ rights movement would not be where it is today.

In honor of Pride Month, Global Citizen is celebrating the brave activists fighting for LGBTQ rights in places where it can be dangerous to do so, and the inspiring champions for change, without whom there might never have been a Pride Month.

While certainly not an exhaustive list by any means, these are 15 LGBTQ activists you should know.

1. Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha P. Johnson is sometimes referred to as the "Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement," but Johnson is a celebrated icon in her own right. Johnson was an activist, drag performer, sex worker, and model for Andy Warhol. She was black, queer, and trans - and fearlessly advocated for her rights and the rights of the LGBTQ community at a time when doing so put her safety in jeopardy.

"As long as gay people don't have their rights all across America, there's no reason for celebration," she once said.

Johnson was a key figure of the 1960s gay rights movement in the US and, as legend has it, threw the brick that ignited the infamous Stonewall riots, which were the catalyst for the movement and have inspired many Pride marches ever since.

In 1992, Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River. Her death was ruled a suicide, but those who knew her disagreed. A recent Netflix documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, celebrates Johnson's life and investigates the mysterious circumstances of her death.

2. Sylvia Rivera

Sylvia Rivera was a Latina trans activist, who, together with Marsha P. Johnson, co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided housing and other services to homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City.

Born in New York City, Sylvia turned to sex work after her mother died by suicide when Rivera was just 10 years old. Rivera lived a turbulent life, struggling with drug addiction and homelessness, but Rivera was always a vocal and, at times, forceful advocate for change. She was once arrested for attempting to climb through a window (in a dress and heels) into a room where the New York City Council was debating a gay rights bill, NBC reported.

"Sylvia's role in gay history was that she was one of the first people to highlight that our movement needed to be more inclusive of people who did not fit in the mainstream," Carrie Davis, Chief Programs and Policy Officer at New York City's LGBT Community Center, told NBC News.

3. Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk, the subject of the Oscar-winning film Milk, was the first openly gay politician to be elected in California. Milk was assassinated in 1978, but during his short tenure in office he pushed legislation to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

The bill passed with just one dissenting vote by Dan White, the city supervisor who would go on to shoot and kill Milk. In 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger designated May 22, Milk's birthday, as a day of recognition for the late politician and activist.

4. Edith Windsor

In 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right - a landmark decision that would not have been possible without Edith Windsor.

After a 40-year engagement, Windsor married Thea Spyer in Canada in 2007. Spyer passed away just two years later, leaving everything to her wife. Because the US did not recognize their same-sex marriage, Windsor was asked to pay taxes on Spyer's estate far beyond what a heterosexual spouse would be required to pay on the estate of their deceased spouse.

Windsor took her case to court and in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor. Two years later, the court expanded on that ruling in another case that led to federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

5. Alice Nkom

Alice Nkom is a human rights lawyer and LGBTQ activist from Cameroon, where homosexuality is still criminalized. In a country where police officer entrap members of the LGBTQ community through text messages and beat those they perceive to be gay, Nkom bravely fights for rights on behalf of the LGBTQ community.

Though Nkom identifies as heterosexual, she has dedicated her work to fighting for Cameroon's LGBTQ community and founded the Association for the Defence of Homosexuality in 2003. Though she and her colleagues are sometimes in danger because of the work they do, Nkom remains undeterred.

"These threats are in fact proof that our fight must continue," Nkom told Amnesty International.

6. Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox, best known for playing Sophia Burset on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, is a black, trans woman, the first trans person to be nominated for an Emmy, and a proud advocate for LGBTQ rights. Cox has been outspoken about access to health care for LGBTQ communities and has particularly championed the rights of trans people and people of color.

"We must lift up the stories of those most at risk, statistically trans people of color who are poor and working class," Cox wrote in a Tumblr post in 2015. "I have hoped over the past few years that the incredible love I have received from the public can translate to the lives of all trans folks."
Read more: 33 Quotes That Show Laverne Cox Just Gets It
7. Alexya Salvador

Alexya Salvador is a trailblazer. She is a trans woman in Brazil, where violence against LGBTQ people has reached an all-time high. More than 380 LGBTQ-identifying people were murdered in Brazil in 2017 and 58 died by suicide, the Guardian reported.

And she's a pastor. Salvador calls herself the " first transgender shepherd of Latin America," and, with other trans pastors from around the world, held a groundbreaking LGBTQ-friendly mass in Cuba last year.

Salvador is a mother of two, including a trans daughter, and is the first trans person to adopt a child in Brazil, according Al Día.

8. Lena Waithe

Actress, writer, and producer Lena Waithe made history in 2017 as the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing. But rather than reveling in her historic win, Waithe, who identifies as queer, used her acceptance speech to deliver an inspiring message to her "LGBTQIA family."
Read more: Lena Waithe Made a Bold Statement at the Met Gala and the Internet Is Here for It
"The things that make us different, those are our superpowers," she said. Waithe often uses her spotlight moments to advocate for the LGBTQ community. Earlier this year, she wore a rainbow cape to the Met Gala, a bold statement in the face of the event's religious theme.

9. Arsham Parsi

Arsham Parsi is a gay man who first began secretly working to support members of the LGBTQ community in his native Iran. But in 2005, the queer activist was forced to flee his country, where homosexual activity remains illegal.

Today, Parsi lives in exile in Canada, where he has founded the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees, which supports and provides guidance to LGBTQ asylum seekers from the Middle East.

10. Michael Sam

Michael Sam became the first openly gay football player to be drafted by an NFL team in 2014. While his draft was a historic first, Sam's time in the NFL was discouraging. He was passed from team to team, and eventually found himself without a team. About a year after he was first drafted, Sam retired from the NFL citing mental health reasons.

His struggle highlighted the discrimination and homophobia still rampant in the sports world, but Sam has gone on to share his story and continues to champion change.

11-15. 'Queer Eye's' Fab Five

The all-star cast of Netflix's new Queer Eye series - a reboot of Bravo's early 2000s series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - may be all fun when it comes to makeovers, but they're serious about making a difference in the world.
People globally face many intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalization every day, for many different reasons. Unjust social, political, and economic systems perpetuate this discrimination and keep people trapped in poverty. This June, take our Equity Month Hero Challenge to learn how we can all be champions for equity and justice every day, and earn your Equity Month Hero badge to wear proudly on your Global Citizen profile. Take the Challenge now.
The "Fab Five" - Tan France, Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, and Antoni Porowski - speak openly on Queer Eye about their personal struggles and experiences with homophobia and discrimination. And the stars hope to use their newfound fame to empower LGBTQ communities.

"Just the idea that my being who I am [on Queer Eye] has made people, both younger than me and older than me, feel more comfortable about the space that they take up ... that is something I never saw coming," Van Ness told Refinery29 in an interview. "But also, when people are so effusive about how my role in Queer Eye makes them feel, it really opened my eyes to the amount of repression we still have."

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15 LGBTQ Activists of the Past and Present You Should Know

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15 brave activists inspiring champions for change and fighting for LGBTQ rights in places where it can be dangerous to do so.