Judy Abdo

Santa Monica mayor, shelter founder

Santa Monica, CA

Judy Abdo (née Ulrich) was born on October 23, 1943. She describes her early childhood in Inglewood, California as “idyllic” — she hosted classmates to...
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Cliff Arnesen

VETERAN & BISEXUAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST

Canton, MA

Cliff Arnesen was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1948. His father was an alcoholic merchant marine and longshoreman. His...
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Bruce Bastian

Technology pioneer, philanthropist

Orem, UT

Bruce was born March 23, 1948 in Twin Falls, Idaho. He was the fifth of six children in a musically inclined Mormon family. He grew...
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Brett Bigham

Oregon Teacher of the Year

Portland, OR

Brett Bigham was born on June 24, 1964, in Sparks, Nevada. Throughout childhood, Brett was a frequent target for his older brother’s violence, and he...
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Blackberri

Musician, Yoruba priest, AIDS activist

Oakland, CA

Blackberri was born in 1945 in Buffalo, New York, and named Charles Timothy Ashmore. From early on, he was comfortable with and even proud of...
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David Bohnett

Internet technology entrepreneur; philanthropist

Los Angeles, CA

David Bohnett was born April 2, 1956. His father was a business executive and his mother a preschool teacher. David earned his BS in Business...
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Marsha Botzer

Trans Spaces Creator, Labor Organizer

Quilcene, WA

Marsha Botzer was born in Seattle, Washington on February 26th, 1947. She describes her early years as “quiet,” with “not much talk about being or...
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Marci Bowers

first trans surgeon to perform gender-affirming surgeries

Burlingame, CA

Dr. Marci Bowers was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1958. At age four, Marci and her family moved to Oconomowoc, a small town in...
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Carolyn Brandy

Drummer, creator of women's drumming spaces

Cheltenham, PA

Carolyn Brandy was born in Tampa, Florida on July 20, 1946. With a father in the US Army special forces, Carolyn lived in Georgia, Maryland,...
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Perry Brass

Gay Liberation Front member, author

Bronx NY

Perry Brass was born in 1947 in Savannah, Georgia. His family was part of a close-knit community of mostly Polish Jews. Perry’s relationship with his...
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Kylar W. Broadus

lawyer; founder, Trans People of Color Coalition

Washington D.C., DC

Kylar William Broadus was born on August 28, 1963 in Fayette, Missouri. His parents—William, a truck driver, and Fannie, a supervisor of housekeeping—instilled in their...
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Donna Burkett

Groundbreaking marriage equality activist

Milwaukee WI

Donna Burkett was born in 1946 at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Milwaukee with her family at age eight. Her grandfather...
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Elia Chinó

Advocate for Latinx HIV/AIDS healthcare; founder, FLAS, Inc.

Houston, TX

Elia Chinó was born on April 24, 1962 in La Huacana, Michoacan, Mexico, the seventh of nine children in a farm family. Because her family...
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Karen Clark

groundbreaking Minnesota politician

Minneapolis, MN

Karen was born in 1945 in Oklahoma, but her family soon moved to a farm in Edgerton, Minnesota. Because her family were sharecroppers, Karen learned...
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Rosa Diaz

Founder, Imperial Valley LGBT Resource Center

Brawley, CA

Rosa Diaz was born on September 30, 1960, in Sonora, Mexico. Rosa spent most of her childhood in Brawley, California, a predominantly Hispanic and Black...
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Denise Eger

Pioneering lesbian rabbi; ally to congregants with HIV

Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, CA

Rabbi Denise Eger was born on March 14, 1960 in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Her devout Jewish family settled in Memphis, Tennessee around 1972. Rabbi Eger...
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