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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Al Baum

Lawyer, urban planner, psychotherapist, philanthropist

San Francisco, CA

Al Baum was born in 1930 and raised in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. His father was a successful investment counselor, and hoped that...
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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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Pam David

SOCIAL JUSTICE & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVIST

Mill Valley, CA

Pam David was born in 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Highland Park, historically one of two villages on Chicago’s north shore...
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Chuck Forester

Author, critic, HIV rights educator

Sebastopol, CA

Chuck Forester was born on February 23, 1944, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He grew up in Wausau, WI, where his father worked as the Yawkey estate...
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Manuel Garza

MATTACHINE ACTIVIST, HAIRDRESSER

New York, NY

Legacy of Voices is an oral history project created in 2008 by Lara Spotts and Brian O’Donnell, inspired by their realization that to better understand...
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John Grigsby and Jim Vegher

businessman; physician; co-founders, Equity Foundation

Portland, OR

Jim Vegher was born in 1939 in San Pedro, California, the second oldest in a family of eight kids. Jim’s devoutly Catholic father was thrilled...
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Mike Grossman

realtor; HRC humanitarian of the year

Dallas, TX

Mike Grossman was born in Minneapolis in 1941 into a traditional Jewish family. At the age of five, he contracted polio, which separated him from...
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Mel Heifetz

Philanthropist and gay nightlife figurehead

Philadelphia, PA

Mel Heifetz was born in Philadelphia on November 4, 1935, and raised in South Philadelphia. His parents could not afford to purchase property, and his...
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Jax Kelly

HIV rights activist, Mr. Palm Springs Leather

Palm Springs, CA

David “Jax” Kelly was born on May 10, 1962 in Jamaica, Queens, New York to a white mother from Peoria, Illinois and a Black father...
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John Killacky

disabled writer, arts administrator, Vermont legislator

South Burlington, VT

John Killacky was born on June 24, 1952 in Chicago, and grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family, the eldest son out of five...
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Geoff Kors

LGBTQ+ policymaker, Former Mayor of Palm Springs

Palm Springs, CA

Geoff Kors was born on April 30, 1961 in New York City, the grandchild of Eastern European immigrants. His father was a lawyer and his...
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Dick Leitsch

president, NY Mattachine Society; sit-in organizer

New York, NY

Dick Leitsch was born in 1935 in Louisville, Kentucky. While in high school, he came out to his Catholic parents, who took his revelation in...
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John McDonald

businessman, gay philanthropy visionary

Palm Springs, CA

John McDonald was born in 1932 in Pennsylvania, and grew up in Los Angeles. He received his BA in geology from UCLA, and his law...
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David McEwan

physician, HIV/AIDS activist, foundation starter

Honolulu, HI

David Bruce McEwan, M.D., was born in Manitoba, Canada in 1946, and raised in Henrietta, a suburb of Rochester, New York. At the age of...
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Michael Slingerland

rural gay bar owner

Gun Barrel City, TX

Michael Slingerland was born in 1950 in Greeley, Colorado. The youngest of three boys, Michael lost his mom when he was an infant. When Michael...
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