Religion
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former Catholic nun; non-profit executive
Arlington, TX
Kathy Bowser was born in Miami, Florida in 1944, and raised in a working-class Catholic family with an alcoholic dad, and a mom who managed...
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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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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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Playwright of ritual/jazz theatre
Los Angeles, CA
Born in Chicago to a single mother from Memphis in 1958, and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Sharon Bridgforth identifies as a child of...
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The Actors Fund executive, healthcare advocate
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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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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engineer; founder, The Faerie Playhouse
New Orleans, LA
Stewart Butler was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1930, moved to New Orleans in 1932 and to Carville, Louisiana in 1941. He attended Louisiana State...
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1st openly trans Native American state legislator
San Antonio, TX
Stephanie Byers was born on February 5th, 1963, in Norman, Oklahoma, to a mother she describes as a “firecracker” and a gentle, studious father of...
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Bronze Star veteran, DADT challenger
Langley, WA
Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, commonly known as Grethe, was born on March 24, 1942 in Oslo, Norway. At age 9, she and her family immigrated to...
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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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retail salesperson, Black community activist
Covina, CA
Rodney Church was born in South Central Los Angeles in August 1965, barely two weeks after the Watts Riots devastated the neighborhood and claimed 34...
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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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Medical care entrepreneur
Grand Prairie, TX
Emma Colquitt-Sayers was born in 1953 in Alabama, and grew up mostly in Hastings, Florida with her grandmother, a share cropper who taught her the...
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1st Black Trans Woman on Presidential HIV/AIDS Council
College Park, GA
Tori Cooper is a health and equity advocate, community organizer, author, and leading figure in the transgender and HIV communities. Tori was born on May...
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Mulitidisciplinary Artist and Queer/Disability Activist
Palm Springs, CA
Miguel Criado was born on February 1, 1965, in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. As an infant, Miguel’s family moved to Ponce during a time of...
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adoption trailblazer
Lawrenceburg, KY
Jennifer Crossen was born in 1957 in Yokosuka, Japan, where her father was stationed as a doctor in the U.S. Navy. At three, Jennifer’s family...
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