Religion
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early human rights activist and LGBTQ ally
Miami, FL
Ruth Shack was born in 1931, and grew up on Long Island, New York. In 1953, after dropping out of college – she told her...
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Gay Liberation Front / Lavender Menace activist; writer
Portland, OR
Martha Altman (later Shelley) was born on December 27th, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents of Russian and Polish descent. At 17, she...
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Staten Island preservationist; former minister
Staten Island, 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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gay mental health reformer; author, The Joy of Gay Sex
New York, NY
Charles Silverstein was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1935, and grew up in what he describes as a very typical Jewish family of that era:...
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South Asian member of Khuli Zaban
Miami, FL
Priyanka “Anki” Sinha was born on June 28, 1973 in Doha, Qatar. Their father was from Bangladesh and their mother was from India, so they...
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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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artist, bisexual lesbian
Tucson, AZ
Penelope Starr was born in 1945 in New York, NY. As the daughter of two eccentric artists – her mother a jeweler and her father...
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coast guard physician, anti-DADT activist
Olympia, WA
Alan Steinman was born in Newark, Ohio on February 7, 1945. He graduated from MIT in 1966 and went on to receive his M.D. from...
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trans academic, filmmaker, and artist
San Francisco, CA
Susan Stryker was born into a White working-class family in Fort Sill, Oklahoma on July 7, 1961. Her father was an army Sergeant, and his...
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artist, storyteller; gay marriage trailblazer
Eureka Springs, AR
Zeek Taylor was born in the Arkansas Delta in 1946, and raised in the small town of Marmaduke, where his mother was a hairdresser and...
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Minister, artist, and HIV/AIDS advocate
Decatur, GA
Duncan Teague’s parents met at choir rehearsal at his local Baptist church, and his father was a retired Baptist minister. Duncan was born on January...
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Chicano artist, community activist
Glendale, CA
A second-generation Mexican-American, Joey Terrill was born on October 8, 1955, in Los Angeles. Joey’s father was an artist and furniture maker; his mother was...
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queer black dance club founder
Los Angeles, CA
Jewel Thais-Williams was born on May 9, 1939 in Gary, Indiana. The fifth of seven children, Jewel moved with her family to San Diego when...
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Founder of Transgender Talent
Anaheim, CA
Ann Thomas was born on October 14, 1962 in Seattle, Washington. At age 3, her family moved to Vashon Island in the middle of Puget...
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LGBTQ historian
St Paul, MN
Jean Tretter was born in 1946, in Little Falls, Minnesota, into a German-Catholic family who had immigrated to the United States a century before. During...
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