OUTWORDS travels America recording the life stories of LGBTQIA2S+ elders. Explore full-length interview profiles, or check out our complete list of interviewees.
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RADICAL FAERIE, THERAPIST, POET
Decatur, GA
Franklin Abbot was born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in Birmingham, Buffalo, and Nashville. As a kid, Franklin marched to the beat...
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GAY MUSLIM IMAM
Chicago, IL
Imam Daayiee Abdullah was born Sidney Thompson in Detroit, Michigan on January 11th, 1954. From a very young age, Daayiee displayed an independent mind, becoming...
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Psychologist, wellness non-profit founder
San Francisco, CA
Marcy Adelman was born on August 12th, 1946, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was raised in a multigenerational household infused with values of history, family, and...
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Proud Parent Ally, Author, Public Speaker, founder of Okaeri
Pasadena, CA
Marsha Aizumi was born on May 28, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents were originally from Southern California, but were displaced to the midwest from...
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award-winning LGBTQ+ documentary filmmaker
Los Angeles, CA
Dante Alencastre was born in Lima, Peru in 1961. He was raised by his single mother, a nurse, in an apartment alongside his grandfather and...
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Women's Reproductive freedom activist
Slidell, LA
Susan Jane Allen was born in Detroit in 1948. Her parents, Leo and Helen Allen, both worked in the space industry. In 1962, the family...
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Cuban-American fashion designer and HIV activist
Palm Springs, CA
Juan-Manuel Alonso was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1952. He spent his infancy and early childhood in a country in the midst of revolution. After...
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Writer, actor, HIV educator, meditation teacher
Los Angeles, CA
Noel Alumit was born on January 1, 1968 in Baguio City, Philippines. Noel’s family moved to Boston when he was 2 years old when his...
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Two-spirit poet and educator
Lakewood, CO
Crisosto Apache was born in 1971 in New Mexico. His father is a member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe and his mother is part Mescalero...
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Two-spirit transgender educator
San Francisco, CA
Born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1957, Marcus Arana was given the name Mary by his parents. As one of three children in a working class...
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Vivienne Armstrong and Louise Young
LGBTQ+ political and business leaders
Dallas, TX
Vivienne ‘Viv’ Armstrong was born on April 12, 1947, in Knoxville, Tennessee. While attending nursing school in San Francisco, she became active with the Daughters...
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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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pastor, HIV community activist
Charleston, SC
Robert Arrington was born February 1960 in Harlem, New York to. He grew up as one of three siblings with a strict father and a...
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Ifa Priestess, Author, Same Gender Loving (SGL) Activist
Palm Springs, CA
Love TaShia Asanti was born on September 23, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up in Los Angeles, she was exposed to the area’s poverty and...
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Reformed anti-LGBTQ+ politician
San Luis Obispo, CA
Roy Ashburn was born in Long Beach, California, in 1954, and grew up in San Luis Obispo along California’s central coast. At 8, Roy became...
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Interdisciplinary artist, intersex activist
Helena, MT
Eden Atwood was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1969. Her father, Hub Atwood, was a well-respected composer, and her mother, Helen Guthrie, was a fundraiser...
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ARMENIAN-AMERICAN ACADEMIC IN WOMEN'S STUDIES
Northampton, MA
Arlene Voski Avakian was born in 1939 to an Iranian Armenian father and a Turkish Armenian mother who was a survivor of the Armenian genocide....
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Painter; Christopher Isherwood’s lover
Santa Monica, CA
Don Bachardy was born May 18, 1934 in Los Angeles, CA. Growing up, he worked in a grocery store and spent his free time going...
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Swiss immigrant, multi linguist
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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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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Author and playwright; founder, Lilith Theater
San Francisco, CA
Terry Baum was born November 27, 1946 in Los Angeles. She describes her early life in LA as a “reasonably happy Jewish middle-class childhood.” During...
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Lifelong community organizer
Houston, TX
Born in 1950, Deborah Moncrief Bell grew up as one of five children in a working-class family in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father was a carpenter...
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Disabled Suquamish Veteran
Suquamish, WA
Jean Belmont was born on April 7, 1960, in Fort Dix, New Jersey, the military base where her father was stationed. The very next day,...
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Accountant, AIDS crisis survivor
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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Chef and Queer Rights Activist
La Quinta, CA
Betty C. Berrysmith was born on April 4, 1953 in Seattle, Washington and raised alongside her three siblings. Facing unjust working conditions and limitations due...
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Women's music pioneer, Olivia Records founder
Oakland, CA
Ginny Berson was born on April 25, 1946 in Hartford, Connecticut. She attended college in Massachusetts where she began developing her personal political identity through...
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Jolino Beserra and David Edward Byrd
Power Artist Couple: Mosaics and Music Posters
Los Angeles, CA
David Edward Byrd was born on August 4, 1941 in Cleveland, Tennessee. His parents split up promptly afterwards, so David grew up spending his school...
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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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Quaker peace activist, Radical Faerie
Cookeville, TN
Hector Black was born on February 12, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. On the cusp of being sent to the front lines in World War...
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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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Cherokee Nation Language Specialist
Jay, OK
Wade Blevins was born on January 9th, 1973, in Grove, Oklahoma (Cherokee Nation) where his family has resided since the 1840s. He was predominantly raised...
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ALLY, SURROGATE MOTHER TO TWO-SPIRIT COMMUNITIES
Jay, OK
Peggy Blevins was born on July 8th, 1952. She was raised on a farm in Jay, Oklahoma, a small city with a vibrant Native American...
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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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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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public opinion researcher and activist
Chicago, IL
Patrick Bova was born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1938. His grandparents had come to America from Italy in the late 19th century. Patrick had three...
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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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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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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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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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HIV activist, community manager, women's advocate
Chalmette, LA
Gina Brown was born on January 15, 1966 in Pittsburgh, California. Up until age 4, her family lived happily in a middle class neighborhood. When...
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Non-binary teacher and administrator
St. Louis, MO
Elaine Brune was born on June 30, 1955, in Kansas City, Missouri. Growing up in a tight-knit family and neighborhood, Elaine learned to value independence,...
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Black Trans Activist, Human Right's Advocate
Washington D.C., DC
Earline Budd was born on August 14, 1958 in Washington, DC, where she grew up in a very religious family. Assigned male at birth, Earline...
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Lifelong rock star, singer songwriter, trans man
Nashville, TN
Cidny Bullens was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Massachusetts and Maine. His family was middle class and conservative. As a young musician...
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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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Public Speaker, Mentor, Trans Equality Advocate
North Garden, VA
Charley Burton was born on May 27, 1960 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The city was segregated in his early childhood, and his parents were vocal advocates...
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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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Nobel-nominated civil rights organizer
Durham, NC
Mandy Carter was born in 1948 in Albany, New York. Within a couple months of being born, Mandy and her two siblings were abandoned by...
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Asian-American Sexual Minority Professor and Researcher
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Connie Chan was born on January 16, 1954 in Hong Kong. Her father owned a stevedoring company in Shanghai, but in the wake of communism...
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Anne Charles and Linda Quinlan
writers; public access show co-hosts
Montpelier, VT
Anne Charles was born on May 14, 1951, in Houston, Texas. She was raised by her single mother in Buffalo, New York, and never knew...
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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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Immigrant, Transgender Social Justice Advocate
San Francisco, CA
Cecilia Chung was born on July 28, 1965 in Hong Kong to her Catholic mother, Dawning, and her father, William. Cecilia often found herself challenging...
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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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JOHN WATERS INGENUE, TRANS TRAILBLAZER
Philadelphia, PA
Elizabeth Coffey-Williams was born in 1948 in Brooklyn, New York, and at the age of 5, moved with her parents to Philadelphia. Her dad was...
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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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Mentee of Harvey Milk, activist for human rights and the Democratic Party
Daly City, CA
Gwenn Craig was born on April 14, 1951 in Atlanta, Georgia. She grew up on the Gammon Theological Seminary campus where her father worked as...
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university dean, HIV educator
Newark, NJ
James Credle was born in 1945 in Mesic, a small town on North Carolina’s eastern shore. After graduating from the all-black Pamlico County Training School...
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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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Arena Director for Two-Spirit Gatherings
Elkins, AR
Joey Criddle was born on January 9, 1961 in Eupora, Mississippi. His mother was Jicarilla Apache and his father was white, and Joey grew up...
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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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Indigenous HIV community activist; Water Walker
St Paul, MN
Sharon Day was born in 1951 in Northern Minnesota. Both of her parents were enrolled members of Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. She grew up...
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Chicana writer, early Santa Monica family descendant
Santa Monica, CA
Terri de la Peña was born on February 20, 1947 in Santa Monica, California. Her father was a descendant of the Marquez family, one of...
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Felipa DeLeon and Monique Mousseau
Two-Spirit Founders of Uniting Resilience
Box Elder, SD
Felipa De Leon (native name: Theíčihila Wi) was born on June 1st 1969 in Dowagiac, Michigan, and grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation....
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Two-Spirit Caretaker, Family Pillar
Manderson, SD
Olivia DeSersa was born on April 2, 1965 in Rosebud, South Dakota. Her father ran a local newspaper and her mother worked as a nurse...
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DISABLED VETERAN, 1ST TRANS CANDIDATE FOR STATE OFFICE IN SD
Rapid City, SD
Toni Diamond was born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota on January 16th 1968. She grew up in a physically, emotionally, and mentally abusive home, which...
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CALTECH SCIENTIST, QUEER ACTIVIST
Pasadena, CA
Rochelle Anne “Shelley” Diamond was born on August 9, 1951, in Phoenix, Arizona. Both her parents came from merchandising families, and her Jewish family owned...
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community mental health activist
Phillips Ranch, Pomona, CA
Marianne Diaz was born in Santa Monica, California, and grew up in Lennox, a poor neighborhood in the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport....
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INTERNATIONAL PERFORMER & NIGHTLIFE FIGURE
Chicago, IL
Guest interviewer Zackary Drucker recorded Marlow Monique's oral history for OUTWORDS in 2021. Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, filmmaker, and cultural producer. She has performed...
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Artist, professor
Langley, WA
Born June 21, 1935, in Phoenix, Arizona, Diane Divelbess has been “an artist all her life.” She received a BA degree from Scripps College and...
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FOUNDER / EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF GLITS
Ozone Park, Queens, NY
Brooklyn-born Ceyenne Doroshow grew up in a traditional Black middle-class family, religious and conservative to a fault. Her mother was an educator and neighborhood staple,...
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author, academic, activist
New York, NY
Martin Duberman is an American historian and writer, and one of the pre-eminent scholars of the LGBTQ movement. Martin was born in 1930. His father...
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lesbian novelist, fat activist
Oakland, CA
Elana Dykewomon was born on October 11, 1949 in New York. She grew up in a Jewish American household, with a father who fought in...
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SCHOOL TEACHER & COUNSELOR, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST
Sonoma, CA
Jan Edwards was born on March 30, 1938 in Cleveland, the first of two daughters born to James Borgia, who was of Sicilian descent, and...
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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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Blogger, Author, Photographer, Activist
Richmond, VA
Sokari was born on May 15th 1949 in London, UK. After four years of living with their grandmother, they moved to Lagos, Nigeria to live...
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TRANS LESBIAN FOLK SINGER, ACTIVIST, WRITER
Oakland, CA
Beth Elliott was born on November 26, 1950 in Vallejo, California. As a child, she experienced a feeling of being at odds with her gender....
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CUBAN REFUGEE, IMMIGRANT SEXUALITY RESEARCHER
San Diego, CA
Oliva Espin was born on December 12, 1938 in Santiago de Cuba. She grew up in Havana, where her father ran a school. Her mother...
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founder, old lesbian oral history project
Houston, TX
Arden Eversmeyer was born on April 4, 1931, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. She moved with her parents and younger sister to Dallas, Texas in 1943....
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Award-Winning Lesbian Author, Scholar, Historian
San Diego, CA
Lillian Faderman, born on July 18th, 1940 in the Bronx, moved with her mother to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles in 1948. Lillian’s father refused...
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Teachers and Mentors
Cherry Grove, PA
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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bisexual activist, HIV community activist
Miami, FL
Luigi Ferrer was born in 1958 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. During his childhood, he bounced between Puerto Rico and Columbia, South Carolina, then attended the...
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TWO-SPIRIT LEADER, MEDICINE MAN
Blackfoot, ID
Marlon “Marty” Fixico was born in 1957 in Oklahoma to a Seminole father and a Cheyenne mother. Marty’s early awareness of his attraction to men...
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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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Pansy Division co-founders, gay rock stars
California
Jon Ginoli was born in Peoria, Illinois In December 1959. Twenty months later, Chris Freeman was born in Seattle, Washington. Some 30 years later, Jon...
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Freeman Thomas Freeman and Steve Levine
Sexuality workshop organizers
Wayne, 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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DISABILITY ACTIVIST & WRITER
Berlin, Germany
Kenny Fries was born on September 22, 1960, to a lower middle class Jewish household in Brooklyn. Kenny was born with fibular hemimelia, a congenital...
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first openly transgender judge in U.S.
Houston, TX
At her birth in 1948, Phyllis Randolph Frye was named Phillip. Growing up in Texas, Phillip became an Eagle Scout and was the commander of...
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Nanette Gartrell and Dee Mosbacher
psychiatrists in research and film
San Francisco, CA
Nanette Gartrell, MD and Diane (Dee) Mosbacher, MD, PhD are psychiatrists in love. Dee is also a filmmaker and social justice activist; and Nanette is...
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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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FOUNDING MEMBER, NATIONAL COALITION OF BLACK LESBIANS AND GAYS
Cathedral City, CA
From the earliest moments of Gil’s life in Panama, his father taught him the importance of improvisation and truth, both of which would shape Gil’s...
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Gay Rights and Liberation Activist, Lawyer
Palm Springs, CA
Gerald “Jerry” Gerash was born on February 19th, 1934, in the Bronx, New York, to immigrant Russian Jewish parents. He grew up surrounded by families...
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Co-founder of Homan Los Angeles, Psychotherapist, Author
West Hollywood, CA
Payam Ghassemlou was born in 1966 in Tehran, Iran. From a young age, Payam realized he was different from his peers, identifying as gay in...
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INTERSEX BDSM EDUCATOR, RADIO HOST
Houston, TX
Ladyboy Gigi was born in 1955 in Houston, Texas. At birth, Gigi’s genitalia did not fit the standard definitions for male or female bodies (a...
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Psychologist, advocate for AAPI and LGBTQ+ mental health
Los Angeles, CA
Terry Gock was born in Hong Kong on August 10, 1951. His family owned a large Shanghai department store, so Terry and his brother grew...
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black lesbian vampire novelist
San Francisco, CA
Jewelle Gomez was born on September 11, 1948 and grew up in Boston. Jewelle is of Cape Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway descent, and was largely raised by her...
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Social justice-focused conceptual artist
Los Angeles, CA
Ken Gonzales-Day was born on November 11, 1964 in Santa Clara, CA, and grew up moving around cities all over the Bay Area. His white...
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co-founder, salsa soul sisters
Brooklyn, NY
Cassandra Grant was born in 1947 in New York City. Her family lived in the Lincoln Projects in Harlem, a haven for Black World War...
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author, trans health trailblazer
Union City, CA
Jamison Green was born in Oakland, California, on November 8, 1948, and designated female at birth. Thus, when he was adopted at one month old,...
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Author, Psychologist, APA Leader
Brooklyn, NY
Beverly Greene was born in 1950 in East Orange, New Jersey. She grew up in a multi-generational household within a close-knit local community; she describes...
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mother of coming-out visionary Rob Eichberg
Laguna Woods, CA
Shirley Greenes was born in 1921 in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up, her father taught her the values of equality, tolerance, and the inclusion of all....
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Trans Woman, Vietnam Veteran, Dakota Tribe Member
Rapid City, SD
Blair Greybull was born on August 24th, 1949, in Fort Yates, North Dakota, within the tribal headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Raised in...
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actor, dancer, music director
Gun Barrel City, TX
Jim Gribben was born in 1943 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Though his childhood was difficult, Jim’s “small but mighty” mother taught him strength and resilience. As...
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environmental feminist author and activist
Berkeley, CA
Susan Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943. She came into the world at a time of global war and the Holocaust. These...
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transgender women of color activist
Little Rock, AR
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy was born in the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois. Around age 13, she came out to her parents as transgender. After a psychologist,...
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Gay Liberation Front radical; artist
New York, NY
Michela Griffo was born in 1949 in Rochester, New York, into a large, unruly family of Irish, Germans, Italians—what Michela calls the United Nations of...
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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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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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psychotherapist, ‘de-cluttering’ professional
Lauderdale, MS
Kim Grubbs was born in 1955 in McComb, Mississippi. When he was about nine years old, his dad purchased a pharmacy in Harlandale, a town...
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Lead Plaintiff to Legalize Gay Sex in Montana
Helena, MT
Linda Gryczan was born on September 23rd, 1953, the oldest of five siblings, and grew up in Western Colorado. At 11 years old, she read...
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Native American Activist and Culture Authority
Fort Hall, ID
Clyde Hall was born on April 8, 1951 in Pocatello, Idaho. Coming from the Shoshone Métis tribe, Clyde grew up on the Fort Hall Reservation....
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‘gay gene’ geneticist, HIV researcher, filmmaker
Haleiwa, HI
Dean Hamer was born in 1951 in Montclair, New Jersey. He graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School....
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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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Transgender Flag Creator, Activist, and Navy Veteran
Marietta, GA
Monica Helms was born on March 8, 1951, in Sumter, South Carolina. She was born into a family with a strong military background, spending most...
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Stonewall arrestee, early trans catalyst, entertainer, author
Palmdale, CA
Christy Henderson-Jenkins was born on November 11th, 1949. She spent her childhood years in Philadelphia before moving to Arizona with her mother and stepfather at...
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AIDS activist; creator, “Aging Gayfully”
Sonoma, CA
Gary “Buz” Hermes was born on January 11, 1939 in Napa, California – not the global wine destination of today, but a small, conservative farming...
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carnival krewe performer, social worker
Slidell, LA
Michael Hickerson was born in New Orleans in 1955. His dad was a longshoreman, and his mom ran the cafeteria at New Orleans City Hall....
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FOUNDER / CEO, AIDS ALABAMA
Birmingham, AL
Kathie Hiers was born on October 5th, 1954 in Mobile, Alabama. She might have been born in Joliet, Illinois, where her family lived at the...
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Co-founder, Southerners On New Ground (SONG)
Decatur, GA
Pat Hussain was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1950. She attended segregated schools though high school. In 1963, Pat attended a civil rights sit-in at...
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bisexual activist, writer, educator
Takoma Park, MD
Loraine Hutchins was born in the late 1940s in Washington, DC. She graduated with a degree in English and American Literature in 1970 from Shimer...
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Trans activist, cabbie, sex worker, mentor
New York, NY
Renee Imperato was born on May 8, 1948 in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City, where her mother worked making wigs and toupees...
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PHOTOGRAPHER, ART MAGAZINE FOUNDER
Los Angeles, CA
Louis Jacinto was born on November 13, 1955 in Bakersfield, California. His father was a railroad worker and his mother stayed home to raise the...
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reminder day protester; founder, AIDS treatment news
Philadelphia, PA
John James was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, NY. His father, a Montana native, was a lawyer; his mom was from Iowa and sold real...
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Former CEO of Los Angeles LGBT Center
Los Angeles, CA
Lorri L. Jean was born on March 7th, 1957 in Boise, Idaho. She was the eldest child on the family farm, and she was handed...
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Award-winning nurse, great-great-grandmother, and healthcare envoy to Africa
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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kentucky-born author and educator
Tucson, AZ
Fenton Johnson was born in Kentucky in 1953, the youngest of nine children in a bourbon-making family. His parents named him after a monk at...
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ED of TGI Justice Project, mentored by Miss Major
San Francisco, CA
Janetta Johnson was born on November 12, 1964 in Tampa, Florida. Assigned male at birth, she was bullied and reprimanded growing up for presenting more...
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Artist, Scholar, and Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies
Los Angeles, CA
Omi Osun Joni L. Jones was born on October 25th, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois. Around 1960, her family moved to a new development in the...
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organizer, 1979 March on washington; bisexual activist
Washington D.C., DC
ABilly Jones-Hennin was born in 1942 on St. John’s, Antigua and adopted at age three by civil rights activists with nine other adopted kids. After...
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early gay rights legal ally
Carmel, CA
Eric Julber was born in October, 1925 in New York City. His father relocated the family to Santa Monica, California to work as a musician...
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bisexual/feminist activist and author
Cazadero, CA
Lani Ka’ahumanu was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lani is known today as one of the major...
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Retired social worker, bisexual pioneer, community activist
Portland, ME
BobBI (Barbara) Keppel was born on December 6, 1932 in Washington, DC. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1955, but spent a year abroad at...
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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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Cartoonist, creator of first ongoing gay/lesbian African-American comic strip characters
Portland, OR
Rupert Kinnard was born on July 21, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up on the west side surrounded by extended family. Rupert disliked school...
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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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Entrepreneur, bisexual rights activist
West Hollywood, CA
Arlene Krantz was born on September 5, 1939, into a Jewish family in Philadelphia. Her mother was a passionate reader, a trait that Arlene inherited...
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KAUAI COUNCIL MEMBER AND PRIDE MARSHAL
Anahola, HI
KipuKai L.P. Kuali’i was born on Kauai, in Lihue, Hawaii, on March 17, 1962, to a Native Hawaiian father and a Portuguese mother. His parents...
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Child Actor, first out LGBT legislator in CA
Santa Monica, CA
Sheila Kuehl was born on February 8, 1941. Her family moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles when she was 2 years old because her...
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South Asian LGBTQ+ activist; Trikone co-founder
San Jose, CA
Arvind Kumar was born on January 1, 1956, in Varanasi, India. Growing up in a joint family in Bihar, he had a conservative Hindu grandfather...
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foster kid; inclusive queer club owner
Los Angeles, CA
Gene La Pietra was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1948, in Providence, Rhode Island. By the age of seven, he had lived in five...
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Black Trans Activist, Hairstylist
Memphis, TN
La’Cretia La’Mour was born on September 29, 1947 in Tupelo, Mississippi. She grew up in the Shake Rag area of Tupelo, in a segregated community...
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AAPI lesbian activist; ceiling-smashing civil servant
Temple City, CA
June Lagmay was born in Yokohama, Japan and grew up in Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles. In high school in 1968, she and Rita Romero...
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traiblazing lesbian photojournalist
Kennett Square, PA
From very early on, Kay Lahusen loved sports, and taking pictures with her box camera. So it’s not surprising that she went on to become...
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international human rights filmmaker and activist
Eureka Springs, AR
TrellaLaughlin was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1937. After her mother died, Trellagrew up in her grandmother’s boarding house. Trella’s family was white. Her primary...
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Feminist and AIDS advocacy leader
Denver, CO
Carol Lease was born in Denver, Colorado in 1948, the third of nine children in a staunchly Catholic family. In 1966, she headed off to...
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Idaho's First Out Elected Official
Boise, ID
Cole LeFavour was born on February 8, 1964 in Aspen, Colorado. Raised by unconventional parents in a loving, nurturing household, they grew up with ample...
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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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Trans Health Activist and Educator, Artist
San Francisco, CA
Yoseñio Lewis was born in October 1959 in Newport, Rhode Island. A transgender man and Latino of African descent, he is also a trans rights...
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Gay Catholic theologian
Little Rock, AR
William Lindsey was born on March 30, 1950. After a childhood in Little Rock and El Dorado, Arkansas, Bill pursued an academic career. He received...
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Navy veteran, transgender activist
Bay Saint Louis, MS
Crystal Little was born in 1943 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and named Charles. The second of seven kids in his family, Charles never felt a...
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Lakota Elder, Women's Activist, Founder of the Women's Sundance
Huntington, VT
Beverly Little Thunder was born on December 31, 1947, in Los Angeles, California. Her early years were divided between Los Angeles and her grandmother's home...
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Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Elder
Sequim, WA
Michael Rueben Lowe was born on April 18, 1947 in Port Angeles, Washington. His father was Native American, so he spent his early childhood with...
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Activist, artist, educator, writer, and QVC host
Inglewood, CA
Dale Guy Madison was born on March 22, 1958 at a naval base in Great Lakes, Illinois. His father was a naval officer who was...
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CO-FOUNDER OF IRANIAN MAGAZINE / ORGANIZATION HOMAN
Los Angeles, CA
Albert Maghbouleh was born in Tehran, Iran on August 20, 1958, to an Iranian-Jewish family surrounded by a tight-knit community. At age 16, he moved...
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Trans Wilderness Survivalist
Challis, ID
Sophia Margeaux was born Jon Winegarner in Hettinger, North Dakota in 1953. (Editor’s note: Sophia continues to use both names in different contexts. Sophia also...
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late-blooming lesbian activist
Los Angeles, CA
Lee LeFaive Marquardt was born in 1942 in Jackson, Michigan. During World War II, Lee’s parents worked in factories to support their seven children. Afterwards,...
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women’s basketball player, 1976 silver medal Olympian
Jersey City, NJ
Gail Marquis was born in New York City in 1954 and grew up in St. Albans, Queens, NY. She grew up in a large family...
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Original Member of Fat Lip Readers Theater and Artist
Berkeley, CA
Judith Masur was born on February 22, 1946 in Manhattan, New York. She was raised in Yonkers with her brother, the actor Richard Masur. From...
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Daughters of Bilitis activist, urban planner
Kennett Square, PA
Marjorie (Marge) McCann was born in 1939 in New Jersey, the eldest of five children. When she was a freshman in high school, her family...
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TRANS FOUNDER OF JUXTAPOSED CENTER FOR TRANSFORMATION
Stone Mountain, GA
Tracee McDaniel was born on January 20th 1967 in Sumter, South Carolina. After her father’s passing, her mother raised Tracee and her brother on her...
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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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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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TRANS LEGAL ACTIVIST, FAITH RECONCILER
Washington D.C., DC
Shannon Minter was born on Valentine’s Day, 1961. He grew up female in a close-knit family and faith community in East Texas. In high school,...
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CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZER & ACTIVIST, AUTHOR, PLAYWRIGHT
New York, NY
David Mixner was born on August 16, 1946, and grew up dirt poor in the town of Elmer, New Jersey. David says his early values...
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Homeowner in “Womontown” Lesbian Community of Kansas City
Kansas City, MO
Sue Moreno was born to Chicana and Indigenous Mexican parents on February 25th 1957 in Davenport, Iowa. She grew up in a low-income, multicultural neighborhood...
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"Greatest Generation" Gay Jewish New Yorker, museum volunteer
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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Black and women's pathfinder, activist, filmmaker
Chicago, IL
Mary Morten is a consultant, filmmaker, and feminist who has spent her life advocating for LGBTQ and women’s rights in Chicago. Born on Chicago’s south...
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bisexual and pro-feminist men’s activist
Oakland, CA
Thomas Mosmiller was born September 19th, 1947, in Baltimore, the youngest child in a traditional Irish-German Catholic immigrant family. Tom attended an all-boys Catholic high...
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gay bar owner, AIDS care provider
Jackson, MS
Jack was born in Pelahatchie, Mississippi in 1944. His father owned a logging and lumber business, and later a small engine repair shop. Jack’s mother...
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Mala Nagarajan and Vega Subramaniam
South Asian activists, founders of Trikone Northwest
Laurel, MD
Vega Subramaniam was born in Madras (now Chennai), India in 1965. Her family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin when she was three, and later to West...
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Founder, GenderTalk radio
Los Ranchos, NM
Nancy Nangeroni was born in Boston, raised in Milton, Massachusetts, and graduated from MIT in 1976 with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, she...
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ACTOR, WRITER, FOUNDER OF LESBIAN LATINA THEATRE COMPANY MACHA
Valley Village, Los Angeles, CA
Odalys Nanin was born on March 16, 1959, in Havana, Cuba. She grew up in Havana on the block where her entire extended family lived....
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Groundbreaking folk and protest musician
Ukiah, CA
Holly Near was born on June 6th, 1949 in Potter Valley, California, a remote enclave in Mendocino County, and grew up on a farm where...
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Transgender former Baptist minister and her wife
Kentwood, MI
Julie Nemecek was born John Nemecek on March 28, 1951, in Chicago, while her father was a Baptist seminary student. The oldest of four children,...
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Ocean distance swimmer; sexual abuse survivor
Los Angeles, CA
Diana Nyad was born in 1949 in New York City. When she was three, her parents divorced and her mother married Aristotle Nyad, a Greek-Egyptian...
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Trans woman, healthcare worker, advocate for affirming end-of-life care
Grand Junction, CO
Lisa Oakley was born in 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, Lisa’s mother wanted Lisa to play sports and have male friends, but Lisa was...
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Bisexual educator, activist, and author
Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA
Robyn Ochs was born in 1958 in San Antonio, Texas. She studied Language and Culture and Latin American Studies at the State University of New...
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Colombian HIV/AIDS advocate
Miami, FL
Eddie Orozco was born in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1965, one of ten siblings, and immigrated to Miami in 1980. While Eddie had been aware of...
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Political and non-profit activist
Santa Monica, CA
Torie Osborn was born in 1950 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and moved with her family to Madrid, Spain at the age of five. In Madrid, Torie...
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gender non-conforming performing artist & writer
Los Angeles, CA
Paul Outlaw was born in New York City and raised on a Lower East Side housing project with his five siblings. His early passion for...
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Agitator living longterm with HIV/AIDS
Oakland, CA
Waiyde Palmer was born on October 17th, 1960 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has four siblings, but is the youngest by a full decade; as he...
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Teacher, Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) organizer
Portland, ME
Betsy Parsons was born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents soon moved to Streator, a small Illinois corn town, where her father practiced medicine...
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Trans health advocate; creator of TRANScestors anthologies
Yuba City, CA
Jude Patton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, assigned female at birth, and adopted at seven months old. Perhaps because his parents had experienced difficulty...
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2015 Texas & U.S. Teacher of the Year
Amarillo, TX
Shanna Peeples was born on April 16, 1965 in Borger, Texas. After her parents’ divorce, she moved in with her deeply religious grandparents. In high...
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Founder, Metropolitan Community Church
Los Angeles, CA
Rev. Troy Perry was born in 1940 in Tallahassee, Florida, the first of five sons. His grandfather fought in the Civil War and his father...
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AUTHOR, "A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO INTERSEX", ARTIST
Tucson, AZ
Jay Kyle Petersen was born on May 26, 1952 in Pipestone, Minnesota. He was a 46 XX SRY gene negative Male — he had a...
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Co-founder, Southerners on New Ground
Little Rock, AR
Suzanne Pharr was born in 1939, the youngest of eight kids, and raised on a farm near Lawrenceville, Georgia. From day one, she was in...
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drag performer, nightclub proprietor
Meally, KY
Bradley Picklesimer was born on March 15, 1958, in Lexington, Kentucky. One of four children, Bradley had a happy early childhood with a father who...
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pastor, HIV survivor, “Eyes of Tammy Faye” interviewee
Los Angeles, CA
Steve Pieters was born on August 2nd, 1952 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He grew up on the campus of Phillips Academy, Andover, where his father worked...
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Owner, Pulse Nightclub
Maitland, FL
Barbara Poma was born in 1968 and raised in Coral Springs, Florida. After graduating from the University of Central Florida, she taught writing, debate, and...
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university dean and lgbtq students advocate
Centerville, TN
K.C. Potter was born in 1939 at Fallsburg, Kentucky. In high school, K.C. wrote sport stories for the local newspaper, and participated in speech tournaments...
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LAKOTA TWO-SPIRIT ELDER, MENTAL HEALTH WORKER
Rapid City, SD
Michael Pourier (she/they) was born on October 20, 1967 in Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota. Her name is Wawakanomani, which means everything she walks on...
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PHILANTHROPIST, MILITARY MUSEUM FOUNDER, LGBTQ+ ADVOCATE
Chicago, IL
Born on August 13, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. Col. (IL) Jennifer Natalya Pritzker is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army, as well...
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transgender hairstylist, sex workers’ advocate
Washington D.C., DC
Valda Prout was born in 1935 in Boston. She was named Mallory at birth, and her life has been a long, eventful and colorful dance...
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Lebanese-American therapist, former lesbian separatist
Saugerties, NY
Cheryl Qamar was born on October 17, 1950 in Wichita, Kansas, and grew up on the east side of Wichita–the only Arab family on that...
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rural men’s circle founder
Centerville, MN
Don Quaintance was born in 1941 on a farm in Cherokee, Iowa. He was the oldest of eight children in a working-class family that moved...
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FEMINIST POET, WRITER, PHOTOGRAPHER, PEACE ACTIVIST
Albuquerque, NM
Margaret Randall was born on December 6th, 1936, in New York City. Growing up, she had occasional crushes on women but gave little thought to...
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activist, organizer, reconciler
Des Moines, IA
For more than 30 years, Donna Red Wing was a national leader in the fight for human rights, civil rights and LGBTQ equality. The Christian...
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LESBIAN ACTIVIST, AUTHOR, ARTIST, NATURALIST
Elkins, AR
Born in New York City on Oct 17, 1931, Diana Smith (later Diana Rivers) grew up near Morristown, New Jersey, within an artistic and literary...
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1967 Black cat protest organizer
Pasadena, CA
Alexei Romanoff was born in the Ukraine in 1936, fled with his family to the United States during World War II, and came of age...
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Longtime HIV Survivor, HIV/AIDS Advocate/Ally
Greenville, NC
Esther Ross was born on April 22nd, 1961, in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Bucksport, South Carolina, she grew up as one of eleven siblings....
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Lesbian Fat Acceptance Activist and Feminist Writer
San Francisco, CA
Esther Rothblum was born on January 11, 1955 in Vienna, Austria. Her family moved around often for her father’s job in foreign aid, and Esther...
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Transgender biologist and author
Kapaʻa, HI
Joan Roughgarden was born on March 13, 1946 in Peterson, New Jersey. Her father worked as a missionary and construction engineer for the Episcopal Church,...
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former Catholic seminarian; sustainable agriculture activist
Lacona, IA
A fifth-generation Iowa farmer, Matt Russell was born in 1970 and raised in the rural community of Anita, Iowa. Of the 28 students in Matt’s...
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LGBTQ, AIDS, and racial equity advocate and activist
Portland, OR
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in a family committed to justice and education, Kathleen Saadat graduated from Chicago’s Farragut High School in 1957...
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Drag performer, community activist, fundraiser, and author
San Francisco, CA
Donna Sachet was born Kirk Reeves in 1954, in South Carolina. Kirk’s young life was marked by a violent, alcoholic father, and a mother afraid...
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"Mother" to many; transgender rights advocate
Downey, CA
Guest interviewer Rain Valdez recorded Karina Samala’s oral history for OUTWORDS in 2022. Rain Valdez is an actress, writer, producer, and out and proud Filipino...
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Immigrant, Young Adult fiction author
East Rochester, NY
Alex Sanchez was born in Mexico City in 1957 to a German-Mexican father and a Cuban mother. At age five, his family moved to Austin,...
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Turkish Dancer & Choreographer Living with HIV
İstanbul, Turkey
Mehmet Sander was born in Mettman, Germany on January 20, 1967. His family moved to Istanbul when he was 11 months old. Mehmet was surrounded...
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Montana Legislator, Activist, and Oral Historian
Missoula, MT
Diane Sands was born March 23, 1947 in St. Ignatius, Montana. Her family was among the few white families on a Native reservation, and both...
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co-founder, ACT UP NY; founder, Housing Works
NYC, NY
Eric Sawyer was born in 1954 in Binghamton, New York. Although his parents had little money and even less in the way of social standing,...
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Co-Founder of TENTS, Founder of Ground Floor Theatre
Austin, TX
Lisa Scheps was born on October 2nd, 1958 to an upper middle class Jewish family in Houston, Texas. Her parents signed her up for a...
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nightlife proprietor, feminist, author, preservationist
Pass Christian, MS
In July 2017, OUTWORDS interviewed Barbara Scott, a true Southern grande dame lesbienne, at her home in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where Barbara also provided comfortable...
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Stonewall witness, publisher, Philadelphia Gay News
Philadelphia, PA
Mark Segal was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the only Jewish household in his public housing project. As a child, he learned of friends...
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farm boy, teacher, fisting educator
Tajique, NM
Guy Seiler was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1955, the fourth of nine children in a German Catholic family, and raised on a wheat farm...
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transgender Buddhist teacher
Elmsford, NY
Hoshina Seki was born in 1941 in New York City. Three years earlier, her father, a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist minister, had founded the New York...
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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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First openly LGBTQ elected official in central Florida
Orlando, FL
Patty Sheehan was born on July 6, 1961, in Cleveland, Ohio. Raised in a deeply conservative Catholic family, she remembers telling a friend at age...
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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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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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psychiatrist, artist, sculptor
San Francisco, CA
Charles Stinson was born in 1952 in Temple, Texas. His parents, a professional cellist and a physician, were highly educated and pursued many interests —...
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Academic, Theorist, Honorary founder of Transgender Studies
Aptos, CA
Allucquére Rosanne "Sandy" Stone was born in New York City on June 1st, 1954. Sandy and her sister grew up in a conservative Jewish family...
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Intersex activist, giant, early legally non-binary person
San Francisco, CA
David Cameron Strachan was born in 1947 in Deep River, Ontario, and grew up in Walnut Creek, California. His family was very religious and attended...
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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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"Drag Queen Story Hour" host
New Port Richey, FL
Stephanie Stuart was born in a strawberry patch in Plant City, Florida on December 30th 1965. Growing up, she always knew she was different and...
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Bisexual Activist, Porn Writer, and Journalist with MS
Los Angeles, CA
Mike Szymanski was born on September 1, 1960 in Baltimore, Maryland. As part of a military family, he moved around a lot, living in Hawaii,...
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disability physician, world traveler
Montreal, QC, Canada
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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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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Trans Police Officer
Oakland, CA
Stephan 'Steph' Thorne was born on September 2nd, 1954, in Hillsboro, Oregon. He grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, where his mother moved the family to...
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Stutterer, Professor, and Novelist
Seattle, WA
John Whittier Treat was born on August 10, 1953 in New Haven, Connecticut, and was raised Catholic in a close-knit family. At age twelve, John...
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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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Chinese-American poet, Gay Games gold medalist
Oakland, CA
Kitty Tsui was born in Hong Kong in 1952 and spent her childhood there and in London before moving with her family to San Francisco...
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lesbian separatist, tattoo shop owner, painter
Seattle, WA
Lamar Van Dyke was born Heather Elizabeth Nelson in Canada in 1947, and grew up in Buffalo, New York. Lamar’s mother was a homemaker, and...
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South Asian author, activist, and professor
Missoula, MT
Ruth Vanita was born on December 19, 1955 in Rangoon, Burma. She grew up in West Delhi, where she filled her days playing with neighborhood...
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rural gay men's community builder
Ukiah, CA
Ron Vanscoyk was born in 1949 in Logansport, Indiana, and moved with his family to San Diego in 1953. Although he was attracted to boys...
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Puerto Rican-American activist and health care advocate
Brooklyn, NY
Carmen Vázquez was born on January 13, 1949 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico to a WWII veteran and a seamstress. Her parents migrated to New York...
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Emmy-winning comedian
West Hollywood, CA
Bruce Vilanch was born in 1948 in New York City, and raised by his adoptive parents Jonas and Henne in Paterson, New Jersey. He developed...
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Intersex and non-binary artist
Örebro, Sweden
Del LaGrace Volcano (they/them) was born Deborah Diane Wood in Orange, California in 1957. After Del's father and mother separated, their childhood was split between...
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Wisconsin LGBTQ politician, historian
Madison, WI
Dick Wagner was born in 1943 in Dayton, Ohio into a traditional German Catholic family (his great grandparents ran a successful beer brewery). Dick attended...
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"The Experience" workshop leader, wellness activist
Santa Fe, NM
Honey Ward was born and raised in Southern California. At the age of 26, she participated in The Advocate Experience, a transformational weekend workshop (later...
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Lincoln City Councilmember, Racial Equity Advocate
Lincoln, NE
Sändra Washington was born on October 6th, 1960, in Columbus, Ohio. She and her identical twin sister, Sharon, spent their first four years in Westerville,...
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interior designer, art gallery director
New York, NY
Rags Watkins was born in San Francisco on Halloween night, 1948. After his parents separated, Rags lived in San Francisco with his mother Peggy Tolk-Watkins,...
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mormon parents and their gay son
Provo, UT
Gary Watts was born in 1940 in Logan, Utah into a committed Mormon family. He attended Utah State University, where he was captain of the...
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AIDS community activist; founder, The Victory Fund
Linden, VA
William Waybourn was born in 1947 in Houston, Texas, and raised on a farm in Matador, Texas, 95 miles east of Lubbock – in other...
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Concert Pianist, Composer, Activist Living with HIV/AIDS
Cleveland, MS
Robin Webb was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1957. Robin’s parents loved him and his two brothers unconditionally; he describes them as the “best parents...
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Performance Artist and Musical Director
Seattle, WA
Timothy White Eagle Turner was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1966. His mother was an enrolled member of Mohave (CRIT) tribe. He was adopted by...
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founder, Mothertongue Feminist Theater Collective
San Francisco, CA
Corinne Sue Wick, today known as Corky, was born in 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin into a large Jewish family. She went to the University of...
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Transgender author and activist
Miami Beach, FL
Riki Wilchins was born on April 3rd, 1952, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a high-achieving student, performing the valediction at her high school, before earning...
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Black Comic, Host, and Humor Educator
Oxford, OH
Karen Williams was born on August 12, 1952 in the Soundview area of the Bronx. Karen’s parents were only 18 years old when she was...
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businessman; founder, The Williams Institute
Malibu, CA
Chuck Williams was born in Los Angeles to parents who moved to California to get away from their uptight religious families in Texas. From early...
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founder, Black AIDS Institute
Los Angeles, CA
Phill Wilson was born in 1956 in Chicago, Illinois. Although his parents didn’t have much money, they gave him the most important thing: unconditional love....
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Champion Fencer, Veteran, Trans Activist
Louisville, KY
Dawn Josephine Wilson was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1967. Dawn’s mother and father raised her in the Pentecostal church. After the passing of her...
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Corporate leader and marriage equality advocate
Provincetown, MA
David Wilson was born in 1944 in Boston, to Black parents who worked as domestics for White families around the perimeter of Boston. They would...
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military veteran; technology entrepreneur; motorcyclist
The Villages, FL
Charlotte Wilson was born in 1947 in Oklahoma City. Her father, who was part native American, was stationed in Australia during World War II; that’s...
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Blind poet, disability activist
Falls Church, VA
In 1952, Kathi Wolfe was born six months premature and legally blind in Southern New Jersey. Since early childhood, she wanted to be a writer...
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architect of the national marriage equality movement
New York, NY
Evan Wolfson was born in 1957 in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Pittsburgh. His dad was a pediatrician; his mom was a housewife,...
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gay philanthropy pioneer
Palm Springs, CA
Rob Wright was born in 1949 in Denver, grew up there, and got his degree in economics from the University of Colorado in Boulder. During...
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Trans Activist, Founder of Transgender Nation – Washington
Silver Spring, MD
Jessica Xavier was born in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1952. Growing up in a government family, Jessica was raised in a Roman Catholic household, later attending...
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Japanese-American transgender attorney and trailblazer
Los Angeles, CA
Mia Frances Yamamoto’s parents were among 17,000 American civilians of Japanese ancestry who were interred by the US government at Poston, Arizona after the Japanese...
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founder, “The Wall / Las Memorias”; HIV educator
Los Angeles, CA
Richard Zaldivar was born in Los Angeles in 1952. His dad was Mexican, his mom Mexican-American. Richard’s family was deeply Catholic and early on, Richard...
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LGBT civil rights advocate, CA politician
Santa Monica, CA
Rick Chavez Zbur was born on March 2nd, 1957 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He grew up on a family farm in New Mexico’s Rio Grande...
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