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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Gina Brown

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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Luigi Ferrer

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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Chris Freeman and Jon Ginoli

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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Jewelle Gomez

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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Michela Griffo

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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Zander Keig

Award-Winning Latine Social Worker, Trans Veteran

Orlando, FL

Zander Keig was born in Torrance, CA, on July 7, 1966. His father joined the Marine Corps and then worked as an engineer, while his...
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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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Torie Osborn

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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Waiyde Palmer

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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Bradley Picklesimer

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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Donna Red Wing

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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Amy Ross

PATHOLOGIST, LGBTQ+ SCIENTISTS ORGANIZER

Los Angeles, CA

Amy Ross was born in La Crescenta, California on April 28, 1953, and grew up in nearby Glendale. Semi-rural and idyllic in its own way,...
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Donna Sachet

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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Mehmet Sander

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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Eric Sawyer

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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