Crystal Lynne Little

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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Lee Marquardt

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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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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Suzanne Pharr

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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Steve Pieters

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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Margaret Randall

Feminist Poet, Writer, Photographer, and 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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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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Esther Rothblum

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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Joan Roughgarden

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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Alex Sanchez

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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Guy Seiler

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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Patty Sheehan

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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Kim Stacy

rural woodworker and home builder

Willisburg, KY

Kim Stacy was born in 1957 in Hyden, Kentucky. Her birth was attended to by caregivers from the Frontier Nurse program, who for more than...
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Carmen Vázquez

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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David Wilson

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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Richard Zaldivar

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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