Gay
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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