Terry Baum

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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Al Baum

Lawyer, urban planner, psychotherapist, philanthropist

San Francisco, CA

Al Baum was born in 1930 and raised in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. His father was a successful investment counselor, and hoped that...
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Deborah Moncrief Bell

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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Ada Bello

Cuban-American chemist and lesbian activist

Philadelphia, PA

Ada Bello was born into a middle-class family in 1933 in Havana, Cuba. Aware from early on that she was attracted to girls, she also...
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Jean Belmont

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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Richard Bentley

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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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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Brett Bigham

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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Hector Black

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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Blackberri

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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Peggy Blevins

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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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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Patrick Bova

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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Kathy Bowser

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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Perry Brass

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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Sharon Bridgforth

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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