This Pride Month, we’re highlighting 30 fabulous LGBTQ+ individuals who have made significant impacts in their fields and communities. These individuals embody the essence of pride, demonstrating creativity, resilience and a relentless pursuit of equality. Through their actions and voices, they have not only uplifted the LGBTQ+ community but have also inspired countless others to embrace their true selves and advocate for a more just and equitable world.

• RuPaul - A drag queen, singer and television personality, RuPaul became an iconic figure in LGBTQ+ culture, breaking mainstream barriers with the success of his reality competition show "RuPaul's Drag Race," which celebrates the artistry and diversity of drag.
• James Baldwin - An American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays and poems. Baldwin was a well-known public figure and orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.
• Rita Mae Brown - An American feminist, writer and author, best known for her coming-of-age novel Rubyfruit Jungle, which is considered an autobiographical account of her coming-out story.
• Pete Buttigieg - U.S. Secretary of Transportation, former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and the first openly gay presidential candidate to win delegates in a major party's presidential primary.
• Brandi Carlile - An American singer-songwriter, producer and LGBTQ+ advocate. Her music spans many genres, including folk rock, alternative country, Americana and classic rock. She has received ten Grammy Awards and earned 27 Grammy nominations.
• Anderson Cooper - A journalist and news anchor, he came out as gay in 2012 and is a prominent advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
• Laverne Cox - A three-time Emmy-nominated actress, documentary film producer and a prominent equal rights advocate. She is also the first transgender woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television series.
• Billie Eilish - A Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the music industry for her haunting vocals, edgy style and thought-provoking lyrics. She has become one of the most influential and celebrated artists of her generation, tackling themes of youth, mental health and societal pressures in her music.
• Barney Frank - A former U.S. Congressman, he was one of the first openly gay members of Congress.
• Brittney Griner - An American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's national basketball team and a six-time WNBA All-Star. She was additionally named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
• Keith Haring - A gay American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. Haring's popularity grew from his spontaneous drawings in New York City subways—chalk outlines of figures, dogs and other stylized images on blank black advertising spaces. Once he gained public recognition, he moved on to create colorful, larger-scale, commissioned murals.
• Neil Patrick Harris - An actor known for his roles in "How I Met Your Mother" and "Doogie Howser, M.D.," he is openly gay and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
• Billie Jean King - A legendary American tennis player and a trailblazer for gender equality in sports, notably founding the Women's Tennis Association and championing the cause of equal prize money for male and female players. Her iconic "Battle of the Sexes" match against Bobby Riggs in 1973 remains a landmark moment in sports history, symbolizing the fight for gender equity in athletics.
• Audre Lorde - A poet, essayist and feminist, she was a trailblazing voice in intersectional feminism and LGBTQ+ rights, addressing issues of race, gender and sexuality in her work, and advocating for social justice and equality.
• Rachel Maddow - A television host and political commentator, she is the first openly gay anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States.
• Harvey Milk - An American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. An advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
• Martina Navratilova - An openly gay, former professional tennis player and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality in sports.
• Elliot Page - A Canadian actor and producer, he has been nominated for an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Page has strongly spoken out against discriminatory legislation towards the trans community and has become a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. In March 2021, he became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of Time.
• Megan Rapinoe - A soccer player, advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality in sports, she is known for her activism on and off the field.
• Dr. Sally Ride - An American astronaut and physicist, in 1983 she became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space. She was the first known LGBTQ+ astronaut, and, at the age of 32, the youngest American astronaut to go to space. 
• Sylvia Rivera - A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Rivera was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements. Throughout her life, she fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color, from the larger movement for gay rights.
• Bayard Rustin - An American political activist and a prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
• Troye Sivan - An Australian singer, songwriter and actor who has firmly established himself as a global icon in the worlds of pop music, fashion and LGBTQ+ representation. Twenty-two billion streams and 10 million adjusted albums sold worldwide are milestones only a few artists can claim. He has become an avid advocate for LGBTQ+ rights through his music and videos. With his massive social media following, Sivan has become a voice for Gen-Z.
• George Takei - An actor and activist known for his role in "Star Trek" and for his LGBTQ+ advocacy work.
• Alan Turing - A mathematician and computer scientist, he was a key figure in breaking the Enigma code during World War II and, ultimately, persecuted for his homosexuality.
• Lena Waithe - An American actor, producer and screenwriter. She became the first African American woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writer in a Comedy Series in 2017 for writing the Thanksgiving episode of the program Master of None, which was loosely based on her personal experience of coming out to her mother.
• Andy Warhol - An American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silk screening, photography, film and sculpture.
• John Waters - An American filmmaker, artist and director, best known for transgressive comedic and surrealistic films like Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and Cry Baby.
• Oscar Wilde - A renowned Irish playwright, novelist, essayist and poet who lived in the late 19th century. His life was marked by both literary success and scandal, including his imprisonment for "gross indecency" due to his homosexuality, making him a figure emblematic of both artistic brilliance and societal persecution.
• Edie Windsor - An LGBTQ+ rights activist and plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor, which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.

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