Gay black activist
Home / gay topics / Gay black activist
Eckstein was also an early activist in the Black feminist movement of the 1970s and was involved with the organization Black Women Organized for Action. Rustin served 50 days in Los Angeles County jail and had to register as a sex offender. He later was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington, and later, advised the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
Wilson also served as a World AIDS Summit delegate and advocated for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide additional funding to Black groups so they would have the resources to educate and mobilize their community around HIV/AIDS issues. “Racism combined with the forces of stigma, phobia, discrimination and bias associated with gender and sexuality have too often erased the contributions of members of our community."
Gladys Bentley (1907-1960)
Bentley was a gender-bending performer during the Harlem Renaissance.
From New Orleans to New York City, DeLarverie performed at the Apollo Theater, Radio City Music Hall, worked as a bouncer, an MC, and was well known as the “guardian of lesbians” in Manhattan’s West Village. Throughout his career, he has worked with numerous organizations and government bodies pushing for LGBTQ equality.
She also performed with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches from 1972 through the ‘90s and was an AIDS activist with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (Born 1940)
Miss Major is Black transgender woman and activist at the forefront of the fight for trans rights. Baldwin spent a majority of his literary and activist career educating others about Black and queer identity, as he did during his famous lecture titled “Race, Racism, and the Gay Community” at a meeting of the New York chapter of Black and White Men Together (now known as Men of All Colors Together) in 1982.
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
Hansberry was an activist and playwright best known for her groundbreaking play “A Raisin in the Sun,” about a struggling Black family on Chicago’s South Side.
15 Amazing LGBTQ People Whose Groundbreaking Lives Helped Shape Black History
With time and tolerance, the many accomplishments and contributions of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people have come to be recognized and revered as part of Black History Month. His focus on theater, ballet and jazz — from a Black point of view — brought much-needed exposure and recognition to the many Black dancers talents and teachers of his time.
Along with fellow trans activist Sylvia Rivera, Johnson helped form Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a radical political organization that provided housing and other forms of support to homeless queer youth and sex workers in Manhattan. Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson was a transgender rights activist, drag queen, and one of the key figures of the Stonewall uprising in 1969, which served as the foundation for what we know as Pride today.
Judge Batts passed away in February 2020.
5. He is currently one of the nine co-chairs of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, Vice Chair of the Homeland Security Committee and Freshman Crescendo Representative.
7. In 2014, Ailey was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his influential work in bringing dance to underserved communities.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Lorde, a self-described “Black, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, warrior," made lasting contributions in the fields of feminist theory, critical race studies and queer theory through her pedagogy and writing.
Following the end of her term in office, she continued pushing for LGBTQ equality as Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Director.
Check out our Black History Month series on Instagram for more stories like these.
Representing New York’s 15th District in the U.S.
House, Ritchie Torres joins Mondaire Jones as one of the first two openly LGBTQ Black members of Congress in 2020 and makes history as the first openly gay Afro-Latino in Congress. Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an LGBTQ+ and civil rights activist and a key player in the labor rights movement.