Join us in celebrating amazing LGBTQ+ activists for Women’s History Month. These incredible women, femmes, and nonbinary folks are making history. We’re excited to share their stories, whether they are storytellers, trailblazers, educators, or all of the above.
Lena Waitheis a writer, producer, and actor who created and executive produces The Chi. Lena was the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 2017 for her writing on Master of None. In The Chi, Master of None, and her other work, Lena is known for centering Black LGBTQ+ characters and stories.
Danica Roem (she/her) was a journalist before she turned to politics, covering everything from education and business to transportation. She won the 2017 race for the Virginia House of Delegates, making her the first transgender person to be elected to office in the Virginia General Assembly. When she won in 2019 she made history again as the first transgender state legislator to be reelected. In 2023 she ran and won for State Senate, becoming the first trans state senator in the US South. Danica released a memoir in 2022, Burn the Page.
Dr. Margaret Chung 张玛珠 (she/her) was the first Chinese American woman to become a physician. Throughout her career, Margaret, or “Mom” as her adopted family knew her, persevered against discrimination based on her race, gender, and presumed sexuality. During World War II, Dr. Chung used her influence to support the war effort and lobbied for the creation of WAVES, the US Naval Women’s Reserve. Although she faced prejudice on multiple fronts, Margaret forged a distinctive path for herself throughout her life.
Lani Ka’ahumanu (she/her) is Kanaka Maoli and a leading activist who has worked for greater visibility for bisexuals both within the LGBTQ+ movement as well as broader society. An author, community organizer, and health advocate, she has been a driving force behind the fight against biphobia since 1980. In 1983, Lani co-founded BiPOL, the first feminist bisexual political action group, which first focused on education and advocacy during the AIDS epidemic. She went on to become a key organizer of a group that would become known as BiNet USA, and then a founding organizer of the San Francisco Bay Area Bisexual Network (BABN). Lani published the anthology Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out in 1991, a major text in the modern bisexual rights movement and was listed by the Lambda Book Review as one of the top 100 GLBT books of the twentieth century.
Lamya H (she/they) is a queer, brown, nonbinary, Muslim writer. A former Lambda Literary, Aspen Words, and Queer|Arts fellow, her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, Vice, Autostraddle, Vox, and more. Their memoir, Hijab Butch Blues was released in 2023 and traces their literal and figurative journeys of coming of age and finding a connection to figures in the Qu’ran as a way to navigate her identities as a practicing Muslim, queer, and gender non-conforming person, immigrant, and fierce social justice advocate.
Kai Cheng Thom (she/her) is a writer, performer, facilitator, and speaker, whose novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir runs the genre gamut from fantasy coming-of-age tale to magical realism memoir. She has been a finalist for Lambda Literary, Stonewall Book Award, and Publishing Triangle Award. Kai Cheng’s essays have appeared in Buzzfeed, them， 和 Everyday Feminism, often on issues like transformative justice, radical love, and much more.
Frida Kahlo(she/her) was a Mexican artist whose work was inspired by nature and Indigenous Mexican culture. She suffered polio as a child and at eighteen was involved in a bus accident that led her to have over 30 surgeries. Bedridden from the collision, she turned to painting. Her deeply symbolic work had a huge impact on art history and the LGBTQ+ community. Her work has been celebrated internationally by feminists, often because of the way she used self-portraiture to explore her gender and gender expression, and many of her pieces have been used in political activism and pop culture.
Tracy Chapman (she/her) is an American singer and songwriter popularly known for her singles Fast Car 和 Give Me One Reason. Her iconic 1988 song Fast Car became an LGBTQ+ anthem during the 1980s when queerness was still being swept under the mat. It also brought Tracy one of three Grammys she brought home that year. The song has been covered multiple times, but reemerged in a big way when Luke Combs’ version hit number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in July 2023, leading her to win Country Music Awards Song of the Year in 2023 – the first time a Black songwriter has won in the category. Tracy is an advocate and activist for racial and gender equity, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.
Marylize Biubwa (they/them) is a nonbinary queer lesbian activist from Nairobi, Kenya who extensively advocates for LGBTQ+ rights in Kenya. Marylize uses social media platforms to dispel myths about women’s sexuality and the LGBTQ+ community. Kenya still has colonial-era laws that criminalize same-sex sex, and there are current attacks on LGBTQ+ justice that Marylize is working against, such as ensuring access to education for LGBTQ+ youth.
Rosie Jones(she/ her) is a stand-up comedian, actor, and screenwriter who lives with ataxia cerebral palsy and came out as a lesbian years ago. Rosie created the TV short 残疾福利 in 2022, hosted the miniseries Disability Comedy Extravaganza, and was a writer on season two of Netflix’s Sex Education. She is passionate about intersectionality related to sexuality, gender, race, and disability and works these passions into her comedy and other areas of her work.
Stella Nyanzi (she/her) is a Ugandan activist and medical anthropologist who, in her own words, is “a radical queer African feminist activist who contests patriarchy, misogyny, heteronormativity and homophobia.” She is a poet and scholar, and released a paper, “Dismantling Reified African Culture through Localised Homosexualities in Uganda,” which critiques Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and the dominant narrative in such harmful legal writing that “queerness is ‘un-African.’” Stella was imprisoned twice on charges of criticizing Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Stella currently lives in Germany on a “Writers in Exile” program with her children.
Criminal Justice | Resources for Incarcerated People | National
GLAD Responds to Unprecedented Alabama Supreme Court Ruling Undermining Access to Family-building Healthcare
Today, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) issued the following statement from Polly Crozier, GLAD’s Director of Family Advocacy, on the Alabama Supreme Court decision in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine.
“Fertility healthcare enables many Americans to have children and build a family. Bringing children into your family is about love, hope, and nurturing the next generation.
“That’s why the Alabama Supreme Court decision in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine is so sad and shocking. It seeks to prevent people from having children in a safe, effective, and common medical procedure—in vitro fertilization—that so many rely on. In an unprecedented ruling, the Alabama court concluded that a frozen embryo, created by hopeful parents with assistance from medical providers to build their family, is legally a child. This has untold, devastating, and heartbreaking consequences for people seeking to have children. The journey of infertility is stressful emotionally, physically, and financially, and this ruling threatens to snatch the opportunity of a family from many. Already, at least three clinics in Alabama halted their IVF services out of fear of running afoul of the ruling.
This case is yet another terrible outcome of a broader effort to control not only women, but to dictate how all Americans should actualize the most intimate parts of our lives, including when and how to form a family.
“Those who want to take us backward are working overtime to advance an extremist agenda: a complete ban on abortion, criminalization of fertility healthcare and healthcare for transgender people, reversing marriage equality, targeting LGBTQ+ parents and young people, and inserting government into our most personal and family decisions – with frightening implications for all of us.
“We must also work overtime, collectively and with urgency to protect our common values of freedom and family autonomy. GLAD remains deeply committed to working in collaboration across movements to keep fighting for these shared values. We will continue our work to expand access to healthcare for family building—as we have done in Maine and are currently working on with partners in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and federally—and also protect children born through assisted reproduction and surrogacy through vitally needed protections like 马萨诸塞州亲子法.”
Our hearts are breaking for the family, friends, and community of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary Indigenous child in Oklahoma who should have enjoyed a long and beautiful life. Nex was sixteen years old, loved to read, draw, play Minecraft, and spend time with their cat, Zeus.
All students deserve a supportive learning environment, including LGBTQ2S+ students, and our public schools have a responsibility to keep students safe. Oklahoma is one of several states with laws requiring public school students to only use the bathroom that matches the gender they were assigned at birth. Laws targeting transgender and nonbinary people have devastating, sometimes lethal, consequences. Relatives say Nex had been bullied for months before they were assaulted in the girls’ student restroom. Our current climate of escalating hate in online and offline spaces, and proliferating laws targeting transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming individuals are putting young people at risk.
We continue to fight for all young people to be who they are, do what they love, and live. Rest in power, Nex.
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Monday, June 3, 2024, is the 19th Annual LGBTQ Families Day, a time to celebrate the many families with LGBTQ people in them who live in every state and almost every county of the U.S. The event aims to raise awareness of the diversity, joys, and challenges of all LGBTQ families—found, formed, and chosen—who exist throughout our society.
How to Participate
Anyone who supports LGBTQ families is welcome to participate by:
Posting or sharing on any social media channel on June 3, 2024, in celebration and support of LGBTQ families. Include the hashtag #LGBTQFamiliesDay. Ideas include a family photo/video, family anecdote, image of an LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ book, or a simple message of support.
Following the hashtag #LGBTQFamiliesDay throughout the day and sharing the stories, images, and thoughts from other participants.
Celebrating in your community in whatever way uplifts the voices and experiences of LGBTQ families.
背景
LGBTQ Families Day was developed by the award-winning LGBTQ parenting site Mombian and is sponsored by 家庭平等, 全国亲友会, 同性恋反歧视联盟, GLBTQ 法律倡导者和捍卫者 (GLAD)， 和 科拉奇. Additional partners include Gays With Kids, OurShelves, PregnantTogether，以及 Queer Family Podcast. Since 2006 (originally as Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day), the day has engaged parents across the LGBTQ spectrum, parents of LGBTQ children, LGBTQ individuals, children of LGBTQ parents, and non-LGBTQ family members and allies. The event is held on the first weekday of June, between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, in order to honor all parents but also to highlight that not all families fit into the traditional structure of one mother and one father. Additionally, June is LGBTQ Pride Month.
What’s on the horizon in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality?
This is a pivotal moment in the work for justice and the freedom for all of us to live with dignity and without discrimination. In anticipation of GLAD’s next chapter, staff and board members have been asking the question, “What’s on the horizon in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality?”
We would love for you to share your thoughts with us on that question too in the form below!
With over 45 years of advocacy under GLAD’s belt, we derive strength from past victories, and hope for the future from our community and how we show up for each other.
Share your thoughts!
From our staff and board:
“LGBTQ+ rights are fundamentally a challenge to deeply entrenched attitudes about gender and gender nonconformity. Even after the stunning achievement of a right to marry nationwide a decade ago, it was clear we still had work to do to reach a deep embrace of LGBTQ+ existence in our society. As the spread of disinformation and anti-LGBTQ+ political attacks accelerate, we must double down on working toward understanding and acceptance of our full humanity and full expression.”
–Bennett Klein, Senior Director of Litigation and HIV Law
“It’s important to make sure LGBTQ+ folks understand what’s happening across the country. It can be difficult to follow where new anti-LGBTQ+ bills are moving and where we are in the complex legal framework to fight back. Through education, we can quell people’s fears so everyone, whether or not they have a law degree or political knowledge, feels empowered to act by voting, contacting their legislators, and understanding their rights.”
–Braedyn Dorn, Public Affairs & Education Assistant
“To uphold our country’s foundational principles of freedom and equality, we must champion the voices and rights of transgender folks with unwavering determination. This means ensuring every individual has access to necessary medical care and legal protections nationwide and fostering understanding so that every person can live authentically and safely. It demands collective action to create a future where dignity and fulfillment are accessible to all.”
–Dallas Ducar, Board
“Centering trans and BIPOC voices and perspectives is necessary as we push back against the mounting wave of attacks on trans and BIPOC humanity. This will mean ensuring trans and BIPOC community members have seats at the table where decisions are made, especially ones that disproportionately affect them and their safety. And it means white and cisgender folks meaningfully shifting power to others who have historically been less represented in decision-making positions.”
–Jordan Caress-Wheelwright, Assistant Director of Planned and Individual Giving
“A large proportion of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ+. I believe this shift has significant potential to change the landscape of LGBTQ+ activism. The more openly LGBTQ+ people we have in society, the more opportunities exist for empathy and learning. As this younger generation lives openly and authentically, views can change thanks to those personal connections.”
–Michelle Peng, Individual Giving and Special Events Coordinator
“LGBTQ+ people, especially BIPOC LGBTQ+ individuals, are overrepresented at every stage of our criminal justice system, from juvenile justice to parole, and are more likely to live in poverty than their straight and cisgender counterparts. I hope, in the near future, we can build community alternatives to jails and prisons and uplift the substantial number of LGBTQ+ individuals in poverty through an expanded social safety net. I dream of a future where all members of the LGTBQ+ community have comprehensive social, economic, and political rights!”
–Mel Eskender, Legal Assistant
Read Boston Magazine for more about what our staff and interns see on the horizon for LGBTQ+ rights!
This Black History Month, we celebrate Black LGBTQ+ artists, musicians, athletes, and poets who have made or are making an important impact in their field.
Three Black LGBTQ+ Artists You Should Know
sarah huny young (she/they) is an award winning queer visual artist whose portraits celebrate Black women and the LGBTQ+ community. Their portraits often portray how Black queer people experiencing intimacy, self-love, and tenderness is an act of defiance. huny also dedicated to capturing the beauty of platonic and romantic love between Black women and femmes and hopes others will too. Follow them on Instagram and check out their photography.
Kehinde Wiley (he/him) is a painter recognized for his portraits of Black and Brown people in traditional settings of Old Master paintings. Kehinde’s portraits celebrate Black and brown people while challenging narratives in art history regarding representation of race and power. In 2018, Kehinde was selected to paint former President Barack Obama’s official portrait for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. This portrait was the first painted by a Black gay artist in the collection. Follow Kehinde on Instagram 和 check out his portraits.
Zanele Muholi (they/them) is a South African visual activist and photographer. Each of Zanele’s works, primarily of the South African Black LGBTQI community, has a political agenda to challenge culturally dominant views of gender, race, and sexuality. They have received many awards, including the International Centre of Photography Infinity Award, and their work has been exhibited worldwide. Follow Zanele on Facebook 和 Instagram.
Three Black LGBTQ+ Musicians You ShouldKnow
UMI (she/they) is a queer Black and Japanese R&B and neo-soul musician and songwriter. UMI’s music reflects her mixed heritage, and their meditations on self-love and acceptance in their songs has resonated with queer audiences. Check out UMI’s music and follow her on Instagram.
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (she/her) unapologetically pushed boundaries as a queer, gender nonconforming Blues icon between the 1950’s through 1980’s. She was the original singer of “Hound Dog,” later made famous by Elvis Presley, and the writer of “Ball and Chain,” later covered by Janis Joplin. Big Mama was influential in shaping American music, including blues, rock and roll, folk, and R&B. Read about Big Mama’s impact.
Jackie Shane (she/her) was a transgender R&B and soul singer. Jackie knew she was transgender from a young age and challenged laws that outlawed her identity as she grew up unapologetically in the Jim Crow South. Jackie eventually moved to Canada where she rose to fame in the Toronto nightclub scene in the 1960’s. In 2018, a year before her passing, Jackie’s anthology album, “Any Other Way,” was nominated for a Grammy. Learn more about Jackie.
Three Black LGBTQ+ Athletes You Should Know
Glenn Burke (he/him) was the first openly gay Major League Baseball player. Glenn played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics, played in the 1977 World Series, and is credited for creating the “high five.” He publicly came out in 1982, three years after his retirement. Glenn died in 1995 from AIDS. Check out Glenn discuss his sexuality and the MLB.
Caster Semenya (she/her) is a South African three-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist 800m runner. In 2023, she won a discrimination case challenging the World Athletics requirement that people with differences in sex development (DSD) take testosterone-suppressing medication to be eligible to compete. Caster’s fight will have lasting impacts on the rights of athletes with DSD and LGBTQI+ athletes. Caster and her wife Violet Raseboya have two children together. Check out Caster’s memoir and follow her on Instagram.
Brittney Griner (she/her) is a Women’s National Basketball Association star and two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women’s national basketball team. She has contributed greatly to LGBTQ+ through philanthropy and advocacy. In February 2022, Brittney was arrested and wrongfully jailed in Russia for alleged possession of cannabis oil. The LGBTQ+ fraternity, together with the WNBA, fought for her freedom until she was returned home to her loved ones in December 2022. 了解更多 about Brittney and follow her on Instagram, Facebook， 和 叽叽喳喳.
Three Black LGBTQ+ Poets You Should Know
Juliana Huxtable (she/her) is a writer and poet who uses diverse ways of communication to address issues of gender, race, and queerness. She uses her own body and lived experiences to challenge social norms. Her series Seven Archetype (2012-13) centers around her experiences as an intersex transgender person and the cultural forces that form conceptions of gender and sexuality. Watch Juliana’s Artist Talk and follow her on Instagram, Facebook， 和 Twitter/X.
Danez Smith (they/them) is an award-winning poet and writer whose work focuses on issues around queer identity and race. In their book “Don’t Call Us Dead,” Danez centers their queerness, Blackness, and HIV status. They were the first nonbinary poet to be nominated for the National Book Award. Follow Danez on Instagram, Facebook， 和 Twitter/X.
Assotto Saint (he/him) was a Haitian-born poet, writer, publisher, and AIDS activist. He contributed greatly to Black queer visibility in the cultural arts movement in the 1980s and early 90s. Assotto served as a role model to many people in Black gay communities who did not have a space to freely express themselves. He was recognized by the New York Foundation for Arts and awarded the James Baldwin Award from the Black Gay Leadership Forum.
经过 玛丽·L·博诺托, Senior Director of Civil Rights and Legal Strategies
Twenty years ago today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its watershed decision in 古德里奇诉公共卫生部, making Massachusetts the first U.S. state where same-sex couples could legally marry.
That breakthrough ruling spread joy across the state and the country and turbocharged the movement for the legal recognition of LGBTQ+ relationships, ultimately leading to the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring all 50 states to perform and recognize marriages of same-sex couples.
While it’s tempting to look back 20 years and think it was always inevitable, it’s important, especially at the challenging moment we are in, to remember that this is the anniversary of a freedom that once seemed impossible.
It took brave people challenging injustice. The seven 古德里奇 plaintiff couples not only challenged the law but told the stories of their relationships, their love of one another, and their desire to protect their families to the world. In the process, they, and many others with them, shared, listened, answered questions, and helped build greater understanding and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people.
It took all of us – community members, attorneys, organizers, and allies, to get us to that moment.
Often, what separates the possible and impossible is a plan.
古德里奇 wasn’t the first marriage case, nor was it the end of the story.
We supported the Hawaii marriage litigation, and then our own plan began in Vermont. With co-counsel Beth Robinson and Susan Murray, we filed a marriage case, 贝克诉佛蒙特州案, that resulted in the nation’s first ever civil union status.
We translated lessons from Vermont to reach a historic breakthrough and win the first legal marriages in the U.S. in Massachusetts.
This turning point triggered national blowback – from the President, the Congress, then Massachusetts Governor Romney, and legislative attempts to reverse the decision via constitutional amendment. Instead of getting beaten back, we built the foundation of a national movement. And we kept going.
15 years ago, Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled for us in a 2008 marriage case co-counseled with Ken Bartschi, Karen Dowd, and Maureen Murphy, and supported the whole way by Love Makes A Family. Ben Klein’s argument for the couples led to a breakthrough ruling on the impermissibility of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
With longstanding state partners, GLAD worked a plan to win marriage across the New England states. Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine passed the nation’s first marriage laws in 2009, and Maine won the first ballot measure in 2012. Rhode Island’s law made it a wrap in 2013. Passing laws and ballot measures showed what the right wing feared: that people would come to see that more marriages meant more security and happiness for more families.
We took the fight national in 2009, challenging the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on behalf of married couples in Massachusetts whose marriages were disregarded for social security and all federal benefits and responsibilities. We won the first rulings at the federal District and Court of Appeals levels with co-counsel from Jenner & Block, Foley Hoag, and Sullivan & Worcester. We won our second case in Connecticut, too, with couples from Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire. These challenges and the ultimate victory against DOMA which built upon them – 美国诉温莎案, with counsel Roberta Kaplan in the lead – set the stage for the Supreme Court marriage equality ruling in 奥贝格费尔诉霍奇斯案.
Mary Bonauto and Chief Justice Margaret Marshall
Alongside movement partners and courageous plaintiffs, we supported cases nationwide seeking marriage equality. We were asked to join Michigan lawyers representing April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse. By 2015, we were Supreme Court bound to argue for the equal right to marry nationwide.
To be sure, we’ve made tremendous progress for our community.
And yet, we are facing some of the fiercest anti-LGBTQ+ attacks of our lifetimes.
Some people are newly confused and have questions about our community. Consider engaging in a way that invites more conversation and not less.
To be clear, there is also a separate, enormous, coordinated effort to reverse all of the gains we’ve made since the last century on gender and sexual equality.
Our entire community faces revitalized prejudice. The tip of the spear is directed at transgender people and, outrageously, at transgender young people.
In really hard times, when the challenges feel insurmountable, it’s important to understand some of our history. There were losses on the path to victories. And those victories were never inevitable.
What helped bring about transformative change was the strength we drew from one another and growing a movement. Plus, we never quit.
At one time during the marriage equality work, 40 states had either laws, constitutional amendments, or both, that said our relationships were unworthy of recognition. In 1986, the Supreme Court upheld sodomy laws that, in some cases, subjected people to 20-year prison terms for having sex. Yet, against all odds, we overturned those laws, and we will overturn these latest anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
We will always find a path forward.
What matters is all of us, staying engaged, staying positive, and standing up for our commitment to a future of full inclusion, equality, and freedom in which people and communities thrive.
As we joyfully celebrate 20 years of marriage equality, we know we have many miles yet to go to reach that future. But as we travel, let us remember how far we’ve come as fuel for the journey. What seems impossible can be done.
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