California

U.S. Congressman

b. December 10, 1960

“I will continue to fight for equality in Congress, as all Americans deserve to be treated equally under the law.”

A Japanese-American, U.S. Representative Mark Takano is the first openly gay congressman in California and the first openly gay congressman of color in the nation.

Born and raised in Riverside, California, Takano is the eldest of four brothers. In 1942, after the United States entered World War II, the government forced Takano’s parents and grandparents out of their homes and sent them to an internment camp. After the war, the entire extended family moved to Riverside, where Takano’s father managed a grocery store and his mother worked part-time as a hairdresser.

In 1979 Takano graduated as valedictorian of his high school. He received a B.A. in government from Harvard University and taught briefly in Boston before returning home to attend graduate school at University of California (UC), Riverside. In 1988 he began teaching high school English in Rialto, California. In 1990 he was elected to the Riverside Community College (RCC) Board of Trustees.

When Takano first ran for Congress in 1992, he lost by 450 votes. He ran against the same Republican in 1994 and was publicly outed by him. This time Takano lost by a more substantial margin. He continued to teach and win reelection to the RCC Board of Trustees.

In 2008 after the passage of Proposition 8, which prohibited marriage equality, Takano helped students start Rialto’s first gay-straight alliance. In 2010 Takano completed his M.F.A. in creative writing at UC Riverside. The next year, inspired by his GSA students and more equitable redistricting, he announced another congressional run.

In 2012 Takano won a seat in the House of Representatives. “It’s quite a symbol,” he said, “that the first openly gay person from California to serve in Congress is not from Los Angeles, not from San Francisco, not from San Diego, but from the Inland Empire.” In 2013 he was awarded LA Pride’s Person of the Year.

Takano helped pass three important veterans’ assistance acts to provide on-campus jobs, extend the enrollment period for rehabilitation services, and ensure that LGBT families receive veteran and survivor benefits. “Our veterans have sacrificed so much for our country,” he said. “All our returning heroes deserve to enjoy the same benefits and freedoms, no matter who they love or where they live.”

Takano won reelection in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. He serves as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and as a member of the Education and Labor Committee. He remains on the RCC Board of Trustees.

Transgender Supreme Court Attorney

b. February 14, 1961

“This is how we win; not by being confrontational but by showing people we want to contribute to the community”

Shannon Minter is a groundbreaking transgender civil rights attorney who argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court. He serves as the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).

Minter was born on Valentine’s Day in East Texas and assigned female at birth. In high school, Minter believed he was a lesbian. He came out to his family, who vehemently disapproved of his presumed sexuality. Minter experienced “a lot of rejection” in his conservative hometown and often feared for his safety growing up.

Minter attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with honors before attending Cornell Law School. He earned a J.D. in 1993, graduating Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif, and joined the NCLR the same year. Headquartered in San Francisco, the NCLR is a leading organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights. Minter founded the NCLR Youth Project, the first legal advocacy program of its kind.

In 1996, at age 35, Minter began his transition, keeping his given name. Minter believed it might be easier, particularly for his family, if he came out as a transgender man. Instead, the revelation shattered Minter’s connections to his family and church. Those relationships took “decades to heal.”

Minter went on to secure myriad historic victories for the NCLR. He first gained attention in 2001 representing Sharon Smith in the wrongful death lawsuit Smith filed on behalf of her lesbian partner. At the time, the only couples who could file tort claims were married heterosexuals. Minter succeeded in making the claims applicable to same-sex couples in domestic partnerships and won Smith more than $1.5 million in damages.

Minter captured the national spotlight again in 2003, successfully representing a transgender father seeking custody of his child. Minter served as lead attorney in the U.S. Supreme Court case Christian Legal Society v. Martinez in which the court upheld an antidiscrimination policy based on gender identity and sexuality at the University of California, Hastings Law School.

In 2009 Minter served as lead counsel for the same-sex couples challenging Proposition 8 in the California Supreme Court. As a trans man, he was “pained by the injustice” of being able to legally marry his wife, when gay and lesbian couples were not afforded the same right. In a landmark decision, the court struck down Prop 8, making marriage equality state law.

Among numerous other accolades and bar association honors, Minter has received the Cornell Law School Exemplary Public Service Award and the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award. Minter lives with his wife and daughter in Washington, D.C.

Transgender Activist

b. July 23, 1946
d. May 15, 2021

“I am your history. You can never change that no matter what you do to me.”

Felicia Elizondo is a self-described “Mexican spitfire, screaming queen, pioneer, legend, icon, diva, 29-year survivor of AIDS and Vietnam veteran.” Her activism has been crucial in raising public awareness of transgender rights and history.

Elizondo was born in San Angelo, Texas. Assigned male at birth, she knew she was “feminine” from the age of 5. Due to the lack of awareness of transgender people, Elizondo grew up believing she was gay. She was sexually assaulted by an older man and suffered bullying and name calling from her peers.

At age 14, Elizondo moved with her family to San Jose, California. Around the age of 16, she found refuge at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, where she became a regular. It was one of the few places in the city where drag queens and transgender women could congregate publicly. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, it became the site of one of the first LGBT riots in U.S. history. The Compton’s Cafeteria riot was led by a group of transgender women against police harassment.

Elizondo joined the Navy at age 18 and volunteered to serve in Vietnam. She decided, “If the military couldn’t make me a man, nothing would.” While serving, she realized she would always be attracted to men and told her commanding officer that she was gay. Consequently, she was interrogated by the FBI and the CIA, and the Navy dismissed her with an undesirable discharge. Later, she successfully petitioned to have her discharge reclassified as honorable.

After seeing “The Christine Jorgensen Story,” a film about the first nationally known transgender American woman, Elizondo came to understand her own identity. She completed gender confirmation surgery in 1973.

In 1987, during the AIDS epidemic, Elizondo tested positive for HIV. She returned to San Francisco and began working with community organizations seeking to improve quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS. She became a trans drag queen and organized drag shows to raise funds for numerous HIV/AIDS nonprofits.

Elizondo has worked extensively to bring public attention to transgender history. In 2006, due largely to her efforts, the city of San Francisco renamed the 100 block of Taylor Street as Gene Compton's Cafeteria Way. In 2014 Elizondo successfully worked with San Francisco city supervisors to rename the 100 block of Turk Street in honor of her late friend Vicki Marlane, a transgender icon.

Elizondo appeared in the documentary “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria” (2005). In 2015 she served as the lifetime achievement grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride Parade. She died in San Francisco in 2021.

Architect

b. January 20, 1872
d. February 2, 1957

“My buildings will be my legacy … they will speak for me long after I’m gone.”

Julia Morgan is recognized as the first truly independent female architect in America and the first female architect licensed by the state of California. She designed nearly 800 projects in California and Hawaii, including the famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

Born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland, California, Morgan graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in civil engineering. She was the only female engineer in her class. After Morgan received her bachelor’s degree, an instructor encouraged her to pursue architectural studies at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The school, which had never admitted a woman, initially refused her application. She was accepted eventually after reapplying and became the first female to graduate with a certificate in architecture.

Upon graduation, Morgan returned to San Francisco and began working for John Galen Howard, a successful architect, on the University of California’s master plan. Morgan worked on designs for several buildings on the Berkeley campus and served as the primary designer of Berkley’s Hearst Greek Theater.

In 1904 Morgan became the first woman to obtain an architecture license from the state of California and opened her own firm. She completed many notable commissions, including Phoebe Hearst’s Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton, California, and multiple buildings on the campus of Mills College.

After the 1906 earthquake, Morgan was hired to repair the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Her innovative use of reinforced concrete was expected to help the building survive future earthquakes. She also oversaw construction of a series of YWCAs in California, Hawaii and Utah. Her California vernacular style included distinctive elements such as exposed support beams, horizontal lines that blend with the landscape, shingles, local redwood and earth tones.

In 1919 the newspaper publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst hired Morgan to design a main building and guest houses for his ranch in San Simeon, later known as Hearst Castle. Over the course of 28 years, Morgan designed most of the structures, grounds, pools, animal shelters, and workers’ camps and supervised nearly every aspect of construction. The finished property included a total of 42 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms and 127 acres of gardens. It remains an iconic landmark and tourist attraction.

Morgan received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from UC Berkeley in 1929. She was inducted posthumously into the California Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2014, 57 years after her death, she became the first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal.

Actor & Singer

b. July 11, 1931
d. July 8, 2018

“In life we have to be contributors. It's very, very important. And I look up there and I think I've contributed.”

Tab Hunter was an American actor and singer. A star during Hollywood’s Golden Age, he was officially Warner Bros. most popular actor from 1955 to 1959. He appeared in more than 40 films.

Hunter was born Arthur Gelien in New York City and grew up in California. He figured skated competitively from childhood into his early teens. At 15 he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard but was discharged when the military discovered his true age. 

While still a teenager, the handsome blue-eyed blonde turned to acting. He signed with an agent and was given the stage name Tab Hunter. 

Dubbed the “Sigh Guy,” Hunter became a 1950s teen heartthrob. He made his Hollywood debut with a minor role in the 1950 film “The Lawless.” Thereafter, Warner Bros. Pictures offered him a contract. One of his first movies was the 1955 box office hit “The Sea Chase,” starring John Wayne and Lana Turner. The same year, Hunter secured his breakthrough role as Danny, the young Marine in the hit World War II drama “Battle Cry.” 

Hunter’s most popular motion pictures included the Academy Award-nominated musical “Damn Yankees!” (1958), “Gunman’s Walk” (1958), “The Pleasure of His Company” (1961), and “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” (1972). 

With the emergence of rock and roll, Hunter became a well-known singer. His 1957 record, “Young Love,” rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts and remained at No. 1 for six weeks. The movie studio established Warner Bros. Records specifically to support him. 

In 1960 Hunter had his own television series. Although it lasted only one season, he went on to act in more than 200 TV shows and was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in an episode of  “Playhouse 90.” In the 1980s, he appeared in “Grease 2” and the John Waters cult classic “Polyester.” 

Hunter came out in his 2005 autobiography, “Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star,” after years of public speculation about his sexuality. The memoir became a New York Times best seller in 2007 and again in 2015 when a documentary film based on the book was released. 

Hunter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. From 1982 until his death, Hunter lived with his partner, Allan Glaser, a Hollywood producer. Glaser produced the documentary based on Hunter’s memoir. 

Rainbow Flag Designer

b. June 2, 1951
d. March 31, 2017

“I love going to cities around the world and seeing the rainbow flag.”

Gilbert Baker was an American artist and LGBT activist best known for creating the rainbow flag. The flag provided a defining symbol for the LGBT civil rights movement and is considered the first and most widely recognized gay symbol today.

Growing up gay in the small rural town of Chanute, Kansas, Baker felt like an outcast. After spending a year in college, he was drafted into the army and served as a medic. He was stationed in San Francisco, where he remained for most of his life.

Baker became friends with Harvey Milk, a gay rights leader and among the first openly gay politicians elected to public office. A member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Milk asked Baker to create a symbol for the gay rights movement. Baker flew his first rainbow flag at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978, where roughly a quarter of a million marchers participated. Milk was assassinated in November of that year. Following Milk’s death, demand for Baker’s flag increased dramatically.

With the help of volunteers using trash cans of dye, Baker made his first flag in the attic of the Gay Community Center of San Francisco. The original design included eight stripes: pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for peace and purple for the human spirit.

Many years and flags later, the self-described “gay Betsy Ross” spent months creating a 30-foot wide, mile-long flag featuring just six colors of the rainbow. Commissioned in 1994 for the 25^thanniversary of the Stonewall riots, it was hoisted by thousands of New York City marchers. The Guinness Book of World Records officially declared it the largest flag in the world.

In 2003 Baker was the subject of a feature-length documentary, “Rainbow Pride.” He was interviewed for the DVD of the 2008 Academy Award-winning film “Milk,” and he was featured in Dustin Lance Black’s 2017 documentary series about LGBT rights, “When We Rise.”

In 2015 the Museum of Modern Art listed the rainbow flag as one of the most important symbols globally. It continues to fly at gay marches and events around the world.

Baker died at age 65. The New York Times published his obituary.

Journalist and LGBT Historian

b. August 19, 1923
d. November 15, 1997

“I always had an innate sense that what I was doing was important.”

Jim Kepner was a pioneering journalist who helped chronicle the modern American gay rights movement. His research led to the creation of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the oldest LGBT history collection in the United States. 

Kepner was abandoned as an infant in Galveston, Texas, and reportedly found under a bush, then adopted. By the time he was a teenager, he was already researching homosexuality, often mail-ordering gay publications and literature. A voracious reader, he studied the lives of famous gay men like Michelangelo and Walt Whitman. 

In the 1940s, along with other artists and writers, Kepner joined the Communist Party. He wrote a column for the Communist newspaper, The Daily Worker, but was expelled from the party because of his homosexuality. Kepner went on to open Books on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. 

Kepner later joined the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the country. He also began writing for One, the first gay magazine with regular circulation published in the United States. When a Los Angeles postmaster refused to deliver the magazine by mail, the case went to the Supreme Court. The magazine won its case and continued publishing to a growing base of subscribers. The ruling also opened opportunities for other LGBT publications to enter the marketplace. 

Kepner was an important force behind One, as both a writer and an organizer. He created a research journal and events related to the magazine, turning him into one of the leading chroniclers of the modern gay rights movement. In 1956 he established the One Institute, which researched gay culture through the ages and around the world. 

In 1966 Kepner launched Pursuit & Symposium, a homophile magazine. He also contributed to The Los Angeles Advocate, which later became The Advocate, the leading national LGBT magazine. 

Throughout his life, Kepner collected records, souvenirs and other materials related to LGBT history. His collection, eventually the largest compendium of LGBT-related materials in the world, is housed at the University of Southern California; it contains more than two million artifacts and reference materials. 

Kepner died at 74 from complications after surgery. 

Presidential Adviser

b. November 28, 1931
d. March 23, 2010

“It is the link from the present to the past that gives us a spirit to address the future.”

Margaret “Midge” Costanza was a political activist and an adviser to President Jimmy Carter. When Carter ran for president in 1976, Costanza served as co-chair of his New York campaign, delivering a fiery speech for him at the Democratic National Convention. When Carter was elected, she served as the assistant to the president for public liaison with an office next to the Oval Office. At the White House she earned the nickname “Window on America.”

Born in New York to Italian immigrants, Costanza began her political career as a volunteer for W. Averell Harriman’s gubernatorial campaign; she later served as executive director of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1964 Senate campaign. 

Costanza became an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and, in 1973, became the first woman elected to the Rochester (N.Y.) City Council. She then served as vice mayor of the city from 1974 to 1977. 

Costanza invited members of the National Gay Task Force to the White House during Anita Bryant’s controversial Save Our Children campaign. She also hosted a group of 30 women in protest of the president’s opposition to federal abortion funding. She was featured on the cover of Newsweek with the headline “Woman in the White House.”

After resigning from her White House post, she coached political candidates in public speaking and worked to get Barbara Boxer elected to the Senate in 1992. California Governor Gray Davis appointed Costanza as a special liaison to women’s groups, a position she held until 2003. 

Costanza was a professor at San Diego State University, where she worked with the political science and women’s studies departments. She created the Midge Costanza Institute at the University of California at San Diego to help young people engage in political and social activism. 

Costanza was also active with an AIDS research organization and fought for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. She worked tirelessly to elect more women to public office. In 2005 she joined the San Diego district attorney’s office as public affairs officer focused on the prevention of elder abuse. 

In 2011 she was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame at the Women’s Museum of California.

Activist and Author

b. July 18, 1948
d. January 10, 2016

“It’s the job of the young to push the societal envelope.”

Jeanne Córdova was a pioneering feminist and lesbian rights activist who helped lead the LGBT movement on the West Coast of the United States. She launched numerous civil rights and community organizations. For most of her life, she worked as a journalist and author. Her autobiography, “When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution,” was published in 2011. 

Born in Germany of Mexican and Irish-American decent, Córdova was the second of 12 children. She attended high school in California, then joined the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a convent that embraced radical changes to the Catholic Church and protested the Vietnam War. Her experience there inspired her to leave to become a community organizer. At 22 she earned a master’s degree in social work from UCLA. 

Córdova’s advocacy began as president of the L.A. chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the United States, where she helped open the first lesbian center in Los Angeles. She also launched The Lesbian Tide, the first American publication to use “lesbian” in its title.

Córdova went on to organize influential women’s events, including the first National Lesbian Conference. She became the human rights editor of the Los Angeles Free Press and served as president of the Stonewall Democratic Club. She worked to defeat a proposition to ban openly gay and lesbian teachers from California public schools. 

Córdova also helped create the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the Democratic Party and became one of 30 openly lesbian delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. She created the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Press Association and was a founding member of the Connexxus Women’s Center, where she worked to defeat a 1986 proposition that would have quarantined people with AIDS. 

Among other organizations, Córdova cofounded the Lesbian Legacy Coalition and the Lesbian Legacy Wall at ONE Archives in Los Angeles. 

Throughout her life, she wrote passionately about women’s and lesbian issues. Her work has appeared in popular publications nationwide, including The Advocate, ICON, The Washington Blade and countless others. In 1981 she published the Community Yellow Pages, the first and largest LGBT business directory in the country. She also started Square Peg, a queer cultural magazine, in 1992.

Córdova has received numerous awards. In 1978 she became the first out lesbian to appear in Who’s Who in America. 

Córdova spent 25 years with her partner, Lynn Harris Ballen, a feminist radio journalist. Before she died, Córdova donated $2 million to the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

Transgender Activist

b. March 4, 1969

“A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again; that’s not the case in my family.”

Chaz Bono, born Chastity Bono, is the only child of American entertainers Sonny and Cher. In 2008 Bono began undergoing gender reassignment procedures, publicly discussing the experience in the Emmy-nominated documentary “Becoming Chaz.” 

A native of Los Angeles, Bono grew up in the spotlight, often appearing on his parents’ popular variety show. Later he said he felt uncomfortable wearing dresses on TV and remembered wanting to be more like his father. 

After his parents divorced in 1975, Bono split his time between them and later moved to New York City to attend college and pursue a career in music. He formed the band Ceremony, for which he sang lead vocals and played guitar and drums. The band released an album called “Hang Out Your Poetry,” which featured guest appearances by the Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Bono’s parents. 

By 1990 the tabloids began speculating that Bono was a lesbian. Bono came out publicly five years later in The Advocate, eventually becoming the entertainment director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Bono published “Family Outing,” a book that explores his coming out and gender issues. 

In his next book, “The End of Innocence,” published in 2002, Bono provided insights into the music business and his relationship with an older woman. 

Bono went public with his substance abuse problems before becoming sober in 2004. He appeared on the reality show “Celebrity Fit Club” to address body issues, and later competed as the first transgender contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.” 

After completing his transition in 2010, Bono legally changed his first name to Chaz. He shared his experiences in the best-selling book “Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man” (2011). He also starred in a television special about his transition called “Being Chaz.” His mother, Cher, said that she initially had difficulty accepting Bono’s sexuality, though she has since become an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights.

Bono is a leading transgender advocate and speaks out worldwide for LGBT rights.