First

U.S. Congressman

b. March 12, 1988

“In politics, it’s important to be decisive, to take a stand, which is what I do.”

Ritchie Torres is the first Afro-Latinx U.S. congressman. He represents New York’s 15th District, one of the poorest and most diverse in the nation. At age 25, he became the youngest elected official in New York City and the first openly gay elected official in the Bronx.

Raised by a single mother, Torres and his two siblings grew up in a run-down public housing project in the South Bronx. Though Torres realized he was gay in middle school, he did not come out to anyone until 10th grade.

Throughout high school, Torres held part-time jobs and developed a taste for political nonfiction. He was the captain of the law team and loved participating in moot court. At 16, he interned with the deputy mayor of New York City.

Torres attended New York University for a little more than a year before he fell into depression and dropped out in 2007. He speaks candidly about his journey from standing “on the verge of suicide” to overcoming “the odds” to realize his political aspirations.

After a time, Torres became a community organizer, advocating for adequate, affordable public housing. He also worked for a city councilman, who encouraged Torres to run in 2013 for a seat on New York City Council. Torres opened up about his sexuality, concluding, “If you are deceitful about your personal life, then you’re likely to be deceitful about your professional life.”

At age 25, Torres became the youngest elected official in the city and the first openly gay elected official in the Bronx. On City Council, he served as chairman of the Committee on Public Housing and led hearings exposing New York’s failure to correct unsafe building conditions. He helped open the first LGBT homeless shelter for young adults in the Bronx and ensured that every borough had funding for LGBT senior centers. He won reelection in 2017.

Torres ran for Congress in 2020. He out-fundraised the incumbent to become the first Afro-Latinx U.S. congressman. “It’s one thing to have a representative in the gayborhoods of New York City and the United States,” he explained. “It’s another thing to have an LGBTQ representative in the places you might least expect it.”

Torres has spoken out against the “antiquated rule that prohibits members of Congress from joining both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.”

Though he supports much of the Democratic Socialists’ agenda, he identifies as an independent progressive who puts legislative efficacy above ideology.

Torres received the Courage in Government Award from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. He lives in the South Bronx.
 

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.

Deputy White House Press Secretary

b. August 13, 1977

“America is progressing towards a stronger, more inclusive future — and I know women of color are a driving force in that evolution.”

An immigrant, an activist and an author, Karine Jean-Pierre was named principal White House deputy press secretary in January 2021. She made history as the first Black person in 30 years — and the first out lesbian — to address the White House press corps.

Jean-Pierre was born in Martinique, the eldest child of Haitian parents who fled the dictatorship of François Duvalier. When Jean-Pierre was 5, her family moved to Queens, New York, in pursuit of the American dream. Instead, like so many immigrants, her parents faced financial hardship. Her father, a trained engineer, drove a taxi to support the family. Her mother worked as a home health aide.

Feeling like the ultimate “outsider” and under immense pressure to succeed, Jean-Pierre suffered from depression and attempted suicide in early adulthood. She discusses her struggles and achievements and offers advice to aspiring young changemakers in her political memoir, “Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise of America” (2019).

Jean-Pierre earned a bachelor's degree from the New York Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in public affairs in 2003 from Columbia University. After graduate school, she served as a regional political director of John Edwards’s 2004 presidential campaign and Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. When Obama was elected president, Jean-Pierre was named regional political director for the White House Office of Political Affairs. In 2012 she became the deputy battleground states director of President Obama’s reelection campaign.

In 2014 Jean-Pierre began teaching at Columbia University and served as campaign manager for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Initiative. She joined MoveOn.org, the progressive policy advocacy group, in 2016. She became its chief public affairs officer and provided regular commentary on MSNBC and NBC News.

In 2019, during a political forum she was moderating, Jean-Pierre jumped between presidential candidate Kamala Harris and an angry protester who rushed the stage. “Here comes this guy with all of his male privilege,” Jean-Pierre said, recounting the experience as both scary and insulting. He insisted he had something “better to talk about.”

In 2020 the Biden campaign tapped Jean-Pierre to serve as a senior advisor. She became campaign chief of staff for Harris, then the vice presidential nominee, making Jean-Pierre the first Black person and the first out lesbian to hold the position. In 2021 the Biden administration named Jean-Pierre principal deputy press secretary in a historic move that also placed her on the first all-female White House communications team.

Jean-Pierre lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife, Suzanne Malveaux, a national CNN correspondent, and their daughter, Soleil.

Rock Star

b. January 19, 1943
d. October 4, 1970

“Don’t compromise yourself. It’s all you’ve got.”

Janis Joplin was a trailblazing 1960s blues-rock singer and songwriter. Celebrated for her raw, powerful vocals and electric stage presence, she became known as “the first queen of rock and roll.”

Janis Lyn Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, to conservative, college-educated parents. She gained weight and developed acne as an adolescent, and in high school, boys bullied her mercilessly.

Rebellious, and convinced she would never be one of the “pretty girls,” she rejected mainstream fashion in favor of men’s shirts and tight skirts.

She befriended a group of male outcasts who shared her interest in music and the Beat movement. By her senior year, she had earned a reputation for tough-talking and hard-partying.

After graduating from high school in 1960, Joplin studied art at the University of Texas at Austin. She began performing there and joined a folk band. When a fraternity voted her the “ugliest man on campus,” she was devastated.

Joplin dropped out of college in 1963 and hitchhiked to San Francisco. She developed a following for her music, and she and a boyfriend started shooting methedrine. Troubled by her addiction, a group of friends sent her back to Texas to clean up. Though still a heavy drinker, she largely succeeded and returned to San Francisco’s music scene.

Joplin’s big break came when she joined the rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. With Joplin fronting, their popularity exploded after a historic performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Their second album, “Cheap Thrills” (1968), featuring hits like “Summertime” and “Piece of My Heart,” reached No. 1.

Joplin’s preeminence soon created friction, and she left Big Brother for a solo career. Backed by a new group, she performed in 1969 at Woodstock, high on heroin. Her first solo album debuted a month later, peaking at No. 5.

In 1970, after forming another band, Joplin died alone in a hotel room of an accidental overdose. She was 27. Released posthumously, “Pearl” (1971) became her best-selling album, and “Me and My Bobby McGee” became her only No. 1 single.

Drive and insecurity dominated Joplin’s life. In a letter to her parents, she described ambition as “the need to be loved.” Absent any labels, she freely maintained sexual relationships with men and women, including her best friend.

After her death, Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Miss Universe Contestant

b. November 16, 1999

“If I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma.”

Swe Zin Htet is a Burmese model and beauty pageant winner. In 2019, as the reigning Miss Myanmar, she became the first out lesbian to compete in the 67-year-old Miss Universe contest. In Myanmar (also known as Burma), homosexual conduct is criminalized.

Swe Zin Htet was born to a Buddhist family in rural Burma. She spent much of her time meditating and maintaining the family’s shrine to the Buddha.

Around the age of 15 or 16, Swe Zin Htet discovered her attraction to women. She came out to her parents, who were initially shocked and unsupportive. She told People magazine, “The difficult thing is that in Burma, LGBTQ people are not accepted.”

At age 16, Swe Zin Htet began competing in beauty pageants. In 2016 she was crowned Miss Golden Land Myanmar and won Miss Supranational Myanmar the same year, earning her a spot at Miss Supranational 2016. She took home the Miss Personality title from that pageant and set her sights on the Miss Universe competition. She won Miss Universe Myanmar in 2019, qualifying her for the international contest in Atlanta, Georgia, later that year.

A week before the global Miss Universe competition, Swe Zin Htet came out publicly on the beauty blog “Missology” to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the pageant. She also took to Instagram, posting a photo collage of herself and her girlfriend of three years, Gae Gae — a popular Burmese singer — with the word “proud” and a rainbow flag emoji.

“I have that platform that, if I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma.” Swe Zin Htet said. Although she did not take home the crown, she made an undeniable impact on the Miss Universe contest, which aired in more than 190 countries. “We are honored to give a platform to strong, inspirational women like Miss Universe Myanmar,” pageant organizers said. “[We] will always champion women to be proud of who they are.”

Beyond its global impact, Swe Zin Htet’s coming out was particularly brave, as consensual homosexual conduct remains illegal in Burma, carrying a potential prison sentence of 10 years or more. She hopes her confident self-acceptance will inspire legislative and social change.

Though Swe Zin Htet largely avoids publicity, she stays active on social media. She spends most of her time modeling.
 

Gay Rights Pioneer

b. November 1, 1950
d. March 4, 2007

“Mr. President, your family has AIDS … and you are doing nothing about it.”

Bob Hattoy was a pioneering HIV/AIDS, LGBT rights and environmental activist. The New York Times called him “the first gay man with AIDS many Americans had knowingly laid eyes on.” His arresting speech at the 1992 Democratic convention brought national attention to the AIDS epidemic, when the government was sweeping it under the rug.

Robert Keith Hattoy was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His family moved to Long Beach, California, when he was a teenager. Despite an abusive father and an otherwise difficult home life, Hattoy grew into a witty, outgoing and influential young man.

Though he never completed a degree, Hattoy attended several colleges and universities. Motivated by his passion for the environment, he turned his talents toward public policy. He worked under Zev Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles city councilman, where he focused on environmental initiatives and rent control.

In 1981, after a stint on Yaroslavsky’s staff, Hattoy took a job with the Sierra Club, where he remained for the next decade. Founded by the naturalist John Muir, the Sierra Club was reputedly run by “an austere bunch of mountaineers.” Hattoy breathed new life into the organization with his charisma and the power of his convictions.

In 1992 Hattoy joined Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. Shortly thereafter, he discovered a lump under his arm and was diagnosed with AIDS-related lymphoma. Hattoy told Clinton, and Clinton urged him to speak publicly about the epidemic.

Ten days later, still shell-shocked by his diagnosis, Hattoy addressed the Democratic National Convention in a nationally televised speech. Calling out the presidential incumbent, George H. W. Bush, Hattoy declared the gay community “part of the American family.” “Mr. President,” he said, “your family has AIDS, and we are dying, and you are doing nothing about it.”

After Bill Clinton’s election, Hattoy served in the White House Office of Personnel. He was an outspoken critic of the environmental policies of previous administrations and found Clinton’s policies similarly lacking. In 1994 the Clinton administration moved Hattoy to the Interior Department as White House liaison on environmental matters. He remained there for five years. He also served as the research committee chairman of the Presidential Commission on HIV/AIDS.

In 2002 Hattoy took a position with the California Fish and Game Commission. He became its president in 2007, shortly before his death.

Hattoy died at age 56 in Sacramento, California, from complications of AIDS.

White House Social Secretary

“In both my professional and personal life, it has always been important to me to represent our community in a positive manner.”

Carlos Elizondo is the Biden administration’s White House social secretary. He is the first Hispanic American, the second man and the second openly LGBT person to hold the position.

Elizondo was born in Harlingen, Texas. He graduated in 1985 from Pontifical College Josephinum, a private Roman Catholic college and school of theology in Columbus, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin American studies.

In 1988 Elizondo entered the political scene as a fellow in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), which provides development opportunities for emerging Latinx civic leaders. Through the fellowship, he worked in the Mexican Government Tourism Office at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C. He credits CHCI with providing him “a solid foundation for [his] future career path.”

Subsequently, Elizondo joined the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latinx nonprofit advocacy organization in the United States. He also worked in a variety of events-related positions at trade associations in the D.C. area, before he was appointed to a position in the Clinton administration in 1992.

During President Clinton’s two terms, Elizondo served in the White House and in the Office of the U.S. Chief of Protocol. As a protocol officer, he coordinated and managed the NATO 50th Anniversary Summit, the Centennial Olympic Games, Papal visits, and other high-profile events involving national and international White House guests.

From 2000 to 2001, he managed special activities and protocol at Walt Disney World. When he returned to Washington, he worked for six years as the senior director of presidential events at Georgetown University. During the Obama administration, Elizondo served as special assistant to the president and social secretary to then-Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

In 2020 the Biden White House named Elizondo social secretary. He was the first LGBTQ person appointed to President Biden’s staff and is only the second man to hold the position. He came to the role with more experience than anyone before him. His responsibilities include impeccably hosting and entertaining the world’s most powerful people.

Outside of his professional duties, Elizondo maintains a very private life. He lives with his husband in Washington, D.C. He has volunteered with several Washington community organizations and has mentored Latinx youth, many of whom were from his native area of Texas.

U.S. Congressman

b. July 15, 1961

“The American people deserve to know who will stand up and speak out for those on the margins of society.”

David N. Cicilline is a Democrat representing Rhode Island’s 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Previously, he served two terms as the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, and four terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He was the first openly gay mayor of an American state capital and the fourth openly gay member of Congress.

A native of Providence, Cicilline is the son of a Jewish mother and an Italian Catholic father. Cicilline regards himself as a practicing Jew. His father was a well-known attorney who had been an aide to Mayor Joseph Doorley Jr. and defended members of the mafia.

As an undergraduate at Brown University, Cicilline started a political club, the College Democrats, with fellow student John F. Kennedy Jr. Cicilline received his B.A. in political science in 1983. He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, then worked as an attorney for the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C.

In 1996, after a failed senatorial bid, Cicilline won a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He came out publicly in 1999, insisting his sexuality was irrelevant to the campaign. He described himself as a “candidate who happens to be gay rather than a gay candidate.”

In 2002 Cicilline ran for mayor of Providence and won by landslide, carrying 84% of the vote. He became the city’s first openly gay mayor and the country’s first openly gay mayor of a state capital. He won reelection in 2006 by nearly an identical margin. As mayor, he cofounded a bipartisan gun-control coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Cicilline was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. He became the fourth openly gay member of Congress.

Throughout his political career, Cicilline has championed the rights of the middle class, vulnerable populations and the LGBTQ+ community. He has worked to ensure affordable health-care access and to protect social security and Medicare. Among countless other initiatives, he has authored the Assault Weapons Ban, introduced the Automatic Voter Registration Act and co-sponsored multiple pieces of environmental legislation.

After the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, Cicilline proposed the Equality Act to prohibit LGBT discrimination nationwide. In 2018 he co-authored the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act to prevent lawyers from using victims’ LGBTQ+ identity to justify crimes against them.

Cicilline serves as chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee and vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In January 2021 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named Cicilline a co-manager of the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump.

New York Times Columnist

b. October 31, 1964

“It’s a hell of a thing to have your identity, your dignity — your very hold on happiness — pressed into partisan battle and fashioned into a political weapon.”

Frank Bruni is a longtime writer for The New York Times and the newspaper’s first gay columnist. He is the best-selling author of three books. Frank Bruni and Andrew Sullivan are the two most impactful commentators on gay equality.

The middle child of three, Bruni was born and raised in White Plains, New York. His parents dubbed him the “big klutz,” and labeled his brothers respectively as “charismatic and confident” and “crafty and focused.”

In Bruni’s humorous and poignant memoir, “Born Round: A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite” (2009), he recounts his life through the lens of disordered eating. His parents teased him about his weight, joking that his initials (F.B.) stood for “fat boy.” He eventually joined his mother on a series of fad diets.

The incessant focus on food led Bruni to develop multiple eating disorders. Through prep school, he jumped from one weight-loss scheme to another, including extensive fasting, amphetamine abuse and excessive exercise. Realizing he was gay was not terribly unsettling for Bruni, but his struggle with anorexia and bulimia filled him with such shame, he abstained from sexual contact.

In 1986 Bruni graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He earned an M.S. in journalism with highest honors in 1988 from Columbia University.

Bruni started his career at the New York Post. He moved to the Detroit Free Press in 1990 where, in 1992, he became a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his profile of a child molester.

In 1995 Bruni joined The New York Times. As a White House correspondent, he reported on George W. Bush. His book “Ambling into History” (2002) chronicles Bush’s presidential campaign. Bruni went on to become a restaurant critic for The Times and was named an op-ed writer in 2011.

Bruni has been a career-long LGBT and AIDS activist and has often opined about marriage equality. In 2016 he wrote extensively about Pete Buttigieg, then the openly gay Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, positioning him as a talented and serious potential presidential candidate.

In 2018 Bruni wrote about a rare condition that led to significant vision loss in his right eye. He left his official post at The Times in 2021 to accept an endowed chair in journalism at Duke University.

Bruni received the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Newspaper Columnist in 2012 and 2013. In 2016 the Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association presented him with the Randy Shilts Award for his dedication to LGBT Americans.

Bruni lives in Durham, North Carolina. He contributes to The New York Times and CNN.

National Rabbinical Leader

b. February 20, 1967

“Creating a world that goes beyond inclusion, that embraces people in their unique differences, is work for us all.”

Rabbi Deborah Waxman is the first woman and the first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary and national congregational union. She serves as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and of Reconstructing Judaism, the leading organization of the Reconstructionist movement.

Waxman was born to conservative Jewish parents in West Hartford, Connecticut. Her father was a traveling salesman and her mother was the president of their synagogue’s sisterhood.

Waxman earned her bachelor’s degree in religion from Columbia University, her Master of Hebrew Letters from the RRC, and her doctorate in American Jewish history from Temple University. She also completed a certificate in Jewish women's studies from the RRC in conjunction with Temple University.

In 1999 the RRC ordained Waxman. She began teaching at the seminary and served as the rabbi of Congregation Bet Haverim in New York, before becoming vice president for governance of the RRC. In that role, she merged the RRC and the Jewish Reconstructionist Communities. Together, they form the Jewish Reconstructionist movement. In 2014 she became its president.

Waxman won grants from prominent donors, such as the Kresge, the Wexner, and the Cummings Foundations. She led initiatives to create interactive digital content, to bolster Reconstructionist Judaism’s ties to Israel and to help young people through camping programs.

Waxman is regarded as the Reconstructionist movement’s thought leader. She has provided an important voice for feminism in Judaism, encouraging gender equality in Jewish leadership. A member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society, she researches, writes and speaks at conferences about Jewish identity, women in American Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism. Publications such as The Times of Israel, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, HuffPost, Forward, and other media and academic outlets have published her articles. She also created and hosts the podcast “Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience.”

In 2015 Waxman was named to the “Forward 50,” a list of Jewish Americans “who have made a significant impact on the Jewish story.” She was interviewed by MSNBC following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October 2018, and she wrote an opinion piece on Jewish values amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Waxman lives in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, with her partner, Christina Ager, a professor at Arcadia University.