Government

Designer, Entrepreneur & Leader

b. December 1959

“If we are to be the future, then we have to take the future in our own hands.”

Henry Reuben Muñoz III is an architectural designer, an activist and a philanthropist. In 2013 he became the first Latinx and first openly gay national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Muñoz was born in San Antonio, Texas, where his father was an established Latinx labor organizer and civil rights activist. As a child, Muñoz attended many protests. Those experiences helped shape his conviction that the American dream should be available to all.

Muñoz attended Loyola University, where he now sits on the Board of Trustees. In 1983 he joined Jones & Kell, one of the country’s oldest minority-owned architectural firms. Despite his lack of formal architectural training or licensing, Muñoz developed a diverse portfolio and pioneered the Mestizo Regionalism and Latino Urbanism styles. His design expertise and cultural understanding eventually led him to assume ownership of the firm, now known as Muñoz & Company.

In 1992 Muñoz was appointed transportation commissioner of Texas, making him the first Latinx person to hold the position. He also became an outspoken philanthropist, pledging to fight “dangerous racism … almost of historic proportions.”

In 2007 Muñoz joined the DNC’s fundraising efforts in support of Barack Obama’s first presidential bid. He worked within the Democratic party to mobilize “not only Latinos, but the LGBT community and women.” Through the Futuro Fund, a committee established to engage first-time Latinx donors, Muñoz and the actress Eva Longoria raised $30 million for President Obama’s reelection in 2012. That same year, Muñoz was elected finance chairman of the DNC— the party’s chief fundraising post. Beyond raising money, he believed it was necessary to “rethink, redesign and rebuild the party from scratch.”

In 2014 Muñoz and Longoria created the Latino Victory Fund, which works to elect Latinx candidates to all levels of government. Muñoz also established TheDream.US, an organization that helps young immigrants fund higher education. It has awarded in excess of $141 million in scholarships to more than 6,000 students.

Muñoz served three terms as DNC finance chair before stepping down in 2019. He held the post longer than anyone else. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi described him as a “visionary who leads by example” and a critical contributor to the 2020 election victory.

Muñoz continues to serve as chairman and CEO of his architectural firm and to promote the role of cultural diversity in the American narrative. He serves on numerous boards and leads the commission to develop the Smithsonian American Latino Museum.

Muñoz married his husband in 2017 in a ceremony officiated by now-President Joe Biden. The couple lives in New York and Connecticut.

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.

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.

Mayor of Chicago

b. August 4, 1962

“Breaking the back of the Chicago machine, it's quite monumental.”

Lori Lightfoot won a historic landslide victory in Chicago’s 2019 election to become the city’s first openly gay and first black female mayor. It is her first elective office.

Lightfoot grew up in a struggling working-class family in southern Ohio. Her father, who suffered hearing loss, often juggled three jobs. Lightfoot credits her family’s difficulties and her mother’s fierce strength with her own determination to succeed. Her mother insisted that Lightfoot pursue education, strive for excellence and “take on hard fights,” regardless of the consequences.

Lightfoot earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, paying for her own education through loans and work-study jobs. She attended the University of Chicago law school on a full scholarship. After graduation, she spent six years working in private practice.

Lightfoot entered public service as assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, prosecuting defendants accused of drug crimes, bankruptcy fraud and public corruption. Thereafter, she was appointed chief administrator of the Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards, which investigates alleged cases of police misconduct, including shootings of civilians.

After Lightfoot served as top administrator in the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Mayor Richard Daley hired her as deputy chief of the Chicago Department of Procurement Services. There, Lightfoot made waves, targeting powerful wheeler-dealers and a top Daley fundraiser.

Mayor Daley’s successor, Rahm Emanuel, appointed Lightfoot president of the Chicago Police Board, which decides disciplinary cases. Under Lightfoot’s leadership, the board changed course, terminating police officers in 72% of misconduct cases. As chair of a special Police Accountability Task Force, Lightfoot filed a report critical of the police department's practices. She pushed Mayor Emanuel to more aggressively pursue police reform.

In May 2018, Lightfoot announced her candidacy for mayor of Chicago. She ran on a platform of outsider politics and progressive change, promising to reverse decades of political corruption and bring opportunity to neglected neighborhoods. In April 2019 Lightfoot defeated her opponent with over 74% of the popular vote, winning a majority among white, black and Latinx voters. Her victory made Chicago the largest city in U.S. history with an openly LGBTQ mayor and the largest city led by a woman.

Lightfoot and her spouse, Amy Eshleman, have a daughter.

Pulitzer-Winning Journalist

b. December 19, 1987

“We are grappling, as a culture, with our collective failure to … treat men and women equally …”

Ronan Farrow is an American investigative journalist. In 2017 the 7,000-word story he broke in The New Yorker was the first to expose rape and sexual assault allegations against media titan Harvey Weinstein. The revelations ignited the #MeToo movement, a global reckoning on sexual predation and abuse of power.

Farrow was born in New York City, the son of the actress Mia Farrow and the filmmaker Woody Allen. He entered Bard College at age 11 and graduated at 15—the youngest student ever to do so. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2009. The same year, he joined the Obama Administration as special adviser for humanitarian and NGO affairs in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2011 Farrow founded the State Department’s Office of Global Youth Issues, serving under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He left government to pursue his doctorate at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Farrow left Oxford to pursue journalism full-time. He had been writing for major publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times and The Atlantic. For The Wall Street Journal in 2006, he was among the first to report on the role of Chinese investments in fueling the Darfur conflict. His piece helped spark a major international divestment campaign.

Farrow has since worked as an investigative reporter and television commentator and has served as an anchor for MSNBC and NBC. His stories for The New Yorker were the first to expose sexual abuse allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves and other powerful men. Farrow also wrote the first detailed accounts of payments made to suppress sexual misconduct stories about Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Farrow faced institutional push-back and physical threats during his research and reporting on Weinstein. His exposure of the mogul marked a watershed for women’s rights, catalyzing long-suppressed sexual assault and harassment allegations against a multitude of prominent men, many of whom have been ousted from their positions. His reporting on Weinstein for The New Yorker earned the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service, along with other prestigious awards.

In 2018 Farrow was honored by the Point Foundation for his #MeToo investigations and his NBC News reporting on transgender issues. He came out during the awards ceremony and thanked the LGBTQ community for being an “incredible source of strength” throughout his work.

Farrow lives in New York with his partner, Jon Lovett, a fellow writer.

Native American Congresswoman

b. May 22, 1980

“Having LGBT people sitting in the room … as peers, will shift the conversation.”

Sharice Davids is the first openly gay congressperson from Kansas and the first Native American lesbian elected to the U.S. Congress. She is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.

Davids was raised by her single mother, Crystal Herriage, who served in the U.S. Army for two decades. The military relocated them several times before they landed in Kansas, where Davids attended Leavenworth High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Davids graduated from Cornell Law School in 2010 and was admitted to the Missouri Bar Association the same year. She went to work as an attorney for SNR Denton, one of the world’s largest multinational law firms. Thereafter, she spent three years working in community development for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

As a student, Davids took up mixed martial arts (MMA). She competed in the combat sport on and off as an amateur beginning in 2006 and became a professional fighter in 2013.
 
In 2016 Davids served as a White House Fellow, working under senior government officials in the Department of Transportation, during the turbulent transition between the Obama and Trump administrations.

In the congressional primary, Davids defeated five other candidates. Emily’s List, an organization whose mission is to elect Democratic women, endorsed Davids.

Her campaign focused on protecting and expanding core Democratic Party issues, such as  health care access, gun safety and opposing the far-right policies of President Trump.

In November 2018, Davids won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives by defeating Representative Kevin Yoder, a multi-term Republican incumbent with a significant campaign finance advantage. In addition to representing Kansas’ 3rd District, she serves on the Small Business and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.  She is the co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and the vice chair of the New Democrat Coalition, a congressional organization of capitalist pro-growth Democrats.

When she is not in Washington, Davids lives in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Prime Minister of Serbia

b. September 28, 1975

“We want to send a signal that diversity makes our society stronger.”

In June 2017 Ana Brnabić became the first female and the first gay prime minister of the conservative country of Serbia. She is the world’s fifth-ever openly LGBT head of state.

Brnabić was born in Belgrade, the capital and largest city in Serbia. Her early education focused on science and mathematics. She received her bachelor's degree in business administration from the Northwood University of Michigan, and in 2001 earned her MBA in marketing from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom.

Brnabić worked in program management, communications and economic development for Serbian local governments, international organizations and private industry. Among her many jobs, she worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Belgrade as senior program coordinator for the Serbia Municipal Economic Growth Activity Sector and as director of information and public outreach for the Serbia Local Government Reform Program.

In 2007 Brnabić became the acting director in Belgrade of Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading American management consulting firm, where she led the Serbia Competitiveness Project for USAID. Brnabić also served as president of the management board of Serbia’s National Alliance for Local Economic Development. In 2011 she became the communications and strategic development director of Continental Wind Serbia, where she helped oversee investments for a wind park.

In 2016 Brnabić was appointed public administration minister of Serbia, her first political position. A year later she was elected prime minister.

As the country’s leader, Brnabić works to move Serbia closer to membership in the European Union (EU), modernize the nation, reform education, eliminate corruption and improve foreign relations, particularly with Russia, China and the United States.

According to The New York Times, roughly half the Serbian population views homosexuality as an illness. The country’s LGBT population has endured a history of discrimination, including violence during the 2010 pride march. Same-sex marriages are not legally recognized. On September 17, 2017, Brnabić marched with several hundred gay activists at the Belgrade pride march. She is the first head of state from any Balkan nation to attend a major LGBT celebration.
 
Brnabić's longtime partner, Milica Djurdjic, a doctor, gave birth to their son, Igor, in 2019. Brnabić's office issued an official statement about the birth and identified Igor as the first child in history born to the same-sex partner of a head of state.

Trailblazing Politician

b. May 8, 1929
d. December 16, 1981

“BFR—a black, female Republican, an entity as rare as a black elephant and just as smart.”

Dr. Ethel Allen was an osteopath and a groundbreaking Republican politician. She became the first African-American woman on the Philadelphia City Council.

A Philadelphia native, Allen expressed an interest in medicine from the age of 5. Her father did not attend high school and worked as a self-employed tailor. Allen’s uncle, a dentist, helped spark her interest in becoming a doctor. A back injury she sustained in early adulthood influenced her interest in osteopathy.

Allen faced deeply entrenched discrimination as an African-American woman. Most medical schools made her admission nearly impossible. After graduating from the all-black West Virginia State College, she persevered for seven years before gaining admission to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy. Prior to medical school, she trained as a chemist and worked for a time at the Atomic Energy Commission.

Allen became an osteopath in 1963. She practiced in many of Philadelphia’s poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods. She founded the Community Committee on Medical School Admissions to help increase the numbers of African-American students applying and gaining admission to medical schools.

Allen described herself as a “BFR—a black, female Republican, an entity as rare as a black elephant and just as smart.” In 1972 she was elected to the Philadelphia City Council, making her the first African-American woman to hold the position. After her reelection in 1976, she became the first African-American member to hold an at-large seat.

As a councilwoman, Allen sponsored legislation to tackle crime—a problem she witnessed firsthand—and legislation to combat urban gangs through creation of the Philadelphia Youth Commission. During this time, Esquire magazine named her one of the 12 most outstanding female politicians in the United States.

In 1976 Allen delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention in support of Gerald Ford’s presidential nomination. In 1979 she was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which made her the highest-ranking African-American woman in the state.

Although she kept her sexuality private, Allen was openly lesbian among her close friends. In February 1976 Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania issued an executive order to create the Pennsylvania Council for Sexual Minorities. A few months later, Allen successfully requested that the governor issue a proclamation in support of gay pride week.

Allen died at age 52, after undergoing heart surgery. The New York Times published her obituary. The Dr. Ethel Allen Elementary School in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood was named in her honor.

Prime Minister of Ireland

b. January 18, 1979

“Our democracy is vibrant and robust and can survive divisive debates and make difficult decisions.”

Leo Eric Varadkar is the first openly gay Taoiseach (prime minister) of the Republic of Ireland. He is also Ireland’s youngest prime minister and the first of Indian extraction.

Varadkar was born in Dublin, the nation’s capital, and raised Catholic. His father, a Hindu, was born in Mumbai, India, and immigrated to the United Kingdom to work as a doctor. His mother, a Catholic, worked as a nurse in Slough, England. The couple moved to Dublin six years before Varadkar was born.

Varadkar attended secondary school at The King’s Hospital, a boarding school administered by the Church of England. He joined Young Fine Gael, the youth wing of Fine Gael, the Irish liberal-conservative and Christian democratic political party. Varadkar maintained his party affiliation. 

Varadkar studied medicine at Trinity College in Dublin and worked as a non-consultant hospital doctor before qualifying as a general practitioner. He earned his first significant political post in 2004 as a member of the Fingal County Council, located north of Dublin City, before serving as deputy mayor. 

As a longtime statesman, Varadkar has held important and diverse roles within the Irish government. In 2007 he was elected to the Teachta Dála, the lower house of Ireland’s parliament. He has since served consecutively as minister for transport, tourism, and sport; minister for health; and minister for social protection.

Varadkar came out in 2015 during the referendum that legalized same-sex marriage in Ireland. In June 2017, when the country formed its 31st government, he became Ireland’s prime minister and minister for defence at the age of 38.

In becoming Ireland’s first gay prime minister, Varadkar also became the world’s fourth openly gay head of government. As Taoiseach, he also leads his political party, which promotes their support of LGBT rights and families by displaying ads in the Gay Community News (GCN). 

By January 2018 Varadkar’s approval rating had reached 60%—the highest of any Irish prime minister in 10 years. A few months later, TIME magazine named Varadkar to its list of the 100 Most Influential People of the year. In May the predominantly Catholic country voted to legalize abortion. Varadkar described it as “the culmination of a quiet revolution.”  

Varadkar lives with his boyfriend, Dr. Matt Barrett, a cardiologist. In 2018 the couple marched hand-in-hand in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Marriage Equality Hero

July 7, 1966

“We have to stand up and say we’ve had enough.”

Jim Obergefell is the plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. 

A Cincinnati resident, Obergefell married John Arthur in Maryland in 2013. Arthur was terminally ill with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Obergefell filed a lawsuit to force their home state of Ohio to recognize him as the surviving spouse on Arthur’s death certificate. The couple alleged that the state’s governor, John Kasich, was discriminating against same-sex couples who were legally married out of state. 

In 2015 the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, thus requiring all 50 states and U.S. territories to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

“Today’s ruling from the Supreme Court affirms what millions across the country already know to be true in our hearts,” Obergefell said upon learning the verdict, “that our love is equal.” President Barack Obama called the decision a “victory for America.”

Obergefell is an unanticipated activist. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, he is the youngest of five children in a Catholic family. He came out as gay in his mid 20s and met Arthur in 1992. They lived together for 22 years before Arthur succumbed in 2014.

When Arthur was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, Obergefell became his primary caregiver. The couple flew to Maryland to legally marry just before Arthur died. They had already filed a federal lawsuit to allow Obergefell to be named Arthur's surviving spouse. When the court ruled in favor of Obergefell, Ohio appealed the ruling and won. Obergefell took his fight to the Supreme Court.

Obergefell has become a marriage equality hero, traveling nationally and internationally. With Pulitzer Prize winner Debbie Cenziper, he is the co-author of "Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality."