Publishing

Gay Pioneer

b. January 5, 1930
d. May 26, 2021

“Whatever the Founding Fathers envisioned as the rights and privileges of our citizens, we wanted for ourselves.”

Kay Lahusen, also known as Kay Tobin Lahusen and Kay Tobin, is the first openly lesbian photojournalist in America. She was among the first women to chronicle and participate in the early gay rights movement. Her photographs appeared on the covers of some of the first LGBT publications in the nation, including The Ladder and Gay Newsweekly. 

In 1961 Lahusen joined the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first lesbian organization in the United States. Shortly thereafter, she met Barbara Gittings, an activist who started the East Coast Chapter of the DOB and who is regarded as the mother of the LGBT civil rights movement. The pair began a lifelong relationship and became one of the most influential, pioneering lesbian couples in America.

Lahusen initially garnered national attention in 1965, when she photographed and also protested in the first of what became a series of seminal public demonstrations for gay and lesbian equality. Spearheaded by Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny, these first organized pickets were held in Philadelphia each Fourth of July from 1965 to 1969 in front of Independence Hall. Known as Annual Reminders, the demonstrations paved the way for the Stonewall riot in 1969.

In addition to her work as a photojournalist, Lahusen worked at one of the first gay bookshops in the country, the Oscar Wilde Bookstore in New York City, and with Gittings for the gay caucus of the American Library Association. Lahusen cofounded the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and later the Gay Women’s Alternative in New York City. 

Lahusen collaborated with many Gay Pioneers, including Frank Kameny and Jack Nichols, to publicize LGBT issues and present accurate, positive depictions of gays and lesbians. In 1972 she co-authored “The Gay Crusaders,” the first collection of short biographies of gay activists. 

During her lifetime, Lahusen photographed thousands of events and activists of the gay rights movement. Her collection of writings and photos, along with Gittings’s writings and papers, is archived at the New York Public Library.

Lahusen and Gittings remained together for 46 years. Shortly before Gittings’s death in 2007, the couple moved to the Philadelphia suburb of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Lahusen will be buried alongside Gittings at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The New York Times published her obituary.

Updated May 26, 2021.

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. 

Indian Gay Pioneer and Journalist

b. June 1, 1947

“Coming out was a natural defense mechanism.”

Ashok Row Kavi is an Indian LGBT rights activist and journalist. The first gay man to ever talk publicly about his sexuality in a country where homosexuality is still illegal, he is considered one of the most influential gay men in India. The Pink Pages lists him among the most influential LGBT people in the world.

“When you come out in India, gay identity becomes your primary identity,” Kavi said. “If you come out as an openly homosexual man and refuse to get married to a woman, then your homosexual identity becomes a form of rebellion and attracts a great deal of attention. All the other identities—being a good journalist, for instance—become backups.”

Born in Mumbai, Kavi was educated at India’s most elite schools, eventually graduating with honors in chemistry from the University of Bombay. As a young man, he had trouble coming to terms with his sexuality and trained as a Hindu monk. After a senior monk encouraged him to explore his sexuality, he went on to study at the International School of Journalism in Berlin. He became well known for his work for Malayala Manorama, India’s largest newspaper.

In 1971 Kavi started Debonair, an Indian men’s magazine modeled after Playboy, and in 1990 he founded Bombay Dost, India’s first and only gay magazine. 

Kavi’s reporting for leading publications led him to cover the AIDS crisis. He became a representative at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam and also served as chairman of the Second International Congress on AIDS. In 1994 he founded Humsafar Trust, an LGBT service organization and drop-in center in Mumbai that specializes in outreach and educates people about HIV/AIDS and political issues. It also provides a rare place for LGBT people to meet and socialize.  

In 1998 Kavi designed questionnaires for the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California at San Francisco that have been used to help track the disease and to educate young gay men about risk. 

After retiring from journalism, Kavi organized the first Indian conference about gay men and the first LGBT conference in Mumbai. 

Kavi is an active member of Gay Bombay, the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society and the National AIDS Control Organization. He is also a visiting faculty member of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the International Institute of Population Studies.

Entrepreneur

b. August 19, 1919
d. February 24, 1990

“Failure is success if we learn from it.”

Malcolm Forbes was an American businessman and publisher of Forbes, a magazine founded by his father in 1917. 

The son of a Scottish-born journalist and an American mother, Forbes was born in Brooklyn and grew up in New Jersey. After graduating from Princeton as a political science major, Forbes enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served in Europe as a machine gunner in the 84th Infantry Division. He rose to the rank of staff sergeant before he was wounded in combat. He received both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his heroism. 

Forbes served as a borough councilman and later as a state senator in New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for New Jersey governor in 1957. It was publishing, not politics, however, that would eventually cement his fame and fortune. 

Forbes acquired control of the family business in 1964, cultivating Forbes magazine into one of the most successful print publications in the world, covering real estate, finance and business. The magazine, which is published in print and online, is still owned and operated by his family. 

During the 1980s, Forbes became known for his lavish lifestyle and celebrity-studded parties. He regularly discussed his holdings, which included private jets, yachts, an international art collection and homes around the world. Actress Elizabeth Taylor co-hosted his legendary 70th birthday party in Morocco, for which the rich and famous were flown in on private jets. Forbes also gave millions of dollars to charity. His worth was estimated between $400 million and $1 billion.

In addition to life as a publishing mogul, Forbes became the first person to fly coast to coast in a hot air balloon; he also flew over Beijing, setting a world record. 

It was only after his death in 1990 that he was outed in a story called “The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes,” written by Michelangelo Signorile. In the controversial exposé Signorile asked, “Is our society so overwhelmingly repressive that even individuals as all-powerful as the late Malcolm Forbes feel they absolutely cannot come out of the closet?” The Forbes family has always denied the allegations. 

Forbes was married for 39 years and had five children.

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.

Journalist and Commentator

b. August 11, 1970

“One thing the gay rights movement taught the world is the importance of being visible.”

Charles Blow is an American journalist and a columnist for The New York Times. As the only African-American columnist on the paper’s opinion pages, Blow focuses twice weekly on issues of social justice, race relations and the pitfalls of politics. 

Before becoming a commentator, Blow was the youngest head of the graphics design department at The Times, a position he held for nine years. During his tenure, he helped the newspaper win several prestigious awards, including a Best of Show from the Society for News Design for coverage of the September 11 attacks. It was the first time the award had ever been given to a newspaper for outstanding graphic design. 

Blow has also worked at National Geographic and The Detroit News. He regularly appears on the BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and HBO to discuss timely topics related to his column and his own life. He came out publicly as a bisexual in 2014 in his memoir, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” The coming-of-age account has been named a New York Times Notable Book, a Lambda Literary Award Winner and a PEN Open Book Award nominee. In it he writes candidly about his sexuality:

“In addition to being attracted to women, I could also be attracted to men. There it was, all of it. That possibility of male attraction was such a simple little harmless idea, the fight against which I had allowed to consume and almost ruin my life. The attraction and my futile attempts to ‘fix it’ had cost me my dreams.”

The book not only chronicles Blow’s struggle with identity, but also provides insights into the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of an older male cousin. The author admits that he spent years trying to unravel the relationship between the abuse and his own sexuality. He has spoken candidly on the subject on several television shows, including “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “Piers Morgan Tonight” and “Anderson Cooper 360.” 

Blow is a single father of three. A native of Louisiana, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Activist

b. December 30, 1954

d. December 27, 1988

“We are black men who are proudly gay."

Joseph Beam was a gay rights activist who helped build a black LGBT community in the 1980s. He was the editor of “In the Life,” the first collection of nonfiction works by and about black gay men.

A native of Philadelphia, Beam attended Franklin College in Indiana, where he studied journalism. He was an active member of the black student union and the Black Power movement. After college, Beam received his master’s degree in communications. 

In 1979, he returned to Philadelphia. He explored literature on gay figures and institutions while working at Giovanni’s Room, an LGBT bookstore. Discouraged by the lack of community for black gay men and lesbians, Beam began writing articles and short stories for gay publications. 

In 1984, he received an award for outstanding achievement by a minority journalist from The Lesbian and Gay Press Association. In 1985, he became the first editor of “Black/Out,” a journal produced by the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. He served as a consultant for the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Friends Service Committee. 

Beam continued to collect materials about being black and gay. In 1986, he produced the first collection written by black gay men, called “In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology.” 

In 1988, while compiling “Brother to Brother,” a sequel to his anthology, Beam died from AIDS-related complications. His mother, Dorothy Beam, and the gay poet Essex Hemphill completed the work, which was published in 1991. 

Activist

b. April 3, 1915

d. October 29, 2011

“We realized the historic significance of what we were doing."

Axel Axgil was a Danish gay activist and cofounder of Europe’s first gay rights organization. After Denmark became the first nation to legalize same-sex domestic partnerships, he and his partner Eigil Eskildsen were the first couple to register.

Born Axel Lundahl-Madsen, he came out in the 1940s after meeting Eigil. The two men would later adopt the surname “Axgil”—a combination of Eigil and Axel—to acknowledge their commitment to one another.

Inspired in 1948 by the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which included sexual orientation, Axgil cofounded Forbundet af 48 (F-48), Europe’s first gay rights organization. By 1951, F-48 had more than a thousand members and branches in Sweden and Norway.

The couple founded Vennen (The Friend), a gay magazine. In addition to producing the publication, Axgil ran a small publishing company that sold nude male photographs. In 1955, Axgil was arrested for distributing the photos. 

The investigation into Vennen led to a scandal and arrests of gay men. After his release from prison, Axgil founded the International Homosexual World Organization (IHWO). In 1970, IHWO successfully appealed to the German Federal Chancellor, who discontinued the seizure of nude male photographs.

In 1989, after years of lobbying by the Axgils, Denmark became the first nation to recognize same-sex domestic partnerships. The law gave same-sex couples most of the rights and obligations of marriage, excluding the right to adopt a child. On October 1, 1989, the Axgils and 10 couples held a commitment ceremony that attracted worldwide media attention.

Axgil continued his activism and ran a gay-friendly bed and breakfast until Eigil’s death in 1995. In 2012, as a result of the groundwork laid by Axgil, Denmark legalized same-sex marriage. 

Author

b. December 7, 1873

d. April 24, 1947

“The end is nothing, the road is all.” 

Willa Cather was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of the most prominent American writers of the early 20th century. She is best known for her novels “O Pioneers!” and “My Antonia.” 

Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, Cather was the oldest of seven children. At age 10, she and her extended family moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska. During adolescence, Cather was known for her masculine style of dress and referred to herself as “Willie.” She grew up listening to the stories of immigrants and was fascinated by the people and the nature of prairie life. This experience would inspire much of her novel, “My Antonia,” published in 1918. 

Following high school, Cather attended the University of Nebraska with aspirations of becoming a doctor. After one of her essays was published in the Lincoln Journal, Cather decided to pursue writing. Having earned her degree, she relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She worked for newspapers and magazines, and began publishing her poetry and short stories.

Her work caught the attention of famed editor S. S. McClure, who hired her for McClure’s magazine. She moved to New York and became acquainted with many prominent writers. By 1908, Cather was one of the most influential editors in the country. Her first of 12 novels, “Alexander’s Bridge,” was published in 1912. By the 1920s, Cather was considered one of the leading American novelists. 

In 1922, Cather received a Pulitzer Prize for her novel “One of Ours.” She received honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, Columbia, and Yale, and became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Princeton. 

From 1908 until Cather’s death in 1947, she lived with Edith Lewis, a prominent New York editor. In her later years, Cather continued writing short stories, novels and nonfiction essays. She has been hailed as one of the great writers, especially for her depictions of rural American life. 

Entrepreneur

b. November 26, 1983

“Social media is an online extension of the conversations at the dinner table.”

Chris Hughes is an entrepreneur and a cofounder of Facebook. He is the publisher and editor in chief of The New Republic, a leading public policy magazine.

Hughes grew up in North Carolina, the only son of a teacher and a salesman. He attended Phillips Academy on an academic scholarship before enrolling at Harvard University. Hughes, along with college roommates Mark Zuckerburg, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz, founded Facebook. Beginning as a social networking site for Harvard students, Facebook became a global phenomenon connecting more than 900-million users.

In 2007, Hughes left Facebook to work on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. As the coordinator for online organizing, he developed My.BarackObama.com, which enabled supporters to create local events, set personal fund-raising goals and join campaign groups. Hughes mobilized millions of young voters and raised more than $30 million. In 2009, Fast Company dubbed him “The Kid Who Made Obama President.” Hughes’s successful strategy, which utilized social media as an effective campaign tool, revolutionized modern politics.

In 2010, Hughes founded Jumo, a nonprofit social networking organization. It has connected millions of activists to organizations working to improve communities worldwide.

Hughes has served as a member of the United Nations AIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention. In 2011, he announced his engagement to Sean Eldridge, senior advisor for Freedom to Marry. Both powerful advocates for marriage equality, they have donated more than $1 million to support same-sex marriage.

In 2012, Hughes purchased The New Republic and legally married Eldridge.