Seattle

Award-Winning Singer-Songwriter

b. June 1, 1981

“I was pretty convinced I was a flamboyant gay rock star in the making.”

Brandi Carlile is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and activist. Her musical style spans multiple genres.

Carlile was born in Ravensdale, Washington, a small town 50 miles from Seattle. She grew up camping, hiking and practicing her singing. Her parents’ preference for classic country artists influenced her early musical tastes.

By the time she was 17, Carlile’s interest turned to rock and roll. She drew inspiration from Elton John and Freddy Mercury. “I was pretty convinced I was a flamboyant gay rock star in the making,” she told Rolling Stone in 2019.
 
Carlile taught herself to play guitar and piano and dropped out of high school to focus on her music. Performing gigs around the Seattle area, she met twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth, members of a local rock band, who became her co-writers and bandmates. The group began headlining shows and opening for major artists such as Dave Matthews.

In 2004 Columbia Records signed Carlile to a recording contract and released her self-titled debut album a year later. Rolling Stone named her one of its “10 Artists to Watch in 2005.” She toured nationwide with her band, doing her own concerts as well as supporting established artists such as the Indigo Girls and Shawn Colvin. In 2007 the hit ABC drama series “Grey’s Anatomy” featured three of Carlile’s songs, expanding her reach and popularity.

In April 2007, after the release of her second album, “The Story,” VH1 named her a “You Oughta Know Artist.” Produced by T-Bone Burnett, “The Story” remains Carlile’s most popular album to date, selling more than 500,000 copies.

Carlile has released six studio albums and one live album. Her 2018 album, “By the Way, I Forgive You,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart. The work earned her six Grammy nominations, making her the most-nominated woman at the 2019 Grammy Awards. She won three: one for the album and two for the song “The Joke.”

In addition to her music, Carlile is an activist. With the Hanseroth twins, she created the The Looking Out Foundation, which has awarded grants to the Human Rights Campaign, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF and other nonprofit organizations. Through benefit albums and performances, she has raised more than $675,000 to support former child soldiers and $700,000 for Syrian refugees.

Carlile has publicly identified as a lesbian for more than 17 years. In September 2012, she married Catherine Shepherd in Boston. The couple lives in Maple Valley, Washington, with their two daughters.

Founders of the first lesbian organization and the first same-sex couple married in California

"Two extraordinary people ... that have spent the greater part of a half century ... fighting for their right to live the way so many of us, frankly, take for granted." – San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon founded the first lesbian organization in the United States and have fought for more than 50 years for the rights of lesbians and gays. On June 16, 2008, Martin and Lyon became the first gay couple to be legally married in California.

Martin and Lyon both earned degrees in journalism. While working as journalists in Seattle, the two became romantically involved. The couple relocated to San Francisco and moved in together on Valentine’s Day 1953.

In 1955, finding it hard to develop a social network in San Francisco, Martin, Lyon and a small group of women founded the first lesbian organization, called the Daughters of Bilitis. The name was inspired by Pierre Louys’s “Songs of Bilitis,” a collection of poems celebrating lesbian sexuality.

Though it was intended to be a secret society, Martin and Lyon wanted to make the Daughters of Bilitis more visible. The group began publishing a monthly magazine, called The Ladder, which was the first-ever lesbian publication. As editors of the magazine, they capitalized the word “lesbian” every time it appeared.

In 1964, while fighting to change California sex laws criminalizing homosexuals, the couple joined religious and gay community leaders to form the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH). This organization was at the forefront of the movement to gain religious support on gay rights issues. Both women served on the founding CRH board of directors.

In 2004, when gay marriage was offered in San Francisco, Martin and Lyon were the first to wed. A California appellate court ruling subsequently invalidated their marriage. Then in May 2008, a California Supreme Court decision provided same-sex couples the right to marry. On June 16, 2008, they were the first same-sex couple married in California. The wedding was officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Martin and Lyon have published two books together, “Lesbian/Woman” (1972) and “Lesbian Love and Liberation” (1973). On their 50th anniversary, the documentary “No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon” premiered. In 2005, the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association inducted Martin and Lyon into the LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame for their pioneering work on The Ladder. In 2007, they received the 2007 Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Pioneer Award.

Journalist       

b. October 7, 1964

“I thought, when I was a kid, that my mother and father would be devastated if I ever told them I was gay.”

Dan Savage is an award-winning author, journalist, newspaper editor and political commentator. He launched the “It Gets Better” video project to combat bullying and prevent LGBT teen suicides.

Born in Chicago, Savage was the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family. He attended Quigley Prep, which Savage describes as “a Catholic high school for boys thinking of becoming priests.”

At 18, Savage came out to his family. After initially having a difficult time, they became supportive. Savage enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theater.

In 1991, Savage’s sex-advice column, “Savage Love,” first appeared in The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle. The internationally syndicated column has been called funny, sarcastic, informative and outrageous.

Savage’s columns were compiled into a book, “Savage Love: Straight Answers from America’s Most Popular Sex Columnist” (1998). He wrote “The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant” (1999). He won a Lambda Literary Award for his book “Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America” (2003).

In 2010, reacting to the suicides of bullied LGBT youth, Savage started “It Gets Better,” which encourages adults to submit videos assuring gay teens that life gets better. As of 2011, the project generated more than 5,000 video submissions, including testimonials from President Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Gunn, Anne Hathaway, Ke$ha and other celebrities.   

For creating “It Gets Better,” Savage received a Webby Special Achievement Award, the leading international award honoring online excellence. He has been a contributor to Out magazine and HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” As a political commentator on LGBT issues, Savage has appeared frequently on CNN and MSNBC. 

In 2005, Savage married his long-term partner, Terry Miller. The couple lives in Seattle with their adopted son.