Historical Figures
LGBT Activists
Note: This list cannot include every prominent LGBT activist. It only highlights a few.
Dr. Franklin Kameny became an important activist in the LGBT rights movement after being fired from his U.S. Army map service job in 1957 because of his sexuality (Gay America, 78). Since he was barred from any other federal employment for the rest of his life, he cofounded and became president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. In 1963, Kameny began working to overturn sodomy laws in Washington, D.C. He drafted a bill that finally passed in 1993. Additionally, he worked towards the removal of the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which occurred in 1986.
Larry Kramer is an author, AIDS campaigner, and gay rights activist best known for founding ACT UP and the Gay Men's Health Crisis group in the 1980s (Gay America, 110).
Rev. Gene Robinson is "an openly gay, partnered man...[who] was elected, consecrated, then subsequently installed as bishop of a diocese of New Hampshire [in 2003]" (Gay America, 146). This action began a movement for greater acceptance for LGBT people in religious organizations, although it is still a very controversial topic today.
Famous Americans That Are LGBT
Note: This list cannot include every famous LGBT person. It only highlights a few.
Jane Addams was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her commitment to social work. She founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, which began the settlement house movement for improved social justice. Addams was also the president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She had two significant relationships in her life: first, with Ellen Gates Starr, and then with Mary Rozet Smith, who died a year before Addams' death in 1934 after 40 years together (Gay America, 15).
Walt Whitman, famous American poet and author of Leaves of Grass, had many intimate male companions during his lifetime (Gay America, 13).
Eleanor Roosevelt, although married to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, "had an affair with a successful political reporter named Lorena Hickok" (Gay America, 44). They wrote literally thousands of letters to each other, and Lorena moved into the White House in 1941 (44). The relationship did not last Eleanor's entire life, but the two remained close.