Widely regarded as the mother of the LGBT civil rights movement.

Activist whose landmark case led the Supreme Court to grant same-sex married couples federal recognition for the first time and rights to a host of federal benefits that until then only married heterosexuals had enjoyed.

World-famous political activist, designer and flag-maker Gilbert Baker created the Rainbow Flag in 1978. Over the next four decades, his creation would become embraced across the world as the universal symbol of the LGBT movement.

A visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States.

Writer and civil rights activist who "incomparably illuminated the experience of being both gay and black in America."

When Leonard Matlovich was thrown out of the Air Force for being gay, he sued for reinstatement. It was 1975 and it was the first case of its kind.

One of the most prominent figures of the gay rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Always sporting a smile, Johnson was an important advocate for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, those effected by HIV and AIDS, and gay and transgender rights.

A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Sylvia Rivera was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements. Throughout her life, she fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color, from the larger movement for gay rights.

An Olympic decathlete who competed in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, Tom Waddell is best known for founding the Gay Games, a sports competition modeled on the Olympics for artists and athletes of all sexual orientations.