History & Activism

ACT UP

ACT UP is an AIDS activist organization founded in New York in 1987 that used direct action and civil disobedience to demand faster treatment access and an end to HIV stigma.

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

Adrienne Rich was an American poet and essayist whose feminist and lesbian writing, including "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," shaped queer and feminist thought.

AIDS Crisis

The AIDS Crisis was the period of the 1980s and early 1990s when HIV/AIDS spread with devastating loss of life, government neglect, and intense stigma against LGBTQ+ people.

AIDS Memorial Quilt

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a vast community folk-art memorial made of thousands of fabric panels, each honoring someone who died of AIDS-related causes.

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Alan Turing was a pioneering British mathematician and codebreaker who was prosecuted for being gay, and is now honored as an icon of both computer science and LGBTQ+ history.

Ali Forney (1975-1997)

Ali Forney was a gender-nonconforming homeless youth advocate in New York City whose 1997 murder inspired the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBTQ+ youth.

Ali Forney Center, The

The Ali Forney Center is a New York City organization, the largest of its kind in the United States, providing housing and support to LGBTQ+ homeless youth.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a Black lesbian feminist poet, essayist, and activist whose writing shaped feminist and queer thought.

Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)

Bayard Rustin was an openly gay Black civil rights organizer who was the chief architect of the 1963 March on Washington.

Bi Visibility Day

Bi Visibility Day is observed every September 23 to celebrate bisexual people and counter the erasure they often face.

Broadway Cares

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is a leading nonprofit that mobilizes the American theater community to raise money for HIV/AIDS and health-related services nationwide.

Brunswick Four

The Brunswick Four were four lesbians arrested in Toronto in 1974 after performing a pro-lesbian song at a pub, an incident that became a rallying point for Canadian gay rights.

Carrington House

Carrington House is a historic Fire Island cottage that became a gathering place for LGBTQ+ artists and writers, now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

Castro Camera

Castro Camera was Harvey Milk's camera shop at 575 Castro Street in San Francisco, which doubled as the organizing hub for his rise as a gay political leader in the 1970s.

Center For Black Equity, The

The Center for Black Equity is an international nonprofit that supports health, economic, and social equity for Black LGBTQ+ people and the network of Black Pride events.

Center, The

The Center is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City, a founding hub of LGBTQ+ services and organizing since 1983.

Christopher St.

Christopher Street is a Greenwich Village street in New York City, home to the Stonewall Inn and a longtime center of LGBTQ+ life and history.

Coming Out Day

National Coming Out Day is an annual LGBTQ+ awareness day observed on October 11 to celebrate coming out and support those living openly.

Compton's Cafeteria Riot

The Compton's Cafeteria Riot was an August 1966 uprising by transgender women and drag queens against police harassment in San Francisco, three years before Stonewall.

Daughters of Bilitis

The Daughters of Bilitis was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States, founded in San Francisco in 1955.

Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed each November 20 to honor transgender people killed by anti-transgender violence.

Day of Silence

The Day of Silence is an annual student-led day of action, organized by GLSEN, on which students take a vow of silence to protest the bullying and harassment that silences LGBTQ+ people in schools.

Der Eigene

Der Eigene, published in Berlin from 1896 to 1932 by Adolf Brand, is recognized as the first gay magazine in the world.

Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (DSM)

The DSM is the American Psychiatric Association's standard reference for diagnosing mental disorders, notable in LGBTQ+ history for once classifying homosexuality as an illness before removing it in 1973.

Dr. Franklin E. Kameny Residence

The Dr. Franklin E. Kameny House in Washington, D.C., was the home and organizing base of pioneering gay rights activist Frank Kameny and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Earl Hall at Columbia University

Earl Hall at Columbia University is where the Student Homophile League, the first gay student organization in the United States, was founded in 1966 and held many of its activities.

Edith "Edie" Windsor (1929-2017)

Edith "Edie" Windsor was an American LGBTQ+ rights activist whose lawsuit toppled a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act in the 2013 Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor.

Equity Fights AIDS

Equity Fights AIDS was founded in 1987 by Actors' Equity and later merged into Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the theater community's leading HIV/AIDS charity.

Frank Kameny (1925-2011)

Frank Kameny was a pioneering American gay rights activist who, after being fired from a federal job for being gay in 1957, spent decades fighting anti-gay discrimination and coined the slogan "Gay is Good."

Gay Liberation Front

The Gay Liberation Front was a radical activist group first formed in New York City in 1969, just after the Stonewall uprising, that demanded liberation rather than mere tolerance.

Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network (GSA Network)

GSA Network is a national nonprofit that helps students start and run Genders and Sexualities Alliance clubs to fight homophobia and transphobia in schools.

Gilbert Baker

Gilbert Baker (1951 to 2017) was the American artist and activist who designed the original rainbow pride flag in 1978.

GLAAD (Formerly The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)

GLAAD is a leading U.S. media advocacy organization that works to ensure fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of LGBTQ people across news, film, and television.

Glen Maxey

Glen Maxey is an American politician who became the first openly gay person elected to the Texas Legislature, serving in the Texas House of Representatives from 1991 to 2003.

Glsen (Formerly The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network)

GLSEN is a national education organization that works to make K-12 schools safe and affirming for LGBTQ+ students.

Harvey Milk (1930-1978)

Harvey Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, taking his seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978.

Henry Gerber House, Chicago, Illinois

The Henry Gerber House in Chicago is where Henry Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights in 1924, the first chartered gay rights group in the United States.

Horatian

Horatian is a literary adjective referring to the Roman poet Horace, sometimes used in scholarship to point to the coded expression of same-sex desire in classical writing.

Human Rights Campaign (HRC)

The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the United States, working for equality through politics, advocacy, and public education.

Ilga (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans And Intersex Association)

ILGA World is a global federation of more than 2,000 LGBTI organizations across 170-plus countries, founded in 1978 to defend the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people.

InterPride

InterPride is the international organization that advances the Pride movement, connecting hundreds of Pride organizations worldwide and licensing WorldPride.

Intersex Awareness Day

Intersex Awareness Day, observed each October 26, raises awareness of intersex people and the human rights issues they face, including non-consensual surgeries on intersex infants.

James Baldwin (1924-1987)

James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, and activist whose writing examined race, sexuality, and identity in the United States.

James Merrill House

The James Merrill House is the Stonington, Connecticut home of gay American poet James Merrill, now a writer-in-residence program and National Historic Landmark.

Judy Garland Memorial Path

The Judy Garland Memorial Path is a commemorative walkway in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the birthplace of the entertainer and enduring gay icon Judy Garland.

Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal is the oldest and largest U.S. legal organization dedicated to the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV.

Larry Kramer (1935-2020)

Larry Kramer (1935-2020) was an American playwright and AIDS activist who co-founded Gay Men's Health Crisis and founded ACT UP.

Lavender Menace

Lavender Menace was a phrase Betty Friedan used to dismiss lesbians in the feminist movement, later reclaimed by lesbian activists in a 1970 protest.

LGBTQ History Month

LGBTQ History Month is an annual October observance in the United States celebrating the history, culture, and contributions of LGBTQ people.

Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992)

Marsha P. Johnson was a Black activist, drag performer, and key figure of the Stonewall era who co-founded STAR to support homeless queer and trans youth.

Mattachine Society

The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950 in Los Angeles, was one of the earliest sustained gay rights organizations in the United States.

Matthew Shepard (1976-1998)

Matthew Shepard was a gay University of Wyoming student whose 1998 murder galvanized the movement for federal hate crimes protections.

Matthew Shepard Foundation, The

An LGBTQ nonprofit founded in 1998 by Dennis and Judy Shepard after their son Matthew's murder, working to replace hate with understanding through education and advocacy.

Military

LGBTQ+ people's relationship to the U.S. military has moved through decades of exclusion and forced secrecy toward partial, contested inclusion.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (b. 1940)

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (1946 to 2025) was a Black transgender activist, Stonewall veteran, and organizer for trans women of color and incarcerated trans people.

National Center For Transgender Equality (NCTE)

The National Center for Transgender Equality was a leading U.S. transgender advocacy group, founded in 2003 and merged in 2024 into Advocates for Trans Equality.

National Coalition Of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), The

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) is a national network of community organizations that documents, responds to, and works to prevent violence affecting LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected people.

National Coming Out Day

National Coming Out Day is an annual awareness day observed on October 11 that celebrates and supports people coming out as LGBTQ+.

National LGBTQ Task Force, The

The National LGBTQ Task Force is one of the oldest U.S. LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, founded in 1973 and known for a progressive, social-justice-centered approach to liberation.

NGLCC (The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce)

The NGLCC, or National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, is the largest U.S. advocacy group for LGBTQ+ business owners and the exclusive certifier of LGBT-owned businesses.

Oppression

The systemic, unjust use of power to disadvantage a social group through law, custom, and everyday treatment.

Outright Action International

An international human rights organization, now called Outright International, that works to end violence and discrimination against LGBTIQ people worldwide.

Patient 0

A widely repeated but scientifically debunked myth that one man, Gaëtan Dugas, brought HIV to the United States.

Patriarchy

A social system in which men hold most of the power and women and gender-nonconforming people are subordinated.

Pauli Murray Family Home

The Durham, North Carolina childhood home of civil rights pioneer and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray, now a National Historic Landmark.

PFLAG (Parents, Families, And Friends Of Lesbians And Gays)

PFLAG is the largest U.S. organization for LGBTQ+ people, their parents, families, and allies, founded in 1973 by Jeanne Manford.

Pinched

Historical slang for being arrested, widely felt in LGBTQ+ life during the mid-20th century era of police raids on gay bars.

Pink Triangle

The pink triangle is a symbol that Nazi concentration camps used to mark gay men and was later reclaimed by LGBTQ+ communities as a badge of pride and remembrance.

Polari

Polari is a secret slang used mainly by gay men in Britain during the 20th century, when homosexuality was criminalized.

Pride

Pride is the LGBTQ+ movement's public affirmation of dignity and visibility, marked each year by marches and celebrations that grew out of the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

Pride Month

Pride Month is the annual, mostly June, observance of LGBTQ+ identity and history that commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

PULSE (Nightclub)

Pulse was a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where a gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 on June 12, 2016, in what was then the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Pussy Riot

Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk protest collective known for guerrilla performances against Vladimir Putin's government and for defending LGBTQ+ rights.

Queer Theory

An academic field, emerging in the early 1990s, that treats gender and sexuality as socially constructed rather than fixed or natural.

Rita Hester

Rita Hester was a Black transgender woman whose 1998 murder in Boston inspired the founding of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Ryan White (1971-1990)

Ryan White was an Indiana teenager who contracted HIV through a blood treatment and became a national figure in the fight against AIDS stigma.

SAGE (Services & Advocacy For GLBT Elders)

SAGE is the oldest and largest U.S. nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older adults.

Silence = Death

Silence = Death is a landmark AIDS-activism slogan and poster, created in 1986 and later adopted by the protest group ACT UP.

Sip-In (Protest)

The Sip-In was a 1966 protest at Julius' Bar in New York where Mattachine Society members openly declared they were gay and demanded service, a direct challenge to rules that let bars refuse 'known homosexuals.'

Social Justice

Social justice is the pursuit of a fair distribution of rights, opportunities, and resources, alongside the dismantling of systems of oppression.

Sodomite

Sodomite is a historical and religious slur, drawn from the biblical city of Sodom, long used to condemn and criminalize people who engage in same-sex acts.

Spirit Day

Spirit Day is an annual LGBTQ+ anti-bullying observance, held on the third Thursday of October, when people wear purple to support LGBTQ+ youth.

St. Vincent's Hospital

St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village was a Catholic hospital that opened the first AIDS ward in New York City and became a central site of care during the epidemic before closing in 2010.

STAR House

STAR House was the pioneering New York City shelter that Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera opened in 1970 to house homeless transgender and gender-nonconforming youth.

Stonewall (Charity)

Stonewall is a major UK lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity founded in 1989, separate from the New York Stonewall Inn and US political groups of similar name.

Stonewall (UK-Based)

Stonewall UK is a leading British LGBTQ+ rights charity founded in 1989 to fight Section 28, named after the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York.

Stonewall Democrats

Stonewall Democrats are LGBTQ+ caucuses and clubs affiliated with the US Democratic Party that work to elect pro-equality candidates and advance LGBTQ+ issues within the party.

Stonewall Inn

The Stonewall Inn is a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, where the 1969 Stonewall uprising helped launch the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Stonewall Riots

The Stonewall Riots were a series of 1969 uprisings against a police raid on the Stonewall Inn that catalyzed the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Stormé DeLarverie (1920-2014)

Stormé DeLarverie was a biracial butch lesbian, drag performer, and activist widely remembered as a catalyst of the 1969 Stonewall uprising and a lifelong protector of queer people in Greenwich Village.

Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002)

Sylvia Rivera was a Latina gay liberation and transgender rights activist, a veteran of the Stonewall era, who co-founded STAR to shelter homeless queer and trans youth.

The Black Cat Tavern

The Black Cat Tavern is a Los Angeles gay bar where a February 1967 demonstration against a police raid became one of the earliest organized LGBTQ+ protests in the United States.

The Furies Collective

The Furies Collective was a lesbian feminist separatist commune in Washington, D.C., active in 1971 and 1972, whose newspaper shaped lesbian feminist theory.

Transgender Day Of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), observed every November 20, honors transgender people killed by anti-transgender violence.

Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV)

Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), observed every March 31, celebrates transgender people and raises awareness of the discrimination they face.

Transgender Europe (TGEU)

Transgender Europe (TGEU) is an umbrella advocacy organization for the rights and wellbeing of trans and gender-diverse people across Europe and Central Asia.

Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF)

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) is a U.S. nonprofit that fights anti-trans discrimination through litigation, advocacy, and education.

Trevor Project, The

The Trevor Project is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people.

True Colors United

True Colors United is a nonprofit co-founded by Cyndi Lauper in 2008 that works to end homelessness among LGBTQ+ young people.

Tyler Clementi (1991-2010)

Tyler Clementi was an 18-year-old Rutgers University student whose 2010 suicide, after his roommate secretly webcammed him kissing another man, became a national symbol of anti-LGBTQ+ bullying.

UpStairs Lounge

The UpStairs Lounge was a New Orleans gay bar where a 1973 arson fire killed 32 people, long one of the deadliest attacks on an LGBTQ+ gathering in U.S. history.

Upstairs Lounge Fire

The UpStairs Lounge fire was a 1973 arson attack on a gay bar in New Orleans that killed 32 people, the deadliest attack on a U.S. gay venue until the 2016 Pulse shooting.

Walt Whitman House

The Walt Whitman House in Camden, New Jersey, is the last home of poet Walt Whitman and a historic site tied to his legacy as a foundational figure in queer literature.

White Night Riots

The White Night Riots were violent protests in San Francisco on May 21, 1979, after Dan White received a lenient manslaughter verdict for assassinating Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.