Transy Library: LGBTQIA+ Resources: History & People

Notable People

Alan Turing
Mathematician, father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
Audrey Lorde
Poet and influential voice in the Black Arts Movement.
Barbara Gittings
LGBTQIA+ activist, involved in the American Library Association.
Bayard Rustin
Member of Civil Rights Movement, close advisor to Martin Luther King.
Christine Jorgensen
Gained fame for being first American transgender woman to go through sex reassignment surgery.
Derek Jarman
Film director, raised awareness of AIDS.
Gilbert Baker
Creator of the LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Pride flag.
Harvey Milk
Human rights leader, became one of the first openly gay elected officials in 1977.
James Baldwin
Playwright and voice of the American Civil Rights movement.
Janet Mock
Trans rights activist, author of Redefining Realness.
Jazz Jennings
LGBTQ & Transgender Advocate and Activist
Dr. John Fryer
American psychiatrist and gay rights activist advocated to de-list homosexuality as a mental illness from the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (Transylvania University Alum--Transylvania Fryer Fund; 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous (play); Interview-This American Life, 2002)
Larry Kramer
Co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.
Laverne Cox
Actress and Trans Right Activist.
Magnus Hirschfeld
Founder of Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and World League for Sexual Reform.
Marsha P. Johnson & Sylvia Rivera
Leaders of the Gay Liberation Movement, involved in the Stonewall uprisings.
Sally Rugg
Co-director of change.org, campaigner for Safe Schools.