The document summarizes and celebrates the achievements of several prominent LGBT activists throughout history. It profiles activists such as Fr. Mychal Judge, Tracy Chapman, Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, Harvey Milk, George Washington Carver, Michael Callen, Margaret Cho, Bill T. Jones, Gad Beck, Sylvia Rivera, Leslie Feinberg, and Laverne Cox, describing their contributions to LGBT rights and equality movements. The profiles highlight how these individuals overcame discrimination and hardship to become leaders and advocates for LGBT communities and human rights.

1. CELEBRATING LGBT ACTIVISTS
By Elaine Nadalin
THE BUEHLER INSTITUTE
WWW.THEBUEHLERINSTITUTE.COM
SEX AND RELATIONSHIP THERAPY
NEWPORT BEACH, CA

2. One of the key civil rights movements in
modern history has been the struggle for
LGBTQ equality. As with any human rights
struggle, there are men and women who have
led the way for current and future generations.
The individuals featured here have not only
shaped the course of LGBT rights, but the
course of human rights overall.

3. Fr. Mychal Judge
May 11, 1933 to Sept. 11, 2001
Fr. Judge served as the chaplain for the
Fire Department of New York and died
while ministering to first responders
during the Sept. 11 attacks on the World
Trade Center.
members.tripod.com
The Franciscan priest is remembered for being a
chamption of people with AIDS, the homeless,
immigrants, GLBTQ Catholics, and people with
addictions. He is also known as the "Saint of 9/11."

4. Tracy Chapman, Musician
b. March 30, 1964
Bo rn in Cleveland, Ohio, Tracy Chapman was raised by
her mother and her older sister. Despite racial tensions
within her school and community, she sought refuge in
academics, winning a scholarship to a private school in
Conneticut.
www.sdgln.com
The experience of being an impoverished student at a boarding school informed Ms.
Chapman's growing political awareness. While on scholarship to Tufts University, Ms.
Chapman began writing and performing her own music, earning a recording contract
with Electra at age 22. Her earlier experiences influenced her music, and her first album
resonated with critics and the public, earning two Grammy awards.
Her first no. 1 song, "Fast Car" was named one of the best songs of all time by
Rolling Stone magazine. She won a total of four Grammys and has toured
internationally. As an outspoken advocate for GLBT rights, gender and racial equality,
and economic justice, she is also active on behalf of people with AIDS. She continues
to write music and to perform at numerous charity events.

5. Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, US Army, ret.
b. March 23, 1943
In 1992, Col. Cammermeyer was the highest-ranking
military officer discharged from service
on the basis of sexual orientation. She openly
challenged the military's ban on gays and
lesbians and was reinstated in 1994. Her
autobiography, "Serving in Silence" was made
into a TV movie that earned three Emmy awards
and a Peabody award; it was one of the first
films about a gay person in public service.
Col. Cammermeyer retired in 1997 after 31 years of service. As an
outspoken advocate for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," she also
served on the Military Advisory Council for the Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network.

6. www.safeschoolscoalition.org
Harvey Milk, May 22, 1930- November 27, 1978
First openly gay person to be elected to a
public office; elected to San Francisco Board of
Supervisors in 1977.
The native New Yorker migrated to San Francisco in the 1970s,
when gay immigrants from around the country were changing
the face of the Castro neighborhood .
Despite three earlier attempts at office, Milk was well-regarded as
a grassroots politician who gradually earned the respect of the
electorate.
Milk's election to the Board of Supervisors was seen as a major victory in the struggle for gay and
lesbian civil rights. Harvey Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978 by Dan White, a former
member of the Board of Supervisors. In the years since his death, Milk has been remembered as an
American hero for all people. The NYC school system established the Harvey Milk school in 1985,
making it the first GLBT-affirming high school in the country.
Younger generations learned of Harvey Milk via the highly acclaimed film biography, Milk,
starring Sean Penn. The film went on to earn two Academy Awards, and has been used in college
classrooms around the country as a teaching tool. He is remembered for his optimism, his
dedication to GLBT civil rights, and for his election into public office, which changed the face of
American politics.

7. George Washington Carver, Scientist
July 12, 1864-January 5, 1943
Born as a slave in Southwest Missouri, Carver was
kidnapped as an infant during a slave raid. He was
abandoned when he was found it have whooping
cough and was subsequently raised by his mother's
former owners.
Upon his graduation from Iowa State University, he
served as the only black faculty member.
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Carver was then invited to head the Agriculture department at the Tuskegee Institute, an all-black
university founded by Booker T. Washington. As a professor, he encouraged his students to think
creatively and independently; he also stressed the need for resilience and self-sufficiency in the face
of blatant racism and hardships.
As the first scientist to discover multiple uses for peanuts, Carver also taught impoverished
farmers uses for nutritious, commonly-grown crops. This true innovator also developed diverse
products such as flour, ink, and face cream. He is also credited with the development of biofuels and
fruit-based cleaning products.
As an educated black man in an era of blatant racism, Carver was known for his grace under the
ugliest of circumstances: "I can't do my work if my heart is bitter."

8. Michael Callen
Pioneering AIDS Activist
April 11, 1955-Dec. 27, 1993
In 1982, Michael Callen was diagnosed with
GRID(Gay Related Immune Disease), which was
later re-named AIDS. He took the bold step of
calling out gay men on their promiscuity via an
article in the New York Native. As a
singer/songwriter, he toured internationally and
performed his original compositions.
www.tumblr.com
Callen helped found the People With AIDS coalition, one of the earliest AIDS activism
groups. In doing so, he coined the term People With AIDS (PWA) which fostered a
sense of self-empowerment in an era when PWAs were referred to as "AIDS
victims" or "patients." In addition to various board appointments, Callen provided
testimony to government-based organizations, including the President's Commission
on AIDS in an effort to secure badly-needed funding. Michael Callen died of
AIDS-related complications on December 27, 1993

9. Margaret Cho, Comedian/Actor/Singer
b. December 5, 1968
Ms. Cho was born into a Korean immigrant family in
San Francisco, CA. Despite the rich diversity of her
hometown, she was bullied for her weight as a child
and teenager. These early experiences shaped her
desire to be an ally for those facing discrimination and
ridicule.
lavendermagazine.com
These early experiences lent themselves well to stand-up comedy beginning
when she was only 14. While in college, she won a stand-up comedy competition
and opened for Jerry Seinfield, who later suggested that Cho quit college to focus on
comedy full-time. Cho was one of the first comedians to bring LGBT rights into the
mainstream of the comedy circuit; her uncensored routines often include queer
politics and pointed jabs at body/size policing. Her dedication to upending bullying
and discrimination earned her the GLAAD Golden Gate Award in 2000 for enhancing
the visibility, advocacy and understanding of the GLBT community. Ms. Cho is also an
actor and singer, having appeared in television, movies and live concerts.

10. Bill T. Jones, Dancer/Choreographer
b. February 15, 1952
As the 10th of 12 children, Bill T. Jones was born to migrant farm
workers and was raised in Wayland, NY. As one of the few black children
in his public school, it was inhabiting the dual worlds of black and white
norms that informed his early experiences of self-expression. Jones went
on to receive numerous accolades: 5 honorary doctorates, a Tony Award,
the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime
Achievement, and the Harlem Renaissance award and was honored at the
Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in 2010
zimbio.com
As a student at the State University of New York, Jones studied classical ballet and modern
dance. It was at SUNY that he met his partner of 17 years, Arne Zane. This openly gay, biracial
couple challenged popular notions of race, gender, and sexuality. The two men founded the Bill T.
Jones/Arnie Zane dance company in 1982. Arnie died of AIDS in 1988.
In his 1994 piece, "Still/Here" Jones took the narratives of people living with life-threatening
illnesses and transformed them into a piece which spoke of life and confronting death; this work
was underscored by the fact that Jones is HIV-positive himself. Through these experiences, he went
on to teach people with life-threatening illnesses expression through movement. His work continues
to weave together narratives of race, gender, sexuality, life and loss.

11. Gad Beck: June 30, 1923-June 24, 2012
Holocaust Survivor and activist
Mr. Beck was a Holocaust survivor who helped gays and Jews
escape Nazi persecution. Born in Berlin to a Jewish father and a
Protestant mother(who converted to Judaism), Beck and his father
were captured by the Nazis in 1943 and subsequently released
because Beck was not considered to be fully Jewish. After his
release, he joined an underground movment to help Jews escape
to Switzerland.
sgn.org
When Nazis captured his partner, Manfred Lewin, Beck posed as Nazi youth in order to save him. Manfred
refused escape; he didn't want to leave his family behind. Lewin and his family were later deported to
Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Beck later devoted his life to sheltering, feeding, and transporting
Jews to safety. In 1945, a Jewish spy for the Gestapo betrayed Beck, and he was sent to a holding camp in
Berlin, where he was released in the wake of the Nazis' defeat by the Allies. Although gays were also
liberated from the Nazis, the German government continued to repress and incarcerate them.
Beck continued his work on behalf of gay German Jews, helping them to escape to Israel. He returned to
Germany in 1979 to continue his work on behalf of the gay and Jewish communities. His autobiography, "An
Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin" was published in 2000. He was featured in the HBO
documentary, "Paragraph 175" which told the story of gay Jewish Holocaust survivors. Beck died on June 24,
2012, and he is survived by his longtime partner, Julius Laufer.

12. Sylvia Rivera, July 2, 1951-February 19, 2002
Transgender Activist
Ms. Rivera was one of the instigators of the Stonewall uprising that began
when police raided the eponymous bar in Greenwich Village on June 27, 1969.
Seventeen-year-old Rivera was credited with the rallying cry of the uprising:
" I'm not missing a minute of this, it's the revolution!" As police escorted bar
patrons off the premises, Rivera was one of the first bystanders to lob a
bottle at police.
genderwellness.org
Born as Ray Rivera Mendosa, Rivera continued to be active in gay and transgender rights in the
wake of Stonewall. She joined the GAA (Gay Activists Alliance) and worked tirelessly on the
campaign to pass the New York City Gay Rights Bill. She was arrested for climbing the walls of City
Hall in order to crash a closed-doors meeting on the bill. Despite GAA's elimination of drag and
transvestite issues from their agenda, Rivera continued to be a vocal advocate for transgender
r i g h Atss. a homeless street youth who left home at 10, she empathized with the plight of sexual
minority youth and in 1970 co-founded STAR(Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with
Marsha P. Johnson to ensure the safety and basic needs of queer street youth. Later on, the SRLP
(Sylvia Rivera Law Project) was formed to spearhead the effort to end poverty and gender identity
discrimination, and to ensure access to safe and affirming social, legal and health services. (srlp.org)
In 2005, Rivera's work and memory were celebrated when a street near the Stonewall Inn was
renamed in her honor.

13. Leslie Feinberg, Author/Activist
b. September 1, 1949
Leslie Feinberg is a pioneering transgender activist, speaker and writer.
Born in Kansas City, MO, she fled the Midwest in favor of the gay bars
in Buffalo, NY. Now a female-to-male transgender person, Feinberg has
openly challenged the Western notions of gender expression, e.g., how
a "real man" and a "real woman" should look and act.
michelepolak.com
To that end, Feinberg supports the use of gender-neutral pronouns such as "ze" instead of "he" and "hir" instead
of "her." Feinberg is also credited with the quote "Everyone who is under the gun of reaction and economic
violence is a potential ally" when referring to the strong ties she has forged across the GLBTQ communities and
other oppressed minorities.
As a prolific author, Feinberg has written several acclaimed fiction and non-fiction works, including "Stone
Butch Blues" (1993), "Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Ru Paul" (1995), which was
Feinberg's first non-fiction work. It was followed in 1998 by "Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue, which
detailed her near-death experience from a treatable heart condition; ze was denied care when the doctor found
out ze was transgender. Hir second novel, "Drag King Dreams "(2006) was the sequel to the earlier "Stone Butch
Blues." Each of hir works received critical recognition and awards within the GLBT literary community, including
mentions on the '100 Best Lesbian and Gay Nonfiction Books" list, American Literary Association Award for Gay
and Lesbian Literature and the Lambda Small Press Award.
In the wake of disability from a degenerative disorder beginning in 2008, Feinberg uses photography to tell
hir stories. Ze was named one of the "Most Influential" by Curve magazine for hir work on behalf of gay and
lesbian rights. Feinberg has delivered speeches at colleges, universities, conferences and Pride festivals across the
United States.

14. Laverne Cox 5/29/84
Mobile, Alabama-born Laverne Cox plays transgender
inmate Sophia Burset on the Netlix series Orange is
the New Black. Ms. Cox earned an Emmy nomination
for her work on the series.
In addition to her Emmy nomination, Cox has
earned accolades for her documentary, "Laverne Cox
Presents: the T Word", which premiered on the MTV
network on October 17, 2014.
Additionally, she is the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover
of TIME magazine, and the first transgender actress to be nominated for an
Emmy award. Her ground-breaking VH1 series, "TRANSForm Me," is the first
series to be produced by a transgender woman of color.
Ms. Cox attempted suicide at the age of 11, when she realized she was
"different." This early experience and the hardships that followed informs Ms.
Cox's advocacy work today, as she is an outspoken supporter of transgender
rights. She is seen as an inspiration for all LGBT people and as a living reminder
that one can overcome the harshest of circumstances.

15. www.thebuehlerinstitute.com
The Buehler Institute is a sex-positive,
LGBT-affirming practice in Newport
Beach, CA. We provide sex and
relationship therapy for couples and
individuals in addition to continuing
education for mental health professionals.