Happy #LGBTQHistoryMonth! Let’s make sure it’s as #intersectional as possible. Dominic D'Souza was an Indian actor turned AIDS activist. He was a frequent blood donor and under India’s new blood testing act, doctors learned he had contracted HIV and labeled him Patient Zero for HIV in Goa. He was arrested and detained by the police and escorted to a hospital without being given any information. He was locked in a tuberculosis ward and forcibly quarantined for 64 days with arm

Yasmin Benoit is a a Black model, writer and activist from the UK. She came out as asexual and aromantic in 2017 and has been an activist for the ace & aro community ever since. As one of the UK’s most prominent Black lingerie and alternative models, she uses her platform to dispel myths and misconceptions surrounding ace & aro identities and started the #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike campaign. She is also on a mission to bring visibility to People of color within the ace, aro a

Fred Rosser perhaps better known as his ring name, Darren Young, is a gay, Black professional wrestler. He was signed to WWE from 2005 to 2017. In 2013, he came out during a TMZ interview making him the first WWE wrestler to publicly come out while still actively signed to WWE. In August 2020, he signed a contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Fun fact: His mom is a lesbian #LGBTQHistory #QTPOCHistory #FredRosser #DarrenYoung

Paddy Chew was a Chinese bisexual playwright from Singapore. Before becoming an author, he was a flight attendant for 13 years and later joined the Boom Boom Room, Singapore's first drag cabaret. He was the first person with HIV/AIDS in Singapore to come out to the public. He publicly shared his status during the the First National AIDS Conference in Singapore in 1998. Near the end of his life, he wrote an autobiographical play which ran for a week in May 1999. At the end of

Hastiin Klah was a Diné Navajo sand painter, chanter, weaver and healer. There are four genders in Diné tradition and Hastiin Klah was a Nádleehi ("one who changes”). They were also widely believed to be intersex. Klah was responsible for saving and preserving the Navajo weaving tradition in the face of persecution. They played a huge role in the forming of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe with respect to the museum’s design, implementation and curati

Casey Conway is a gay, Australian, Aboriginal model. Before his modeling career, he was a semi-professional rugby player for the National Rugby League team, the Sydney Roosters, until he was injured. He did not came out as gay until after his retirement from rugby due to fear of discrimination. Now, he is open about his sexuality and speaks out against the lack of acceptance of the LGBTQ community in Aboriginal culture. He is currently the Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Ru

Caster Semenya is a Black South African middle distance runner. She was assigned female at birth, and identifies as a woman, though she is widely believed to be intersex which became a point of contention during her athletic career. She was subjected to sex testing which revealed naturally elevated testosterone levels and led to her disqualification and subsequent withdrawing from women’s running for a period of time until she was cleared by the International Association of A

Catalino "Lino" Ortiz Brocka was an openly gay Filipino director and often incorporated LGBT themes into his films. He cofounded Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) which encouraged artists to address the issues confronting the country. He and CAP represented artists and cultural workers in the country and became very active in anti-government rallies and later joined the Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy. With more than 40 films to his credit, multiple nomina

Naveen Bhat is a non-binary, bisexual, South Asian actor and filmmaker. They were born in India, and raised in California. During a family trip to Agra, India, their parents detained them by confiscating their passport and threatened to “fix” their queerness with institutionalization and therapy. Naveen sought protection from their parents by taking them to court. The Delhi High Court sided with Naveen as the Indian legal system recognizes transgender people as a legal third

Simon Tseko Nkoli was an openly gay, HIV positive South African anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist. He formed the first black gay group in Africa, The Saturday Group, founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) and along with LGBT activist, Beverley Palesa Ditsie, organized South Africa’s first gay pride parade in 1990. He initiated Positive African Men group, was one of the first gay activists to meet with Nelson Mandela, and took part in t

Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were were royal servants to Pharaoh Nyuserre during the 25th century BC. Though both men had wives and children, they were buried together as was common practice with married couples, and their epigraph reads “Joined in life and joined in death.” The tomb also contained several paintings depicting the men embracing each other, and touching their faces nose-on-nose which normally represented a kiss. Thus, these ancient Egyptian notables are often int

Mauree Turner is a Black, queer, Muslim femme who uses she/they pronouns. and might become the first Muslim lawmaker in Oklahoma. ,She worked as a community organizer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations while attending Oklahoma State University, and later became a field director for the American Civil Liberties Union’s criminal justice reform project, Campaign for Smart Justice. She is running for state House in Oklahoma and was endorsed by Rep. Ilhan Omar and Mayor

Siddharth Gautam was one of India’s first LGBT and HIV rights activists. A lawyer with degrees from Yale and Cambridge Universities, he fought to decriminalize being gay in India. He also co-founded India's first AIDS activism movement, AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan, fighting for the rights of PLWHA. Diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in his youth, he passed away in 1992 at 28. Two years later ABVA took up the legal battle to fight India’s anti-gay law. The law was finally rep

Cathay Williams born around 1850 to an enslaved mother and was assigned female at birth. During adolescence, Cathay was captured by and forced to serve Union troops. Despite the prohibition against women serving in the military, Cathay voluntarily enlisted in the US Army at age 17, posing and living as a man under the name “William Cathay”. After an honorable discharge due to a disability, they signed up with the all-black regiment, the 38th U.S. Infantry, which would eventua

Jazzie Collins was a Black, disabled, HIV+ trans woman who was a fierce activist and advocate for People of Color, disabled people, economic and labor justice, tenant’s rights, seniors, and the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco. she was a member of the Prop L Committee, successfully directing efforts to raise the minimum wage in San Francisco. She organized protests and San Francisco’s annual Trans March, served as Vice Chairs for the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force, and the LGB

Mark Travis Riviera is a disabled, gay, Latino activist, speaker, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He is the youngest person in the US to found an integrated dance company, Marked Dance Project, which includes dancers with disabilities. He has won awards for his activism within the LGBTQ+ community, and his writings have appeared in anthologies, and on The Huffington Post. #LGBTQHistory #QTPOCHistory #QueerDisabledHistory

Monica Roberts was a pioneer Black trans rights activist and acclaimed journalist. She was known for giving a voice to the trans community (especially trans people of color) through her advocacy and her blog, TransGriot. She began writing about trans people who were murdered to ensure their stories were reported fairly and respectfully as the mainstream media would regularly misgender trans victims. She pushed other media outlets to follow her lead in their coverage. She was

Julio Salgado is an openly queer, and openly undocumented “artivist” who was born in Mexico and raised in California. His art, which is meant to empower and put a face to the queer and undocumented communities, is often used by DREAMers and the DREAM Act movement at rallies and campaigns. He has multiple projects, "I am Undocu-Queer!", "Undocumented Apparel", "Dreamers Adrift", “For My Dreamers” and "I Exist”, all of which support young undocumented and undocumented queer peo

Ryka Aoki is a queer, transgender, Japanese-American writer and professor. She earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from Cornell University. Her writings, though about trans people, are written for general audiences in hopes introduce and normalize transgender people, lives, and stories. Ryka was honored by the California State Senate for her work with a Los Angeles performance series for trans and gender queer individuals called Trans/Giving. She teaches English at Santa Mo

Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, was the lead singer for the band Queen. He was born in Zanzibar, (currently part of Tanzania) to Persian-Indian parents. At 18, he and his family fled Zanzibar and moved to England where he joined Queen and wrote many of the band’s hit songs. He died in 1991 from complications from AIDS and was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll, and Songwriter Halls of Fame. #FarrokhBulsara #LGBTQHistory #QTPOCHistory