Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Citizen produces a list of inspirational LGBTQ activists both living and deceased, accompanied by the ways in which they helped push the LGBTQ movement forward. 

• What are the current problems in the LGBTQ community that activists are still fighting for? How has the current administration affected the plight of LGBTQ people? 

• Read about Chloe Schwenke, a transgender woman and human rights activist working to help the global trans population.

Last month was LGBTQ Pride Month — a time to celebrate love, but also to champion equality and LGBTQ rights.

Throughout June, cities around the world have been hosting marches in honor of LGBTQ pride. In many countries today, people are free to join these marches, marry whomever they choose, and openly show their love. But that’s still not the case for LGBTQ communities in every country, and even in countries where it is safe to march, there is still a long way to go before true equality is achieved.

In honor of Pride Month, Global Citizen is celebrating the brave activists fighting for LGBTQ rights in places where it can be dangerous to do so, and the inspiring champions for change, without whom there might never have been a Pride Month.

Here are a few LGBTQ inspirational activists:

  1. Marsha P. Johnson is sometimes referred to as the “Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement,” but Johnson is a celebrated icon in her own right. Johnson wasan activist, drag performer, sex worker, and model for Andy Warhol. She was black, queer, and trans — and fearlessly advocated for her rights and the rights of the LGBTQ community at a time when doing so put her safety in jeopardy.
  2. Sylvia Rivera was a Latina trans activist, who, together with Marsha P. Johnson, co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided housing and other services to homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City.
  3.  Harvey Milk, the subject of the Oscar-winning film Milk, was the first openly gay politician to be elected in California. Milk was assassinated in 1978, but during his short tenure in office he pushed legislation to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Read the full article about LGBTQ activists by Daniele Selby at Global Citizen.