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Abhina Aher
Abhina Aher works with trans folks closely and provides for the welfare of trans folx. She is on the board for Tweet foundation, and is a strong and vocal activist for trans rights.
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper became a household name in America when his show Anderson Cooper 360° came into being in 2019, but he was a force to be reckoned with even before that. Anderson Cooper is known for his hard-hitting journalism and his signature silver mane. He has been known for his field journalism and acts of bravery on the field.
Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy
This queer power couple played a vital role in decriminalizing #section377, a homophobic and draconian British-era law that criminalized and stigmatized gay sex. They were also named @TimeMagazine’s 100 most influential people list in 2019.
Audre Lorde
The sex that is assigned to an infant at birth based on the child’s visible sex organs, including genitalia and ot“A self-described ” Black feminist lesbian poet warrior mother”, Audre Lorde is famous for having a way with words. Her poetry has revolutionized the world in countless and unimaginable ways. Here is a poem by her:
The black unicorn is greedy.
The black unicorn is impatient.
‘The black unicorn was mistaken
for a shadow or symbol
and taken
through a cold country
where mist-painted mockeries
of my fury.
It is not on her lap where the horn rests
but deep in her moonpit growing.
The black unicorn is restless
the black unicorn is unrelenting
the black unicorn is not
free.
The Black Unicorn”her physical characteristics. Often corresponds with a child’s assigned gender and assumed gender.
Dutee Chand
She’s an Indian professional sprinter. Her sports accolades are many but she was recently applauded for coming out publicly. She declared that she’s in a same-sex relationship. She is now, India’s first and only openly gay athlete.
Gauri Sawant
Gauri became a known face after getting featured in an advertisement for Vicks but has been an activist for transgender rights since much longer. In fact, in 2014 she became the first transgender individual to file a petition with the Supreme Court of India for adoption rights of transgender people. This made sense since she had adopted a girl child in the year 2008 after the baby’s mother, who was a sex worker, passed away. Her part in the fight for rights has been a considerable one given that she was also a petitioner in the National Legal Services Authority case in which the Supreme Court recognised transgender as the third gender.
Grace Banu
Grace Banu was the first trans person to go to an engineering college in Tamil Nadu. She is a writer, a Dalit rights activist, and a vocal trans rights icon. She founded the Trans Rights Now Collective and is a force of nature in the fight for Trans Rights and rightfully our Monday Mood.
Keshav Suri
Hotelier Keshav Suri is the Executive Director of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group that owns the LaLit chain of hotels. On the scrapping of section 377, the openly gay scion said, “If not now, then when?”. Suri was one of the petitioners who took the fight for the decriminalisation of gay sex to India’s top court.
Marsha P. Johnson
The first brick thrown at the Stonewall Inn riots belonged to Marsha P. Johnson. She is a legend, a Black transwoman, a drag queen, and a queer liberation activist. She, along with Sylvia Rivera, is the mother of PRIDE as we know it today and a rockstar in her own right.
Navtej Singh Johar
The first Sikh to take up Bharatnatyam as a dance form, Navtej is a Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee and is a known name when it comes to the dance form being practiced in India. In June 2016, Johar and five others from the LGBT community , filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. In the year 2018, Navtej Singh Johar and others v. Union of India became a landmark case when the Supreme Court unanimously declared the law unconstitutional “in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex”.
Parvez Sharma
Parvez Sharma is a New York-based Indian filmmaker, author, and journalist. He is a recipient of the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship in the film/video category. Sharma is best known for his two films A Jihad for Love, A Sinner in Mecca, and his book published in 2017 called, “A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim’s Hajj of Defiance”. His film, A Jihad for Love was the world’s first film documenting the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims. He received the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary amongst several other international awards for A Jihad for Love.
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil
Singh is India’s first Gay Prince, and the first openly gay royal in the world. He was even married to Princess Chandni Kumari. Even though his family accepted his sexuality, he was asked not to reveal anything to the press, and being a closeted gay man was ‘mentally stressful’ for him. He now runs a charity called The Lakshya Trust, which works with the LGBT community.
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is a Queer Black woman, a “literary darling” and a self-proclaimed Bad Feminist. Author of a book by the same name, “her Bad Feminist essay is a clarion call to bad feminists everywhere – for pluralism, collective effort and mutual respect – and the most persuasive feminist recruitment drive in recent memory”. Roxane Gay’s work is electric, real and human.
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera, along with #MarshaPJohnson, was one of the first rioters the #theStonewallInn. She and Marsha P. Johnson started S.T.A.R, a halfway home for queer and trans unhoused youth. She was a transwoman of color, an agitator, and a queer rockstar.
#PRIDE wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for her.
Vikram Seth
One of the openly queer personalities in India, the 61-year-old Padma Shri recipient, famously known for his book ‘A Suitable Boy, also penned down a heartfelt poem expressing his anguish over criminalizing gay sex titled ‘Through love’s great power’.
