Sally Ride
Sally Ride was a world renowned astrophysicist who went on three different missions into space. She dedicated her whole life to science and became the first American woman in space before running her own scientific foundation. She was private about her life and only shared her sexual identity with some close friends. Unbeknownst to the public, Ride had a long-term partner named Tam O’Shaughnessy from 1985 until her death in 2012. This only became common knowledge after her obituary was published by Sally Ride Science, the educational program of which Ride was the CEO and President. Ride wanted her life to be focused on her mission of exploration and inspiring girls to get involved with science. She began and ended most of her speeches with the motto “Reach for the Stars,” and her foundations will continue to do just that.
Bayard Rustin
There are few events as synonymous with the American Civil Rights Movement as the 1963 March on Washington. Bayard Rustin, the organizer behind the event, had been planning protests like this since the 1940s. He had left multiple organizations he was a part of because of homophobia, such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Yet in 1963, when Dr. King needed an organizer, there was no one more qualified. Rustin had previously stayed in the shadows because of the largely held homophobic attitudes of the time, but bravely came out in the 1980s and strove to make it a safer place for others to do so as well. In a 1987 interview with the Village Voice, Rustin said, “I think the gay community has a moral obligation to do whatever is possible to encourage more and more gays to come out of the closet.”
John Wojtowicz
John Wojtowicz was locally famous around the New York City underground for being wild and promiscuous. From forcibly kissing his homophobic arresting officer to planning one of the earliest marches for marriage equality, he lived boldly. When his second wife, transgender woman Liz Eden, was seeking sexual reassignment surgery, he wanted to help however he could. This led him to attempt to rob a bank in Brooklyn to finance his wife’s surgery. He was arrested and sent to prison after a 14-hour stand-off. Eden sold their story to Sidney Lumet, who made the critically acclaimed film Dog Day Afternoon, in which Al Pacino plays Wojtowicz. Wojtowicz eventually left prison with a lifelong reputation of being the famous Pacino character.
Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy
Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, more commonly known by her stage name Coccinelle, was a French actress and singer most famously known for being one of the first internationally popular transgender women. Coccinelle, which is French for a ladybug, became her stage name in 1953 when she debuted as a transgender performer at a small club in Paris. She received extreme media attention in 1958 upon her return to Paris after her successful transition surgery, which she had done in Casablanca. The media swarmed the club she worked at in Paris, allowing her to gain access to larger roles and admiration. This included a hit song dedicated to her in 1959 and multiple movies throughout the early 1960s. In 1963, she had her very own stage show at the renowned Parisian concert hall Olympia. Dufresnoy used her success to fund her activism. She founded Devenir Femme, To Become Woman, to provide support for those looking to have sexual reassignment surgery. Throughout the remainder of her life, she worked passionately with her organizations providing support to transgender individuals across Europe.
Sourced: M. Blanco
