Twenty years ago, in October 2006, the Equality Forum of Philadelphia christened 31 LGBTQ+ persons as History Month Icons.
Almost all of them were big stars in the sky: author James Baldwin, comedian Ellen DeGeneres, congressman Barney Frank, lesbian pioneer Barbara Gittings, artist Keith Haring, musician Elton John, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer, soldier and activist Leonard Matlovich, actor Ian McKellen, politician and activist Harvey Milk, tennis champion Martina Navratilova, transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, mathematician Alan Turing, writer Walt Whitman, playwright Oscar Wilde, and fifteen others.
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The founder of the Icons Project, Equality Forum executive director Malcolm Lazin, recently remarked on the 2006 choices: “I remember in year one being told that it was an impressive list, but we had shot our load by naming all the best with only lesser lights remaining. Twenty years later, we continue to disprove that initial assessment.”
He’s right about that.
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With the inclusion of this month’s honorees, the LGBTQ+ History Month Icons Project has thus far uploaded the names, images, and biographical sketches of 651 history makers, creating an impressive inspirational and aspirational online collection.
The Icons Project has become an indispensable community treasure, a gathering place of the long dead and still living queer individuals, all of whom improved the conditions of LGBTQ+ people and, in their own ways, advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and established a legacy of activism, education, advocacy, and bravery.
Equality Forum traces its lineage to PrideFest Philadelphia, which was founded in 1993 and grew rapidly, with an impressive 45 organizations involved by the time the third PrideFest weekend rolled around in 1995. (I presented that year at the GLSEN Educator’s Forum on the nascent national LGBTQ History Month Project, founded the year prior.) In 1999, PrideFest Philadelphia became PrideFest America. In 2003, the group settled on a permanent name: Equality Forum, the title under which the LGBTQ+ History Month Icons Project began.
The project’s online Search feature is powerful and fun. The 651 honorees are searchable by featured year (2006 to present); by name; by scrolling through a long alphabetized list of every honoree; and by my favorite way, a tag cloud, populated by multiple demographic categories: profession (actor, astronaut, Broadway, journalist); state (from California with 117 Icons to Utah with 2); country (China, India, Japan); religion (Catholic, Muslim) ; and ethnicity (Asian-American, Jewish, Latinx, and Native American).
The Icon tag African American, for example, calls up over 100 incredible names, including singer and actor Josephine Baker, first out federal judge Deborah Batts, commentator Keith Boykin, activist Mandy Carter, scientist George Washington Carver, singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman, lesbian rights pioneer Ernestine Eckstein, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, poet Nikki Giovanni, theologian Peter Gomes, WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, author and feminist bell hooks, poet Langston Hughes, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, early transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, author Audre Lorde, attorney and civil rights activist Pauli Murray, the world’s most famous drag queen RuPaul, actor Billy Porter, civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin, pioneering drag queen William Dorsey Swann, comedian Wanda Sykes, author and feminist Alice Walker, AIDS activist Phill Wilson, and rapper Lil Nas X.
A curious person could spend days exploring the universe of names and stories curated by Equality Forum. Still, there are names not yet on the list and nations not yet represented, which is precisely where the annual nominating process comes in. Every fall, Equality Forum asks the global community to nominate worthy individuals whose contributions have not yet been recognized. This year’s nomination window is open until December 18, and the entire process takes under five minutes, from start to submission.
As in every October since 2006, this year’s 21st annual Icons class is an impressive group. Every day this month, a name will be dropped – along with biography, images, and a short celebratory video. Getting to know this year’s honorees, and those from the previous 20 years, is among the best ways I can think of to mark this month’s 33rd annual LGBTQ+ History Month in the United States.
Rodney Wilson is the founder of LGBTQ+ History Month USA and a co-founder of the International Committee on LGBTQ+ History Months. He was a 2017 Equality Forum LGBTQ Icon honoree.
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