American poet Audre Lorde
Credit: Library of Congress

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

Not only a librarian and teacher but a leading African American poet, Audre Lorde wrote for several causes. Much of Lorde’s poetry deals passionately with issues of race, gender, and sexuality. She described herself as “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”

Audrey Geraldine Lorde was born on Feb. 18, 1934, in New York City. She dropped the “y” at the end of her first name at a young age. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College in 1959 and a Master of Library Science degree from Columbia University in 1961. For much of the 1960’s, she was a librarian in Mount Vernon, New York, and in New York City. Lorde was a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice from 1970 to 1981 and professor of English at Hunter College from 1981 to 1986.

Lorde’s earlier poems concentrated on love themes. Beginning in the 1960’s, the civil rights movement in the United States inspired her to turn more toward political themes, attacking racial prejudice and sexual discrimination. She also wrote poems about parent-child relationships.

Lorde’s first collection of poetry was published as The First Cities (1968). Her later collections include Cables to Rage (1970), From a Land Where Other People Live (1973), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), Coal (1976), Between Our Selves (1976), The Black Unicorn (1978), and Our Dead Behind Us (1986). The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde was published in 1997, after her death.

Lorde’s prose works include The Cancer Journals (1980), a highly praised description of her battle with breast cancer. She developed liver cancer in 1984 and continued her examination of her cancer condition in the essay collection A Burst of Light (1988). Cancer ultimately caused her death on Nov. 17, 1992. Lorde’s essays and speeches were also collected in Sister Outsider (1984). Lorde also wrote a novel, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982).

American civil rights activist and writer Kiyoshi Kuromiya.
Credit: Estate of Kiyoshi Kuromiya

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

Kiyoshi Kuromiya was an influential American civil rights activist and writer. He helped organize and took part in anti-war demonstrations and protests for civil rights and gay rights. Later, Kuromiya became an advocate for people with AIDS and worked to connect patients with the latest research.

Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya was born May 9, 1943, at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming. He and his family were among the 110,000 Japanese Americans forcibly relocated by the United States government during World War II (1939-1945) as part of a policy called internment. One of his uncles, also a Heart Mountain resident, refused to participate in the draft and served three years in prison. After the war ended, Kuromiya’s family moved to Ohio and then to California. During this time, Kuromiya began to realize that he was gay. He used special library privileges his parents had gotten him to read about being gay at the county library. As a teen, he subscribed to the few gay news publications available at the time.

In 1961, Kuromiya moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied architecture. There, he became involved in the civil rights movement. He participated in diner sit-ins in Maryland and protests against nuclear testing. In 1963, he attended the March on Washington and afterward met the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1965, he joined a group of protesters staging a sit-in at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and participated in the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. During the march, he was knocked unconscious by the police and required stitches. He became close to the King family during these protests, and he helped to care for the King children in the immediate aftermath of their father’s assassination.

In 1968, Kuromiya organized a protest against the Vietnam War (1957-1975). To draw a crowd, he started a rumor that a dog was going to be set on fire. When a crowd of people arrived to try and stop it from happening, they instead found a flier from Kuromiya. It read, “Congratulations on your anti-napalm protest. You saved the life of a dog. Now, how about saving the lives of tens of thousands of people in Vietnam?” Kuromiya was also arrested that year for distributing a poster that encouraged people to burn their draft cards, a criminal act.

Kuromiya joined one of the first protests for gay rights in 1965, despite not being fully out at the time. The Annual Reminder picket lines at Independence Hall were organized by the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), a collaboration between several early gay rights groups, and held on July 4 every year. Kuromiya later became one of the founders of the Philadelphia branch of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), a more radical group fighting for gay rights. The loosely structured group lasted only about a year. Kuromiya continued to host a Gay Coffee Hour on the University of Pennsylvania campus, which became the first gay organization to receive funds from the university.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Kuromiya worked closely with the American engineer and inventor Buckminster Fuller. They co-authored Critical Path, published in 1981. The book explored how architecture, design, and technology can be used to solve world problems.

Kuromiya was diagnosed with AIDS in the late 1980’s. Afterward, he became heavily involved in advocacy organizations such as AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) and People With AIDS (PWA). He founded the Critical Path Project, a group that published newsletters with information on AIDS research. Additionally, he established a hotline for people with AIDS to get more information about treatments. He set up a computer lab in his home to enable people with AIDS to connect via the internet, which was a relatively new technology at the time.

In 1996, Kuromiya was one of the plaintiffs in a successful case to get the Communications Decency Act thrown out. This law had placed restrictions on what information could be shared publicly, prohibiting “patently offensive” materials. The law had threatened efforts by the Critical Path Project to get AIDS-related information to people who needed it. Kuromiya lost a 1999 class-action suit that sought to overturn bans on the use of marijuana for medicinal and therapeutic purposes in the United States.

Kuromiya died on May 10, 2000. He has been honored with a spot on the San Francisco Rainbow Walk and a placard on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall Inn, now a national monument.

American rap artist Lil Nas X performing at a music festival in 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Credit: © Denise Truscello, Getty Images

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

Lil Nas X rode in on his horse on the “Old Town Road” and became a star. He is an American rap music artist. He gained widespread fame for his first single, the country music and rap hit “Old Town Road” (2018) and its 2019 remix featuring the American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The song enjoyed success on the country music charts, marking an unprecedented feat for an African American rapper. In 2020, Lil Nas X and Cyrus shared a Grammy Award for best pop duo/group performance for the song.

Montero Lamar Hill was born on April 9, 1999, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up with an interest in music, briefly playing the trumpet. After graduating high school in 2017, he attended the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, west of Atlanta, for one year. He tried comedy writing, then began working to establish his musical career.

Hill began releasing singles under the name Lil Nas X on the music-sharing website SoundCloud. Nas was Hill’s internet alias (online name). He added Lil before Nas as a joke, because many rap artists at the time had stage names beginning with Lil. He added X to represent the Roman numeral 10, because he believed it would be 10 years before he became known as a “legendary performer.” Shortly before the release of “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X released a mixtape titled Nasarati (2018). In hip-hop culture, a mixtape is an independently produced recording, often distributed for free. In December 2018, Lil Nas X released “Old Town Road” under SoundCloud’s country category. The song blended elements of rap and hip-hop music with tones and themes from country music. “Old Town Road” gained rapid popularity when it was featured on the social media video-sharing service TikTok.

In March 2019, “Old Town Road” entered the Hot Country Songs chart, published by the magazine Billboard. The placement of a rap song on the country charts proved controversial. Billboard later moved the single to its Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Some critics attributed the move to racism among the overwhelmingly white country music establishment. Recording a remix with Cyrus, an established country musician, boosted the song’s country appeal. The remixed version returned the song to the country charts. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, remaining on the chart for a record-breaking 19 weeks.

Lil Nas X signed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 2019. The same year, he released his first EP, 7 EP. EP is short for extended play, a collection of recordings somewhat shorter than a full-length album. 7 EP also included the song “Rodeo,” featuring the American rap artist Cardi B. Lil Nas X followed up 7 EP with the single “Panini” (2019), which reached the top 10 on the Billboard “Hot 100″ chart. In 2021, his single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” debuted at number one on the chart.

A postage stamp printed in USA showing an image of Harvey Milk.
Credit: © Catwalker/Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

His name appears across San Francisco, on a United States Navy oiler, and on a Presidential Medal of Freedom, but many people do not know his name. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to a government office in California. He was a leader of the gay-rights movement in San Francisco, standing up for his hopes, his friends, and himself. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Later, he was shot to death while serving on the board. Milk’s political service and the circumstances surrounding his death brought widespread attention to the gay rights movement in the United States. This movement later came to be called the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights movement.

Harvey Bernard Milk was born in Woodmere, New York, on May 22, 1930. In 1951, he received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the New York State College for Teachers at Albany (now the State University of New York at Albany). He then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After being discharged in 1955, Milk returned to New York City to work as a high-school teacher. During the 1960′s, he held jobs as an insurance company actuary (mathematician specializing in risk estimates) and as a Wall Street investment analyst. Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened a camera store on Castro Street the following year.

In 1973, Milk entered politics and ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He ran unsuccessfully again in 1975, failed in his run for the state legislature in 1976, and finally won a seat on the board in 1977. While in office, he helped pass a gay civil rights law and worked to establish alliances between the gay community and various other minority groups. Milk’s popularity with the gay community in the Castro Street area earned him the nickname “the Mayor of Castro Street.”

On Nov. 27, 1978, Dan White, a former member of the Board of Supervisors, shot and killed both Milk and Mayor George Moscone. White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to a prison term of seven years and eight months. Following the verdict, many of Milk’s supporters, believing that the sentence was too light, demonstrated in the streets of San Francisco. The demonstrations eventually erupted into a number of riots. These events became known as the White Night Riots.

Milk was a Korean war veteran, teacher, actuary, analyst, camera enthusiast, activist, and politician. Milk inspired others to be themselves and seek out the rights they deserve. Milk told his supporters, “Hope will never be silent.”

Transgender activist Jazz Jennings
Credit: © lev Radin, Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pioneers in a variety of areas.

Pride Month in the United States is celebrated with parades, rainbows, and sharing stories. One important story is that of Jazz – not jazz music, Jazz Jennings. Jennings is an American transgender activist. The term transgender describes individuals whose identity or self-expression does not match their assigned gender. Jennings became one of the youngest people to be documented as transgender. She has received several awards for her activism in support of transgender people.

Jennings was born on Oct. 6, 2000, in southern Florida. She was designated male at birth and given the name Jaron. When she was 2 years old, Jennings showed signs of feeling that she was a girl. One year later, she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person’s biological or assigned gender does not match the gender with which the person identifies. Jennings has identified as female since she was 5 years old. She became famous in 2007 after being interviewed by the American journalist Barbara Walters on the television news program “20/20.”

Jennings became a popular presence on social media and on the video-sharing website YouTube. She has also starred in the reality television series “I Am Jazz,” which began in 2015. The series follows Jennings’s experiences as a transgender youth, including her gender confirmation surgery in 2018. This kind of surgery alters a person’s physical characteristics to match the person’s gender identity.

In 2007, Jennings and her parents established the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to support and provide assistance for transgender youths. Jennings also wrote the memoir Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen (2016).

American singer, songwriter, and actor Demi Lovato
Credit: © Debby Wong, Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pioneers in a variety of areas.

June 1 marks the first day of pride month in the United States. Today we are celebrating Demi Lovato, an American singer, songwriter, and actor. Lovato first became known as an actor on Disney Channel television programs. Lovato then launched a successful pop music career. Lovato is nonbinary. Nonbinary is a term that describes people who have a gender other than male or female. Lovato uses the gender-neutral pronouns they and them.

Demetria Devonne Lovato was born on Aug. 20, 1992, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their mother was a country music singer and a professional cheerleader. Lovato began taking voice, guitar, and piano lessons as a child. They also began acting at a young age. From 1997 to 2007, they played the character Angela on the children’s television series “Barney & Friends” (1992-2009). Lovato was bullied in middle school, so they turned to homeschooling. They earned the equivalent of a high school diploma in 2009.

Lovato began working with the Disney Channel in 2007. They appeared on the Disney TV series “As the Bell Rings” (2007-2008) and “Sonny with a Chance” (2009-2011), in which they played the title character. Lovato also starred in a number of Disney TV movies, including the musicals Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), and Princess Protection Program (2009). Lovato co-starred with the American pop-rock group the Jonas Brothers in Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2 and toured with the group as a singer. Lovato also has been in other TV series and movies. For example, from 2012 to 2013, they were a judge on the American version of “The X Factor” (2011-2013), a reality-TV singing competition. They also provided the voice of Smurfette in the animated movie Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017).

Lovato’s first music album, Don’t Forget, was released in 2008 and became a hit. Their later albums include Here We Go Again (2009), Unbroken (2011), Demi (2013), Confident (2015), and Tell Me You Love Me (2017). Lovato’s most popular songs include “This Is Me” (2008), “Skyscraper” (2011), “Heart Attack” (2013), “Cool for the Summer” (2015), and “Sorry Not Sorry” (2017). Lovato has written or co-written many of their songs.

In their personal life, Lovato has struggled with eating disorders, drug addiction, and a mental illness called bipolar disorder. They wrote the inspirational book Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year (2013). Lovato has been recognized for their public advocacy (support) of mental health and of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) causes.

Dr. Rachel Levine.
Credit: © Daniel Shanken, Reuters/Alamy Images

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

Summertime celebrates joy and growth; spring brings new beginnings. This spring, Rachel Levine made history when she became the first openly transgender person to be confirmed to a federal government position by the United States Senate. Transgender is a term for individuals whose identity or self-expression does not match their assigned gender. In January 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Levine, an American physician, for assistant secretary for health for the Department of Health and Human Services. Levine was confirmed on March 24, 2021.

Born Richard Levine in Melrose, Massachusetts, north of Boston, on Oct. 28, 1957, Levine was assigned male at birth. Levine grew up in nearby Wakefield, Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree, Levine attended Tulane University School of Medicine. Levine moved to New York City to train in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1993, Levine accepted a position at the Polyclinic Medical Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Three years later, in 1996, Levine began working at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey. Around 2010, Levine began publicly presenting herself as a woman.

In 2015, Levine was named Pennsylvania’s physician general. Three years later, she was named Pennsylvania’s secretary of health. As a state official, Levine focused her efforts on maternal health, immunization, and the opioid drug-abuse crisis.

.Credit: Bank of England

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

On what would have been his 109th birthday, the English mathematician, computer pioneer, and codebreaker Alan Turing is getting a very special gift: a 50-pound (£50) note. It’s not just an old £50 bank note, however. This bank note—and millions of others—will have his face on it.

Following a public nomination process in 2019, Turing was selected to be the new face of the £50 note. His image will replace images of the engineer and scientist James Watt and the industrialist and entrepreneur Matthew Boulton. An image of Elizabeth II will remain on the obverse side of the note, or the side that bears the principal design.

Turing was recognized not only for his important contributions to the development of electronic digital computers, but also for the discrimination he faced as a gay man. After World War II (1939-1945), Turing was prosecuted for his relationship with a man. He was given the choice of either imprisonment or probation with the condition of undergoing female hormone treatment. On June 7, 1954, at the age of 41, Turing took his own life.

In 2009, the British government issued an apology. Four years later, Turing was given a royal pardon, releasing him for the legal penalties for his crime. In 2017, the Turing Law was passed, which pardoned thousands of gay and bisexual men who had been convicted of sexual offenses that have since been eliminated.

Alan Turing (far right) was an English mathematician and computer pioneer. He made important contributions to the development of electronic digital computers.
Credit: Heritage-Images/Science Museum, London

Turing was born on June 23, 1912, in London. He studied mathematics at Cambridge University and Princeton University. In 1936, he developed a hypothetical computing machine—now called the Turing machine—that could, in principle, perform any calculation. The device had a long tape divided into squares on which symbols could be written or read. The tape head of the machine could move to the left or to the right. The machine also had a table to tell it the order in which to carry out operations. The Turing machine became an important model for determining what tasks a computer could perform. During World War II, Turing helped crack German codes.

After the war, he worked on a project to build the first British electronic digital computer. In 1950, he proposed a test for determining if machines might be said to “think.” This test, now called the Turing test, is often mentioned in discussions of artificial intelligence (AI).

Credit: © Phil Dent, Getty Images

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, many people are returning to sporting events. While fans cheer for their teams and order hot dogs from their seats, they will sing such classic songs as “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”

These sporting-event anthems were recorded by the rock group Queen, which gained popularity in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Leading this band—just as a captain leads a sports team—was the British rock singer, songwriter, and musician Freddie Mercury (1946-1991). He was known for his soaring, operatic vocals and theatrical stage presence.

Mercury was born on Sept. 5, 1946, in Zanzibar, to Parsi parents from India. His real name was Farrokh Bulsara. He was given the nickname Freddie while attending a British boarding school. Around this time, he began taking piano lessons. He later played in rock and roll bands. In 1964, Bulsara’s family moved to Middlesex, England.

In the late 1960′s, Bulsara attended Ealing Art College in London. Around this time, he befriended several musicians in a local band called Smile. They were lead singer and bassist Tim Staffell, guitarist Brian May, and drummer Roger Taylor. Inspired by the group, Bulsara began singing and playing piano with several rock groups. He joined Smile as lead singer after Staffell left the group. In 1970, encouraged by Bulsara, the group changed its name to Queen. Soon after, Bulsara changed his last name to Mercury. Bassist John Deacon joined the group in 1971.

The group’s first album, Queen, was released in 1973. The albums Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack were released in 1974. The group’s third album, A Night at the Opera (1975) was a breakthrough for the group. It featured the huge hit “Bohemian Rhapsody,” written by Mercury. It has been called one of the greatest songs in rock and popular music. The song is a six-minute musical suite, containing several movements, including a piano ballad section; a layered, operatic vocal passage; and a charging, hard rock segment. A groundbreaking promotional music video accompanied the song’s release. Years before the era of MTV, when music videos became commonplace, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” video greatly added to the song’s popularity.

Queen combined hard rock and flamboyant (showy) “glam” rock with layered guitars and intricate vocal harmonies. Queen’s many hits include “Bicycle Race” (1978); “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Killer Queen,” and “You’re My Best Friend” (all 1979); “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (both 1980); “Somebody to Love” (1981); “Under Pressure” (with the British singer David Bowie, 1981); and “I Want to Break Free” and “Radio Ga Ga” (both 1984).

Mercury also performed as a solo artist. He recorded the albums Mr. Bad Guy (1985) and Barcelona (1988). He also recorded a number of singles, including “Time” (1986) and “The Great Pretender” (1987).

Mercury died of complications from AIDS on Nov. 24, 1991. Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe
© Romain Biard, Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

The professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe is a champion both on and off the field. As a midfielder for the U.S. Women’s National Team, Rapinoe is known for her dynamic skills as a scorer and playmaker. In soccer, a playmaker controls a team’s offense, often coordinating scoring chances through precise passing. Off the field, Rapinoe—along with her soccer-playing twin sister, Rachael—runs soccer training clinics. She has also worked with a number of human rights organizations, including groups devoted to LGBTQ+ rights.

Rapinoe helped the U.S. Women’s National Team to win a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. In 2015 and again in 2019, she helped lead the United States to FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament championships. FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football). FIFA is the governing body for soccer, which is called football in many parts of the world. In 2019, Rapinoe was awarded the Golden Ball as the World Cup tournament’s best player. Rapinoe also played on the U.S. World Cup team in 2011 and the U.S. Olympic team in 2016. In 2019, Rapinoe earned the Best FIFA Women’s Player award as soccer’s best female player. The award replaced the Ballon d’Or in 2016.

Megan Anna Rapinoe was born on July 5, 1985, in Redding, California. She began playing soccer when she was young. In high school, Rapinoe played for Elk Grove Pride United, a team for players under age 19, and the Elk Grove Pride of the Women’s Premier Soccer League, a semiprofessional league in the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States. Rapinoe then played soccer at the University of Portland in Oregon, where she helped the team win a college national championship in 2005. She also played on U.S. national youth teams before debuting for the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2006. Injuries caused her to miss international tournaments in 2007 and 2008.

From 2009 through 2012, Rapinoe played in the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league and the United Soccer League’s W-League. Rapinoe also played for Olympique Lyonnais in France’s top women’s league. Since 2013, Rapinoe has played for the Seattle Reign FC (now OL Reign) of the National Women’s Soccer League, the top tier of women’s soccer in the United States.