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Presidents, prime ministers, and senior government leaders

• Jóhanna
  Sigurðardóttir
  — Former prime minister of Iceland; generally recognized as the world’s
  first openly lesbian head of government.
• Xavier Bettel — Former prime
  minister of Luxembourg; openly gay.
• Leo Varadkar — Former
  taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland; Ireland’s first openly gay head of
  government.
• Elio Di Rupo — Former prime
  minister of Belgium; openly gay.
• Gabriel Attal — Former prime
  minister of France; France’s first openly gay prime minister.
• Ana Brnabić
  — Former prime minister of Serbia; openly lesbian.
• Edgars Rinkēvičs — President of
  Latvia; came out publicly as gay in 2014.
• Pete Buttigieg — Former mayor,
  presidential candidate, Navy veteran, and U.S. secretary of
  transportation; openly gay.
• Richard Grenell — Diplomat and
  former acting director of national intelligence; openly gay.
• Karine Jean-Pierre — Former White
  House press secretary; openly lesbian.

U.S. lawmakers and elected officials

• Harvey Milk — San Francisco
  supervisor and one of America’s most influential early openly gay elected
  officials.
• Barney Frank — Former
  Massachusetts congressman; one of the first members of Congress to come
  out voluntarily while serving.
• Gerry Studds — Massachusetts
  congressman; first sitting member of Congress to publicly identify as gay.
• Jared Polis — Colorado
  governor and former congressman; first openly gay man elected governor of
  a U.S. state.
• Tammy Baldwin — U.S. senator
  from Wisconsin; first openly lesbian senator and first openly gay or
  lesbian person elected to the Senate.
• Ritchie Torres — New York
  congressman; one of the first openly gay Black and Latino members of
  Congress.
• Robert Garcia — California
  congressman and former Long Beach mayor; openly gay.
• Mark Takano — California
  congressman; the first openly gay person of color elected to Congress.
• David Cicilline — Former Rhode
  Island congressman and Providence mayor; openly gay.
• Sean Patrick
  Maloney
  — Former New York congressman; openly gay.
• Angie Craig — Minnesota
  congresswoman; openly lesbian.
• Becca Balint — Vermont
  congresswoman; the first woman and openly gay person to represent Vermont
  in Congress.
• Annise Parker — Former Houston
  mayor; the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major American city.
• Toni Atkins — California
  legislative leader; openly lesbian.
• Todd Gloria — San Diego mayor
  and former California legislator; openly gay.

The LGBTQ Victory Institute reported 1,334 known openly LGBTQ elected officials in the United States as of May 5, 2025, illustrating how much representation has increased while remaining below the community’s estimated share of the population. LGBTQ Victory Institute’s Out for America report

Hollywood actors, directors, and television personalities

• Sir Ian McKellen — Actor known for
  The Lord of the Rings, X-Men, and Shakespearean theater;
  longtime gay-rights advocate.
• George Takei — Star Trek
  actor, author, and activist.
• Neil Patrick
  Harris
  — Actor known for How I Met Your Mother and Broadway.
• Jim Parsons — Actor best
  known for The Big Bang Theory.
• Matt Bomer — Actor known for
  White Collar, Fellow Travelers, and The Normal Heart.
• Jonathan Bailey — British actor
  known for Bridgerton, Fellow Travelers, and Wicked.
• Colman Domingo — Actor, writer,
  and director known for Rustin and Sing Sing.
• Billy Porter — Actor and
  singer known for Pose and Broadway’s Kinky Boots.
• Nathan Lane — Stage and
  screen actor known for The Producers and The Birdcage.
• Andrew Scott — Irish actor
  known for Sherlock, Fleabag, and All of Us Strangers.
• Luke Evans — Welsh actor and
  singer.
• Zachary Quinto — Actor known for
  Star Trek and American Horror Story.
• Cheyenne Jackson — Actor and
  singer.
• Dan Levy — Actor and
  creator of Schitt’s Creek.
• Lee Daniels — Director and
  producer of Precious, The Butler, and Empire.
• Ryan Murphy — Television
  writer and producer behind Glee, Pose, and American
  Horror Story.
• Pedro Almodóvar — Celebrated
  Spanish filmmaker.
• Russell T Davies — Welsh
  television writer behind Queer as Folk and major eras of Doctor
  Who.
• Jodie Foster — Academy
  Award-winning actress and director; publicly acknowledged her wife and her
  identity in major public appearances.
• Cynthia Nixon — Actress,
  activist, and former New York political candidate; identifies as queer and
  has spoken publicly about her relationship with her wife.
• Wanda Sykes — Comedian and
  actress; publicly came out as a lesbian in 2008.
• Lily Tomlin — Actress and
  comedian; married to writer Jane Wagner.
• Jane Lynch — Actress known
  for Glee and Best in Show.
• Kate McKinnon — Comedian and
  former Saturday Night Live cast member; openly lesbian.
• Sarah Paulson — Award-winning
  actress; publicly identifies as part of the LGBTQ community.
• Kristen Stewart — Actress and
  director; publicly identifies as queer.
• Laverne Cox — Actress and
  transgender-rights advocate; has publicly discussed dating men. Her
  transgender identity is distinct from sexual orientation.

Music stars

• Sir Elton John — Singer,
  composer, and founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
• George Michael — Singer and
  songwriter; came out publicly as gay in 1998.
• Ricky Martin — Puerto Rican
  singer and actor; came out publicly in 2010.
• Lil Nas X — Rapper and
  singer; came out publicly as gay in 2019.
• Adam Lambert — Singer and
  longtime lead vocalist for Queen’s touring performances.
• Troye Sivan — Singer,
  songwriter, and actor.
• Clay Aiken — Singer,
  television personality, and political candidate.
• Lance Bass — Member of
  NSYNC; came out publicly in 2006.
• Rob Halford — Lead singer of
  Judas Priest; a major openly gay figure in heavy metal.
• Orville Peck — Country
  musician who is openly gay.
• Brandi Carlile — Grammy-winning
  singer-songwriter; openly lesbian.
• Melissa Etheridge — Grammy-winning
  rock singer; came out publicly in 1993.
• k.d. lang — Canadian
  singer; came out publicly as a lesbian in 1992.
• Tracy Chapman —
  Singer-songwriter whose relationships with women have been publicly
  documented, although she is notably private.
• Hayley Kiyoko — Singer and
  actress; openly lesbian.
• Tegan and Sara
  Quin
  — Identical twin musicians; both openly gay.
• Janis Ian —
  Singer-songwriter and author; openly lesbian.
• Dusty Springfield — British singer
  who publicly acknowledged relationships with women, although terminology
  surrounding her identity varied.
• Lesley Gore — Singer of “It’s
  My Party”; came out publicly as a lesbian later in life.
• Sylvester — Influential gay
  disco singer and gender-nonconforming performer.
• Cole Porter — Celebrated
  American composer and songwriter; married to a woman but extensively
  documented as having relationships with men.

Sports stars

• Billie Jean King — Tennis champion
  and equality advocate; publicly came out as a lesbian in 1981.
• Martina
  Navratilova
  — One of history’s greatest tennis players; longtime lesbian-rights
  advocate.
• Megan Rapinoe — World
  Cup-winning U.S. soccer player and Olympic gold medalist.
• Sue Bird — WNBA and
  Olympic basketball legend; married to Megan Rapinoe.
• Brittney Griner — WNBA and
  Olympic basketball star; openly gay.
• Sheryl Swoopes — WNBA pioneer
  and Olympic gold medalist; came out publicly in 2005.
• Diana Taurasi — WNBA and
  Olympic basketball champion; married to former player Penny Taylor.
• Abby Wambach — World
  Cup-winning soccer player and Olympic champion.
• Tom Daley — British Olympic
  diving champion; publicly identifies as gay.
• Gus Kenworthy — Olympic
  freestyle skier and actor; openly gay. Olympics.com profile
• Adam Rippon — Olympic figure
  skater and television personality; openly gay.
• Johnny Weir — Olympic figure
  skater and commentator; openly gay.
• Jason Collins — First active
  male athlete in one of the major U.S. professional team-sports leagues to
  come out as gay.
• Carl Nassib — First active
  NFL player to publicly come out as gay.
• Michael Sam — First openly
  gay player drafted by an NFL team.
• Robbie Rogers — Former Major
  League Soccer player; one of the first openly gay men to play in a major
  North American professional sports league.
• Josh Cavallo — Australian
  professional soccer player who came out publicly as gay.
• Jake Daniels — English
  professional soccer player who came out publicly as gay.
• Ian Roberts — Australian
  rugby league star and early openly gay male professional athlete.
• Dutee Chand — Indian sprinter
  who publicly disclosed that she was in a same-sex relationship. Olympics.com biography
• Renée Richards — Tennis player
  and physician; a transgender pioneer. Gender identity and sexual
  orientation should not be treated as the same thing.

Military members and veterans

• Leonard Matlovich — Decorated U.S.
  Air Force Vietnam veteran who deliberately challenged the military’s ban
  on gay service members in 1975.
• Perry Watkins — U.S. Army
  veteran who successfully fought his discharge for being gay.
• Margarethe
  Cammermeyer
  — Decorated Army and National Guard officer whose legal battle challenged
  the exclusion of lesbians and gay men.
• Miriam Ben-Shalom — U.S. Army
  veteran and early campaigner against the military’s gay-service ban.
• Eric Alva — Marine Corps
  veteran and the first U.S. service member seriously wounded in the Iraq
  War; later became a prominent gay-rights advocate.
• Sue Fulton — U.S. Army
  veteran and West Point graduate; helped campaign against “Don’t Ask, Don’t
  Tell.”
• Tammy Smith — Army officer
  who became the first openly gay or lesbian flag officer in the U.S.
  military.
• Tracey Hepner — Air Force
  veteran and military-family advocate; wife of General Tammy Smith.
• Pete Buttigieg — Navy Reserve
  intelligence officer and Afghanistan veteran.
• Caroline Menjivar — Marine Corps
  veteran and California legislator; identifies as queer.
• Gina Ortiz Jones — Iraq War
  veteran and former Air Force officer; openly lesbian.
• Frank Kameny — World War II
  Army veteran and astronomer who became one of America’s foundational
  gay-rights leaders after the federal government dismissed him because he
  was gay.
• Harvey Milk — Served in the
  U.S. Navy before becoming an elected official and gay-rights leader.

Military pioneers are especially important because, until repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2011, openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans could be discharged merely for being open about who they were.

Writers, poets, and artists

• Oscar Wilde — Irish
  playwright and author imprisoned under Britain’s laws against male
  homosexual conduct.
• James Baldwin — American
  novelist, essayist, civil-rights intellectual, and author of Giovanni’s
  Room.
• Tennessee Williams — Playwright of A
  Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
• Truman Capote — Author of Breakfast
  at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood.
• Christopher
  Isherwood
  — Novelist whose work inspired Cabaret.
• E. M. Forster — British
  novelist and author of the posthumously published gay novel Maurice.
• Langston Hughes — Major Harlem
  Renaissance poet; many scholars discuss same-sex themes in his work, but
  he never publicly defined his sexuality, so he should not be labeled with
  certainty.
• Walt Whitman — Poet whose
  writing celebrates intense love between men; historians debate modern
  labels, so “gay” should be applied cautiously.
• Audre Lorde — Black lesbian
  poet, feminist, educator, and civil-rights activist.
• Gertrude Stein — American writer
  who shared her life with Alice B. Toklas.
• Adrienne Rich — Influential
  lesbian poet and feminist thinker.
• Lorraine Hansberry — Playwright of A
  Raisin in the Sun who privately identified as a lesbian and wrote in
  support of lesbian rights.
• Keith Haring — Gay artist and
  AIDS activist.
• David Hockney — Influential
  British painter whose work frequently depicts gay life.
• Robert
  Mapplethorpe
  — Photographer whose work explored male beauty, sexuality, and gay
  culture.
• Andy Warhol — Artist and
  filmmaker; his sexuality and relationships with men are extensively
  documented.

Scientists, scholars, and medical pioneers

• Alan Turing — Mathematician
  and wartime codebreaker whose work helped defeat Nazi Germany; prosecuted
  by Britain for a relationship with another man.
• Sally Ride — First American
  woman in space; her longtime relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy was
  publicly confirmed after Ride’s death.
• Bruce Voeller — Biologist and
  gay-rights activist who helped establish the National Gay Task Force and
  promoted use of the term AIDS.
• Frank Kameny — Astronomer
  whose dismissal from federal employment helped turn him into a pioneering
  activist.
• John E. Fryer — Gay
  psychiatrist whose disguised 1972 speech helped persuade psychiatry to
  stop classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder.
• Magnus Hirschfeld — German
  physician and pioneering researcher and advocate for sexual minorities.
• Ben Barres — Stanford
  neuroscientist and openly transgender man; again, transgender identity is
  not itself a sexual orientation.
• George Washington
  Carver
  — Occasionally described as gay by modern writers, but the evidence is
  inconclusive; he should not be presented as definitely gay.

Business, news, and media

• Tim Cook — Apple CEO;
  became the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
• David Geffen — Entertainment
  executive and philanthropist; openly gay.
• Peter Thiel — Technology
  entrepreneur and investor; openly gay.
• Sam Altman — Technology
  executive; openly gay.
• Anderson Cooper — CNN journalist
  and television host; openly gay.
• Rachel Maddow — Television
  journalist and political commentator; openly lesbian.
• Don Lemon — Television
  journalist; openly gay.
• Robin Roberts — Television
  broadcaster; publicly acknowledged her longtime female partner in 2013.
• Jonathan Capehart — Journalist and
  television commentator; openly gay.
• Andy Cohen — Television host
  and producer; openly gay.
• Nate Silver — Statistician
  and political analyst; openly gay.
• Jann Wenner — Co-founder of Rolling
  Stone; publicly discussed his sexuality and relationships with men.

Religious leaders

• Gene Robinson — Episcopal
  bishop; the first openly gay, non-celibate priest elected a bishop in the
  worldwide Anglican Communion.
• Mary Glasspool — Episcopal
  bishop and openly lesbian religious leader.
• Troy Perry — Gay minister
  who founded the Metropolitan Community Churches.
• Archbishop Carl
  Bean
  — Gay minister, AIDS activist, and founder of the Unity Fellowship Church
  Movement.
• Malcolm Boyd — Episcopal
  priest, author, and early openly gay Christian clergyman.
• Rabbi Denise Eger — Prominent
  lesbian Reform rabbi.
• Rabbi Steven
  Greenberg
  — Widely recognized as the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi.
• Bishop Yvette
  Flunder
  — Openly lesbian minister and founder of the City of Refuge United Church
  of Christ.

Civil-rights and LGBTQ-history leaders

• Bayard Rustin — Gay
  civil-rights strategist who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
• Frank Kameny — Founder of the
  Mattachine Society of Washington and a central figure in ending
  discrimination in federal employment.
• Barbara Gittings — Lesbian
  activist who helped challenge the psychiatric classification of
  homosexuality.
• Del Martin and
  Phyllis Lyon
  — Founders of the Daughters of Bilitis, an early American lesbian
  organization.
• Harry Hay — Founder of the
  Mattachine Society.
• Lilli Vincenz — Filmmaker and
  pioneering lesbian activist.
• Larry Kramer — Writer and
  co-founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP.
• Vito Russo — Film historian,
  author of The Celluloid Closet, and AIDS activist.
• Gilbert Baker — Gay artist who
  created the rainbow Pride flag.
• Edith Windsor — Plaintiff whose
  Supreme Court victory helped overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
• Jim Obergefell — Lead plaintiff
  in the Supreme Court case establishing nationwide marriage equality.
• Marsha P. Johnson — Gay liberation
  and transgender-rights figure associated with the Stonewall era.
• Sylvia Rivera — Latina
  transgender activist and advocate for homeless LGBTQ youth.

The Library of Congress preserves extensive collections connected to pioneers including Frank Kameny, Lilli Vincenz, Bayard Rustin, and the organizers of the first Pride marches. Its history explains how Pride developed from protest against government hostility, discriminatory laws, housing and employment discrimination, and police mistreatment. Library of Congress LGBTQ activism collection and Library of Congress Pride Month history

The most important lesson from these names is that gay and lesbian people have always contributed to society—even during periods when being honest could mean imprisonment, dismissal, public humiliation, or violence. Their accomplishments belong not only to LGBTQ history but to the history of government, science, art, military service, religion, sports, and human rights.