As Harvey Milk once said, “Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.”
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While the gay rights leader uttered those words decades ago, they remain true today. Milk became one of the country’s first out gay elected officials when he joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Then, within a year of taking office, he was assassinated.
The LGBTQ+ movement has made great strides since, but it is also facing great challenges. The federal government has been antagonistic toward transgender individuals, slashing funding, restricting access to care and barring them from military service. Earlier this year, the Trump administration took down the Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument, though it was put back up in April. Meanwhile, corporations are dropping support for Pride celebrations.
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City & State’s Pride Trailblazers features dozens of LGBTQ+ leaders in New York who are standing up for their rights and making their voices heard. This list, written and researched in partnership with journalist Cris Seda Chabrier, includes the first director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, a newly elected queer Assembly member from Queens and many other activists, advocates and executives on the front lines of the movement.
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