| By Carol Brennan |
October is an especially bountiful time to catch up with new entries added to Gale In Context: Biography, each of which aims to reflect the mission of LGBT History Month (also known as LGBTQ+ History Month) to highlight both the sacrifices and the progress of previous decades. While Gale In Context: Biography is regularly updated with essays and comprehensive career overviews on daring new luminaries from the worlds of culture, politics, and social activism, we also strive to serve as a resource for learning more about recently departed LGBTQ+ Americans whose courage and achievements are only now emerging into the light.
Exemplifying the latter category is the story of the gifted portrait painter and muralist LeRoy Foster (1925–1993), known as “the Michelangelo of Detroit.” Rediscovered thanks to the curators of the 2023 exhibition Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Foster was an artist of consummate skill whose talent for capturing the heroic dynamism of Black Detroit was largely forgotten after he died, destitute and a double amputee, in 1993. Over the course of his long career, Foster worked with other Black contemporary artists in the city to increase representation in the city’s arts scene, but was also active in the underground drag scene of 1950s-era Detroit, where he performed as Martini Marti.
Another noteworthy name from this era is Bayard Rustin (1912–1987), an early and important leader in the civil rights movement who was the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Raised in the Quaker (Society of Friends) faith, Rustin was jailed for his antiwar activities in the 1940s, but his work with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) brought him into the orbit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) with whom he organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. Rustin then became the target of white segregationists in the South, who attempted to discredit him by publicizing a 1953 arrest in California and the two months he spent in jail on a charge of what was then called “sex perversion.” Even some senior figures in the SCLC and Black ministers in northern cities aligned with it were apprehensive about Rustin’s suitability for a leadership role in the movement; for this reason, Rustin was obliged to resign as Dr. King’s assistant. However, Rustin’s talent for organizing was unmatched, and Dr. King would later task him with organizing the crucial logistical details for August 28, 1963, when Dr. King delivered his pivotal “I Have a Dream” speech.
Newer additions to Gale In Context: Biography reveal the range of other hardworking, high-achieving Americans who have recently attained firsts in LGBTQ+ history. They include labor activist and Democratic Party strategist Laphonza Butler (born 1979), appointed to serve the remaining months of the term of the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. Butler, a champion in the Fight for $15 campaign to raise the minimum wage, is the first Black LGBTQ+ person to serve in the U.S. Senate.
In the entertainment world, Broadway triple threat Ariana DeBose (born 1991) in 2022 became the first openly queer person of color to win an Academy Award after appearing in the film adaptation of the musical West Side Story. That same year, screenwriter and comedian Billy Eichner (born 1978) cowrote and starred in Bros, the feature film hailed as Hollywood’s first gay rom-com. At the 2023 Tony Awards, former Glee star Alex Newell (born 1992) became the first nonbinary winner of an acting honor, for the musical Shucked, and made history at the event along with another nonbinary awardee that night, J. Harrison Ghee (born 1989), who won for Best Actor in a Musical for their performance in the revival of Some Like It Hot. The 2023 Grammy Awards also delivered a major milestone moment for LGBTQ+ representation when German-born singer Kim Petras (born 1992) became the first trans woman to win a Grammy, sharing it with Sam Smith in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for their number-one single “Unholy.”
We’re hopeful about returning in October of 2025 with another list of LGBTQ+ trailblazers recently added to Gale In Context: Biography, but the range of amazing milestones can be explored year-round in its landmark titles available online, among them the Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America and Gay & Lesbian Biography.
About the Author
Carol Brennan has been writing biographical entries for Cengage/Gale since 1993. If she’s not writing, she is either at yoga or walking her dachshund. Carol consumes an alarming volume of podcasts and audiobooks weekly.