Ricky Martin (b.1971) is Puerto Rican musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most influential artists in the world, and has been credited for getting the Latin pop music genre to mainstream recognition. He has won two Grammy Awards, five Latin Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, two American Music Awards, three Latin American Music Awards, a Guinness World Record, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and many more awards.

After a long period of exploration and self-discovery, Martin publicly came out as gay in March 2010 via a message on his website stating, "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am." He married Syrian-Swedish painter Jwan Yosef in 2018 and the two have four children.

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) was a French painter in the 1800s who painted a lot of animals and landscapes. She had a license for wearing pants from the French government during a time period when it was illegal for women to wear pants.

Rosie O'Donnell (b. 1962) is an American comedian, actress, author, and television personality. She hosted her own daytime talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, between 1996 and 2002 which won several Emmy Awards.  She is an outspoken advocate for lesbian rights and gay adoption issues, and is a foster and adoptive mother. O'Donnell founded the For All Kids Foundation to help institute national standards for day care across the country and has been active in many other charities.

O'Donnell came out as a lesbian in 2002, saying that it is important to put a face to gays and lesbians, as well as use that attention to support equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community.

RuPaul, also known as RuPaul Charles (b. 1960) is an American drag queen, television host, and musician.  RuPaul gained international fame as a drag queen with the release of his debut single, "Supermodel (You Better Work)". In 2009 he started the show he is most known for, RuPaul's Drag Race, which has received 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, three GLAAD Media Awards, a Tony Award, and many more.

He and his husband, Georges LeBar, were married in 2017. They are very supportive of polyamory and have an open marriage.

Ryan O'Connell is an American disability rights activist, actor, comedian, and writer. He is most known for his memoir I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves and his television show Special. He is openly gay and also has cerebral palsy. 

Sally Ride (1951-2012) was an American astronaut and physicist.  She joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman (and third woman ever) to fly in space in 1983. Ride took part in multiple missions and spent a total of more than 343 hours in space before leaving NASA in 1987. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 2013 for her service.

Ride met her long-term partner, former professional tennis player Tam O'Shaughnessy, while married to her ex-husband, fellow astronaut Steven Hawley. After her divorce, Ride and O'Shaughnessy were together until Ride's death in 2012. After Ride's death, O'Shaughnessy started the science education company Sally Ride Science which was relaunched as a nonprofit, Sally Ride Science at UC Sand Diego, in 2015.

Sarah Paulson (b. 1974) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in American Horror Story, Ratched, Ocean's 8, and Grey's Anatomy. She has won several accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Paulson refers to her sexuality as a "fluid situation."

Sasha Colby (b. 1985) is an American drag queen and beauty pageant competitor. She is the most recent winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, a title known as America's Next Drag Superstar. In 2012 she won Miss Continental, which is a drag beauty pageant. She often performs in Sasha Velour's Nightgowns drag show.

Colby is a trans woman and is the drag mother to Kerri Colby, a season 14 contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Sasha Velour (b. 1987) is an American drag queen, artist, and author. She is most known for winning season nine of RuPaul's Drag Race.  Her lip-sync  performance on the Drag Race finale to Whitney Houston's "So Emotional" is regarded as one of the best  lip syncs of all time during the shows run and one of the best television moments of the last 10 years.

Velour hosts a monthly drag show Nightgowns in New York City. She often performs drag bald, as a tribute to her mother who died of cancer in 2015. In 2023 her book The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag was published.  Velour is gender-fluid and uses she/her pronouns in drag and she/they pronouns out of drag. 

Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) was a Jewish-American composer and lyricist. His best known works include Company, Into The Woods, Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, and West Side Story. During his life he won numerous accolades including 8 Tony Awards, an Academy Award, 8 Grammy Awards, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has a theater named for him both on Broadway and in the West End of London.

Sondheim started speaking about being gay in the 1970s and was open about the fact that he didn't fall in love until his 60s. He passed away at age 91 in November 2021, in the arms of his husband. 

Stephanie Beatriz (b. 1981) is an American actress known for her roles in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, In the Heights, Encanto, and Hazbin Hotel. She realized she was bisexual at a young age, but experienced biphobia and bi-erasure from her family and friends. She publicly came out in 2016.

Stormé DeLarverie (1920 – 2014) was an American activist and drag king. Stormé was biracial and androgynous and could pass as ether a man or woman, black or white. She built this into her drag persona and performed at the Jewel Box Revue, North America's first racially integrated drag revue. 

According to eyewitnesses, her scuffle with police was the spark the ignited the Stonewall uprising. She is known as "the Rosa Parks of the gay community" and spent her life working with, for, and in the LGBTQ community.

Sylvia Rivera (1951 – 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist and self-identified drag queen. Sylvia co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women, with close friend Marsha P. Johnson. The two fought for the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Rivera was a loud advocate for LGBTQIA+ causes both in New York and nationally. 

Tammy Baldwin (b. 1962) is an American lawyer and progressive politician.  Baldwin, who is a lesbian, became the first openly LGBT woman elected to the House of Representatives and to the Senate in 1999 and 2013, respectively. She supports Medicare for All, LGBTQ rights, and fun control, and opposed the Iraq War.

Tegan Quin (b. 1980) and Sara Quin (b. 1980) are Grammy-nominated, Canadian musicians and twin sisters. Both are openly gay and married, and are active advocates for LGBTQIA+ equality, music education, literacy, and cancer research. They were awarded the Outstanding Music Artist at the 2014 GLAAD Media Awards.

Tessa Thompson (b. 1983) is an American actress known for her roles in Dear White People, Westworld, the Creed film series, and as Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thompson came out in 2018 as liking both men and women, but chooses not to label herself as bisexual.

Wanda Sykes (b. 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. She is known for her work on The Chris Rock Show, CBS's The New Adventures of Old Christine, ABC's Black-ish, and her many voice acting roles in children's movies (Over the Hedge, Rio, Ice Age). She came out in 2008 as a lesbian at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8. She and her wife, Alex Niedbalski, were married a month before she came out; the two are still married and have two children.

Wanda Sykes (b. 1972) is an American comedian , television host, actor, and singer. He is most known for his work on the improv television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Let's Make A Deal. He has won five Emmy Awards and has been nominated for a Grammy Award. In August 2023 he came out as pansexual.  

William Dorsey Swann (1858-1925) was an American LGBTQIA+ activist. Born into slavery, he was the first known person to self-identify as a "queen of drag." He created the House of Swann, a group that consisted of former slaves and rebel drag queens in the 1880s. He organized drag balls that were held in secret in Washington D.C, with most of the attendees men who were also formerly enslaved.  These balls were often raided by police with Swann usually arrested. After his 1896 arrest he request a pardon from the President. While this request was decided, it made him the  first American on record who pursued legal and political action to defend the LGBTQIA+ community's right to gather.