#PRIDE50

As one of the owners of the iconic Stonewall Inn, Stacy Lentz is both preserving the LGBTQ community's history and also working toward bettering its future.

During his tenure, Amit Paley has consistently built on The Trevor Project's existing tools to further increase its ability to help LGBTQ youth in crisis.

Through protest, advocacy, and the lesbian magazine The Ladder, Phyllis Lyon worked to secure representation and rights for the LGBTQ community.

Asia Kate Dillon, of Showtime's hit series "Billions," is the first nonbinary actor with a starring role on American TV.

Whether in politics, academia or the nonprofit world, David Johns is dedicated to making the world a better place for the black LGBTQ community.

Fred Sargeant was a leader in the Homophile Youth Movement and an organizer of the 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day gay pride march.

“There isn't a single black gay writer of literary fiction or nonfiction that has not been influenced by James Baldwin on some level," the Counter Narrative Project's Charles Stephens said.

Activist Del Martin,along with her long-time parter Phyllis Lyon, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, one of the first national lesbian organizations.

Demetre Daskalakis, the deputy commissioner at the NYC Department of Health, is credited with helping to drive down the city's HIV rate.

Earlier this year, Lightfoot made history as the first LGBTQ and black female mayor in America's third-largest city.

Lilly Singh, a Canadian-born YouTuber and comedian has been successfully building an online audience for nearly a decade, and now she’s taking that energy to TV.

After the kindness of strangers helped Seth Owen realize his dream of attending Georgetown University, he's now dedicated to giving back to others.

Rivera co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided housing and other forms of support to homeless LGBTQ youth.

"Pride means the freedom to be who I am, as I please, in whatever attire that pleases me ... and be respected for that," Miss Major told NBC News.

Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile's sixth studio album, “By the Way, I Forgive You," won three Grammy Awards earlier this year.

Karen Oliveto, the United Methodist Church's first lesbian bishop, said “For me, being an LGBTQ Christian is claiming my unique identity as a child of God."

Major League Soccer player Collin Martin is currently the only openly gay man playing in one of the major U.S. sports leagues.

Toby Jenkins, a former Baptist minister, has been advocating for LGBTQ people in the heartland for more than two decades.

Popular comedian Bowen Yang's career skyrocketed after he landed a writer gig last year on NBC's "Saturday Night Live."

Jerry Mallicoat, 58, has fought for LGBTQ rights in Ohio his entire adult life. Now, he’s helping LGBTQ elders lead active and fulfilled lives.

Joshua Burford is the co-founder of the Invisible Histories Project, a historical archive that has collected a trove of history from LGBTQ Southerners.

Army captain Alivia Stehlik, 32, testified before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel in Washington in February.

Patricio Manuel made boxing history in December, when he became the first transgender male to fight professionally in the United States.

Mikah Meyer took a three-year trek across the U.S. to visit all 419 national parks in a mission to honor his father and spread a message of inclusive Christianity.

When school officials told Drew Adams he couldn’t use the boy’s bathroom because he is transgender, he and his supportive mother fought back.

Through writing, performance art, event curation and public speaking, Alok Vaid-Menon advocates for transgender and gender-conforming communities.

In 1966, Mattachine Society member Dick Leitsch led a historic “sip-in” demonstration to protest New York laws that prevented gays from being served liquor.

Ivy Gibson-Hill founded the South Carolina-based nonprofit Gender Benders, an advocacy organization for trans people in the Southeastern U.S.

“It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience — it wasn't no damn riot,” the drag king and LGBTQ rights activist said of Stonewall.

As people suggested gays keep their heads down, Gittings "wanted to picket and be an activist and come out of the closet and be out in the sunshine."

Lorde was, in her own words, a "black, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, warrior." As an activist-author, she never shied away from difficult subjects.

Kay Tobin Lahusen, an early LGBTQ rights activist and photojournalist, took many of the most iconic images associated with the early "homophile" movement.

Kameny, one of the fathers of the LGBTQ rights movement, started fighting for gay rights more than a decade before the 1969 Stonewall rebellion.

His 1972 speech in before fellow members of the American Psychiatric Association is credited with helping homosexuality get declassified as a mental illness.

Nicole Maines made history last fall in the fourth season of CW's "Supergirl" as the first ever trans superhero on television.

Rustin was an LGBTQ and civil rights activist best known for being a key adviser to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Elaine Noble is the first openly gay person elected to statewide office. In 1974, she was elected to the Massachusetts General Assembly.

Bentley was a gender-bending performer during the Harlem Renaissance. According to the New York Times, she was "Harlem's most famous lesbian" in the 1930s.

Raymond Castro is remembered as one of the first people arrested during the 1969 Stonewall uprising that sparked the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.

Jorgensen, a U.S. Army veteran and Bronx native, was the first American woman to publicly announce her gender reassignment surgery.

Gilbert Baker is the seamster responsible for creating the most enduring symbol of the LGBTQ rights movement: the rainbow pride flag.