WMiriam Ben-Shalom is an American educator, activist and former Staff Sergeant in the United States Army. After being discharged from the military for homosexuality in 1976, she successfully challenged her discharge in court and returned to military service in 1987—the first openly gay person to be reinstated after being discharged under the military's policy excluding homosexuals from military service. She served until 1990 when the Army succeeded in terminating her service after prolonged judicial proceedings.
WVernon E. "Copy" Berg was U.S. Naval Academy graduate and artist. He was the first Naval Academy alumnus to actively fight the policies against homosexuality in the services. After Mr. Berg's suit against the Navy, which had given him an other than honorable discharge as an ensign in 1976, the armed forces adopted a policy of generally granting honorable discharges to homosexuals.
WMargarethe "Grethe" Cammermeyer served as a colonel in the Washington National Guard and became a gay rights activist.
WDan Choi is an American former infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq War during 2006–2007. He became an LGBT rights activist following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009 and publicly challenged America's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which forbade lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) service members from serving openly.
WJase Daniels is a United States Navy linguist who was discharged from the military twice under the policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). Daniels served from 2001–2005 and again from 2006–2007. After coming out in Stars and Stripes, a newspaper published under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Defense, Daniels challenged the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that forbade gay and lesbian service members from serving openly. His case attracted attention in such major U.S. media outlets as Newsweek and the New York Times. Daniels returned to active duty in the United States Navy on December 12, 2011, and is believed to be one of the first servicemembers, and perhaps the first, to return to active duty following the end of restrictions on service by openly gay and lesbian servicemembers in the U.S. Armed Forces.
WStephen Donaldson, born Robert Anthony Martin Jr and also known by the pseudonym Donny the Punk, was an American bisexual political activist. He is best known for his pioneering activism in LGBT rights and prison reform, and for his writing about punk rock and subculture.
WThomas Anthony Dooley III was an American physician who worked in Southeast Asia at the outset of American involvement in the Vietnam War. While serving as a physician in the United States Navy and afterwards, he became known for his humanitarian and anti-communist political activities up until his early death from cancer. After his death, the public learned that he had been recruited as an intelligence operative by the Central Intelligence Agency, and numerous descriptions of atrocities by the Viet Minh in his book Deliver Us From Evil had been fabricated.
WFelicia "Flames" Elizondo is an American transgender woman with a long history of activism on behalf of the LGBT community. She was a regular at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco during the time of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, a historic LGBT community uprising.
WHazel Elizabeth "Betty" Hester was an American correspondent of influential twentieth-century writers, including Flannery O'Connor and Iris Murdoch. Hester wrote several short stories, poems, diaries, and philosophical essays, none of which were published.
WMarvin Liebman was an American conservative activist and fundraiser, and later in his life, a gay rights advocate.
WTechnical Sergeant Leonard Philip Matlovich was an American Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays, and perhaps the best-known openly gay man in America in the 1970s next to Harvey Milk. His fight to stay in the United States Air Force after coming out of the closet became a cause célèbre around which the gay community rallied. His case resulted in articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, numerous television interviews, and a television movie on NBC. His photograph appeared on the cover of the September 8, 1975, issue of Time magazine, making him a symbol for thousands of gay and lesbian servicemembers and gay people generally. Matlovich was the first named openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine. According to author Randy Shilts, "It marked the first time the young gay movement had made the cover of a major newsweekly. To a movement still struggling for legitimacy, the event was a major turning point." In October 2006, Matlovich was honored by LGBT History Month as a leader in the history of the LGBT community.
WJene Newsome was a United States Air Force sergeant who was honorably discharged after 9 years of service under the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. She was outed by the Rapid City Police Department on November 24, 2009 after they saw an Iowa marriage license on her kitchen table. This raised questions about third party outings under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
WAngelica Ross (born 1980/1981 is an American businesswoman, actress, and transgender rights advocate. A self-taught computer coder, she went on to become founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises, a firm that helps employ transgender people in the tech industry.
WPerry Watkins was an African-American gay man, one of the first servicemembers to challenge the ban against homosexuals in the United States military.
WAnthony “Tony” Christopher Woods an American military veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, who was discharged from the United States Army in 2008 for violating the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. In 2009, Woods ran for U.S. Congress in California's 10th congressional district to fill a vacant seat, in a bid to become the first openly gay African American in Congress. He placed 4th, receiving 8% of a special election vote on September 1, 2009, behind John Garamendi, Mark DeSaulnier, and Joan Buchanan. He was part of the 2011-2012 Class of White House Fellows.