Celebrating LGBTQIA2S+ Innovators

Happy Pride Month!

At Galileo, we believe in envisioning and creating a better world. We are committed to being innovators who seek knowledge, lead with courage, and create space for continuous learning and reflection.

This Pride Month, to commemorate the incredible contributions of and acknowledge the injustices faced by the LGBTQIA2S+ community across the country and the world, we’ll be celebrating several courageous innovators who blazed trails and found their own path to making our world better:

Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, Johnson was a central figure in the LGBTQ movement and the Stonewall Uprising. She was an advocate for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness and trans people of color.
Sylvia Rivera, a Latina transgender woman, Rivera was a prominent figure in the Stonewall Uprising and was a persistent voice for LGBTQ people of color.
Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, worked to oppose discriminatory practices and sponsored legislation that protected LGBTQ rights.
James Baldwin, a Black gay writer and civil rights activist, made breakthroughs in the representation of gay characters and themes in popular literature, and was a determined advocate for social justice.

Did you know?

The Stonewall Uprising took place on June 28, 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The raid led to protests by LGBT people that lasted six days in neighboring streets. The Stonewall Uprising led to the creation of the gay liberation movement and the first Gay Pride Parade.

The Progress Pride Flag (below) was created by Daniel Quasar, a nonbinary artist (pronouns xe/xyr). It is a redesign of the original pride flag and includes representation of a wider spectrum of identities within the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Quasar’s design brings together the original multi-colored rainbow flag, the transgender pride flag, and augments them with black and brown stripes representing marginalized LGBTQIA2S+ communities of color, community members lost to HIV/AIDS, and those currently living with AIDS. Quasar also reshaped the new flag colors into a chevron to represent the need to continue to move forward.

Below you will find a non-exhaustive list that we have put together as we continue our learning journey this month and beyond. We have made sure to include resources that capture the lived experiences of LGBTQIA2S+ youth.