Sarah McBride  (1990 - )

The first openly transgender person elected to a state senate in the United States, Sarah McBride won a seat in the Delaware Senate on November 3, 2020. She was also the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention when she spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. McBride was instrumental in lobbying the Delaware state legislature in 2013 to pass a law that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity.

Sarah McBride was born on August 9, 1990 to Sally and David McBride in Wilmington, Delaware, where she grew up. Interested in politics and government from a young age, McBride first volunteered on a campaign when she was 14. McBride led the Delaware chapter of Young Democrats by the age of 17. In 2008, McBride worked on Jack Markell’s successful campaign for governor. In 2010, McBride served as Beau Biden’s “body man” (driver and aide) when he ran for Delaware attorney general. 

In 2011, McBride ran for student body president at American University in Washington, D.C. At the time presenting as a cisgender, heterosexual man, McBride ran an elaborate and successful campaign, in preparation for a future career in politics. But the feeling of watching her life pass her by while she hid her authentic identity led McBride to the conclusion that she needed to live in a way that was true to herself. She came out to her family at Christmas 2011 and confided in close friends throughout the school year. At the end of her term as student body president in 2012, McBride published an editorial in the student newspaper announcing that she was transgender. She wrote of her longtime knowledge that she identified as a woman and wrestling with the feeling that her identity was incompatible with a political career. She thanked her family and friends for their acceptance and concluded the editorial: “I now know that my dreams and my identity are only mutually exclusive if I don’t try.” Just a few months later, McBride began an internship at the White House where she was the first openly transgender woman to work there in any role. 

McBride wanted to return to Delaware after graduating from American University, but she knew the state did not offer protections for discrimination based on gender identity. That meant a transgender person could be fired, denied housing, or refused service at a restaurant and would have no recourse available to them. So, McBride reached out to her friend, Governor of Delaware Jack Markell, to propose a law to change that. Governor Markell was on board and McBride lobbied the Delaware state legislature in support of the legislation throughout her senior year at American. McBride frequently met with legislators to advocate for the bill. She also testified on its behalf, sharing her personal story in the face of hostility and even outright threats from the bill’s opponents. The bill passed the legislature by a slim margin and Gov. Markell signed it into law in June 2013. McBride and others who fought for the bill later received the Order of the First State, the highest honor the Governor of Delaware can award.

In June 2012, McBride met attorney and LGBTQ health policy advocate Andrew Cray, a transgender man, at a White House reception. The two began a relationship a few months later and soon also became colleagues when McBride took a position at the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan, progressive policy institute. In the fall of 2013, Cray was diagnosed with oral cancer and began undergoing treatment while McBride cared for him. The following summer, as Cray’s cancer spread and he grew increasingly weak, the two married. Cray passed away five days after their wedding. McBride returned to her advocacy work with an even greater sense of urgency. She was angry that prejudice and social pressure prevented Cray from living more of his life as his true self and she was determined that others not feel the need to hide their identities.

McBride went on to work as national press secretary for Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. In April 2016, McBride gave a TED Talk entitled, “Gender assigned to us at birth should not dictate who we are.” In July 2016, she became the first openly transgender person to address a national party convention. At the Democratic Party’s convention in Philadelphia, McBride spoke proudly of her late husband’s advocacy efforts on behalf of healthcare for LGBTQ Americans and voiced her support for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. McBride also continued to work on issues in Delaware, lobbying state leaders to expand Medicaid and to pass legislation to protect at-risk youth from child abuse. In 2017, amidst the #MeToo movement, McBride spoke out about her experience as a survivor of sexual assault, telling of the additional challenges transgender individuals face with regard to sexual violence. In 2018, she published the book Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality. It describes her experiences advocating for LGBTQ equality as well as the story of her relationship with Cray. It also includes a foreword by President Joe Biden.

In 2020, McBride ran for a seat in the Delaware state senate, representing a district that runs from northern Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border. When she won that election on November 3, 2020, McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to an upper house of a state legislature. McBride stated of her victory: “It is my hope that a young LGBTQ kid here in Delaware or really anywhere in this country can look at the results and know that our democracy is big enough for them, too.”

Published June 2021.

Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women’s History (2020-22)

MLA – Brandman, Mariana. “Sarah McBride.” National Women’s History Museum, 2020. Date accessed.

Chicago – Brandman, Mariana. “Sarah McBride.” National Women’s History Museum. 2020. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sarah-mcbride 

 

Marsha P. Johnson  (1944-1992)

Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender women who was an LGBTQ rights activist and an outspoken advocate for trans people of color. Johnson spearheaded the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and along with Sylvia Rivera, she later established the Street Transvestite (now Transgender) Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group committed to helping homeless transgender youth in New York City. She was tragically found dead on July 6, 1992 at the age of 46. Her life has been celebrated in numerous books, documentaries and films.

Early Life and Drag Queen Stardom

Marsha P. Johnson was born Malcolm Michaels, Jr. on August 24, 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Johnson experienced a difficult childhood due to her Christian upbringing. She engaged in cross-dressing behavior at an early age but was quickly reprimanded. Johnson moved to Greenwich Village in New York City after graduating from high school. In New York, Marsha struggled to make ends meet. She was homeless and prostituted herself to make ends meet. However, she found joy as a drag queen amidst the nightlife of Christopher Street. Johnson designed all of her own costumes (mostly from thrift shops). She quickly became a prominent fixture in the LGBTQ community serving as a “drag mother” by helping homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth and touring the world as a successful drag queen with the Hot Peaches.

"I was no one, nobody, from Nowheresville until I became a drag queen. That's what made me in New York, that's what made me in New Jersey, that's what made me in the world." -Marsha P. Johnson

An eccentric woman known for her outlandish hats and glamorous jewelry, she was fearless and bold. Despite her difficulties with mental illness and numerous police encounters, whenever she was asked what the “P” in her name stood for and when people pried about her gender or sexuality, she quipped back with “pay it no mind.” Her forthright nature and enduring strength led her to speak out against injustices.

Stonewall Uprising

On June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street (the hub of the NYC Gay Community in the 1960s), things turned violent after a few LGBTQ people were arrested on questionable charges, handcuffed, and very publicly forced into police cars on the streets of NYC. The LGBTQ community was fed up with being targeted by the police and seeing these public arrests incited rioting that spilled over into the neighboring streets and lasted several days. These events have been collectively described as a “riot,” a “rebellion,” a “protest,” and an “uprising.” Whatever the label, this was certainly a watershed moment in LGBT history. Many eyewitnesses have identified Marsha as one of the main instigators of the uprising and thus, some have recognized her as the vanguard of the gay liberation movement in the United States.

Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)

As an African American trans woman, Johnson has consistently been overlooked both as a participant in the Stonewall uprising and more generally, LGBTQ activism. As the broader gay and lesbian movement shifted toward leadership from white cisgender men and women, trans people of color were swept to the outskirts of the movement. Despite this, following the events at Stonewall, Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and they became fixtures in the community, especially in their commitment to helping homeless transgender youth. STAR provided services — including shelter (the first was a trailer truck) — to homeless LGBTQ people in New York City, Chicago, California and England for a few years in the early 1970s but eventually disbanded.

Death and Tributes

Sadly, at the age of 46, on July 6, 1992, Johnson’s body was found in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers. The police ruled she had committed suicide despite claims from her friends and other members of the local community that she was not suicidal. Twenty-five years later, Victoria Cruz, a crime victim advocate of the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) re-opened the case. 

Documentary and Institute

Johnson’s story is featured in Pay It No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson (2012) and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) and Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2017). In 2015, The Marsha P. Johnson Institute was established. Its mission is to defend and protect the human rights of transgender and gender nonconforming communities. Marsha is honored as a Stonewall instigator, a drag queen, an Andy Warhol model, an actress and a revolutionary trans activist.

Citation Information

Article Title

Marsha P. Johnson Biography

Author

Biography.com Editors

Website Name

The Biography.com website

URL

https://www.biography.com/activist/marsha-p-johnson

Access Date

June 3, 2021

 

Audre Lorde  (1934-1992)

Poet and author Audre Lorde used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman and later, as a mother and person suffering from cancer. A prominent member of the women’s and LGBTQ rights movements, her writings called attention to the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which people from different walks of life could grow stronger together.

Audrey Geraldine Lorde was born on February 18, 1934 to Frederic and Linda Belmar Lorde, immigrants from Grenada. She was the youngest of three sisters and grew up in Manhattan. As a child, Lorde dropped the “y” from her first name to become Audre.

Lorde connected with poetry from a young age. She once commented, “I used to speak in poetry...when I couldn’t find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that’s what started me writing poetry.” She was around 12 or 13 at the time. She graduated from Hunter High School, where she edited the literary magazine. After an English teacher rejected one of her poems, Lorde submitted it to Seventeen magazine – it became her first professional publication.

After working a variety of jobs in New York and Connecticut, Lorde studied for a year at the National University of Mexico in Cuernavaca. It was there that she grew confident in her identity as both a lesbian and a poet. Lorde then earned her bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University. She worked as a librarian in New York City public schools from 1961-1968.

In 1962, Lorde married Edwin Rollins, a white, gay man, and they had two children, Elizabeth and Jonathan. Lorde and Rollins divorced in 1970.

During the 1960s, Lorde began publishing her poetry in magazines and anthologies, and also took part in the civil rights, antiwar, and women’s liberation movements. Lorde published her first volume of poems, The First Cities, in 1968. That same year, she earned a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and became the writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College, a historically Black college in Mississippi. There, she discovered her love of teaching and met Frances Clayton, a professor of psychology and her partner until 1989.

Lorde’s work was already notable for her strong expressions of African American identity, but her second anthology, Cables to Rage (1970), took on more overtly political themes, such as racism, sexism, and violence. It also included “Martha,” a poem that acknowledged her lesbianism. Her third collection, From a Land Where Other People Live (1973), was a finalist for a National Book Award for Poetry. Lorde’s work is characterized by its emphasis on matters of social and racial justice, as well as its authentic portrayal of queer sexuality and experience.

Lorde continued writing prolifically through the 1970s and 1980s, exploring the intersections of race, gender, and class, as well as examining her own identity within a global context. Her 1978 collection, The Black Unicorn, was inspired by a trip to Benin with her children. In it, she drew strength from a spiritual connection with the goddesses of African mythology. In 1982, Lorde released what she coined a “biomythography”: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Combining elements of history, biography, and myth, it told of Lorde’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance as a Black lesbian in her childhood and young adult years. Lorde’s 1984 collection, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, included her canonical essay, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” which called on feminists to acknowledge the many differences among women and to utilize them as a source of power rather than one of division.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977, Lorde found that the ordeals of cancer treatment and mastectomy were shrouded in silence for women, and found them even further isolating as a Black lesbian woman. Lorde felt that the narratives of coping and healing she did encounter were designed solely for white, heterosexual women. In an effort to combat this silence and to foster connection with other lesbians and women of color facing the same struggle, Lorde offered a raw portrait of her own pain, suffering, reflection, and hope in The Cancer Journals (1980). The book won the American Library Association’s Gay Caucus Book of the Year Award for 1981 and became a classic work of illness narrative.

Lorde’s advocacy on behalf of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community continued outside her literary career as well. In 1979, she was a prominent speaker at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In 1981, with Barbara Smith and several other writers, Lorde founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Kitchen Table was devoted to promoting feminists of color and their writings. Lorde was also a founding member of Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, an organization that advocated on behalf of women living under apartheid.

Lorde was a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Hunter College. She received many honors throughout her career including the 1990 Bill Whitehead Memorial Award and the 1991 Walt Whitman Citation of Merit, making her the Poet Laureate of the State of New York for 1991-1992. Her 1988 prose collection A Burst of Light won a Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award. Lorde earned honorary doctorates from Hunter College, Oberlin College, and Haverford College. In 2001, the Publishing Triangle association instituted the Audre Lorde Award for distinguished works of lesbian poetry. Lorde was posthumously elected to the American Poets Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 2020.              

Lorde’s cancer returned and she passed away in 1992. Shortly before her death, she participated in an African naming ceremony in which she took the name Gamba Adisa. Befitting the writer who continually explored and expressed her self-identity, it means “Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known.”

Published June 2021.

MLA – Brandman, Mariana. “Audre Lorde.” National Women’s History Museum, 2021. Date accessed.

Chicago – Brandman, Mariana. “Audre Lorde.” National Women’s History Museum. 2021. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/audre-lord

Malala Yousafzai  (1997-  )

At seventeen Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever Nobel Prize winner for her work in support of education for all girls.  She was born July 12, 1997, in the Swat District of northwest Pakistan to a Sunni Muslim family.  Her father Ziauddin Yousafzai was an education advocate himself and ran a private girls school in their village.  In her early years Yousafzai attended the school.

Encouraged by her father, Yousafzai, at the age of eleven, began writing an anonymous blog for the BBC.  She wrote under the byline of “Gul Makai” about her views on education and life under the threat of the Taliban.  Yousafzai continued to write as the Taliban took control of the area and issued edicts banning television and music, banning women from going shopping and limiting women’s education.  Many girls schools were blown up and consequently pupils stayed home for fear of the threat of harm.  Yousafzai and her father began receiving death threats for their outspoken views.

In 2012, Yousafzai’s story was featured in a New York Times documentary.  When her identity was revealed, the Taliban issued a fatwa (an Islamic religious decree) against her and her work and calling for her death.  On October 9, 2012, while on the bus going home from school, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a masked Taliban gunman.

Her father was convinced she would die although she survived the initial shooting.  Yousafzai’s vital organs were shutting down; she was in a coma; and she developed an infection.  On October 15, she was transported to Birmingham, England, to a hospital for treating military injuries.  She responded well to treatment there and, after a few days, came out of the coma.  On January 3, 2013, she was discharged from the hospital and moved to a temporary home in West Midlands, England.  By the time she had recovered, she had become an international symbol for children’s rights to education.

In her own words, this is how she explains her mission and life’s work.

 “It was then I knew I had a choice.  I could live a quiet life or I could make the most of this new life I had been given.  I determined to continue my fight until every girl could go to school.”

“With my father, who has always been my ally and inspiration, I established Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses.  In recognition of our work, I received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and became the youngest- ever Nobel laureate.”

Yousafzai entered the University of Oxford in 2018 to study philosophy, politics and economics.  She graduated in 2020. Today she travels the world to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination.  Through Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network they invest in developing educators and activists.

Toni Ko, a first-generation South Korean immigrant, made a name for herself in the business world as the founder of NYX Cosmetics and now helps fund and develop other women-run brands. Thanks to her work ethic and business savvy, Ko has been named one of Forbes magazine’s Richest Self-Made Women. 

Born in 1973, Ko moved to California from Dageu, South Korea with her family in 1986 when she was 13 years old. She did not speak English and described it as a very difficult situation, but credits the challenge with building her character and fostering her resilient nature. As a teenager, she learned the ins and outs of business working for her family’s perfume and cosmetics retail store after school and on weekends. Ko describes her mother, Elaine, as a “fantastic businesswoman.” The store did well and expanded to multiple locations. When she was 20, the family business turned to wholesale distribution. Ko gained experience managing accounts and selling to retailers, rather than directly to consumers. At the same time, Ko took note of the stark difference in quality between the inexpensive cosmetics brands she could afford and the high-end makeup brands to which she aspired. In 1999, at the age of 25, Ko leveraged her passion for makeup and her firsthand knowledge of the beauty supply industry to create her own line of department-store-quality cosmetics for drugstore prices, NYX Cosmetics. 

Ko started NYX with $250,000 in seed money from her parents. It began as a one-woman operation but Ko quickly grew the company through her savvy use of social media, recruiting influencers to tout her products and spur word-of-mouth promotion. NYX started with small product line of makeup pencils, but garnered $2 million in revenue during its first year. Ko named the company after the Greek goddess Nyx, a female personification of the night, powerful enough that even Zeus feared her. 

As NYX became a global brand under her leadership, Ko garnered recognition for her achievements in the industry. Ko earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Beauty Bus Foundation in 2013; the Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Asian Business Association in 2014; and the Leadership Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners, Los Angeles chapter, that same year. NYX was named the WWD Beauty Inc. Brand of the Year in 2013, an achievement Ko cites as one of her proudest moments in the beauty industry. NYX soon gained the attention of L’Oreal, which purchased the company in 2014 for a reported $500 million. At the time, NYX boasted worldwide distribution and a yearly revenue well over $100 million.  

In 2014, Ko started the Toni Ko Foundation. It supports organizations that care for children in need as well as those that focus on women’s empowerment. She sees financial independence as the key to liberation for women around the world and is dedicated to increasing the number of female business executives and entrepreneurs. Toward that end, Ko invests in women-owned businesses through her venture capital firm, Butter Ventures. Butter Ventures has invested in women-run companies such as digital signage software company Enplug, CBD brand Sagely, and feminine care wellness startup Rael.  

After a brief retirement, Ko decided to get back into the entrepreneurial game herself. Subject to a five-year non-compete agreement with L’Oreal that prevented her from launching any cosmetics lines, Ko looked to other industries. She recognized a gap in sunglasses offerings between high-end designer products and inexpensive store brands, one similar to the gap that she capitalized on in the cosmetics industry. Ko launched her sunglasses line, Thomas James LA (previously known as Perverse), in 2016. Priced between $30-$60 per pair, Thomas James LA frames are intended to be more stylish than store brands, but more affordable than designer sunglasses. Ko initially tried to establish a strong brick-and-mortar retail presence for the company, but the stores were not successful and Ko pivoted the line to focus on e-commerce. Despite this setback, Ko has described the effort as a valuable learning experience. 

In July 2019, once she was free to reenter the cosmetics industry, Ko founded Bespoke Beauty Brands, LLC. Bespoke is an incubator company that helps develop and launch beauty and wellness brands in partnership with influencers and entrepreneurs. Each product line is carefully curated to tailor to the individual’s specific brand. Bespoke’s first brand was a collaboration with Kim Chi, a finalist on season eight of RuPaul’s Drag Race, called Kim Chi Chic Beauty.  

Ko continues to be an inspiration to female entrepreneurs. Her advice to women is: “Stand your ground! Don’t let people, your surroundings, or events intimidate you. Speak up, speak loudly, and be demanding of what you want.” 

 

Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women's History | 2020-2022

MLA – Brandman, Mariana. “Toni Ko.” National Women’s History Museum, 2021. Date accessed. 

Chicago – Brandman, Mariana. “Toni Ko.” National Women’s History Museum. 2021. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/toni-ko 

“Toni Ko Accepts 2016 Women Making History Award.” National Women’s History Museum. October 11, 2016.   

Photo Credit: The National Women's History Museum by Getty Images | Todd Williamson