As the Black Lives Matter Movement gains unprecedented traction and members of the LGBT+ community fight for their health care rights at the national level, it’s critical to recognize the figures who paved the initial steps in the LGBT+ movement: Black queer trailblazers.

As an openly bisexual man during the Harlem Renaisance, Nungent challenged norms by cultivating the intersection of sexuality and race. His work “Smoke, Lilies, and Jade” was the first openly-gay paper written by a Black man and pioneered discussions of sexuality.

As a self-identified drag queen, Johnson was an instrumental figure in the Stonewall riots of 1969, a LGBT+ uprising in response to police raids of a queer bar. Johnson was a prominent activist and stood at the forefront of the riots which sparked the acceptance of the queer movement.

In 1999, Wilson, an openly gay man, designed the Black AIDS Institute, which aims to educate Black neighborhoods on AIDS while erasing the stigma around Black gay men. Wilson challenged societal expectations which commonly discouraged Black men from coming out.

Winning 70% of her constituents' vote, Jenkins earned a spot as a member of the Minneapolis City Council in late 2017 as she became the first openly Black transgender woman in public office. In addition to being a transgender advocate, Jenkins helped create the Minneapolis Race Equity Subcommittee and is a published poet.

Within the LGBT+ community, Black pioneers facilitated important discussions which changed societal expectations and ultimately legislation. Now more than ever, it’s time we recognize them.