Pop Quiz: Ten Famous, Influential and / or Historic LGBTQ People

July 02, 2021

Each week I set out to research and document ten “fun facts” on a topic loosely based on the two books I’ve reviewed that week.  “Loosely” being the operative word. 

This week I did a double review on Tuesday, of two nonfiction books by gay authors – Gay Like Me by Richie Jackson and Dear America by Jose Antonio Vargas, and on Thursday took on the sci-fi indie book The Year Before the End by Vidar Hokstad.

While I didn’t pick Hokstad’s book knowing this, it turns out that his main character, the female captain of the Black Rain Zara Ortega, seems to have a romantic interest in one of her crew, Clarice Morgan. And there is a foreshadowing that this may develop into a fuller relationship as the six book series progresses. 

It’s clear then that the theme running through all of this week’s books is famous gay people, whether authors or main characters: 

  • Richie Jackson is a film and television producer most famous for his film Shortbus and the TV Series Nurse Jackie.

  • Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, an Emmy nominated filmmaker and the producer of the Tony nominated Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me.

  • Zara Ortega, as noted above, is the fictional captain whose crew famously pursued a terrorist conspiracy in the 2100s. 

And so we’ve found this week’s topic. Yes, this Fun Fact Friday post is once again a “pop quiz”, and this time it tests your knowledge of famous, influential and / or historic LBGTQ folks. 

Now, keep in mind – these are (mostly) not the gay rights pioneers we may all recognize. These are people who are famous for one thing or another, and who also who are lesbian, bi, gay,  transgender or just plain ole’ queer.

As always with these quizzes, I hope you have fun with it. I am not sure how hard it will prove to be, but if you find it super hard, take heart – there are a couple here even I didn’t know until I did my research.

So, here we go – 

  1. Civil Rights Icon – Born in 1912, he became a strong proponent of pacifism and peaceful protest. This Black civil rights leader served time during WWII for his refusal to register for the draft. He later became an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. and was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington where King delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. He was always open about his own homosexuality, and later in life advocated for social rights for gay people. He did not consider himself a gay rights pioneer, even as his civil rights organizing had a strong influence on the gay rights movement of the 1970s. He passed away in 1987. He was:

  • Fred Hampton

  • Bayard Rustin

  • Sam Cooke

  • Jesse Jackson

  • Karl Marx

  • Milton Friedman

  • John Maynard Keynes

  • Thomas Robert Malthus

  • Shannon Lucid

  • Nancy Currie

  • July Payette

  • Sally Ride

  • Mark Zuckerburg

  • Kevin Systrom

  • Chris Hughes

  • Jack Dorsey

  • Sam Cooke

  • Johnny Mathis

  • James Brown

  • Nat King Cole

  • Meredith Baxter

  • Judith Light

  • Phylicia Rashad

  • Joanna Kerns

  • Mj Rodriguez

  • Laverne Cox

  • Dominique Jackson

  • Harmony Santana

  • Jerry Smith

  • Wade Davis

  • Dave Kopay

  • Jeff Rohrer

  • Danica Patrick

  • Danica Roem

  • Danica McKellar

  • Danica Wu

  • Lester Holt

  • Anderson Cooper

  • Dave Weigel

  • Michael Barbaro

So there you have it. Scroll down to find the answers. How many did you get right? Let me know if you enjoyed this week’s Fun Facts Friday Pop Quiz by leaving a comment below.

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