Stories of success, happiness and hope from the LGBTQ community

Stories that comprise the best of LGBTQ history ─ Pride and Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes tells the stories of queer citizens of the world living OUT and proud happy, fulfilling, successful lives. Diverse and global. Famous and unsung. There is a story here for everyone in the LGBTQ community who has ever questioned their sexual orientation or gender identity, or discovered it.

Discover LGBTQ community stories that will stir you and reveal:

  • why Tony Kushner quit cello and how Colm Toibin found his voice.
  • why Emma Donoghue calls her experience a fluke and the best advice Bill T. Jones got was from his mother.
  • how being an inaugural poet changed Richard Blanco’s life and how Ugandan activist “LongJones” escaped death threats and gained asylum.

Award-winning writer and longtime LGBTQ activist Kathleen Archambeau tells the untold stories from diverse LGBTQ community voices around the corner or around the world. Not like the depressing, sinister, shadowy stories of the past, this book highlights queer people living open, happy, fulfilling and successful lives.

ARTISTS

  1. Richard Blanco, Cuban Presidential Inaugural Award-Winning Poet
  2. Carolina De Robertis, Uruguayan Award-Winning Novelist and Translator
  3. Emma Donoghue, Award-Winning Irish-Canadian Novelist, Screenwriter and Playwright
  4. Sean Dorsey, Award-Winning Transgender Dancer, Choreographer and Producer
  5. Thea Farhadian, Violinist and Electronic Music Composer and Co-Founder, Armenian Film Festival
  6. Bill T. Jones, Tony Award-winning African American Choreographer and Dancer
  7. Tony Kushner, Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award-Winning Playwright, Lyricist and Emmy Award-Winning Screenwriter
  8. Maarten Mourik, Dutch Singer, Songwriter, Author and Independent Theater and Film Director
  9. Laurie Rubin, Blind Mezzo-Soprano, Author and Composer; Co-founder, Ohana Arts
  10. Colm Toibin, Award-Winning Irish Novelist, Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times

ICONS

  1. Sidney Grant, Founder, Ballroom Basix, NYC Public Schools, USA Tango Champion
  2. Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights since 1996
  3. Bishop Karen Oliveto, Ph.D., first openly LGBT Bishop in the United Methodist Church, 2016 – present
  4. Leanne Pittsford, Founder, Lesbians Who Tech
  5. Robbie Tristan Szelei, Hungarian Activist on neo-Nazi “hit list”; organizer, Pride Parade and Mr. Gay Europe in Budapest; World Champion Ballroom, Latin and Show Dancer
  6. Ardel Haefele-Thomas, Ph.D., Chair, LGBT Studies, City College of San Francisco, first accredited LGBT Studies program in California and one of the first in the U.S.;  Author, First Undergraduate Transgender Textbook in the World, Introduction to Transgender Studies (Harrington Press, Columbia University Press, 2017)
  7. Louisa Wall, New Zealand Maori Member of Parliament and Author of the successful Marriage Amendment; New Zealand Rugby Player of the Year; Gold-winning World Champion Rugby team member
  8. John Long Jones Abdallah Wambere, Ugandan Activist in U.S. on Asylum, GLAAD Media Award-winner — Cast, Documentary, Call Me Kuchu
  9. Rick Welts, highest-ranking openly gay sports executive, President, Golden State Warriors, National Basketball Association 2015 Champions
  10. Claudia Brind-Woody, 5th highest-ranking LGBTQ executive in the world, VP Global Intellectual Property Licensing, IBM, based in U.K., former assistant to Coach Pat Summitt, University of Tennessee

EVERYDAY HEROES

  1. Petra and Stacy Barneveld-Taylor, Stacy Taylor, Retired LAFD Battalion Chief and Co-Founder of LAFD Women in the Fire Service; and Petra Barneveld, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service, UK
  2. Katerina Blinova, UC-Berkeley Award-Winning Computer Scientist, Dolby Laboratories Senior Software Engineer and Same-Sex Ballroom Dancer, Refugee from Uzbekistan
  3. Jose Comoda and Chris Phan, first Southeast Asian Gay Games Latin Ballroom Dance Champions
  4. Jacqueline Grandchamps, Ph.D. and Valerie Sans, Belgian and French co-founders, French Escapade
  5. Jim McSweeney, manager, UK’s only LGBT bookstore, Gay’s the Word, London, since 1997
  6. Peggy Moore, Statewide Political Director for Organizing for America and California’s Political Director, Obama’s 2012 Re-election Campaign, Senior Special Advisor, Mayor of Oakland
  7. Andreas Ozzuna, Argentinian small business owner, Wooden Table Baking Co.
  8. Eric and Mat Rosswood, gay co-parents in Kansas; Eric, author of Journey to Same-Sex Parenthood
  9. Gloria Soliz, MDiv., Founder of The Last Drag Smoking Cessation Program running since 1991 and co-founder, Coalition of Lavender Americans on Smoking & Health; Co-Chair of the Bethany United Methodist Church Covenant Council
  10. Christina Yin, Senior Programmer Analyst, California Department of Healthcare Services and member, Sacramento’s China Moon Dance Troupe, from Shanghai, China