Bayard Rustin
#lgbtqpridemonthProfiles
Bayard Rustin lived as an openly gay Black man at a time where both identities made him a target for prejudice and brutality. He was a conscientious objector, nonviolent activist, labor organizer, LGBTQ+ activist, and international peace advocate. He was one of the masterminds of the March on the Washington movement and a close advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., but social mores at the time required him to stay out of the spotlight. He would advocate for gay rights later in life, drawing connections between racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights. He called the 1969 Stonewall Riots, “the beginning of an extraordinary revolution, similar to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.”