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Bayard Rustin
A leader in both the civil rights and LGBT movements, Rustin’s activism started shortly after he graduated college and moved to Harlem, in 1937. Rustin was arrested in in California in 1953 after he was found having sex with two men in a parked car. The public outing saw Rustin shunned by civil-rights leaders, but he remained open about his sexuality from then on. He was a close adviser to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, and was the chief architect of the 1963 March on Washington, among other key moments in the civil rights struggle. It wasn’t until the 1980s, though, that Rustin become a gay activist: In 1986, he spoke on behalf of the New York State’s Gay Rights Bill, with an infamous speech titled “The Gays Are The New N****ers.” “It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change,” he declared. “The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.” Below, Rustin’s partner, Walter Naegle, accepts the inaugural Bayard Rustin Trailblazer Award at the 2015 Logo Trailblazers.
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