Ajita Wilson 1950 – 1987, a transgender woman, was a foreign film actress who would later become a JET Beauty of the Week, appearing in the magazine’s 1981 August 20 issue.

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Adam Davenport born 1984 is the first Black artist/producer in history to eponymously chart on Billboard for EDM (electronic dance music).

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RuPaul born 1960 was the first black spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics’ Viva Glam campaign, which was a created for HIV/AIDS awareness in 1994.

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Angel McCoughtry born 1986 is a professional basketball player for the Atlanta Dream of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

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Yance Ford born in 1950 was the first openly transgender man to be nominated for an Academy Award in 2018 for directing Strong Island. Also the first openly transgender to receive an Emmy award for the same film.    

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Lena Waithe born 1984, first Black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing in 2017.

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Kehinde Wiley born 1977 was the first Black male artist commissioned for a U.S. president portrait, displayed in the Smithsonian in 2018.

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Marsha P. Johnson, 1945 – 1992 was at the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, co-founded the advocacy organization S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), was known as the “mayor of Christopher Street“ and an AIDS activist with ACT UP.

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Sampson McCormick, born 1986, is the first LGBT comedian to perform at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2018.

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Sheryl Swoopes born 1971 was the first player signed with the WNBA and the first woman basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her, the “Air Swoopes.”

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