22 Celebrities Who Champion LGBTQ+ Rights, From Elliot Page To Billy Porter

In December 2020, Page came out as transgender on his Instagram account, introducing himself and sharing that he goes by he/they pronouns.

'I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society,' he wrote in his statement, which can be read here.

Page married his wife Emma Portner in 2018.

In 2014, the Juno star came out as gay at the Human Rights Campaign's Time to Thrive conference which promotes LGBT welfare.

He noted: 'I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my relationships suffered. And I'm standing here today, with all of you, on the other side of all that pain.'

Following their eight-minute speech, he finished by saying with 'I love you' and was met with a standing ovation from the crowd.

Bridgerton actor Bailey has long been a proponent for LGBTQ+ rights, and recently opened up about his dream of seeing gay men play their own experience.

'I think it shouldn't matter at all what character people play, but of course there is a narrative that's very clear, that openly gay men aren't playing straight in leading roles,' the actor - who is gay and plays a straight character in the 2020 Netflix series - told Digital Spy.

'And also, there's a reason why gay characters are so interesting. Because much like the women in Bridgerton, there are a lot of hurdles and there's a lot of self-growth, and there's a real strength to gay men. So the fact that a lot of straight men have gone on to play iconic gay roles and to be lauded for that is fantastic, that that story is being told. But wouldn't it be brilliant to see gay men play their own experience?'

When he's not starring in Pose, preparing for his upcoming role in the Cinderella remake, giving us major glamour on the red carpet and narrating a docuseries on the LGBTQ movement through the Stonewall uprising in 1960s...well, what isn't Porter doing?

In a video shared on his social media accounts in June 2020, the gay actor spoke out in support of black gay and trans people joining the global Black Lives Matter protests.

'LGBTQ+ Black folks are Black people, too!' he said. 'Our lives matter, too! So this is my response to those of y'all who don't understand that: F*ck you! And, yes, I am cussing. It's time for cussing.'

Months earlier, ahead of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the actor delivered his second LGBTQ+-focussed speech.

'Last year, I told you that the state of our union was strong,' Porter noted. 'And while it’s certainly been battered, our union is far from broken.'

In 2019, Clooney was recognised as an LGBTQ+ advocate in Variety’s Power of Pride issue after years of speaking out in support of the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the US and his work for the American Foundation for Equal Rights and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

In 2012, Clooney addressed rumours that he is gay, noting that he doesn’t ‘give a sh*t’.

‘I think it’s funny, but the last thing you’ll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, “These are lies!” That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community,’ he told the Advocate. ‘I’m not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I’m very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I’m gay? I’ll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don’t give a sh*t.’

The former model – who identifies as a lesbian and genderfluid - is best known for their roles in Orange Is The New Black and Batwoman, but has also carved out a name for themself over the years as a proud LGBTQ+ activist.

After receiving backlash for being cast in the role of Kate Kane – who is also the first Jewish female lead of the CW's superhero universe - in the Batwoman series for not being ‘queer enough’, Rose told Entertainment Weekly in 2019: ‘I didn’t know that being a gender-fluid woman meant that I couldn’t be a lesbian because I’m not a woman — not considered lesbian enough.’

‘It's 2019,’ they later told CNN. ‘There's isn't any one type of gay person; one type of Jewish person.’

Last year, Rose congratulated fellow actress Javicia Leslie - who identifies as bisexual – on Instagram for being cast as the show’s new lead.

‘OMG!! This is amazing!! I am so glad Batwoman will be played by an amazing Black woman,’ Rose wrote next to a photo of Leslie.

In her short 2014 film Break Free, the DJ shed light on up her own struggle with gender identity and fluidity. Produced, filmed and written by Rose, the film shows the Australian model cutting chunks off her hair, removing her make-up and revealing her tattooed sleeves.

You might recognise Hutcherson from his role in The Hunger Games but we know him best for his work as an LGBTQ+ equality advocate.

In 2013, the Hunger Games actor and gay rights supporter opened up about being bisexual, telling the gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine Out: 'I would probably list myself as mostly straight. Maybe I could say right now I'm 100 per cent straight, but who knows? In a f*cking year, I could meet a guy and be like, Whoa, I'm attracted to this person."person".'

The actor also founded Straight But Not Narrow, a youth group aimed at fighting homophobia after two of his gay uncles died of AIDS.

In 2012, Hutcherson became the youngest person to receive the prestigious Vanguard Award at the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles.

The comedian and talk show host has worked endlessly to advance gay rights since the 1990s and came out on national television in 1997.

In 2016, DeGeneres was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour given by the president to a US civilian, for her work to advance LGBTQ+ rights.

'It's easy to forget now, when we've come so far, where now, marriage is equal under the law, just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago,' former president Barack Obama said on awarding the comedian the honour.

In 2015, she partnered with GapKids to launch a clothing range aimed at breaking down gender stereotypes and during her acceptance speech for choice comedian at the Teen Choice Awards, she took the opportunity to speak to the LGBTQ youth.

'I wanna say also it feels good to be chosen but there was a time in my life that I was not chosen,' she said at the time. 'I was the opposite of chosen because I was different, and I think I wanna make sure that everyone knows that what makes you different right now, makes you stand out later in life. So you should be proud of being different. You should be proud of who you are.'

A supporter of charities such as the American Foundation for Equal Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the Human Rights Campaign, Pitt is a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ issues.

In 2019, the Oscar winner ordered the organisers of a ‘Straight Pride’ parade in Boston to remove his name as a mascot for the event. The event garnered criticism across the world, including from the likes of actor Chris Evans and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In 2012, Pitt spoke about the importance of legalising same-sex marriage, telling MTV: ‘Equality, absolutely, that's what defines us. It's what makes us great. If it doesn't sit well with your religion, let your God sort it out in the end, but that's us. We're equal.

Prior to his marriage to his now ex wife Angelina Jolie in 2014, Pitt said he and the actress were considering not tying the knot until it was a legal right for all. ‘Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,’ he wrote on Esquire in 2006.

Lena Dunham has long supported the LGBTQ+ community and last year opened up on Twitter about her privilege and her desire to use her platform to help other members of society.

‘It’s blindingly clear to me now things I love to write about- bad behaviour etc- are allowed & welcomed because of my race and privilege and het cisness. the goal now is to use my platform to support emerging Black artists, BIPOC artists, LGBTQ artists [sic],’ she tweeted.

The award-winning writer previously admitted she wouldn’t get married until gay marriage was legal in all 50 states. ‘Until that's something that everyone can join into with no sense of being left out on any level, politically, emotionally, it's just not something that we're gonna do,’ she told Ellen Degeneres in 2015 while she was in a relationship with music producer Jack Antonoff.

In 2014, Dunham produced the HBO documentary Suited which explores the issues of gender identity. Filmed over two years, the project looked at customers being fitted for custom suits, often for big life events.

‘I'm happy that a movie that takes so much joy in identity, and the safety of identity, is coming out at this moment,’ Dunham told USA Today at the time. ‘I'm not saying it can heal any wounds, but I hope it's a little gift to a community that's received such a shocking blow.’

The same year, the Girls star was awarded the Horizon Award, for her work as ‘a young trailblazer who has taken a leadership role as an advocate’ for LGBTQ+ issues, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

Timberlake's upcoming return to acting, in Palmer, sees his character (an ex-convict) look out for a gender non-conforming child.

At the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2017, the singer accepted the Song of the Year Award for 'Can’t Stop The Feeling' and spoke about the importance of inclusion. 'If you are Black or you are brown or you are gay or you’re a lesbian or you are trans — or maybe you’re just a sissy singing boy from Tennessee,' he noted. 'Anyone who’s treating you unkindly, it’s only because they are afraid or they have been taught to be afraid of how important you are,' he noted. 'Being different means you make the difference, so f*ck 'em!'

Timberlake and his wife Jessica Biel received the Inspiration Award at the anti-discrimination organisation GLSEN Respect Awards in 2015.

After New York City legalised same-sex marriage in 2011, Timberlake told Advocate magazine: 'I was stoked. I mean, I was stoked that that happened. I think it's just . . . we're people and we're different, all of us.

'And we should be using our differences to bring ourselves closer together . . . it was a great, great victory for equality. I'm proud that New York has the balls to stand up for what's right.'

Beyoncé is one of the famous LGBTQ+ advocates in Hollywood and isn't afraid to speak out on important issues regarding sexual, gender and identity equality.

In 2020, during an inspiring speech for graduates, Queen Bey told the LGBTQ+ community that their queerness 'is beautiful'.

'If you’re part of a group that’s called "other" — a group that does not get the chance to be centre stage — build your own stage, and make them see you,' she said. 'Your queerness is beautiful, your Blackness is beautiful, your compassion, your understanding, your fight for people who may be different from you is beautiful.'

A year prior, Beyoncé and her husband won the GLAAD Vanguard Award for being allies in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people. 'We’re here to promote love for every human being, and change starts from supporting the people closest to you. So let’s tell them they are loved,' Beyoncé said. 'Let’s speak out and protect them. And parents, let’s love our kids in their truest form.'

Over the years, Beyoncé has used her platform to promote equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community, employing same-sex couples in her music videos, transgender actor Laverne Cox as a model for her Ivy Park clothing line and criticised the North Carolina 'bathroom bill' after the state stopped a law allowing trans people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify as.

The singer, who has identified as pansexual, has made it a mission of hers in recent years to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

Whether its via her music, like in her 2017 track 'Inspired' in which she talks about the fight for equality, or teaming up with Instagram in 2015 to launch the #InstaPride initiative to showcase members of the transgender community., Cyrus is a proud member of the. LGBTQ+ community.

In 2015, the singer told ELLE UK that was 'pansexual'. 'I’m very open about it — I’m pansexual,' she noted, adding: 'But I’m not in a relationship. I’m 22, I’m going on dates, but I change my style every two weeks, let alone who I’m with.'

She later told Time that was genderfluid ('People try to make everyone something. You can just be whatever you want to be') and spoke about her queer identity while in a straight relationship with her now ex husband Liam Hemsworth.

'The reason that people get married sometimes can be old-fashioned, but I think the reason we got married isn’t old-fashioned — I actually think it’s kind of New Age. We’re redefining, to be f*cking frank, what it looks like for someone that’s a queer person like myself to be in a hetero relationship. A big part of my pride and my identity is being a queer person,' she told Vanity Fair in 2019.

As the host of the 2015 MTV's VMAs, Miley invited LGBT youth associated with the Happy Hippie Foundation (her organisation focused on raising money and attention to fight homelessness) to introduce the singer for the show's closing number which included several RuPaul's Drag Race Queens.

The American talk show host is a long supporter of gay rights and has talked out against the racism she faced after supporting openly gay comedian Ellen DeGeneres' decision to come out in 1997 in a sit-down interview on Winfrey's talk show. The episode aired after she discussed her sexuality in a Time Magazine cover story titled, 'Yep, I’m Gay.'

In a public declaration supporting DeGeneres and the LGBTQ+ community, despite receiving backlash for doing so, Oprah said on her show: 'The God I serve doesn't care whether you're tall or short, or whether you were born Black or Asian or gay, so that's just a difference of belief. And I don't expect to change your belief today... I take full responsibility for me going to hell or heaven...See, I believe God created Ellen, I believe God did that. And if Ellen says she's gay, I believe God created her gay. I believe God did that.

'I support her right to be who she thinks she is.'

Speaking about DeGeneres discussing her sexuality on her show, the TV mogul told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012: 'Being able to be free, literally, and to express herself in a way that she can be 100 percent truthful with the audience has allowed them to fall in love with her.'

There should be no doubt about Gaga - she is one of the strongest supporters for the LGBTQ+ community. From taking part in National Equality Marches and wearing Alexander McQueen designs to protest against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (a former policy that banned open homosexuality), to making history with 'Born This Way' (2011), which Sir Elton John dubbed 'the new gay album', Gaga does her upmost to fight for equal LGBTQ+ rights and recognition.

In 2019, the Oscar and Grammy-award winner took to the a rally to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and said that she would 'take a bullet' for the LGBTQ+ community.

'True love – true, true love – is when you would take a bullet for someone, and you know that I would take a bullet for you any day of the week,' she said during her speech, wearing a rainbow-coloured outfit.

'This community has fought and continued to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance, and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage – do you know that?'

On winning the International Video of the Year Award in 2009, she sent her thanks 'to God and the gays' and in her cover interview with Out magazine the same year she said: 'I very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream.

'It's not an underground tool for me. It's my whole life. So I always sort of joke the real motivation is to just turn the world gay.'

In 2013, she performed in Russia and spoke out against the country's 'gay propaganda' laws, telling the crowd: 'Tonight this is my house, Russia. You can be gay in my house.'

Hathaway, who has a gay brother and is an advocate for organisations such as the It Gets Better Project and The Trevor Project, delivered a speech at the Human Rights Campaign dinner and spoke about LGBTQ+ rights.

'I appreciate this community because together we are not going to just question this myth, we are going to destroy it,' Hathaway said. 'Let’s tear this world apart and build a better one.'

In 2012, the Oscar winner reportedly planned to donate some of the sales from her wedding photos following her big day with partner Adam Shulman to non-profits advocating for same-sex couple marriage, such as Freedom to Marry.

In 2008, she received the Human Rights Campaign Ally Award and told the room of guests: 'There are people who have said that I'm being brave for being openly supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption — basically of gay rights — but with all due respect, I humbly dissent. I'm not being brave; I'm being a decent human being. And I don't think I should receive an award for that or for merely stating what I believe to be true: that love is a human experience, not a political statement.'

The musician received a Special Recognition Award in recognition of his song 'Smile' in 2018. In the song, his mother Gloria Carter reveals for the first time that she is a lesbian through a monologue. On the track, Jay-Z raps: 'Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian.'

His mother adds: 'Living in the shadow. Can you imagine what kind of life it is to live? In the shadows people see you as happy and free, because that’s what you want them to see. Living two lives, happy but not free. You live in the shadows for fear of someone hurting your family or someone you love.'

In 2012, Jay-Z spoke in support of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights, telling CNN: 'What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That's their business. [It] is no different than discriminating against Blacks. It's discrimination plain and simple.'

Throughout her career, P!nk has championed LGBTQ+ rights.

Following years of facing rumours from fans and the media about her sexuality, she said of Miley Cyrus coming out as pansexual and gender neutral in an interview with the Guardian in 2017: ' I think people like Miley [Cyrus]… I feel like people are just less inclined to be labelled now, which I really like.'

For her 2010 single Raise Your Glass, P!nk previously revealed that the track's video was inspired own real-life experience at a gay wedding. 'I threw my best friend's wedding in my backyard — [she] is gay and she married her wife, and it was absolutely beautiful, she reportedly explained, per Digital Spy. 'At the end of it, her mum said, "Why can't this be legal?" and started crying. It was just the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen, so that's why I'm doing it in my video.'

A fierce supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, in 2020 Washington discussed how she'd feel if her own daughter came out to her after starring as a conservative mother struggling with her daughter's sexuality in The Prom.

'I’d say, ‘Great! Awesome. What’s for lunch?'” Washington told GLAAD in a video interview. 'I would just say, "Fantastic, and I’ll give you as much support as I can and offer you extra resources when I’m not able to speak to your lived experience, and let’s just go make this life magic, as we were". Depending on the age — or at any age — I’d say, "How exciting that you know who you are and let’s go be who you are. How can I help you be who you are in the world, unapologetically and enthusiastically? Let’s go get this."'

In 2017, the Little Fires Everywhere star received the Inspiration Award at the GLSEN Respect Awards for being a longstanding vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights. The win came two years after she accepted the Vanguard Award at the GLAAD Awards.

In a rousing speech on LGBTQ+ rights on the night, she said: 'We have been pitted against each other and made to feel like there are limited seats at the table for those of us who fall into the category of other. As others, we are taught that to be successful, we must reject those other others, or we will never belong.'

Washington's speech is a smart, thoughtful, and forceful argument for why we need more diverse representations in the media, until there are 'no longer "firsts" and "exceptions" and "rare" and "unique,"' she added.

The Charlie's Angels actress attended a marriage equality rally in 2009 soon after the Supreme Court voted in favour to uphold a ruling making it illegal for same-sex couples to marry in California.

At the rally she said, per Just Jared: 'I am who I am because of the people who influenced me growing up, and many of them were gay. No one has any right to tell anyone what makes a family. You choose your battles in this world. If you fight for everything, you're just someone on a soapbox. This is something that means everything to me.'

In an interview with Contact magazine almost 20 years ago, Barrymore noted that she has always considered herself bisexual.
‘Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally. I have always considered myself bisexual,’ she said. ‘I love a woman's body. I think a woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful.’

Julianne Moore, who played a lesbian mum in the 2010 film The Kids Are All Right and a lesbian in the 2016 film Freeheld alongside Elliot Page, has spoken openly about her support for the LGBTQ+ community over the years.

In 2020, Moore suggested she had regrets about playing a lesbian in The Kids Are All Right. In an interview with Variety, Moore explained: 'Here we were, in this movie about a queer family and all of the principal actors were straight. I look back and go "Ouch, wow".' I don’t know that we would do that today, I don’t know that we would be comfortable. We need to give real representation to people, but I’m grateful for all the experiences that I’ve had as an actor because my job is to communicate a universality of experience to the world.'

In 2011, she spoke of same-sex marriage, noting: 'I think it's a very basic human rights issue. Everybody has the right to marry the person they love and be represented as a couple and family.

'It's something that people will look back on in years to come and say, "I can't believe it took so long for us to recognise this". It'll be like segregation and giving women the right to vote.'