Marsha P. Johnson was an LGBTQ+ activist and one of the most significant figures in the movement. She was also involved in AIDS activism. The term 'transgender' was not commonly used during her lifetime, but she identified as a transvestite, gay, and a drag queen—using she/her pronouns. She was born on August 24, 1945, in New Jersey.

Johnson, alongside her close friend and fellow transgender rights activist Sylvia Rivera, co-founded **S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries)** to provide shelter and resources for homeless LGBTQ+ youth.

On July 6, 1992, her body was found in the Hudson River. The police ruled it a suicide, but her friends and fellow activists believed she was murdered. To this day, questions remain about the true circumstances of her death.

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs was a German lawyer, jurist, journalist, and writer—widely regarded as a pioneer of sexology and the modern gay rights movement. He was born on August 28, 1825, and died on July 14, 1895. Karl spent much of his life moving around Germany, often facing legal trouble—not for his actions, but for his words. In 1864, the police in Saxony and Berlin banned and confiscated his books due to their content.

His story is far more complex than what can be written here, but to summarize: Karl was a proud Hanoverian. When Prussia annexed Hanover in 1866, he opposed their rule and was briefly imprisoned. All his papers were confiscated, though some were later discovered in the Prussian state archives and published in 2004. Forced into exile, he left Hanover for good and moved to Würzburg in Bavaria. There, he attended the Association of German Jurists in Munich, hoping to advocate for the reform of anti-homosexuality laws.

His motion was blocked by the presiding committee, but on August 29, 1867, he took the floor on the final day of the conference to protest his exclusion. That day, he became the first openly gay man to publicly defend homosexuality—despite being shouted down by the crowd. He later published his account of the event in **Gladius Furens**, distributing it to all the attending lawyers under his real name. In it, he wrote:

> "Until my dying day, I will look back with pride that I found the courage to come face to face in battle against the spectre which for time immemorial has been injecting poison into me and into men of my nature. Many have been driven to suicide because all their happiness in life was tainted. Indeed, I am proud that I found the courage to deal the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt."

Mind you, all of this is written briefly- there is SO much more to just these two people's stories than just this, so if you are interested, please, give it a read- I personally find Marsha's one extremely interesting.

((Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Heinrich_Ulrichs, & https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/marsha-p-johnson)