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Disruptors
Chappell Roan
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
2024 has been the year of Chappell Roan. The lesbian singer broke bigger than big, landing seven songs from her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, on the Billboard chart. Roan has become a mainstream cultural force with a queer voice. “Good Luck, Babe!” happens to be about compulsory heterosexuality. Everyone from actors in commercials, to kids, to Republican aunts have been spelling out “Hot to Go!” all summer. Drag performers — a major influence on Roan — have embraced lip-syncing to “Pink Pony Club,” a gay bar anthem inspired by a night out at the Abbey in West Hollywood. And in between hits, Roan has also raised important points about mental health and privacy for celebrities.
As her drag mother, the legendary Sasha Colby, says, “Chappell Roan’s music is a bold, vulnerable, yet fearless expression of unapologetic authenticity and true talent, serving as a reminder that the voices and stories of the LGBTQ+ community inspire us all to live courageously and unapologetically.” @chappellroan
Mey Rude
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
José Becerra
Gabriella Angelina
Nikola Alexandre
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
José Becerra
Nikola Santarem Alexandre is a Black queer forester whose life changed after attending a nature-based healing gathering following the Pulse massacre. The experience inspired them to commit to land stewardship and nurture a sustainable future for marginalized communities.
After obtaining degrees in forestry and business from Yale University, Alexandre founded Conservation International’s Ecosystem Restoration Program and now serves as its senior advisor. Alexandre cocreated and leads the Shelterwood Collective, a 900-acre, queer-run forest and community center in Northern California. He continues to center queer and Black voices in environmental stewardship.
“Queerness and ecological health are intimately linked,” Alexandre says. “Our environmental problems are born from attempts to create boxes that separate people and nature. It’s only by rejecting those boxes and blurring the divides between people, places, and ecologies that we’ll be able to restore balance in our ecosystems and build a world where all can thrive. Queerness is one of our greatest teachers for this kind of endeavor, and queer leaders are needed in the climate movement for it to reach its full potential.” @blk_forester