We don’t care who you are or who you love. As long as you’re happy being you, we’re about it. After all, we’re all human at the end of the day. In case you didn’t know, there are tons of activists out there protesting for the basic rights of those in the LGBTQ community, including famous celebrities.

Here are just a few of our favorite LGBTQ celebrities who love to speak up for a cause they believe in:

1. Ellen DeGeneres

How could we even say anything about the LGBTQ community without acknowledging the most precious human being who has ever lived? Ellen DeGeneres broke grounds by having her character, Ellen Morgan, come out as a lesbian on her television show Ellen in 1997 on “The Puppy Episode” and officially came out herself about 16 days before the episode aired. It ruined her and her television love interest’s careers for a while, but they ultimately came out on top. Quite a few organizations credit Ellen’s episode and real-life coming out for paving the way for other television shows with openly gay characters (Will & Grace, anyone?).

And now? Now Ellen’s a QUEEN. She’s a proud supporter of the It Gets Better Project, which supports and uplifts the LGBTQ community, and Straight But Not Narrow, which preps and trains young adults on how to become allies of their LGBTQ peers. And how many times have you bawled your eyes out while watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show? So not only is she a huge activist for helping out the LGBTQ community, she’s been giving back to ordinary people, no matter their race or sexual orientation, for almost two decades on her talk show. And how could we forget when she teared up while receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Ugh. Is it possible to love her any more than we already do?

2. Neil Patrick Harris

Tell us you thought of his family’s annual Halloween pictures as soon as you read his name. Please. Despite portraying a ladies man on the best sitcom of the century (sorry—it’s actually not up for debate), about a year after How I Met Your Mother premiered, Neil Patrick Harris came out as being “a very content gay man.” After same-sex marriage became legal in New York in 2011, he announced that he’d actually been engaged to his long-term partner and planned on ending their five-year engagement only to finally get married. TEARS.

He’s known to have helped change the way people visualized gay men, especially after his character’s womanizer role on How I Met Your Mother. In 2015, he even became the first openly gay man to host the Academy Awards. Besides having one of the cutest families in the world, he’s also a huge advocate for numerous AIDS foundations like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, among a variety of other nonprofits.

3. Miley Cyrus

Admit it. We all loved watching and singing along to Hannah Montana at some point in our lives. Miley Cyrus has definitely come a long way since Disney and even got engaged and married (!!) to our very own movie star crush, Liam Hemsworth. After breaking away from her Disney image, she came out in 2015 as pansexual and later revealed that she identifies as gender-fluid. Miley also introduced the Happy Hippie Foundation in 2014, which has a mission to bring young people together to help homelessness and LGBTQ youth.

4. Lady Gaga

Only a year after her breakthrough single “Just Dance,” Lady Gaga officially came out as bisexual on national television, also including that her other hit “Poker Face” is actually about a woman. Remember the meat dress? Of course you do. What most people don’t remember is that Lady Gaga (given name: Stefani Germonatta) actually wore it in protest of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which was a US policy that “prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants.” However, it also banned openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from joining.

In 2011, she released the revolutionary song “Born This Way” and founded the Born This Way Foundation which has since helped thousands who are part of the LGBTQ youth community and worked to end LGBTQ bullying. She also created a safe place for her fans to gather around before her shows on tour to discuss issues like mental health and bullying. The list of amazing things Lady Gaga has done for the LGBTQ community could literally go on and on, so it’s safe to say that she’s thankfully going to remain a prominent figure here.

5. RuPaul

If you don’t know who RuPaul is by now, where have you been?! We feel like we practically grew up watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and admiring how those drag queens will always be able to do their makeup better than we ever could. Already a famous drag icon, RuPaul (full name: RuPaul Andre Charles) was recruited as the first face of MAC’s Viva Glam cosmetics line in 1994. In the 90s, AIDS was an epidemic that was affecting a huge number of people, especially in the fashion community, so this campaign not only raised awareness, but it also gave back monetarily by donating 100% of Viva Glam’s proceeds to the MAC AIDS Fund.

Back in 1996, VH1 began airing The RuPaul Show which made him TV’s first-ever openly gay host. Aside from supporting the LGBTQ community, RuPaul also discussed topics like black empowerment, female empowerment, and misogyny, which were rarely talked about on public television at that time. In 2017, he was included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world, rightfully so. Now sashay away.

 

There are countless celebrities who are influential in the LGBTQ community; these are just a few of our faves. Have a favorite celeb that didn’t make the list? Tell us who they are and what they’ve done by sending us an email to spencersblog@spencergifts.com, and show off your support for the LGBTQ community with this awesome stuff from our pride collection!