Martin Romero
Storytellers
Geena Rocero
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
Geena Rocero is an author, director, producer, model, and transgender rights activist. Or as the Filipina-American multihyphenate describes it, “I’m an artist working on many mediums.”
Indeed, Rocero, a four-time Emmy nominee, boasts an impressive résumé in media and entertainment. She serves as cohost of the news program ASPIREist, which is broadcast on HLN and CNN. She made her directorial debut with 2021’s Caretakers, an award-winning PBS/WNET docuseries that highlights the stories of frontline Filipino-American health care workers.
Additionally, Rocero serves on the advisory board of the prominent coalition SeeHer, which advocates for empowering portrayals of women and girls. And she founded her own media production company, Gender Proud, which elevates trans storytelling. In her career, Rocero has broken many barriers, among them being the first out transgender AAPI model to appear in Playboy. As an activist, she has advocated for trans equality at the White House, United Nations, and beyond.
Rocero’s proudest accomplishment this year was the release of her memoir, Horse Barbie, a two-year labor of love that debuted on May 30 — fortuitously timed between AAPI Heritage Month and Pride Month. It chronicles the journey from her native Philippines, where she competed in the transgender pageant circuit, to moving to the U.S. Initially here, she worked “stealth” as a model, and Horse Barbie details the toll inflicted by not living her authentic self as an out trans woman. The book was lauded by critics; Vogue called it “a moving chronicle of trans resilience and joy.”
At present, Rocero is working on her next scripted project, which she is directing, and “wherever the Horse Barbie Trans-Pacific saga will take me.” @geenarocero
Storytellers
Randy Wicker
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
Photo by Brendan Fay
Over the last 65 years, LGBTQ+ advocate, journalist, and archivist Randy Wicker has achieved many firsts. In 1962 he organized a radio broadcast that caused the Federal Communications Commission to rule that homosexuality was a legitimate topic for on-air discussion. In 1964 Wicker organized the first public demonstration for gay civil rights in the United States, which took place in front of the U.S. Army Induction Center in New York City. Also in 1964, he was the first out gay person to participate in a live television show when he answered calls on The Les Crane Show.
“I’ve always been a truth-telling journalist willing to confront power and champion unpopular causes,” says Wicker. “That is what motivated me to join the New York Mattachine Society in 1958 and be the first self-identified homosexual to speak out on radio in 1962.”
Now 85 years old, Wicker shows no signs of slowing down. This year Wicker launched a petition to remove the statue of Gen. Phil Sheridan from Stonewall National Park — because of Sheridan’s massacre of Indigenous people. He also served as a grand marshal at this year’s NYC Pride March.
Recently, he donated his archives to the National LGBTQ+ Archives. “My archives are titled ‘The Randy Wicker & Marsha P. Johnson’ archives since Marsha P. Johnson lived with me for over a decade and was the house mother of my extended gay family,” says Wicker. “Twenty-five years of my Christmas letters contain many stories about her.”
Though much progress has been made thanks to Wicker’s work, he is adamant that the fight continues, especially in other parts of the world. He notes that “genocidal hatred and religious intolerance” run rampant in many societies. “We must help LGBTQ+ people overseas improve their circumstances!” @randolfewicker