Roland Fitz
Storytellers
Gio Benitez
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
Over the course of his career with ABC News, Good Morning America cohost for Saturday and Sunday and ABC News transportation correspondent Gio Benitez has covered many significant news stories, including the Pulse nightclub shooting, El Chapo’s underground escape from a Mexican prison, and the Boston Marathon bombing. But perhaps the most personally significant story of all is the one he gets to tell as an out gay Cuban American on national news.
“When I think about the past year, I think of all who came before me, especially the trailblazers who made my seat at the GMA desk possible every weekend,” says Benitez, who became co-anchor of Good Morning America’s Saturday and Sunday broadcasts earlier this year.
“When I was growing up, I never saw a gay Latino represented on network news,” he adds. “Now I get to be that person, honoring my ancestors every time I get to say, ‘Good Morning America.’ It is the privilege I am most grateful for this year.”
Before joining ABC News in 2013, Benitez was a reporter for WFOR TV in Miami, where he covered the 2012 presidential election and the killing of Trayvon Martin. In June 2009, he made history when he became the first reporter to record a TV story entirely with an iPhone.
When making his debut on Good Morning America in May of this year, Benitez talked about the significance of his family’s journey from Cuba. “My family, that’s all I can think about at this moment,” he said. “I’m actually carrying with me my grandfather’s pocket watch, because I keep thinking about their journey to this country from Cuba, leaving everything behind.”
“The idea that we get to sit on this set, bearing the name of the country that gave them so much hope, it’s just everything to me.” @giobenitez
Photo by Brendan Fay
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