Philip Montgomery
Storytellers
Kara Swisher
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
If 2023 has taught us anything, it’s that the motives of tech billionaires and conservative pundits are hard to comprehend. For three decades, Kara Swisher has been interviewing, reporting on, and often calling out some of the most powerful people in the world who run tech and media empires. As she’s one of the most trusted, popular, and reputable journalists of our time, the public turns to Swisher for real answers, particularly because she’s not afraid of asking the real questions.
“The largest obstacle I’ve faced is my dad dying when I was 5 — that’s the only one I can think of as being significant,” she says. “Otherwise, I don’t tend to look at things as obstacles. I’m not easily pushed back. I’m not easily scared by challenges.”
Currently, Swisher hosts two podcasts, Pivot and On With Kara Swisher, and is working on a memoir titled Burn Book — the first in a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster. “I’m hoping to take a vacation at some point before I die,” she says. In her personal life, Swisher’s biggest achievement has been getting all her kids off to school: “Getting my oldest to Argentina, my second to college, and my two little ones starting preschool again.”
As a lesbian, a mother, and a journalist, Swisher is hyper-aware of the challenges that the LGBTQ+ community is still facing. “Unfortunately, we have to remain vigilant as people in our community,” she says. “They’ve never gotten used to gay marriage or gay people having children. The forces of retrograde will always push back on rights that are ours to have. We can’t assume that everything we have now is going to stay in place. There’s a huge amount of hate out there fueled by online discourse and misinformation, and we really have to make sure we protect our families and our lives.” @karaswisher
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