The 2024 Out100: Ron Nyswaner

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Three decades ago, when the Out100 first launched, Philadelphia premiered and changed the world for LGBTQ+ representation. The film starring Tom Hanks as an attorney fired for his gay identity and HIV status earned writer and activist Ron Nyswaner an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. It marked just the beginning of Nyswaner’s stellar career as a gay storyteller.

Another Hollywood gamechanger from the Pennsylvania native? Fellow Travelers, the Showtime drama that recounted decades of LGBTQ+ history through the eyes of gay lovers: Hawk (Matt Bomer) and Tim (Jonathan Bailey). McCarthyism, disco, the AIDS crisis — it’s all there, along with some of the steamiest, most authentic queer sex ever aired on TV.

Nyswaner is proud to use storytelling to spark empathy. As he would say during theproduction of Fellow Travelers (as retold to Out), “We are exploring and creating a drama about the history of the LGBTQ+ community and our struggles. But we are also making a drama about the human struggle. And there aren't that many barriers, really, between human beings except that those that we create.” @ronnyswaner

Daniel Reynolds is the editor-in-chief of Out and an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection between entertainment and politics. This Jersey boy has now lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade.

Laurie Hernandez

Charlotte Drury

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.

Laurie Hernandez

Meet some of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.

Charlotte Drury

The nation rooted for Laurie Hernandez as a part of the “Final Five” USA gymnastics team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she won the team gold and silver in balance beam. That was when she was a teen. Now the next stage of her life has begun.

Hernandez, who has been dating her partner Charlotte Drury since 2020, is currently a full-time NYU student. This summer, she provided commentary for NBC’s coverage of women’s gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she quickly became a fan-favorite announcer. She even dropped a clever “and they were roommates…” Sapphic reference!

The future is bright for Hernandez, who next plans on acting and writing (both novels and screenplays) and is looking forward to graduation, after which she hopes to continue to make the world a better place. “In a world often weighted with shame and judgment, be the person that makes a space welcoming for all,” she says. “It’s a conscious thought, but a worthy one.” @lauriehernandez