Katia Temkin
Disruptors
Reneé Rapp
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
This year, Reneé Rapp stepped into Regina George’s Louboutin heels in the new musical movie adaptation of Mean Girls. While Rachel McAdams is legendary as the original Queen Bee, Rapp was a revelation. “My name is Regina George, and I am a massive deal,” she sang in “World Burn” — and the world believed her.
Case in point: In January alone, Rapp teamed with Megan Thee Stallion for a song, went viral for chaotic and iconic interview answers, and came out as a lesbian in an SNL sketch with Bowen Yang and Jacob Elordi. This fall, she’ll take her bow as Leighton Murray, a lesbian character in Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls.
Along with Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish, Rapp is part of a new wave of young singers bringing lesbian pop to the radio. These artists aren’t just releasing bops. They’re also teaching young women across the country that lesbian isn’t a bad word; it’s a fun, sexy, and powerful identity to embrace. @reneerapp
Mey Rude
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.
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.
José Becerra
Gabriella Angelina
Nikola Alexandre
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
José Becerra
Nikola Santarem Alexandre is a Black queer forester whose life changed after attending a nature-based healing gathering following the Pulse massacre. The experience inspired them to commit to land stewardship and nurture a sustainable future for marginalized communities.
After obtaining degrees in forestry and business from Yale University, Alexandre founded Conservation International’s Ecosystem Restoration Program and now serves as its senior advisor. Alexandre cocreated and leads the Shelterwood Collective, a 900-acre, queer-run forest and community center in Northern California. He continues to center queer and Black voices in environmental stewardship.
“Queerness and ecological health are intimately linked,” Alexandre says. “Our environmental problems are born from attempts to create boxes that separate people and nature. It’s only by rejecting those boxes and blurring the divides between people, places, and ecologies that we’ll be able to restore balance in our ecosystems and build a world where all can thrive. Queerness is one of our greatest teachers for this kind of endeavor, and queer leaders are needed in the climate movement for it to reach its full potential.” @blk_forester