NEW YORK — In an era when LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) rights are being revoked or scaled back in law and policy, some LGBTQ celebrities choose to stay silent or vague about these issues, while others actively speak out about their views. Here are 10 Black LGBTQ celebrities who have been the most politically outspoken about LGBTQ rights so far in 2025.
Bob the Drag Queen
As a gay man, this alum of drag queen TV shows “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “We’re Here” has been a member of the activist group Queer Rising since the late 2000s. Bob the Drag Queen (whose birth name is Christopher Caldwell) was also one of the celebrities who participated in the No Kings protests on June 14 to speak out against Donald Trump and the Trump administration’s agenda.
“I started protesting because I’m just a loudmouth,” he told PinkNews in a March 2025 interview. “I don’t personally have a sense of obligation, but I do it because I think it’s important. Everyone is not for the streets. Everyone is not meant to be protesting. So, if you don’t have it in you to protest, do what you can do.”
Karamo Brown
Brown, a longtime political activist, is the Emmy-winning “culture expert” co-star of Netflix’s makeover series “Queer Eye” and the host of the syndicated talk show “Karamo.” Brown (who identifies as a gay man) is a co-founder of the HIV/AIDS advocacy group 6in10 and a health ambassador for the National Black Coalition. In a March 2025 interview with Parade, he commented on the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) backlashes that have resulted in U.S. government eliminations of DEI initiatives: “I still don’t believe in cancel culture, but I also don’t know if counsel culture ever works anymore. I say that because most people aren’t taking the time to be informed or educated enough so that you can counsel them. You can talk to somebody ‘til you’re blue in the face, but without the proper education and understanding of the information you’re giving them, they still stay stuck.”
Laverne Cox
Emmy winner Laverne Cox is the most prominent Black transgender female entertainer involved in political activism. In a June 2025 interview on iHeartMedia’s “Highkey!” podcast, Cox said: “There’s an attack on trans people on a policy level from the state—state-sanctioned discrimination that we’ve never seen before.”
Cox added that so far this year, “it’s kind of shocking” that she is no longer getting booked to speak about transgender rights at colleges and universities. “Colleges and universities are being defunded, and they’re scared,” Cox said regarding a current lack of invitations for these speaking engagements.
She added, “When we’re talking fascism … there’s no negotiation anymore. You can’t negotiate with someone who wants you dead, who doesn’t think you have the right to exist. So, we need to get really, really real about what’s happening, understand, tell the truth about it, and then get strategies together. And I really believe so much of those strategies are within community. The government, the politicians aren’t going to do it for us. The corporations aren’t going to do it for us. But we can do it for each other.”
Angela Davis
Longtime left-wing activist Davis (who identifies as a lesbian) has been involved in prison reform and advocating for transgender people who are incarcerated. She spoke about it during a Q&A where she received the José Muñoz Award at CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at City University of New York on June 2. Davis said, “We’re talking about the gendering apparatus not only having an impact on trans prisoners, but on everybody. … There are male prisons, and there are female prisons. And so, they’re gender-binary, [which] the trans movement has been so helpful in contesting. …. And it affects the way people in the largest society think about gender.”
Doechii
The Grammy-winning bisexual rapper (whose birth name is Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon) has been open about expressing her political views in various public forums. When she won the prize for Outstanding Music Artist at the 36th annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles on March 27, Doechii said: “This organization [GLAAD] was founded on the principles of acceptance, inclusiveness, and empowerment. And those are the same things I strongly believe in and advocate for and continue to propel me forward—especially now that hard-won cultural change and rights for transgender people and the LGBTQ community have been threatened. And I’m disgusted. But I want to say that we are here, and we are not going anywhere.”
Ayo Edebiri
The Emmy-winning co-star of FX on Hulu’s “The Bear” (who identifies as queer) has made public criticisms of Elon Musk’s influence on the Trump administration’s policies. Edebiri, who is also a writer and director, was one of the celebrities who participated in the No Kings protests on June 14. In a January 2025 interview with Deadline, she said hearing news about the Trump administration “feels maybe slightly psychotic at times.” She added about LGBTQ representation in culture: “But my hope is that for me and that for other artists, that we continue to just champion each other’s work. It’s massively important. There are so many queer storytellers who have changed the medium and changed lives, outside of storytellers who are in the Western canon.”
Cynthia Erivo
This multifaceted, openly queer entertainer who is an Emmy winner, Tony winner, Grammy winner, and Oscar nominee has added another accolade to her collection. At the 2025 GLAAD Media Awards, Erivo received the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which is given to recipients who are “making a significant difference in raising visibility and promoting the acceptance of LGBTQ people and issues,” according to GLAAD. During her acceptance speech, Erivo commented on being a member of the LGBTQ community: “It isn’t easy—none of it is. Waking up and choosing to be yourself. Reclaiming a space [that] belongs to you when you don’t feel welcomed. Teaching people on a daily basis on how to address you. … The real work is making the ground we leave in our wake level enough for the next person who finds their way to the path we have made.”
Amber Ruffin
The comedian/TV host, who went public about being queer in 2024, was notoriously fired in March from her job of hosting the 2025 White House Correspondents Association dinner, for describing the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers” during a Daily Beast podcast interview that aired a few days before her dismissal. Ruffin was not replaced as the event’s host and later joked about her firing during a March 31 appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” where she used to be a writer.
In a June 2025 interview with USA Today, Ruffin spoke about her views on LGBTQ activism: “I think the trans community is extremely good at celebrating and protesting simultaneously because their existence is a protest. … So, it is a beautiful time to use Pride Month to get grounded and to help [transgender people].”
Brian Michael Smith
Transgender man Smith—a former co-star of OWN’s “Queen Sugar” and Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star”—was a featured speaker at WorldPride 2025 Human Rights Conference, which took place in Washington, D.C., from June 4 to June 6. When the now-canceled “9-1-1: Lone Star” won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2025 GLAAD Media Awards, it was for the show’s LGBTQ characters, which included transgender firefighter Paul Strickland, portrayed by Smith.
Smith said in his GLAAD Media Awards acceptance speech that the end of “9-1-1: Lone Star” after five seasons was “bittersweet” but that he was proud of the “life-changing experience” of portraying Paul Strickland as “a Black transmasculine hero.” Smith wrapped up the speech by saying: “Right now, in this moment, when our rights are under attack, it’s this kind of representation, this visibility, this resistance is [what] we need. So please: Join us in the fight to protect our rights. What they take from us, they take from you. My rights are your rights. We are fighting for our civil rights right now. It’s not just trans rights. It’s not just gay rights. It’s our rights as human beings.”
Lena Waithe
Emmy-winning lesbian Lena Waithe has been a longtime visible advocate for Black and LBGTQ representation in her work as a producer, screenwriter, and actress. Waithe has said in multiple interviews that she won’t rule out the possibility of having a career in politics.
She said of the current cultural landscape in a June 2025 interview with Complex: “If you take the power away from entertainers who tend to have a more liberal or more empathetic voice—and people aren’t really paying attention or really listening to them anymore or valuing what they’re doing—then we lose that voice. I mean, actors will tell you their job is to convey empathy. And so, if we lose that, then we might be more doomed than we think.”
