List of LGBTQ firsts by year

Openly LGBTQ people remain a demographic minority in most places.

Openly LGBTQ people being visible in society affects societal attitudes toward homosexuality, bisexuality, and the transgender community on a wider level.

One commonly cited example is Michael McConnell and Jack Baker, the first openly gay couple to apply for a marriage license in 1971.

Another is Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to political office in California, becoming the most visible LGBTQ politician in the world in the 1970s, after decades of resistance to LGBTQ people by mainstream culture.

In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States".

Hein Vos
Cover of Spring Fire (1952) by Vin Packer (a.k.a. Marijane Meaker )
Harvey Milk in 1978. Milk was the first openly gay elected politician in California.
Georgina Beyer
Pim Fortuyn
In 2006 Kim Coco Iwamoto became the first transgender official to win statewide office in Hawaii.
Rachel Maddow in August 2008
In 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became the prime minister of Iceland and thus became the first openly gay head of government in modern times.