20 Trans Trailblazers Who Have Been Featured in the Out100
Over the years, tons of trans people have been featured in the Out100!
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Editor's note: The full 2023 Out100 list drops on Tuesday, Oct. 17! Sign up for our email newsletter and we'll send it straight to your inbox!
Trans people have always had (and will always have!) a huge impact on the LGBTQ+ community as a whole — and the Out100 has been honoring them for the past several decades.
There have honestly been way too many notable trans people on the Out100 lists to make a simple slideshow, and in fact, there could be an entire Out100 made up of trans people who have been on the Out100.
Some of those who have made the Out100 include Janet Mock, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker, Quinn, Liv Hewson, Jen Richards, Kate Bornstein, Tracy Norman, Eva Reign, Shakina Nayfack, Gigi Gorgeous, Josie Totah, Joey Soloway, Violet Chachki, Gottmik, Bamby Salcedo, Jennicet Gutierrez, Kortney Zielger, Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Candis Cayne, Justin Vivian Bond, Jamie Clayton, Kye Allums, Kim Petras, Amy Schneider, Robina Asti, and Sam Feder.
Here is a look at twenty others, including some Out100 cover stars!
1. John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell is one of the earliest trans people to grace an Out100 cover (December 2006). The writer, director, and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch came out as nonbinary in 2022. The groundbreaking filmmaker, actor, playwright more recently played Jo Exotic in Peacock’s series Joe vs. Carole and appeared in Netflix’s The Sandman.
2. Andreja Pejic
Model Andreja Pejic was one of the first trans women to be honored in the Out100, having made the list in both 2011 and 2015. In 2015, she became the first out trans model to be profiled by Vogue and to sign a cosmetics contract. The next year, she became the first trans woman to appear on the cover of GQ.
3. Elliot Page
Actor Elliot Page's first Out100 cover came in 2014, before he transitioned. He was put on the cover again in 2021 after he publicly came out as trans. Since coming out, he has been a vocal trans activist and is pushing trans representation forward in Hollywood.
4. Chelsea Manning
Activist and whistleblower Chelsea Manning made the Out100 cover in 2017. She was arrested and imprisoned after leaking classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010.
5. Jonathan Van Ness
The entire Queer Eye team were cover stars for the 2018 Out100, including grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness. Van Ness is nonbinary, and through Queer Eye, has helped people feel more comfortable in their bodies.
6. SOPHIE
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The late, great musician and producer SOPHIE was honored with an Out100 cover in 2018. In that year, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album for Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides. Despite sadly passing away in 2021 at the age of 34, she has been one of the most influential musicians of the 21st Century.
7. Sam Smith
Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer Sam Smith has been on the Out100 cover twice: in 2014 and again in 2019, when they were named Evolution of the Year. They are the first out nonbinary musician to have a song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and to win a Grammy Award.
8. Raquel Willis
Writer, activist, and journalist Raquel Willis has been featured in the Out100 on her own, but also as the creator of the Trans Obituaries Project, which detailed the lives of over 20 trans people who lost their lives due to violence, and offered solutions to how to end the epidemic.
9. Janelle Monáe
The nonbinary singer and actor is one of the best and most influential musicians today. Monae has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and has starred in movies like Moonlight, Harriet, Antebellum, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. She was on the cover of the Out100 issue in 2020.
10. Sara Ramirez
Nonbinary Tony winner Sara Ramirez was an Out100 cover star in 2021. The bisexual actor starred in Grey’s Anatomy, where they played bisexual doctor Callie Torres, and has played bisexual, nonbinary characters Kat Sandoval on Madam Secretary and Che Diaz in And Just Like That….
11. Angelica Ross
Actor, producer, activist, and entrepreneur Angelica Ross has broken ground for trans actors in Hollywood by starring in Pose and American Horror Story. She has recently announced that she’s leaving Hollywood to move back to Atlanta, where she will continue producing film and TV projects and other ventures.
12. Laverne Cox
Actress and TV host Laverne Cox broke into the spotlight when she was cast as Sophia Burset on Orange Is the New Black, a role she became the first out trans actor to be nominated for an Emmy Award. She was also the first trans person on the cover of Time Magazine and Cosmopolitan, and was the first trans person to have a wax figure at Madame Tussauds.
13. Hari Nef
Nef, a model and actress has appeared in shows and movies like Transparent, Assassination Nation, and The Idol. This year, she starred as one of the Barbies in the year’s biggest film, Barbie.
14. Trace Lysette
After breaking out playing Shea in Transparent, Lysette has made a name for herself in smaller roles in things like Drunk History and Hustlers. This year, she got a chance to show off what she can do with an Oscar-worthy role as a trans woman reconnecting with her ailing mother in Monica.
15. Isis King
King leapt into the public spotlight as a young, trans woman when she appeared on America’s Next Top Model, as the first trans model to compete. More recently, she’s been acting, including starring in With Love since 2021.
16. Vico Ortiz
Nonbinary actor Vico Ortiz plays one of our favorite TV characters, the nonbinary pirate Jim on Our Flag Means Death. They are also active in speaking about trans, Latine, and polyamorous issues.
17. Brian Michael Smith
Smith is an actor who has starred in shows like Queen Sugar, The L Word: Generation Q, Chicago P.D., and Girls. He became the first Black out trans man to land a series regular role on network television when he joined 9-1-1: Lone Star as firefighter Paul Strickland.
18. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
Miss Major is a legend. The longtime trans activist was present at the historic Stonewall Riot and has been involved in the fight for equal rights since then. She served as the first executive director for the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project. She recently became a mother.
19. Chaz Bono
Bono, the son of Sonny Bono and Cher, famously came out as a lesbian in the 1990s after being outed by tabloid papers, and then came out again as a trans man in 2009. Since then, he released a documentary entitled Becoming Chaz which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Nonfiction Special and has been a proud and vocal speaker for trans rights.
20. Yasmin Finney
Yasmin Finney is one of the hottest young actors in the U.K. She stars as a teen trans girl in the popular Netflix series Heartstopper, for which she was nominated for a Children’s and Family Emmy Award. In 2023, she’s joining the cast of Doctor Who as Donna Noble’s trans daughter Rose.
