Diane Pappafotis is the Women with Pride coordinator for The Pride Center at Equality Park in Wilton Manors. Women with Pride is a program at the center that creates spaces for a queer women’s community. Pappafotis is also the marketing director for SkirtSoFlo, a local publication focused on LGBTQ+ women.

Giving back has taken Michael Goodman a long way. 

It’s never easy to narrow down the many incredible individuals in our LGBTQ community to just one list — but we’ve done our best.

Legacy is more than a word to LaTonya Hopson. It is a vision, a mission, and an imperative. Not for herself, but for her community. She founded a nonprofit, The Legacy Project, with the goal of building bridges in BIPOC and LGBTQ communities as change agents through arts and culture to provide holistic care.

Miami is back for the LGBTQ community, and much of that is due to the work of Edward Summers. He’s nearing the end of his first year as executive director of Pridelines. Over the past few years, its influence and impact were contracting. Since taking the reins, he’s moved the group back into the city and rallied support.

Avion Goordeen serves as the Outreach Director at PRISM, a nonprofit focused on education and sexual health resources for LGBTQ+ youth in South Florida. He’s a first-generation immigrant, identifies as bisexual, and has been involved with nonprofits since 2018.

Robert Cole is a native Floridian that serves as the Executive Director for Our Sister’s Place, a thrift store that supports victims of domestic violence.

If you see him, you can’t miss him. With his signature beard and on-point jewelry game, Marc Martorana is very recognizable - and he gets recognized everywhere.

Kim Blandon has an extensive history in community organizing and activism that goes back to their childhood growing up in Hialeah. They are Two-Spirit and pansexual.

Steven Butterman understands the LGBTQ community on an academic level. He is a tenured professor at University of Miami who works in gender and cultural studies, immigration, the queer diaspora and queer theory.

Donna Weinberger is the founder of Transpire Help, a nonprofit focused on substance abuse recovery for members of the LGBTQ+ community. They are also the CEO of Inspire Recovery, an LGBTQ-affirming addiction rehabilitation center, as well as the CEO of Pride Detox, an LGBTQ-affirming detox and rehabilitation center. They also recently opened an LGBTQ-affirming detox and rehabilitation center in Homestead called Q Space Detox.

For trans activist Liam Lipham, holding space for someone to be their whole self is more than an occupation, it's a duty. Growing up in small town Missouri, Lipham found little room to explore his identity without scrutiny, only to join the Navy’s “SeaBees” Construction Battalion right out of high school during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era. 

Her smile makes others smile. Her skills make others better. Michelle Santos is a Senior Youth Therapist at SunServe, a job that allows her to connect with members of the community in a one-on-one setting.

Alison Burgos and Michelle Alexis Gaber are not a lesbian power couple. They are a hands down power couple in the truest sense of the phrase, no qualifiers needed. Their impact on South Florida’s LGBTQ community, and especially the lesbian community, is immeasurable.

Gen-Z and Gen Alpha LGBTQ are under attack. They’re not only bullied in schools, they’re being bullied by the government. Safe Schools South Florida’s Tom Lander is working to put a stop to it.

Justin Jones is a problem solver. He's also the President of the Rapha Center of Miami. In the Bible, the Hebrew word Rapha translates as healing. 

Q-Mitch Jones is a true showman who loves bingo and has a big heart.

Bree-Anna Obst is the managing director at Thinking Cap Theatre, a nonprofit professional theater company focused on insightful and socially aware productions.

In almost two years serving as the Community Outreach Coordinator at Holy Cross Health, within the Community Health and Well-Being Department, Von Biggs has accomplished so much for the LGBTQ community.

She’ll sing, hold space for you, make you laugh, and just when you thought she was done, she’ll flip drag on its head for her own amusement and yours. 

Ryan Thompson came to West Palm Beach from his native Atlanta five years ago. For Thompson, choosing to go home-based in 2018 meant being able to live almost anywhere, and it was apparent from his early life that Thomson valued authenticity, involvement, and diversity as keys to life. 

Maddox Max hails from Los Angeles and made his way to South Florida looking for a change of scenery after his divorce, “I just decided I would come out here. I was visiting [my best friend] often, and I loved South Florida. I would always end up extending my trips.” 

David Jobin is the President and CEO of the Our Fund Foundation. The organization creates positive community change and addresses urgent issues facing the LGBTQ+ communities.

Ryan Young, a life-long New Yorker, wanted to get out of the cold.

Alexis Fernández is a self-described "entertainer and comedian in entertainment." Fernández is a drag veteran with 25 years of experience as a performer. Fernández is best known as his alter ego, Marytrini el Huracan, whom locals call 'the empress of transformism.'

He’s a leather daddy and a cake daddy and he’s quickly becoming the godfather of Wilton Manors. Chuck King is a leather legend and more, taking his community involvement to the next level.

A quick glance at Doug Evans’ résumé reveals a man for all seasons.

In tough times, tough people rise to meet the occasion. That was the case for Karen Kelley. “I decided rather than screaming at the TV, I'd get involved.”

Ximena Dipietro is a 23-year-old senior at Florida Atlantic University studying history with a minor in peace, justice and human rights. She is a transgender woman, Mexican American, and also identifies herself as a Christian pacifist.Dipietro was raised Baptist and converted to Quakerism a couple of years ago.

Jason R. Hughes is the executive director of ArtServe. For more than half of his life, he’s been at the cutting edge of LGBTQ art and media. Prior to living in South Florida, Hughes was the first director of marketing and sales for Pride Vision TV, now known as Out TV in Toronto. 

Caridad Moro-Gronlier was one of OutSFL’s six queer poets featured for National Poetry Month in April. A Cuban-American, her poetry collection "Tortillera" embraces and reclaims the word "tortillera," a term for lesbian in Spanish often regarded as a slur in some Cuban-American homes. Moro-Gronlier moved from Los Angeles to Miami at 9 years old.

Maxx Fenning has accomplished much beyond his years - he recently graduated with his bachelor’s in business administration from University of Florida while also leading PRISM, a nonprofit focused on sexual education for LGBTQ+ youth in South Florida.