It is the home of our history. A place many wish didn’t exist and would erase if given half a chance. At a time when our stories are being banned and lawmakers use children as intellectual human shields to restrict and revoke basic rights, the LGBTQ community needs the Stonewall National Museum Archives & Library more than ever.

This Saturday, February 24, they’re holding their gala: Standing On the Shoulders of Heroes at The Venue starting at 6 p.m.

Honorees will include living LGBTQ heroes and fierce allies.

Stacy Ritter will receive the Courage In Leadership Award. As CEO of Visit Lauderdale, Broward County’s tourism arm, she has been instrumental in making sure our LGBTQ community is seen. As creator of the Everyone Under the Sun marketing initiative, she has helped Broward be a beacon of hope and inclusivity at a time when many leaders are making inclusion programs illegal.

The Fortitude and Resilience Award goes to the stars of the HBO documentary “The Stroll.” Director Kristen Lovell and fellow survivors will be on hand to discuss their lives as young trans women of color in New York’s Meatpacking District and their impact on the community.

Getting the A Hero for Our Time Award is marathon swimmer Diana Nyad. At age 64, she swam from Havana to Key West, finally succeeding on her sixth try. She is “...an American hero who reminds us every day that we as individuals and collectively as a community have no limits on what we can do.”

Zander Moricz will be a special guest. The inspirational Harvard student made headlines when, after being forbidden to say he was gay at his high school graduation, came out as having “curly hair.”

Most recently, he went viral again for taking the Sarasota School Board to task after one of its virulently anti-LGBTQ members, Bridget Ziegler, got caught up in a sex scandal that involved another woman and criminal accusations against Ziegler’s husband, an influential Florida Republican. Moricz pointed out it’s not that she had sex with a woman, it’s the hypocrisy.