By Dennis Richmond Jr.
Happy Pride Month! Pride Month is rooted in the Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969. It’s humbling to write about a community that has influenced and continues to influence the world. The LGBTQ+ Community shapes the world through fashion, slang, art, and music, amongst everything else. This week, I’m focusing on Black Present and Future LGBTQ+ Icons. All of them inspire us in four different ways. Who can forget Pray Tell, the emcee played by Billy Porter in the smash hit POSE? His performance helped shatter the notion that gay Black men have to look a certain way.
Someone closer to home, Cienna Rosalina continues to show us how to be an effective ally to the trans community. She inspires us because she’s using her voice to speak up and out and, in the process, is still becoming a social media powerhouse. Kevin JZ Prodigy inspires us by constantly giving us bops and bangers on the ballroom floor and beyond. You might have seen him on The BET Awards or heard him on Beyonce’s album Renaissance. Kiyziah “TS Candii” Vaughn is an activist and author using her creative genius to push, expand and obliterate preconceptions about what Black trans identity means.
Let’s give it up to our icons and future icons paving the way!
Billy Porter is an actor and writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1992, in his early twenties, Porter won $100,000 on the television show Star Search. Billy became a star. Four years later, he appeared in his first film, Twisted. To date he’s been in almost a dozen movies and appeared in almost two dozen television shows. Billy Porter has solidified himself as a Black LGBTQ+ Icon.
Cienna Rosalina is a trans rights advocate from Yonkers, New York. She dedicated her life to advancing trans conversations and improving the lives of others. At her age, Cienna is no stranger to adversity. She uses social media to educate and inspire. “I’m a kind spirit who finds comfort in helping other people,” she once said. A social media influencer, Cienna boasts over 140,000 followers and almost 4.5 million likes on the popular social network TikTok. This future legend said, “I’m speaking for a community of people who society wants to be quiet.”
Kevin JZ Prodigy is a vouge performer and solidified ballroom commentator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kevin has been in the game for at least 18 years, and he shows no signs of stopping. Beyonce’s song Pure/Honey off her 2022 album Renaissance featured Prodigy. People across the world vogue to chants created by Prodigy- especially in New York. There’s nothing like nice warm, “bam-bam-sha-wam,” from this star.
Kiyziah “TS Candii” Vaughn is an author and trans rights activist from Tennessee. She moved to New York City over five years ago to look for more resources and a supportive community for trans folx. Since, Vaughn has become an activist and the founder of Black Trans Nation, a national organization committed to uplifting the living experience of Black and Brown trans people and the GNCP. In February 2021, she was one of the leading organizers, along with others, who fought to end the Walking While Trans law. In 2022, she released her first book, Becoming Candii: My True Transgender Story.
Dennis Richmond Jr is an author and journalist focused on the Black, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ Community. He lives in Yonkers. Follow him on Twitter at @NewYorkStakz.
