Frank Xavier
Educators
Avery Belyeu
Meet some of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
In 2024, Avery Belyeu became CEO of the Montrose Center, the fourth-largest LGBTQ+ center in the nation, serving Houston and the surrounding area. She is the first out trans woman to lead an LGBTQ+ center of this size and scale. “I am incredibly proud of what this milestone represents — not just for me but for all trans individuals who can now see another example of trans leadership in a prominent nonprofit dedicated to serving the entire LGBTQ+ community,” she says.
Belyeu has much experience in LGBTQ+ rights work, suicide prevention, and crisis intervention, previously serving at Lambda Legal and the Trevor Project, among other organizations. To build this career, she overcame “severe family and community rejection as a queer young adult,” she shares, having grown up in rural Florida in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She triumphed because of “the incredible people I met along the way,” she notes. She hopes her experience inspires others.
“I believe our diverse and intersecting communities have something really special to teach the world about self-acceptance, courage, and creativity,” she says. @montrosecenter
Daniel Reynolds
Daniel Reynolds is the editor-in-chief of Out and an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection between entertainment and politics. This Jersey boy has now lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade.
Daniel Reynolds is the editor-in-chief of Out and an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection between entertainment and politics. This Jersey boy has now lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade.
John Allen Phillips
Gabriella Angelina
Nick Adams
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
John Allen Phillips
Nick Adams, vice president of the GLAAD Media Institute, has been fighting for transgender equality since joining the organization in 1998. His role is to amplify the voices of trans people and help them be “trans in the public eye.”
He created the transgender section of GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide, setting industry standards for respectful and accurate reporting. Adams’s expertise has been incredibly valuable in major media moments, including Caitlyn Jenner’s coming-out story in 2015.
This year, Adams worked closely with Trevor Anderson, the co-writer and director of a new film, Before I Change My Mind, about a teen living in Alberta, Canada, whose gender is never clarified but is the driving force behind the story. Adams says the film “is a welcome and necessary antidote to the lies about trans youth being peddled by anti-trans politicians.”
As a transgender man himself, Adams says he’s passionate about continuing the fight against the small group of loud, fringe, anti-trans activists working to scare Hollywood into removing queer characters from the media. “I will make sure executives and creators know that the vast majority of their audiences expect and want to see our stories on screen,” he says. @glaad