Surviving a 1990 House reprimand for his involvement with a male prostitute, the Massachusetts Democrat has played a key role in lobbying to end the military ban on gays.

Cofounded New York’s Lesbian Herstory Archives, the largest and oldest collection of lesbian artifacts. She edits books and teaches courses about lesbian literature at Queens College.

A prominent lesbian civilrights attorney and San Francisco supervisor, she was recently nominated as a HUD assistant secretary.

A Soho painter also active in publishing, he has used his considerable reputation to help foster new gay talent. Some of his own paintings comment on the AIDS epidemic.

A writer for the influential gay bi-weekly The Advocate, he was an early champion of “outing”-publishing the names of closeted gays and lesbians.

Best-known for “And the Band Played On,” his 1987 book on the AIDS epidemic, Shilts, who is now battling AIDS himself, just published a book about gays in the military.

A finalist for the 1992 National Book Award, the author of “Bastard Out of Carolina” has said she’s faced years of marginalization because of her sexual orientation.

A latecomer to gay activism, he’s made up for lost time with big bucks: $1 million to AIDS Project L.A. and seed money for a new group fighting the Pentagon’s ban on homosexuals.

A record-industry executive and lobbyist in Washington, Rosen is a Beltway power broker who sits on the board of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the gay PAC.

With Arnie Zane, his partner and lover who died of’ AIDS in 1988, Jones created innovative modern dances about homosexuality and AIDS. He’s choreographing a new dance about the terminally ill.

A former journalist who now polices his colleagues in the press, Suggs has led highly successful campaigns against anti-gay bias in everything from newspaper articles to rock lyrics.

An irreverent journalist who cofounded the lesbian erotic magazine On Our Backs, she has also written a collection of essays, “Susie Sexpert’s Lesbian Sex World.”

“Angels in America,” his acclaimed gay theatrical epic, opens on Broadway next week. The first part, “Millennium Approaches,” won the 1992-93 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Founder of the L.A.-based Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum, Wilson was instrumental in forging an alliance between homosexuals and the NAACP.

The nine-time Wimbledon champion and Aspen resident became vocal and added her name to an ACLU class-action suit when Colorado voters passed an anti-gay-rights law in November.

Hill is organizing Gay Games IV, a 1994 New York sporting festival that’s expected to attract 30,000 athletes and half a million spectators from around the world.

A lesbian who has been active in health and gayrights issues since the ’70s, Hunter is the founder and former director of the ACLU AIDS Project. She now teaches constitutional law and federal court procedure at Brooklyn Law School.

Dubbed the “Pasionaria” of the gayrights movement, Vaid recently stepped down as head of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and moved to Cape Cod to write a book about gay politics.

Executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, which raised $750,000 for candidates in the 1992 elections. A longtime activist, he’s now pushing for a federal gay-civil-rights bill.

A gadfly and founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT-UP, he has written plays-most notably “The Normal Heart” in 1985-essays and speeches decrying the AIDS epidemic.

A Berkeley professor who makes controversial films, his documentary on gay black men, “Tongues Untied,” was used in Pat Buchanan’s ad campaign against George Bush.

Executive director of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Sweeney got his start in the gay-rights movement in the ’70s when he worked to defeat anti-homosexual laws in California.

A flight attendant turned feminist, Ireland became president of NOW in 1991 and is working to forge links between the women’s movement and gay and lesbian rights.

A former street activist with an M.B.A., Osborn heads the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. She brokered the historic meeting between Clinton and gay leaders.

A long-time activist, she has made a career out of covering gay politics for The Village Voice. She’s writing a book for teenagers on gay culture.

An attorney specializing in real-estate and business law, Abbitt was a founder of the L.A. power circle ANGLE.

A Yale professor, he authored the myth-shattering “Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality” in 1980.

The coordinator of the Campaign for Military Service was among gay leaders who met with Clinton.

The president of the Log Cabin Federation, a national gay Republican organization with about 6,000 members.