Vito Russo

Vito Russo wrote The Celluloid Closet, a groundbreaking book addressing how gays and lesbians were portrayed in the movies. Russo demonstrated that before the 1930s gays in movies were portrayed as objects of ridicule. In 1934, the Hays Code ordered that sex perversion be forbidden on the screen. After the Hays Code, gays and lesbians were portrayed as perverts, criminals or mentally unstable during the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s. Russo argued that Hollywood's use of these stereotypes perpetuated the oppression of GLBT people.

Russo devoted most of his life to GLBT civil rights and AIDS activism. In 1985, he helped found the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). In 1987, he helped found ACT UP.