A disciple of Gandhi, a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, Rustin dared to live as an openly gay man during the fiercely homophobic 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. In 2013, Rustin received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom – America’s highest civilian honor – from Barack Obama, who described Rustin as “an unyielding activist for civil rights, dignity, and equality for all who fought tirelessly for marginalized communities at home and abroad. As an openly gay African American, Bayard Rustin stood at the intersection of several of the fights for equal rights.”