The biggest moments for the LGBTQ community in the past year

Page did his first on-camera interview after coming out with Oprah Winfrey, which aired on Apple TV+ in April. The "Juno" star got emotional talking about his top surgery and advocating for trans healthcare.

"Getting out of the shower and the towel's around your waist, and you're looking at yourself in the mirror and you're just like, 'there I am' and I'm not having the moment where I'm panicked," Page said, wiping away "tears of joy.

Page also appeared on the cover of Time magazine, becoming the first transgender man to do so, and talked to the outlet about finding himself during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had a lot of time on my own to really focus on things that I think, in so many ways, unconsciously, I was avoiding," he said. "I was finally able to embrace being transgender and letting myself fully become who I am.

Another groundbreaking cover arrived in October with Playboy's digital cover star Bretman Rock. The social media influencer became the first out gay male on the cover for Playboy.

"I’m a @playboy bunny DUHHHHHH," Rock wrote on Twitter alongside his cover photo which shows him in a black bodysuit, stockings, heels and bunny ears.

GLAAD issued a statement calling Playboy's inclusion of Rock "a powerful step forward in the ongoing movement towards greater diversity and inclusion in fashion and modeling."

It continued: "Rock is continuing to defy gender norms and use his massive social platform to not only break down barriers for LGBTQ inclusion in the industry, but also inspire so many other LGBTQ Filipinos who have been underrepresented in fashion, modeling, and across media.

In July, "13 Reasons Why" star Tommy Dorfman reintroduced herself as a trans woman in a Time interview.

"Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy," Dorfman said. Though she acknowledged that she was "never not out," Dorfman, who previously used they/them pronouns, noted that being public about her transition for the first time was nonetheless a "beautiful" process. She also noted that she will no longer take on any male roles.

Dorfman "reminds us that when it comes to queer identity, there is not a specific timeline or roadmap to follow," GLAAD’s Head of Talent Anthony Allen Ramos said in a statement.

Former "Bachelor" star Colton Underwood came out as gay in an interview with "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts on April 14. His announcement was a first for the "Bachelor" franchise.

"I've ran from myself for a long time; I've hated myself for a long time," he shared. "It's been a journey for sure. I'm emotional in such a good, happy, positive way. I'm the happiest and healthiest I've ever been in my life and that means the world to me."

17-year-old online superstar Jojo Siwa came out as a member of the LGBTQ community in January and further discussed her sexuality with People in April, saying she identifies as queer and pansexual.

She added that this is the first time she's felt so personally happy. "I am like, whoa, happiness. I am so proud to be me.

Demi Lovato came out as nonbinary and changed their pronouns to they/them in May. The singer announced the "very personal" news in a heartfelt video post. 

"I feel this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am and am still discovering," they said.

T.J. Osborne, one-half of the country duo Brother Osborne, came out as gay in February.

"I'm very comfortable being gay," he told Time magazine. “I find myself being guarded for not wanting to talk about something that I personally don’t have a problem with," he said. "That feels so strange.”

He's the only openly gay man signed to a major label country record deal, according to the Time article. In Osborne coming out, the band brings representation to airwaves where queer listeners seldom hear themselves.

Actress and advocate Laverne Cox landed a new role putting a transgender woman front and center of Hollywood's biggest events from the Grammy Awards to the Oscars. Starting in 2022, Cox will host E! network's "Live From E!"

"I dreamed of walking red carpets… I can't wait to get started while hopefully serving up fashion fantasies for the ages honey," she said of the new job.

Caitlyn Jenner, a Republican trans woman known for winning the Olympic decathlon championship and being a fixture in the Kardashian reality TV empire, declared in April her intention to run for California governor in the looming recall race to unseat incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom.

In an hourlong interview May 5 with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Jenner was unclear about her specific plans as governor, but was heartfelt in talking about her experience as a trans woman and how she thought that would help her for the role. 

"Trans issues people struggle with big time. Our suicide rate is nine times higher than the general public," she said. "And for me to be a role model to them, to be out there, I am running for governor of the state of California. Who would have ever thunk that? We've never even had a woman governor." 

Lil Nas X fully embraced his identity when he dropped his new music video and song "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" in March. While critics felt the sexually explicit biblical and Satanic imagery (he kills the devil, among other things) in the video went too far, advocates argued that the singer made brave statement for Black queerness.

"What Lil Nas X did was so significant, because not only do queer kids get to say, 'Hey, there's someone who looks like me out there.' Black queer kids, and specifically Black queer boys and young men get to say 'There is someone who looks like me,'" explained Alicia T. Crosby, a Black queer minister from Durham, North Carolina.

Jonathan Bennett and his love, former "The Amazing Race" contestant Jaymes Vaughan, made history when they appeared on the cover of The Knot magazine for its summer 2021 issue, the first LGBTQ couple to do so.

Bennett and Vaughan talked to the magazine about their wedding plans. While they faced discrimination at first, it led them to make their nuptials a celebration with a bigger goal. "It's our wedding, but it isn't just about us. It's about the LGBTQ+ community. We're really making a point to make this wedding very loud on purpose," Bennett said.

Indie rocker Phoebe Bridgers performed on the Feb. 6 episode of "Saturday Night Live" and at the end of an explosive guitar solo, Bridgers repeatedly smashed her guitar, sending sparks into the air. 

That guitar — what was left of it anyway —  sold for $101,500 as part of the GLAAD Media Awards auction.

"Phoebe is such a visible, out powerhouse in the music industry and we knew that the item was special, but we were so pleasantly surprised to see such a large amount of money raised that will go directly into our work to support and uplift LGBTQ people," said GLAAD's Head of Talent Anthony Ramos.

Billy Porter broke his 14-year silence about being HIV-positive in an emotional interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May. He shared that he had for a long time felt shame about his diagnosis, especially growing up in the Pentecostal Church.

Through therapy and support from his husband, Adam Smith, Porter confronted his shame head on.

"The truth is the healing," Porter said. "We are at a reckoning not just in this country but in the world. It's not just America. It's the whole world, and the only way for a civilization to heal is with the truth.

LGBTQ representation on TVhas been slow to progress. But a new miniseries now streaming on HBO Max is helping pave the way. "It's a Sin," about a group of young friends during the AIDS crisis in London, received a four-star review from USA TODAY TV critic Kelly Lawler who named it the best new series of 2021 so far.

Created by Russell T. Davies ("Queer as Folk," "Years and Years"), Lawler says the show "is celebratory of the LGBTQ community, unabashedly sexy and fun, but moving and somber when it needs to be.

Sara Ramirez has represented one of the longest-running LGBTQ characters on TV with their role as Callie Torrez on "Grey's Anatomy." In an interview for Out Magazine, Ramirez said being on the show was monumental. 

"Prior to Callie Torres, I’d never seen myself represented on television,” Ramirez said in the interview published Nov. 2. 

Another LGBTQ win will come with Ramirez's role in HBO Max's reboot of "Sex and the City" called "And Just Like That ...".

The network announced earlier this year that a new recurring character coming to the city will be Che Diaz, a nonbinary podcast host played by Ramirez. In the show, Diaz uses them/they pronouns and has an "outrageous sense of humor and progressive, human overview of gender roles," according to the character description. 

Ramírez is nonbinary. In an Instagram post in August 2020, the "Grey's Anatony" star shared a selfie with the hashtag #nonbinary: "New profile pic. In me is the capacity to be Girlish boy, Boyish girl, Boyish boy, Girlish girl, All, Neither.