2025 Icons

2025 Overview Video
  1. Peter Anastos
  2. Walter Arlen
  3. Becca Balint
  4. Samuel Barber
  5. Andy Cohen
  6. John D’Emilio
  7. Colman Domingo
  8. Billie Eilish
  9. Cecilia Gentili
  10. Jeffrey Gibson
  11. Nikki Giovanni
  12. Lily Gladstone
  13. Mel Heifetz
  14. Sir Lady Java
  15. Ella Jenkins
  16. ABilly Jones-Hennin
  17. Ellsworth Kelly
  18. Karl Lagerfeld
  19. Troy Masters
  20. Sarah McBride
  21. T. J. Osborne
  22. Ted Osius
  23. Ann Philbin
  24. Chappell Roan
  25. Harper Steele
  26. Breanna Stewart
  27. Arthur Tress
  28. Cy Twombly
  29. Ocean Vuong
  30. Abby Wambach
  31. Lanford Wilson

Tim Gill
2006 Icon



Philanthropist
 
b. October 18, 1953
 
" This fight is not just for the long haul. This fight is forever. "
 
Tim Gill founded the highly successful computer company Quark, Inc. and created the Gill Foundation, one of the first major foundations to benefit the LGBT community.
 
Tim Gill got hooked on computers when his high school acquired its first computer. It wasn't long until he taught himself to create complex programs. Instead of following in his father's footsteps as a physician as he had originally planned, he majored in applied mathematics and computer science at the University of Colorado.
 
In 1981, Gill borrowed $2,000 from his parents and started Quark, Inc. The road to success was not without obstacles, but in a few years' time the company became a leader in desktop publishing software. Gill established a reputation for innovative, socially conscious business practices. His name appeared on the Forbes 400 list of the nation's wealthiest people.
 
Gill began to speak out publicly as a gay man in 1992 when Colorado voters passed Amendment 2, which banned laws designed to protect LGBT people from discrimination. In 1994, he established the Gill Foundation with the mission of securing equal opportunity for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.
 
In 2000, Gill sold his interest in Quark in order to devote his energies to the foundation. In 2004, the Gill Foundation endowment was $220 million.
 
NOTE: Tim Gill was a 2006 LGBT History Month Icon. On January 2, 2025, President Biden presented him with the The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The medal is awarded to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, to world peace, or to other significant societal, public, or private endeavors.