In 2025, the LGBTQ+ community was deprived of artists, activists, and cultural people whose contribution was felt well beyond their sectors. There were world names; there were iconic through niche spaces and online culture and local leadership.
The thing that is united in these lives is not a single genre or generation; but visibility itself, moving up those channels: television, music, fashion, activism, and the daily courage of being oneself publicly.
1. The Vivienne
In 2013, drag artist James Lee Williams (The Vivienne) at 32 years old died of a cardio-respiratory arrest linked to the use of ketamine, and was a coroner concluded that this was a misadventure. In 2019, Williams won the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK then made an appearance on All Stars 7. Off-the-runway, Williams had ventured into mainstream British television and theatre including a run at the West End.
According to the testimony by the inquest, the father of Williams said, he was a just a full-of-life character. Charities were also raised by family members to increase the awareness of addiction support and the damages linked to ketamine.
2. Jiggly Caliente
Bianca Castro-Arabejo, better known as Jiggly Caliente, was killed at 44 after a serious infection which made her amputate one leg. Initially popular among Drag Race season four fans, she then proceeded to make an even larger impression as a judge on season four of Drag Race Philippines and as an actor on Pose. In 2016 she also identified as a trans woman, which changed the perception of her story and image in the eyes of many viewers. Her relatives called her a light in the darkness whose contribution was both artistic and political.
3. Richard Chamberlain
The actor Richard Chamberlain passed away at the age of 90 due to a stroke complication. He is best remembered by Dr. Kildare and a time of old-fashioned TV miniseries stardom, yet his career spanned the stage, screen, and music. Chamberlain never publicly identified as gay, and it was not until the publication of his autobiography, Shattered Love: A Memoir, that he would publicly come out, and this choice appealed to audiences who had grown up in a culture where coming out was a career hazard. His lengthy curve provided a peephole into the ways that the popular acceptance and the entertainment business evolved throughout decades.
4. Jill Sobule
Songwriter Jill Sobule, 66, died in a fire in her home, her publicist claimed. Her 1995 song I Kiss a Girl was the first LGBTQ+ one to hit the Billboard top 20, and it would allow future queer pop to be more visible. In her 3-decade career, Sobule released 12 studio albums and featured in film and television soundtracks. Her work occupied a unique space in queer cultural memory: unashamedly immediate and dismissive, and uninhibited about emotional particularity.
5. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy passed away at 78 giving a legacy of trans activism of lived experience that spans half a century. She was famous as an advocate of black trans women and gender-nonconforming individuals, especially those affected by imprisonment and poverty. Her subsequent activity comprised of establishing a community based support facility such as a care and safety retreat and educational center. Her impact was historically and constitutionally both present and past in the daily routine of organizing, mentoring, and making room of other people to exist.
6. Loren Ruch
HGTV Head of content and HGTV house party co-host Loren Ruch passed away at the age of 55 because of acute myeloid leukemia. In an industry where the executives tend to remain in the background, Ruch was a known figure who was also a shaper of what the audiences viewed. Colleagues reported that he was a connector; Warren Bros. TV Group chair Channing Dungey said he was the connective tissue of any room he walked into. The death was experienced in-screen and behind-screen, in the creative ecosystems that he assisted in leading.
7. Andrea Gibson
Andrea Gibson was a 49-year-old genderqueer poet and activist who died of ovarian cancer. Their work, which included seven books of poetry, tackled gender, illness, queerness, and social justice in a style that was full of blurred performance and intimacy. Another documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, directed by Gibson, was also added to the public record of his journey living with cancer, and won the Festival Favourite Award at Sundance in early 2025. Their heritage was the language: they were written to a large house, but addressed to an individual reader.
Through the drag stages, TV sets, page and screen and decades of community work, these casualties were the termination of the life of individuals, though not the life of what they contributed to its creation. Their names alone will not last long; but remembering them in detail will keep the trails they made to others alive.
