MISS BENNY
It’s been a banner year for Miss Benny. The influencer, singer, and actor launched into TV sets around the world as the star of Netflix’s Glamorous, in which she portrayed the assistant to a beauty mogul played by Kim Cattrall. Previously, she made history in 2018 by portraying Casey, the first queer character on Fuller House.
Beyond bringing LGBTQ+ representation to the television landscape in 2023, Miss Benny also came out as a transgender woman. It is “a huge relief to finally be who I am,” Miss Benny says of the milestone. She had been “privately transitioning for a couple years, and the thing that I can now report is it’s just been better and better than I could have ever hoped for.”
Miss Benny acknowledges she still has “a lot of seeds buried into my brain” from a Texas upbringing “about how I should be or how I should act. But I find that with every year of my life, things get better. And I try to remember that when things are particularly hard.”
Today, she’s proud to be part of the entertainment industry, which offered her escapism in her youth and a living as an adult. “I’m working on a lot of music right now,” she says. “This year has been sort of the launching point for all of my different creative endeavors, and now I’m ready to soar and fly and break free like Troy and Gabriella in High School Musical.”
In the fight for equality, she also wants to stress shared humanity. “I think about how my day-to-day life is not nearly at all different from the way that my mom lives every day,” she reflects. “I mean we wake up, we make our coffee, we watch our little shows…and so [I’m] just trying to make people see that queer equality is just literally a respect for each other.” @missbenny
BRITTNEY GRINER
Before this year, Brittney Griner was already a superstar, a legend, and a hero. In her career, the 32-year-old center has won two Olympic gold medals and a WNBA championship; she has also been named to nine WNBA All-Star teams. But she became admired for her strength and courage while being detained in a Russian prison for nearly all of 2022 after authorities there discovered hash oil that was prescribed to her in Arizona.
After the U.S. government finally brought her home in a prisoner exchange, Griner had her highly anticipated return to the WNBA this year, where fans welcomed her back with open arms. After starting 31 games, Griner was named Co-Comeback Player of the Year for the league.
Through it all, Griner has held her head high as an out and proud athlete — and she hopes her example inspires others to do the same.
“Living proudly and out loud is the only way I know how, and and my hope is that in some small way recognitions like this are seen by those who have not yet found the time, space, or safety to come out — that they would know they’re not alone and that there is hope and community and family waiting for them when they’re ready.”
