Martine co-founded Sirius XM Satellite Radio in 1990 and then founded the biotechnology
company United Therapeutics in 1996.
She came out as transgender in the 1990s. Martine has been open about her past life as a man, and
has since been an advocate for the transgender community.
She appeared on the cover of New York Magazine as the highest-paid woman in the world.
“I’ve started a journey from man to woman, so if I hide it, I’d be replicating the wardrobe of my past
with another wardrobe of the future,” Martine said in a 2004 interview.
10. Megan Smith, former US chief technology officer
Megan was appointed in 2014, under chile phone number list President Obama, as the first female
CTO in the United States (US Chief Technology Officer).
Previously, she was a vice president at Google, where she helped launch the company’s Solve For X
and Women Techmakers initiatives. She also previously served as CEO of the LGBTQ+ online media
outlet Planet Out.
11. Sally Ride, NASA Astronaut, Physicist and American Academic
Sally was an American physicist and NASA the user interface is intuitive to use astronaut who in 1983
became the first American woman, and third in the world, to reach outer space. She also became a
professional tennis player.
Sally was a CapCom for the second and third flights of the Space Shuttle program (STS-2 and STS-3),
and helped develop the robotic arm (Canadarm).
From 1985 until her death she was in a relationship with psychologist and professor Tam
O’Shaughnessy, although this relationship only became public after the astronaut’s death, and only
NASA astronaut Steven Hawley is recognized as her spouse.
12. Sara Sperling, former Facebook diversity and inclusion leader
While at Facebook, Sara established cnb directory the company’s diversity and inclusion program
. She also runs the human resources departments at Snapchat and DoorDash.
She is now a partner at a consulting firm she co-founded, called Oxegen Consulting. She also sits on
the board of directors of HER , a dating app for women who identify as lesbian and non-binary people.
The common denominator of these outstanding women is that they have not only been outstanding in
the workplace, but they have become defenders of LGBTI+ rights and supported from their trenches,
overcoming enormous challenges and even putting their own personal safety at risk.
It is everyone’s responsibility to support the collective efforts of activist organizations around the
world, so that they continue to bear fruit. For example, today at least 43 countries have classified
homophobic crimes as hate crimes, and more than 27 countries have legalized same-sex marriage.