The way the LGBTQ+ community has been portrayed in popular culture has come a long, long way in recent years. Although there's still a lot of work to be done, so many creative queer folks have been making awesome and inclusive movies, music, TV shows, and more that better represents our lives and our stories, so in honor of Pride Month, we're taking the time to honor 25 of these inspiring people! This is the 2019 #PRIDE25!

Ellen Page has been acting since she was a kid. And though she knew she was gay long before she came out publicly in 2014, she stayed in the closet due to pressure from people in Hollywood.

“I was distinctly told, by people in the industry, when I started to become known: ‘People cannot know you’re gay,’” she told Porter earlier this year.

If you pay attention to Page now — and you should — you’d never know that she was once a person who felt she had to hide who she was or what she believed in. She’s an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ community, perhaps exemplified most prominently through her 2016 documentary series Gaycation, in which she and co-host Ian Daniel explored LGBTQ cultures around the world.

That show proved that Ellen Page is not one to back down. She famously confronted now-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, about his homophobic views during an episode, citing his past suggestion that parents should “beat the gay out” of their children. More recently, she gave a passionate and informed interview to Stephen Colbert, calling out current U.S. leadership for failure to protect LGBTQ citizens.

“If you are in a position of power and you hate people, and you want to cause suffering to them, you go through the trouble, you spend your career trying to cause suffering, what do you think is going to happen?” she asked.

And Page has been one of the most visible out actors helping to get movies and TV shows featuring queer storylines and characters greenlit, something it’s not abnormal for queer actors to shy away from for fear of getting typecast.

“I felt, and I feel, a sense of responsibility,” she said. “I want to be able to help in any way I can, and I want to make queer content.”

Catch Ellen Page in Tales of the City and The Umbrella Academy, both on Netflix!

And check out more of the 2019 #PRIDE25 honorees here!