In honor of Pride Month, which recently concluded in June, we bring you a list of some of the wealthiest people from the LGBTQ+ community in the world. These people have been very vocal about their individuality and have never shied away from supporting the community.
Despite all odds, they have emerged at the top of their fields, with up to billions of dollars in net worth.
Pride Month
Every June, members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies celebrate Pride Month. This beautiful month-long celebration commemorates the historic accomplishments, struggles, and contributions of the community to the world at large.
One of these many achievements is becoming wealthy millionaires and billionaires. Here are 11 members of the LGBTQ+ community who have reached great milestones in their careers by making a fortune.
Sir Elton John
Elton John is a musical phenomenon and a great member of the LGBTQ+ community. John has been with his partner, David Furnish, for almost 30 years! He started his musical journey in England and was instantly famous for his outrageous and flashy costumes, with a net worth of $81 million.
Elton John is a widely successful artist who has sold millions of records and once held the world record for the highest-grossing tour by a single artist after his five-year-long Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which grossed $939 million in 2023.
Ellen DeGeneres
Famous standup comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is worth about $450 million and is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. She married Petra de Rossi in 2008, and they have been together ever since.
She is one of the most successful and wealthiest members of the LGBTQ+ community and has frequently shown her support. According to her, coming out as a gay woman almost cost her career for three years, but she pulled through.
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Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He became a billionaire in 2020 and is worth about $2.2 billion in 2024. He became CEO of Apple in 2011 after the founder, Steve Jobs, died.
However, he didn’t come out as gay until 2014, thereby becoming the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Despite being a wealthy and successful businessman, Cook lives modestly in Palo Alto.
Jennifer Pritzker
Jennifer Pritzker is the only openly transgender billionaire in the world and is worth a whopping $2.2 billion. She retired from the army as a lieutenant colonel and later inherited part of the Hyatt hotel fortune that gave her immense wealth.
Back in 2013, she came out as transgender and did not make many headlines until she went against Donald Trump for banning transgender people from serving in the military. She withdrew her support from him and supported Biden, making several headlines.
Stein Erik Hagen
Stein Erik Hagen is the ninth wealthiest person in Norway, according to Kapital, a popular business magazine. He is worth about $2.3 billion, and his wealth comes from the supermarket chain Rimi, which he founded with his father in the 70s.
He is bisexual and came out in 2015 on “Skavaln,” one of Norway’s biggest talk shows. According to Hagen, he has always been bisexual but didn’t understand it fully until well into his adulthood.
Domenico Dolce
Domenico Dolce is one-half of the world’s famous fashion brand, Dolce and Gabbana, and is worth $2.3 billion. The duo started their fashion brand in 1985 and soon became famous for their beautiful designs with animal prints. During an interview with Corriere della Sera in 2017, Dolce noted that he was tired of being called “gay” all the time.
He believed people invented the word to label people, but he didn’t like that. He wanted to be identified by his talent and work and not by his sexuality.
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Stefano Gabbana
Stefano Gabbana is the second half of Dolce and Gabbana and is also worth $2.3 billion. He was in a romantic relationship with Dolce for a couple of years, and they split in 2000. However, the news only became public in 2003.
Although they are exes, they still share an inseparable bond that cannot be broken. They still own the company and design together even though they are no longer romantically involved.
Jon Stryker
Jon Stryker’s grandfather founded Stryker Corp., a giant medical supply company that has sold billions of equipment over the years. One of the heirs to the family fortune is Jon, a philanthropist who always donates money to charities and scholarships.
According to Forbes, he has given away more than $700 million to charitable causes, which is still worth $5.3 billion. He is also the founder of the Arcus Foundation, a charity dedicated to fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and ape conservation.
Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is the co-founder of PayPal, and he was the CEO of the company until eBay bought it. Then, his stake was worth about $55 million. He was also one of the earliest investors in Facebook and has an analytics company valued at $20 billion.
He is currently worth $7.2 billion and has lived with his husband, Matt Danzeisen, for many years. The happy couple live in Los Angeles, California.
David Geffen
David Geffen built his empire from scratch, starting out as a Hollywood talent manager. Then, he created record labels Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DGC Records, which built his fortune.
In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks Film Studio with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, which became one of the world’s most successful film studios. He is worth about $8.1 billion and is an openly gay man who takes pride in his identity.
Giorgio Armani
Just after leaving medical school, Giorgio Armani began a career in the military. In the 1970s, he followed his passion for fashion and started designing menswear clothing, but his career didn’t take off until he began working for Richard Gere in 1980.
Now, he is one of the top designers in the world and is worth $12.3 billion. In 2000, he opened up about his life in a Vanity Fair interview, saying he has been with both men and women in his lifetime.
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