Brandon Wolf

Brandon Wolf reshaped the national conversation on gun safety and LGBTQ+ rights not through a political dynasty or media career, but through survival and resolve. On June 12, 2016, he crouched in a bathroom at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub while a gunman killed his best friends, Drew Leinonen and Juan Guerrero, along with 47 others. In the aftermath, he chose action over grief, co-founding The Dru Project, an organization that has since awarded more than $250,000 in college scholarships to emerging young leaders.

His advocacy quickly moved onto national stages. In 2019, Wolf became the first survivor of the Pulse tragedy to testify before Congress, and he later served as a national surrogate for multiple presidential campaigns. Today he serves as National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the United States, translating personal experience into policy arguments and public mobilization.

Wolf has built a reputation as a commanding keynote speaker, closing Netroots Nation 2022 and keynoting the Out & Equal Conference in 2023. His debut book conversation with New York Times bestselling author Chasten Buttigieg, along with interviews alongside Sally Hogshead, marked his expansion into authorship and long-form storytelling.

A frequent guest on MSNOW and CNN, and featured in USA Today, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Washington Post, and Out Magazine, Wolf has been named one of HuffPost’s “30 modern-day LGBTQ pioneers” and listed among Out Magazine’s 100 most influential LGBTQ+ people in the world. His work is anchored in a simple conviction: honoring those lost demands action, not platitudes.