Johnny Willis is a non-binary art historian, assistant curator of The First Homosexuals, and co-editor of the accompanying exhibition catalog. Willis graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a master's degree from the University of British Columbia. Most recently, they served as a curatorial fellow at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago from 2024 to 2025.

Marc Bauer (b. Geneva, 1975) lives and works in Zurich. He studied at the École Supérieure d’Arts Visuels Genève (now HEAD) and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. He has been a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) since 2015.

His art has been on display in solo projects at renowned international institutions including the Menil Drawing Institute, Houston (2023–2024); the Berlinische Galerie (2020–2021), Berlin; the Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2020); Drawing Room, London (2019); the Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2013), and MAMCO, Geneva (2010). His work has also been showcased in group exhibitions, including at Kunsthaus Zürich (2025, 2019, 2015, and 2008); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2021); the Migros Museum, Zurich (2019 and 2014); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015), and the Albertina, Vienna (2015). Bauer moreover participated in the 2018 Biennale of Sydney and the 2014 Liverpool Biennial.

He was awarded the Prix Meret Oppenheim in 2020 and the GASAG Art Prize in 2020 and won the Prix Culturel Manor in Geneva in 2009 and Swiss Art Awards in 2001, 2005, and 2006.

Jonathan D. Katz is an art historian, curator, and queer activist. As a professor of art history and women's studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Katz is a pioneer in the development of queer art history and the author of numerous books and articles, in which he often publishes queer representations by numerous artists for the first time. He has curated many exhibitions, including the first major queer exhibition in a museum in the United States, at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, which won several awards. As the first full-time scholar in the United States with a permanent position in queer studies, Katz also founded the queer studies program at Yale University, the first in the Ivy League. As an activist scholar, he also founded the Queer Caucus for Art and co-founded Queer Nation and the GLBT Town Meeting, which enforced queer anti-discrimination laws in Chicago. Katz is president emeritus of the world's only queer art museum, the Leslie Lohman Museum of Queer Art in New York, and curated the Chicago exhibition The First Homosexuals.

Charlotte Matter is Laurenz Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Basel. Her research interests include feminist art, materiality, and class. Her book, Feminist Substances: Plastics in Art of the 1960s and 1970s, will be published by Manchester University Press in 2026. In a new project, she is exploring lesbian and queer artists in the first half of the 20th century. She is co-editor of Sculpture Journal. She is also co-founder of the research project “Rethinking Art History through Disability” and the collective CARAH – Collective for Anti-Racist Art History.

Katha Florin Baur is non-binary and bisexual. Katha Florin Baur is co-founder of Feminist Salon Basel and lecturer in social pedagogy. At work and in an activist context, Katha Florin Baur focuses on raising awareness of LGBTQIA+, diversity, and language issues.

Marianne van Vulpen has been committed to the rights and visibility of older queer people since the founding of the association queerAltern beider Basel in 2021 and is now its president. She is dedicated to equality and consistently advocates against discrimination against queer people. She is particularly concerned with the sustainable improvement of living conditions for older queer people in the Basel region.

As a representative of queerAltern, she is a member of Alterskonferenz 55+. She sees this networking as an important opportunity to strengthen the collective voice of senior citizens and give more weight to socio-political issues. Marianne van Vulpen's professional background is in healthcare. She has many years of experience in operational management and in working on strategic committees. Today, she works as a consultant in the healthcare sector and supports organizations in implementing data protection requirements and electronic patient records. Privately, she has been living with her partner for over 30 years. Together, they have five adult children and three grandchildren, who are an important and enriching part of their lives.

Rolf Thalmann was head of the Basler Plakatsammlung (Basel Poster Collection) from 1982 to 2009. Since then, he has been intensively involved in researching gay history in Switzerland. He is active in the Schwulenarchiv Schweiz and the associated Heinrich Hössli Foundation.