Photo: JOHN J. KIM/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Age: 52
Occupation: Co-owner of the Chicago Cubs and member of the National Leadership Council of Lambda Legal

Any woman would stand out in pro baseball, but Ricketts, the first openly gay MLB owner, is positively a beacon. Outside of baseball, she arguably casts an even brighter light. The exception in an otherwise politically conservative family, she’s a cofounder and former chair of LPAC, the first lesbian-focused super PAC, and was a top bundler for Barack Obama in 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. As a board member of Lambda Legal, she played an active role in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Iowa in 2009. She continues to be a reliable donor to LGBTQ political candidates and others, like Jan Schakowsky and Marie Newman, who are trying to upend machine politics in Illinois. Wealth, for her, confers responsibility. “If we don’t play here,” she’s said of bringing LGBTQ issues to the forefront of politics, “we forfeit.”